To Build A Hot Rod

[The Archangels Fighter Club]

//Revived all RP

Sunny had asked Christo to a look at the Starflier down in the hangar to see if it could be made operational. The wreck dated back to before the Nomad conflict, and it did not seem likely that the power plant was up to modern specifications. Everything he had ever read about Starfliers indicated that the ship would max out at a Core value of around 1,000 whereas modern light fighters ran at an average output of 8,500.

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In keeping with his prior military training, Christo suited up and evacuated the bay. It turned out to be a good thing that he did so because the reactor had been breached during whatever had destroyed the ship. Overpressure inside the engine compartment released a cloud of dust when he pulled the hatch loose. The radiation monitor did not go off, further evidence that the Core had died long ago. Ignoring the small robots that began cruising around the room vacuuming up the dust, Christo went back to work. He paused for a moment when he noticed the initials CJG and an attempt at a date scratched into the hatch cover. This had been someone's one and only ride...

It would take some time to clean out the space, but Christo thought that he might be able to fit a Stargazer plant into the engine compartment. He chuckled to himself, thinking that it would be the first time someone saw a Stargazer as an upgrade.

While he was inspecting the engine compartment, he realized that several components of the frame would need to be replaced. It was also obvious that the ship would need to be rewired; at least the cockpit seemed to be structurally sound.

Stepping over to the workbench, Christo began writing up requirements for repairing and replacing components. It looked like the challenging project, but the rewards could be a ship that was even faster than anything they had now.

Christo sat at the workbench, pondering the list of tasks that he had made up for the Starflier project. None of the individual elements was all that convoluted, but it represented a lot of work.

It had already taken a good hunk of time just to gather parts and components. Encountering an Outcast destroyer at the New Tokyo>Honshu jump gate had made for interesting times. Fortunately, the captain of MarchMadness had been slow off the mark and it had been easy to get away.

Someone else had already removed the rotted struts, so at least he wouldn't have to do that. The new framework was going to have to be handcrafted, but he had brought in enough Super Alloy* to outfit an Armored Transport.

Newport might not be as polished as some places he had worked, but the shop and garage were up to better standards than most military fighter hangars. It might take a couple of weeks to get the ship rebuilt, but Christo figured he had this one down pat.

After he got the computerized lathe programmed, he decided to break into the whiskey he had gotten from Freeport 4.

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Gutting the wiring had been a task for the 'bots, and so had rewiring. While that was going on, the weapons mounts had been pulled with the help of a molecular fission torch. New mounts would have to go in, but the stuff the bird had been built with was smaller and lighter than a modern mount. He also made a note to get some sort of gift to the Junker Congress for the supply of cutting torches.

Christo's initial survey had missed a series of fractures in the canopy near the hinges, making that a replacement item. Fortunately, the Starblazer had the same model of canopy, even if it was using upgraded materials.

After fitting the canopy, a Starblazer computer suite had gone in. It would need tweaking that someone else would probably need to do, but at least it didn't require a build from scratch.

Most of the rest of the work was figuring out mountings and interfaces for components that were functionally the same, but had evolved into different shapes, sizes or configurations. The biggest problem was adding an additional access way to get at part of the engine. The original apparently disengaged and lowered out on its own internal crane assembly, but the new engine was too large for that port.

Sunny had stressed that they wanted something that could be made a production, therefore not unique or a hobby project, ship. That being the case, every step was documented, and all of the parts were precisely measured; no bubblegum and duct tape for this girly.

Sunny would expectantly come down to where the Starflier now rested to see how work had progressed. He had been around repairing one of his own racing ships and adding some tweaks when he remembered about the project that Christo was working on. He'd thought he'd drop by.

The workshops had been fully renovated over the past several months with upgraded features. Since the central part of the base was not spinning anymore with the outer parts of the base now spinning and stabilizing the base, the central core was now with no gravity. The floors were padded so that it would be possible to walk on if you wanted too but while working on ships it was much more easier to go with zero gravity and be able to move freely around the ship and into places with ease.

He walked into the workshop hanger and saw the Starflier hung up on stretched cables so it wouldn't fly around everywhere. He didn't see any sign of Christo anywhere so he walked over and jumped up to cling onto the side of the ship and look at the progress around. Making a quick spin around the ship he scanned where the work was at nodded a little to himself. Seems there was still a lot of work to do to just have the ship up and running at minimal settings.

He got down and went over to where a notepad was stuck to the wall and opened the interface, looking through some of the noted recent documented progress...

A door partially obscured by a pile of crates cycled open, and Christian stepped out of the head. His eyes narrowed slightly at the sight of someone getting into things on his workbench before he realized it was Sunny.

Drifting over to the bench as quietly as possible, he tried to score a point by getting close enough to touch Sunny's shoulder without being caught at it. With the reflexes for which the AFC was known, Sunny kicked off the bench, spinning in mid-air. He'd seen movement in the reflexion from a piece of chrome on the countertop. The two ended up more or less on top of each other, then spun away in a flurry of strikes and counter-attacks that put Sunny on a trajectory for the Starflier and Christo headed for the parts crates he'd just come around. No one was injured, but encounter left both of them grinning ferally.

Once they had their bodies under control, Christo launched over to the bench, grabbing a handy support strut. He started talking, his frustration evident in his obvious accent.

"Sunny, we got a problem, yeah?

I got the Stargazer plant crammed into tha engine compartment, but, even with tha best converters I been able ta find, I canna use more than 75% of tha power. Tha load is too light for more than tha, even with everything I can hang offa it. Go any higher and tha thruster blows. No way around it with tha stuff we got available right now. I got power ta burn, but we canna get tha speed you're wantin without somethin tha can handle a bigger output.

Only thruster I can think of tha could get tha sorta output frum is a Cruise Disrupter, but I never seen one tha large."

Christo met the club leader's eyes steadily, hoping that the man could manage one of his famous maneuvers.