The SOS-dan had been gone for about three hours and I was still just -looking- at it.
It was beautiful.
Simply beautiful.
The sharp, sleek lines.
The huge, powerful looking engine nacelles.
Everything about it said, "Speed."
It was a perfectly intact SR-71 Blackbird. And I was going to rebuild it into the fastest interstellar craft known to mankind.
It was going to take a lot of work, a lot of time, and a lot of help, but I had connections, time to spare, and the wherewithal to see this project through.
As soon as I could quit geeking out over the mere presence of the thing. I couldn't help it - it was simply beautiful. It was the -perfect- combination of style, character, and aerodynamics. Sure, it wasn't the perfect shape for ultimate aerodynamic speed. Supposedly, NASA's lifting-body SCRAMJETs were much faster. But then, they've never been able to get one of the damn things to work right. Besides, they completely lacked the Blackbird's character, what with their simple, slip-form, shapes.
No, the Blackbird was perfection in -my- eyes. And Gina's as well. Though she was a little more impatient.
"Ben, I'm waiting. So is The Professor. Are you going to get on with it or not?"
"Huh?" I said oh-so-coherently. "Oh yeah! Right then. Let him know that we got it and that he can come over whenever he likes. What's his ETA?"
"He says that he'll be here in about two hours."
"Great. I'll start making sure everything's set for the Sol Bianca then. How're you doing, though? Settling into the new place well enough?"
The new place in question was the small asteroid I'd hired out the Rockhounds and Hephastus to outfit for me. That had cost me a little bit, but I had the money for it - money that I had originally intended to spend on the Blackbird itself since I had originally intended to buy it outright. But since Haruhi-san had seen it within her interests to procure it for me in return for my services, that left me with a lot more money for goodies I hadn't foreseen coming quite so soon.
Located conveniently between the orbits of Earth and Venus, the extra distance between myself and The Limit didn't bother me at all. Especially since that was a relative matter anyways when you're talking about traversing the void rather than the absolute distances. And besides, once I was done, if everything went according to plan, this little black birdie would have a slight advantage over most other Fen-ships in those To-The-Limit runs.
"For the tenth time, Ben, I -like- it here. The accommodation's for the vehicles are perfect and the living spaces are much nicer that what you had back on The Island."
"Funny that you think that about the living spaces."
"Hey, it's not like I don't care about you or anything. You did build me after all, and I cannot complain about the way you've treated me, and that's not because I'm an AI."
"Heh. Thanks," I replied, feeling a bit of a flush come onto my face. "Anyhow, I know you've had some ideas, and you know I've had mine. So let's collaborate. What've you got?"
Thus began our brain-storming session. We both new about Starfleet's cola/non-cola reactor engine that they were using for that long-distance ship of their's, the Miranda. Immediately we both agreed that the Blackbird's engine nacelles could be converted so each one not only held a powerful ion-drive, but a reactor to each one as well for optimal power output. That, and having two reactors would be better than just one in the event that one failed for some reason.
What to do with the original engines stumped me for a brief moment. I surely couldn't just junk the things, could I? Maybe there was someone willing to buy them? Then Gina hazarded a suggestion that maybe some recycling plant would want them. It was a perfect idea! We could use handwavium to help recycle them into the new drives! That way they'd carry over that same sense of raw, unbridled power that the Pratt and Whitney J-58's embodied into the new ion drives.
Gina also suggested that the massive amounts of fuel tankage had to go. that woulkd be much more well used as cargo stores and living areas... Though, even with most of the space converted, living areas would still be hunch-back cramped.
That didn't matter to me, though. I was fine with being confined in a small space as long as I had room to stretch and it was comfortable. Though a veiwport, I felt, would be nice to have. Gina conceded graciously on that, as handwaviumized glass could be just as strong as titanium when done right.
Weaponry was an important topic. The primary weapon would be something that we've both already had experience with - a larger and overall improved version of the coil-gun I had built for Gina on the first go-round. The ammunition would remain the same - ceramic darts with plastic explosive cores in discarding ferric sabots - only at a slightly larger caliber. This would increase the mass and the explosives payload.
