Blue Star Enterprises

That date was coming quicker than he would like and there was still quite a bit of work to do. Making sure the refueling station stayed on track after they left was at the top of his priority list. Some of the components to ensure that happened were already in the queue for launch. Mainly the parts for the large robotic arms that he designed for capturing the pods. The rest he was getting ready to manufacture now.

The robot arms weren’t anything special, simply mimicking the robot assemblers he had in his manufacturing center. They were just much longer.

Alexander was still putting the finishing touches on the robots that would replace the Hawks’ engineers when they left. He didn’t want to just create single-purpose robots. That would be an extreme waste of resources. But he also couldn’t pack every conceivable tool known to man into one either, or that would make the things massive and impossible to build. He also had limited space to work with. If the robots were too big, it would make them impossible to launch into orbit with their current capabilities.

The design he decided to go with implemented swappable tooling. Each robot had onboard storage for up to four tools and could switch them out depending on the work it was performing. Three articulated arms, similar to the ones he built for his storage room robot, gave them the flexibility Alexander needed them to have. With the upgraded robotic appendages, he didn’t need to worry about construction issues as much.

With the station being just a large hollow rectangle built from triangular scaffolding sections consisting of round pipes, it made it easy to clamp things to the interior. Probably why they designed the structure that way in the first place if he had to guess. No matter the reason, Alexander used the scaffolding design to great effect by implementing a series of rollers for his robot workers. He thought about making other designs that would work elsewhere but decided against it for now. It would increase the complexity of the robots and mobility wasn’t needed at the moment. He just needed them to run along a set path like a train.

That didn’t mean he wasn’t thinking ahead. He designed the roller portion to be swapped out, just like all the other components on the robots.

The rollers securely fastened the robot to the two outer rails of the triangular struts, allowing it to move back and forth along that axis. This meant they couldn’t move away from the side they were attached to but that was fine. It did mean he had to build four of the robots, one for each side of the structure. The machines came with locking clamps, both physical and magnetic to ensure they wouldn’t wobble around once they were positioned to start work. With two arms to hold the material in place, and a third arm to do the work, they should be able to complete the station ahead of the Talon’s Chief Engineer’s predictions or so he hoped. Assuming no supply issues cropped up.

He sent the file to the printer and went to retrieve four of the advanced computer chips. His generic breadboard chips weren’t going to cut it for the robots. Alexander had plans to build a computer chip manufacturing machine. Nothing that was capable of building the types of chips made today, mind you, but he thought he might be able to mimic the types of computer chips made in the 1980s or ’90s with his current manufacturing capabilities. But he hadn’t gotten time to work on that project yet. It was high on his list though, because of the limited amount of advanced and super-computer chips he had on hand.

He input the code into the door’s lock. The room had previously been secured with a biometrics lock, but obviously, that didn’t do him any good. So a simple alphanumeric touchpad had been added. It wasn’t a perfect system by any means. Especially with his automated carts having to broadcast the code every time they entered, but it kept the casual passerby out.

The door opened and he moved through the room until he found one of the padded cases with the chips inside. He picked up the case and carried it back to his workshop.

By the time he returned, the initial frame for the first robot had been printed and moved off the printer bed for the next to begin. He really did love automation.

Due to the constraints of the capsules, the engineers would have to assemble the robots once they were in orbit. Alexander had provided them with a detailed list of assembly instructions. They did ask about purchasing the plans for their own use, but he had to deny that request at the moment.

Mostly because he didn’t have the design registered in STO space, so there was nothing stopping someone from stealing it. Not that he thought the Hawks would do that, but it was better to be safe. He also didn’t want the attention quite yet. Especially considering what he learned from Lucas today.

He opened up the insulated storage compartment where the chip would reside. Calling these things computer chips was a bit of a misnomer. They were essentially the entire computer, shrunken down to the size of a two-inch cube. Having all the complicated bits built into one component meant printers didn’t need to specialize in building motherboards or memory or any of those sorts of things. It just had to build the connecting components.

It was a rather ingenious method. The computers could be ordered in all sorts of configurations as well. If you needed a wafer-thin computer for say, a tablet, you could have that manufactured. He had chosen the cheapest method, which was the cube.

Alexander had looked into a printer capable of printing the cubes along with everything else. As it turns out, there were printers capable of doing that, but they were massive things that cost more money than Alexander had gotten from the Omni payout. At that point, they were more like assembly lines than a single printer. The smallest one he looked at, out of curiosity, was larger than the refueling station he was building. It also had to be built in a vacuum for it to function correctly at the picometer scale these advanced chips operated on. He didn’t even want to see what the requirements of the super-computer chips were. Those chips were expensive, and he only had ten of them.

The iridescent cube clicked easily into the housing of the robot and Alexander sealed the compartment. He heard the thing beep quietly before it went through its self-test cycle. He didn’t have to worry about this code as it had been written by Lucas. The machine made hardly any noise as the actuators rotated. Then it beeped again and the console it was currently linked to showed an error.

