Walker #1

Tovar, Ogygia
Friday, October 01, 2202


With a grinding vibration that shook the whole structure, the launch sled pulled Challenger's tiny hull from the assembly berth.  A gasp went up from the assembled crowd below as the enormous hydrogen balloons grew larger still, as the sled and the starship it contained started its slow ascent to the upper atmosphere of Ogygia.  The day was bright and warm as the engineers and workers who had built the ship over the last two and a half months watched it disappear up into the cloud layer, and onto void.

The Starship Design Office was itself much more over-engineered than anything it had thus far produced.  It was a virtual clone of the Bureau of Ships on Sapphire, but unlike that legendary establishment, it was not cranking out three or four starfighter carriers a year along with their attendant escorts, colony ships, tenders, scouts, asteroid miners, and whatever else civilization needed.  The team that designed the Challenger was clustered in a tiny area of the cavernous main floor of the building, the curved glass ceiling yawning over them like a sky that sometimes grayed but never rained.

Alex Walker leaned back in the Director's chair and slowly tracked the sled's ascent until it left sight.  Design work on Challenger's sistership, Endeavor, had nearly finished and the lessons learned from the Challenger build were being incorporated.  The new blueprints were going to be sent to the yard in just a few hours.  The keel would be laid tomorrow, and with luck, by the end of the year Endeavor would be making the very voyage that Challenger was now.

Walker's eyes took a brief moment to close, and for a moment, there were no deadlines to meet, no production schedules to advance, no arguments to be made, no priorities to set, for the first time in half a year.  They lingered, closed, for as long as could be reasonably justified in the middle of a busy day, and when they reopened, in Walker's mind at least, they marked the beginning of the FF-3, the as-yet unnamed ship that would come after Endeavor.

"Designer Yeltsin," Walker called out, not having shifted position a bit, "What is the major limitation of Challenger's design?"

Yeltsin was by far the most junior member of the design team.  Walker often made a point of asking him questions that the Director felt should be obvious to even a dog, as if to use him as a barometer of whether the entire team already knew whatever was being asked.  Yeltsin put down the drink he'd been using to toast the launch, and looked somewhat flustered.

"Er," started the 23-year-old, "The inability to create jump points."

The look the Director gave the underling suggested this was not the answer that was being sought.

"The speed of the ship," offered a different designer, "It takes two months and change to cross the system."

"That is hardly a limitation of the ship," Walker said testily, as it replying to the air, "What might we, as designers, have done with the materials provided to us to improve the ship?"

The mood in the room shifted from jubilant to put upon.  The design team exchanged a looks with each other, uncertain of what answer the Director was looking for, and certain members were clearly restraining more flippant answers.  The tension held for long seconds before Walker snorted.

"Clearly," Walker continued, "Challenger can only carry a single satellite in storage, and needs to return to pick up another one.  FF-3 will need to carry more."

"Ah," Yeltsin began, seeing the opportunity to redeem himself, "So we take advantage of the greater organic fuel capacity of the newer engines to reduce the amount of cargo space dedicated to supplies and increase the space for more satellites--"

The sound Walker cut Yeltsin off with expertly combined a half-dozen kinds of contempt into a neat 400-millisecond package.

"Nonsense!  We'll simply increase the mass of the ship by ten percent."

Yeltsin stared at the Director blankly.  A number of the other designers joined him.

"Yeltsin, send an email to research.  Tell them we need materials and construction techniques to support the larger design.  Quickly."

Yeltsin looked like he might have vaulted over the deck to strangle Walker, and for long moments, the tension in the room reached a crescendo.  Finally, he exhaled through his nose.

"Of course, Director."