First Principles: Samair in Argos: Book 3 by MICHAEL KOTCHER Read Free Book Online Page B

captain walked in.  “Captain, good.  I have your solution here.”  He gestured to the hover pallet.
                  “A drum of helium 3?” Vincent asked.
                  “That’s just the fuel source,” the engineer replied.  “This item here,” he said, patting the device, “is the real solution.”
                  The captain grimaced.  “Xar, it’s been a long day that isn’t over yet.  Let’s pretend I’m just a starship captain and you’re one of my Assistant Chief Engineers.  Explain to me why this is the solution.”
                  Xar chittered a laugh.  “Yes, Captain.  This here is a detonator.  I’ve had my team working on it since we got back from Heb.”
                  “A detonator?  Which means what, Xar?”
                  “Well, with the proper fuel source,” he patted the drum of helium 3, “it would be a helium 3 fusion bomb.”
                  The captain froze.  “You built a bomb on my ship?”
                  “I built a bomb with no explosive,” the zheen replied, sounding a bit defensive.  “It’s perfectly safe.  I wasn’t going to endanger anyone on the ship, Captain.”
                  “You sure could have fooled me, Xar,” the captain fumed.  “What the hell is this doing on my ship?”
                  “Well,” the zheen hesitated.  “I built it to assist in the mining operations.  Use it to crack some really big asteroids.”
                  Vincent realized that his jaw was hanging open and he closed his mouth with a click.  But then he frowned.  “How did you build this?  I know for a fact that the replicators won’t build bombs.  Not without Samair’s authorization codes which I know she wouldn’t have given.”
                  The zheen nodded.  “Yes, Captain, you’re correct.  I didn’t get this out of a replicator.  Or rather, I didn’t get all of the parts from there.  I did replicate a few of the parts and then just machined and assembled the rest by hand.  My team and I build six of these babies.  And they’re ready for deployment, just add fuel.”
                  Vincent closed his eyes and took a long, deep breath.  “In the future, Assistant Chief Engineer Ka’Xarian, you will keep me informed of all dangerous materials you are working with on my ship.  If you fail to inform me and I find out, you will no longer be working on my ship.  Is that understood?  I will drop you off on the nearest oxygen world we come to and you will not be coming back.”
                  Xar’s antennae drooped.  “Yes, Captain.  Sorry, Captain.”
                  Vincent scowled at him for another long moment.  “Good.  Now, talk to me about these devices.  What’s the yield?”
                  “Dialable,” Xar replied.  “From as low as five megatons to as high as fifty.  Clean explosion, fusion bomb.  No residual radiation.”
                  “So we’ve got six high explosives, but no launchers.  What did you want to do with them?”
                  “Well,” Ka’Xarian said, his antennae waving.  “I was thinking one of two things.  We load three of these each into two of our shuttles.  We hook up some sort of receiver so that Stella can fly them by remote and launch them toward the Leytonstone .  Stella does some evasive maneuvers to keep them from getting shot down and then plows them into the battlecruiser.”  He clapped his hands together.  “Boom!”
                  “How long?” Vincent asked.
                  “Twenty minutes to load and arm the devices,” Xar replied.  “And then another twenty or so to get the receivers in.  We’ve got a few sitting on the deck in Cargo bay eight from the maintenance bots we were stockpiling which should