Chapter 22: Chapter 22 Solution to a fuel problem.
The preparations that Mikael was talking about were really important especially if they wanted to shorten the time of rebuilding the ships that they planned to use.
For now they only had around 400 drones and droids and to make their plan work they needed thousands.
Also they had to gather the necessary materials ahead of time so that when they start the project it would go smoothly.
The biggest problem was the fuel.
They had to get some helium 3 to power the ships. The only problem was that the best place to find it was in space as the sun constantly produced it and solar winds scattered it around.
Unfortunately there was almost none of it on this planet and they needed a few tons to bring the ships to orbit.
Finally Simon found the answer.
-WE can use an MAC to shoot the probe into orbit so that it will be able to collect some helium 3 and once it does its job we can program it to return to the planet and land somewhere in our vicinity.
Simon proposed his idea.
-Can the probe survive that kind of force?
Mikael asked.
-I found one that should be able to do it in the database.
The problem is that even if it works the probe can only get us around 200 liters of the fuel so we would have to launch around 20 of them and reuse them when they get back to collect enough for our purposes.
Simon said.
-Then why don't we repair a small ship and send it when we get enough fuel to collect more at a time?
Steuer proposed.
He had learned enough about technology to understand what the humans were talking about.
-That is a good idea,a ship, even a small one could potentially get us a few tons in one go but we still need to get some fuel to send it in the first place.
Simon agreed to the idea.
-How long will it take to build an MAC and do we have enough power to fire it?
Mikael asked.
-Cannon and probe can be built within a week but the power is a bit lacking.
We would need a giant capacitor to store the energy and more generators to power it.
If we build around a 100 smaller generators then we would be able to fire it once a week.
-Wait a minute, if it uses so much power then how are you going to mount something like this on a ship?
Mikael asked,shocked at the power requirements.
-The generator that uses helium 3 as its fuel can generate thousands times more power than all our generators put together so using it on a ship will be no problem.
-Then why not use a generator like that to power the gun when we get some of the stuff.
-We can do it but it will cost fuel we are trying to collect for our ships and i think that it's a better option to repair or build a small drone ship and send it up to collect more of the fuel as it would be faster and we would get more of it with one trip then using the probes.
-Ok then let's do it your way.
The old man agreed.
The capacitor was built in two days and the cannon a week later.
They all watched in awe when it was getting ready to fire the first probe into orbit.
When it finally fired the air wave it generated almost blew them away even when they were 2 kilometers away from the cannon.
What they were not suspecting was that the probe would return two days later with a full load of helium 3.
-You said that it would take a few weeks for it to return so what the hell is going on?
Mikael asked in disbelief.
-That's because I thought it would take time to collect the fuel in orbit.
Simon answered equally puzzled.
-I think that there is a buildup of helium 3 in orbit,that's the best explanation I have right now.
he continued and he smiled at the implication.
-Then if we send a small ship it wouldn't take long to gather the fuel.
Mikael finally understood what Simon was trying to say.
-Yes so we better figure out which ship to repair and we need to build some ship repair drones.
They were all excited at the prospect of solving their biggest problem.
They got ready to send another probe just to be sure that this wasn't a fluke.
Choosing a ship was a bit challenging but they finally decided to use a big cargo shuttle to get fixed.
While waiting for the cannon to recharge they collected the needed resources and created some ship repair drones that started their work as soon as they were online.
According to the drones scans the shuttle needed a lot of parts and ten days of time to be repaired.
So they gathered as much materials as they could using their own shuttle to speed up the process.
When the second probe was fired to orbit they waited for it to return with impatience.
If it also returned with full tanks of fuel and in a short amount of time then they would have enough fuel to launch the shuttle.
According to Simon they needed 350 liters of fuel to launch it into orbit.
Just like the first time the probe returned two days later with full tanks which meant that the shuttle would be sent as soon as it was ready.
A few days later the shuttle was fixed and even if it looked a bit shabby the diagnostic system showed 100% operational status.
They filled the cargo hold with tanks for the fuel and installed a collection system to fill them up and also to fill up the shuttle's own fuel tanks.
When it was launched the humans only hope was that nobody would notice it as it was way bigger then the probes.
-If this goes well then we can get a generator that uses helium 3 to power up everything and it will solve our power problems once and for all.
Mikael said right after the shuttle vanished from their sight.
-That's true,one of those and we don't need any more generators.
Especially if the shuttle comes back with full tanks.
In the meantime I think it's time to figure out what ships to rebuild and how we are going to do it.
Simon said with a smile.
The other two agreed.
However it soon turned out that it was easier said than done especially when it came to redesigning the ships.
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