The Lucky Penny

[Unseelie]

Most of the engine was behind the bulkheads, squatting over the cruise accelerators in the tail of the ship, just below the hold. The accessible bits included a heavily shielded reactor and a pair of fuel cells. Pipes snaked throughout the room, drawing lines to the reactor from the fuel cells, from freon tanks and the auxiliary oxygen and water tanks, and off from the base of the reactor, where pressure forced bits of ionic materials down into the pipe that angled up to the tail. The engine powered life support, it powered gravity, and the lights. Without life support, there would be no pressure on coolants or oxy/hydrogen mix, and the engine died. Without gravity, the exhaust ions wouldn't flow, and the coolants would quickly become useless as the reactor soup superheated. Shipside cold fusion was a tricky beast at best, and a murderous bitch at times. All systems needed to run constantly, even in dock, or things would get mucked up, hence the engine wall, a six inch thick plate of niobium between the cruise accelerators, and around the entire room. If a CD shut down the engine proper, it would never restart.

Mourning had chewed on the ablative weave around the Ion-Exhaust tubes, and in places, bits of blueish light had broken through, shining a ghastly light around the hold. In addition, the reactor mount cap had half inch deep claw marks around its base....The mount cap could wait. the Ion-Exhaust...needed a fresh weave.

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