It was an error Alexander expected to see though. The message was simply letting him know there was nothing attached to the actuator assembly. Seeing no other faults, he put the robot in standby mode. Then he wheeled over one of the specifically outfitted capsules and lifted the robot into the foam padding inside.

It took the rest of the day to finish up the four robots as well as the other components that went along with them. He was glad the plasma welder only required a lack of oxygen to weld properly. It would have been an extra step to bottle inert gasses and then a real pain to have to constantly ship them into orbit to keep the construction on schedule.

A total of ten capsules were earmarked for delivering the four robots and their additional components. It would set back construction in the short term, but once the robots took over, that delay should turn around quickly.

With the robots complete, he set the printers back to making more capsules. The capsules still took far too long, but he had optimized the prints from six hours down to four by removing the foam printing and delegating that to a separate machine. It did mean he had to manually shape the foam to fit, but it still took less time overall.

If he planned on keeping the capsule launch method, he would probably get around to making a shaped mold at some point so he could free up the printer.

He piled two of the capsules on the cart and sent the wheeled vehicle off to the launcher. One more thing to check off his list.

***

"You’re sure everything was removed?" Alexander asked. He was looking at the simulation software showing his first iteration still showing a failure.

"As far as I could see," Lucas replied. "Could it be your design doesn’t function?"

Instead of getting upset by the question, Alexander paused. It was indeed possible. He loaded in the Sinorus design and ran it. This time, it came back as fully functional, and it didn’t show the warning errors on the parts that were more efficient than the Omni components.

He sighed internally. "It does indeed appear to be working. Thank you."

"Hey, don’t mention it. I gotta say though, that first design looked wild. Like on the order of magnitude of being a pain in the ass to work on wild. You may want to consider that. I know if I took a look at that, I would be like, nope."

Alexander loaded up the third iteration. "What about this one?"

The man waggled his hand back and forth. "That looks slightly easier to work on but I’m not an engineer. You may want to ask them."

After Lucas left, Alexander tested his later iterations. Everything other than the first, second, and third came back as functional. There was the possibility that the simulation software wasn’t robust enough to recognize the extreme changes he made, but he decided to play it safe. Instead of going straight to the printers, he took Lucas’ advice and loaded up the working designs into a holographic presentation. He needed a second opinion.

"Thank you for meeting with me again so soon," he said as soon as Matthews and Chief Engineer Sullivan came on screen. "I’m looking for an opinion on some engine designs if you would be willing."

The Captain kept a composed façade, but he could see the small woman’s eyes slightly widen at his words. "It’s not every day I get to take a peek at experimental engine designs," she stated in interest. "I’m free for as long as the Captain allows it." She looked at the man pointedly, and Alexander could swear he saw Matthews flinch.

"Yes… We would be happy to give you as much time as needed," Matthews said diplomatically.

He nodded his avatar’s face and sent the presentation to them.

It took hours for the woman to painstakingly go over every detail of the engines. She didn’t have the design specifications, but Alexander assumed she had been around enough engines to know what she was looking at. And it seemed he was right.

"This first one would be far too hard to maintain." She pointed at four components nestled into the interior. "It would require taking apart the entire combustion assembly just to get at these parts. Then you have to deal with radiation. If I was given a berth on a ship with an engine like this, I would quit. I’m sorry if that sounds harsh."

"No, not at all. I want your brutally honest opinion. What I make is going to eventually need to be serviced by engineers just like yourself. If it’s too difficult to work on, nobody is going to want to buy them, no matter how much better they are."

"Do you have any numbers yet?" Matthews asked. While he didn’t appear all that interested originally, he had come around.

"Not yet. I built these designs after the last time I spoke with you."

Matthews and Sullivan paused and Alexander thought they had paused the connection. But they were just staring at him.

"You designed all of these in five days?" Sullivan asked.

"Oh, no," Alexander chuckled. "It only took me a day to design them. I had to wait four days for Lucas Laront to fix my simulation software."

Chief Engineer Sullivan opened and closed her mouth a few times before she finally spoke. "…I’m at a loss for words. You designed not one, but six working prototype designs in a single day?"

He decided not to correct the woman by telling her it had actually been ten designs, but only six working ones. "Um, yes? But they are just simplified iterations from the first one."

She shook her head. "That explains why the designs look so similar. Still, if you can correct the component placement, and get some hard numbers, you may be looking at some serious contenders. This is a Class 3 engine, is it not? I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Class 3 engine so compact."

"…Um… It’s actually a Class 4. Or more accurately, it’s based on the Class 4 engines from the Zephyr."

"Alright," the shorter woman said, getting up from the desk. "I’ve had enough surprises for one day. Considering what you’ve told me, you should have no issues moving the parts to be more accessible. Hell, I suggest you expand everything out so it matches a standard Class 4’s scale. Speed and efficiency aren’t everything. If you make an engine that is significantly easier to work on while being as fast and efficient as current designs, that’s a market as well." With those words, the woman walked out of the video.

He heard the door shut before Matthews turned back to him. "Chief Sullivan is correct. Saving time on repairs is sometimes much more important for certain people. Let us know if you need anything else, Mr. Kane." The man nodded one final time before the video cut out.

It looked like he had more design work ahead of him.