"So, what part do we start with first?" Nico asked.
"Well, is there another way to create a strong microgravity field so that we can form a small star to test the Dyson Sphere before we bring the main reactor online?" Max asked.
"Not exactly, but we can test it with a plasma ball. The energy leakage readings should still be accurate." One of the researchers suggested.
"You can test it with a small antimatter explosion as well, which would provide a better stress and shock load absorption test than a plasma ball." Ranarth added.
"Alright, then we start with the Dyson sphere construction. It looks like we have exactly none of the components listed already in our database, so we start from step one of the construction details and work step by step to make every single part of the sphere." Max decided.
Uncle Lu waved to them from the catwalk up above as Max and Nico were about to argue over how to split the boring parts of the task because Nico's train of thought involved her working exclusively on testing the fun parts while everyone else did the actual work.
Nobody who knew her would be surprised that her intention was to do nothing but see what happened when various things went wrong with an artificial star made of various materials, but Max wasn't going to let her get off that easy when there was a whole new type of construction technology to research.
She intended to learn it eventually, of course, just not until the hard part was done.
"Have we come up with something that might work as a power source for the new Mecha designs?" Uncle Lu asked as he walked down the staircase from the overhead catwalk and into the research bay.
"We think so. There is a design for a Dyson Sphere type generator that we're intending to try to translate into our own technologies, since we don't have the tech to make it the original way, but that could take some time.
But, if we can get it working, then we should have a steady power source of a high enough output potential to run any new weapon we come up with." Max informed the old researcher.
"Oh, that is wonderful. The refinement teams were most concerned about how much they were going to have to reduce the power draw, as the weapon becomes completely ineffective below a certain output range. But if you have a design that will work, I can assure them that they can keep going on their current path." Uncle Lu replied with a satisfied nod and a quick note added to his data tablet.
Ranarth cleared his throat. "If this one doesn't prove to be feasible in the short term, we have twelve more potential designs that could produce sufficient power within a Mecha sized chassis, so even if we are delayed for a while, I think that it shouldn't be a problem to get the weapon powered."
"Oh, that really is wonderful. Then we will need to design a new chassis to put it in once we have the dimensions of the power source. But, I will leave you all to your work and go give the refinement teams the good news."
Nico gave Max a sly look. "Since we have extra hands, why don't we split up? One smaller group can check each of the other twelve designs for feasibility so that we're not caught out if we stumble on implementing the first one, and then we will have additional knowledge to fill in the gaps that the different technologies present?"
"You really don't want to do the construction work, do you?" Max asked.
"When there are hundreds of other cool things to research, or modified star density supernova events to experiment on? Not at all." She agreed.
"Alright, I will lead the Dyson Sphere research team, and you can work with Ranarth and a small team to study the options. If anything seems particularly viable, I might spare you a few more people to try to build it, just in case it works out better." Max laughed.
Nico gave a celebratory fist pump and singled out two of the Innu to join her.
"These are the best and fastest at translating alloy compositions and alien circuitry to other technologies, so I will borrow them for the moment, and you can work on getting that miniaturized Dyson Sphere to work. If worse comes to worst, we can always wrap it around an out of control antimatter reaction and let it burn itself out. It might not be as sustainable as a small star, but it would be powerful." Nico suggested.
That wouldn't be a terrible idea, and it should actually be an efficiency improvement for their existing line of ships if they wrapped the Dyson Sphere around the Warp Core as a containment field. Instead of spending energy to keep the reaction contained, they could harvest the energy that was escaping containment.
But that was off-topic.
The more he thought about it, the more Max was beginning to understand why Nico and the Innu were the way that they were. There were too many potential applications for new technologies, so the more of a grasp that you had on the design fundamentals of advanced systems, the more easily you could get drawn into one of the traps of another use for what you were studying.
[Battle Optimization] didn't help either. Every time it came across a potential way to use something in combat, it would give Max a gentle mental nudge with the suggestion about how to modify it, and it didn't care that he was focusing on one topic, only that what it had found was better than what he had available.
Today that was an annoyance, but the closer they got to creating the Dyson Sphere, the more useful it would be, as the uses would become more focused on his desired outcome, instead of the myriad of possibilities that were presented by massive energy output.
"Alright, the first stage suggests that we create this framework to mount the sphere into. The power supply chamber of a standard Titan Class Mecha is six metres on each side, so we will start with those dimensions. It looks like the alloy is even one that we can make." Max informed his team as he got back on topic and pulled them into the new project.
"Yes, starting off with a victory. I like where this is going." One of the more energetic researchers laughed, knowing full well that this was likely to be the only easy part.