We discussed building a secondary weapon system for the Blackbird, something on retractable turreted mounts covering the dorsal and ventral regions. However, we figured that it would be very difficult to build something that had a high enough rate of fire to satisfy us. Eventually, we settled on the idea of procuring a couple of M61 Vulcans from General Dynamics. With a bit of strategic 'Wave treatments, Gina and I felt that we could improve the performance of the weapon without harming its destructive capabilities. the only problem would be obtaining the ammunition for it - belts of M53 armor-piercing incendiary rounds were definitely not cheap.
We decided also to leave the frame and skin largely intact except for what few modifications we would make. One thing was for certain - the whole thing was getting 'Waved.
And then there was the control system. We both took one look at the cockpit and immediately agreed that the whole mess had to go. Digital readouts and touch-screen interfaces would be the way to go, here, and a lot of the gauges would be made unnecessary by having Gina be the AI of the Blackbird.
That in and of itself would be quite an undertaking, but so was every other facet of the rebuild that we had been discussing. We figured that we should leave the overall design of the computer system up to The Professor, but we did agree that having sub-processing units here and there would help greatly.
"So, anything else?" I asked at last.
"I can't think of anything that you haven't covered already," replied the Asuka-lookalike AI.
"Great," I said as I checked the time. "The Professor should be here soon. Have I forgotten anything?"
"Yes. Tie down that arm of yours. The last thing we need is for it to be groping one of his assistants."
"Oh, right!" I grabbed my odd, seemingly monsterous right arm, which seemed to have a mind of its own, and wrestled it into the restraining clip I had on my belt to keep it from doing something unpleasant to the Professor's assistants. They were nice and didn't deserve that sort of treatment, but I still tried to keep an eye on them. There was something just not right about the picture as a whole, even though I had no evidence to back it up.
Black Aeronaut Technologies Group
Aerospace Solutions for the discerning spacer
"But first, let's test it on the penguin."
"Meep?" O.o
It was beautiful.
Simply beautiful.
The sharp, sleek lines.
The huge, powerful looking engine nacelles.
Everything about it said, "Speed."
It was a perfectly intact SR-71 Blackbird. And I was going to rebuild it into the fastest interstellar craft known to mankind.
It was going to take a lot of work, a lot of time, and a lot of help, but I had connections, time to spare, and the wherewithal to see this project through.
As soon as I could quit geeking out over the mere presence of the thing. I couldn't help it - it was simply beautiful. It was the -perfect- combination of style, character, and aerodynamics. Sure, it wasn't the perfect shape for ultimate aerodynamic speed. Supposedly, NASA's lifting-body SCRAMJETs were much faster. But then, they've never been able to get one of the damn things to work right. Besides, they completely lacked the Blackbird's character, what with their simple, slip-form, shapes.
No, the Blackbird was perfection in -my- eyes. And Gina's as well. Though she was a little more impatient.
"Ben, I'm waiting. So is The Professor. Are you going to get on with it or not?"
"Huh?" I said oh-so-coherently. "Oh yeah! Right then. Let him know that we got it and that he can come over whenever he likes. What's his ETA?"
"He says that he'll be here in about two hours."
"Great. I'll start making sure everything's set for the Sol Bianca then. How're you doing, though? Settling into the new place well enough?"
The new place in question was the small asteroid I'd hired out the Rockhounds and Hephastus to outfit for me. That had cost me a little bit, but I had the money for it - money that I had originally intended to spend on the Blackbird itself since I had originally intended to buy it outright. But since Haruhi-san had seen it within her interests to procure it for me in return for my services, that left me with a lot more money for goodies I hadn't foreseen coming quite so soon.
Located conveniently between the orbits of Earth and Venus, the extra distance between myself and The Limit didn't bother me at all. Especially since that was a relative matter anyways when you're talking about traversing the void rather than the absolute distances. And besides, once I was done, if everything went according to plan, this little black birdie would have a slight advantage over most other Fen-ships in those To-The-Limit runs.
"For the tenth time, Ben, I -like- it here. The accommodation's for the vehicles are perfect and the living spaces are much nicer that what you had back on The Island."
"Funny that you think that about the living spaces."
"Hey, it's not like I don't care about you or anything. You did build me after all, and I cannot complain about the way you've treated me, and that's not because I'm an AI."
"Heh. Thanks," I replied, feeling a bit of a flush come onto my face. "Anyhow, I know you've had some ideas, and you know I've had mine. So let's collaborate. What've you got?"
Thus began our brain-storming session. We both new about Starfleet's cola/non-cola reactor engine that they were using for that long-distance ship of their's, the Miranda. Immediately we both agreed that the Blackbird's engine nacelles could be converted so each one not only held a powerful ion-drive, but a reactor to each one as well for optimal power output. That, and having two reactors would be better than just one in the event that one failed for some reason.
What to do with the original engines stumped me for a brief moment. I surely couldn't just junk the things, could I? Maybe there was someone willing to buy them? Then Gina hazarded a suggestion that maybe some recycling plant would want them. It was a perfect idea! We could use handwavium to help recycle them into the new drives! That way they'd carry over that same sense of raw, unbridled power that the Pratt and Whitney J-58's embodied into the new ion drives.
Gina also suggested that the massive amounts of fuel tankage had to go. that woulkd be much more well used as cargo stores and living areas... Though, even with most of the space converted, living areas would still be hunch-back cramped.
That didn't matter to me, though. I was fine with being confined in a small space as long as I had room to stretch and it was comfortable. Though a veiwport, I felt, would be nice to have. Gina conceded graciously on that, as handwaviumized glass could be just as strong as titanium when done right.
Weaponry was an important topic. The primary weapon would be something that we've both already had experience with - a larger and overall improved version of the coil-gun I had built for Gina on the first go-round. The ammunition would remain the same - ceramic darts with plastic explosive cores in discarding ferric sabots - only at a slightly larger caliber. This would increase the mass and the explosives payload.
We discussed building a secondary weapon system for the Blackbird, something on retractable turreted mounts covering the dorsal and ventral regions. However, we figured that it would be very difficult to build something that had a high enough rate of fire to satisfy us. Eventually, we settled on the idea of procuring a couple of M61 Vulcans from General Dynamics. With a bit of strategic 'Wave treatments, Gina and I felt that we could improve the performance of the weapon without harming its destructive capabilities. the only problem would be obtaining the ammunition for it - belts of M53 armor-piercing incendiary rounds were definitely not cheap.
We decided also to leave the frame and skin largely intact except for what few modifications we would make. One thing was for certain - the whole thing was getting 'Waved.
And then there was the control system. We both took one look at the cockpit and immediately agreed that the whole mess had to go. Digital readouts and touch-screen interfaces would be the way to go, here, and a lot of the gauges would be made unnecessary by having Gina be the AI of the Blackbird.
That in and of itself would be quite an undertaking, but so was every other facet of the rebuild that we had been discussing. We figured that we should leave the overall design of the computer system up to The Professor, but we did agree that having sub-processing units here and there would help greatly.
"So, anything else?" I asked at last.
"I can't think of anything that you haven't covered already," replied the Asuka-lookalike AI.
"Great," I said as I checked the time. "The Professor should be here soon. Have I forgotten anything?"
"Yes. Tie down that arm of yours. The last thing we need is for it to be groping one of his assistants."
"Oh, right!" I grabbed my odd, seemingly monsterous right arm, which seemed to have a mind of its own, and wrestled it into the restraining clip I had on my belt to keep it from doing something unpleasant to the Professor's assistants. They were nice and didn't deserve that sort of treatment, but I still tried to keep an eye on them. There was something just not right about the picture as a whole, even though I had no evidence to back it up.
Black Aeronaut Technologies Group
Aerospace Solutions for the discerning spacer
"But first, let's test it on the penguin."
"Meep?" O.o