I love the smell of Super-Heated Plasma in the mid afternoon.

<snip>
"Are you on the bridge yet?" Katrina's voice cut impatiently over the communicator.
"Yeah, I just got here." Cass replied. "The last failsafe will be disarmed in a couple of minutes, and then I'll deal with the AI."
"Good. Let us know when you're done."
"Yeah, will do." Cass clicked the communicator off.
</snip>

"I guess there's nothing to do but wait for a minute." Jamie said, sat leaning against the core of the ship. A large, bulbous metal ball that seemed to be held in mid air by all the cabling, and some kind of magnetic field, or force field. A relatively common setup as far as he was concerned. The failsafe systems were in place to stop the magnetic field from becoming overcharged, undercharged, or shut down entirely.

"So, what method do you want to go with?" Jamie asked. "With the failsafes down, we've got free reign."

"I can't say I've got much experience with setting a core to blow." Katrina replied.

"No, me neither. I've spent my entire career trying to do the opposite." Jamie said, standing in front of the core checking it over.

"Well, we need something we can remote detonate." Katrina said, thinking out loud between them. "Coolant leak is too unreliable and could give them time to escape."

"What if we alter the input ratio until it's on the edge of blowing, and set the remote to kick it over the edge? That would go up in seconds if we get the right balance." Jamie mused. "We could make it look like a super powerful engine if we balance it right on the edge, and it would take time for them to notice how close it was." He said, rubbing his face thoughtfully.

"Yeah. we could increase the coolant flow to cover it up." Katrina added.

Just at that moment, a light flashed up on the computer terminal to signify the deactivation of the safety mechanisms.

"Sounds like a plan. I'll deal with the coolant flow, if you do the ratios?" Jamie asked, glancing up at the piping coming from the core. It wasn't going to be easy, and his time in the Jungle had prepared him for the climb.

"Done, I'm probably better with that than the physical side anyway." Katrina admitted, and turned to the computers.

With a spanner between his teeth, and screwdriver in his pocket, Jamie reached up to the lowest section of piping, and swung himself up, happy that Earth had a slightly lower gravity than Fernandos. So slight that you'd barely notice it over a short time, but for the duration he was there, it had built up his muscle density something fierce.

As he climbed, the sounds from the core increased in frequency, and the colour of the liquids inside changed up a notch, from the cream-coloured plasma of a ticking over engine, to the pearlescent glow of power. He reached the coolant pumps at the top of the core with no trouble, and started taking the covering apart to get to the innards.

"It's a shame to waste this core." Katrina called up. "I've got it to 140 over 10 and its still nowhere near."

"Not bad, I haven't even upped the coolant flow yet. Give me a minute, then try knocking it down to 5." Jamie called back down, and started pulling at the flow valves with the spanner. With a soft whine, the inbound flow increased slightly, filling the chamber completely. "Input's done." He called down, moving over to the output. If you overdid one side, it would overbalance. Too much input, and the flow would stagnate and overheat. Too much output and the chamber would be empty. Both were bad.

"Plasma temperature just dropped by 10%" Katrina called. "It's going to make one hell of a bang when it goes."

Jamie swung upside down from a pipe, similar to when he had made Katrina Jump back on the 'Dwarf. "Output balanced. Temperatures should drop again in a moment. How's the Ratio?" He asked, going back up to the input valve.

"It's on 145 over 5." Katrina said, calmly. The pearlescent glow from the core's innards had turned up, more of a shine than a glow, like a miniature sun in the engine room.

If any non-engineering types were listening in, it would be nonsense. A core power supply like this worked on a ratio of chemicals that came together to make a plasma, which turned the fuel input into pure energy. Coolant kept it from melting the housing and destroying itself. The richer the plasma mixture, the more volatile the fuel became in the moments before it became the energy required to power the ship.

"The heatsinks are going to be baking hot." Jamie said as he finished his work, and climbed back down. "The blast from this is going to turn a section of the sand into glass."

"Yeah, and then the shockwave will shatter it back to sand grain sized chunks." She said, wondering if they would be able to get far enough away.

"That'll do." Jamie said, checking the computer again. "We want to melt a simulant, not the whole planet."

"I don't remember there being anything about a gigantic fusion explosion in any of the history books." Katrina said. "I wonder how it gets cleared up."

"I'm sure Jay will think of something. He'll probably say it's the power of God smiting his enemies or something." Jamie said, dumping everything that needed to be vaporised. "let's get out of here and meet up with everyone."

"This remote communicator will be perfect to activate the reaction. It'll be like an early 21st century style mobile phone detonator. If Pilate is too advanced, he won't anticipate something so crude, even if he figures out the trap." Katrina added with a grin.

The two of them vacated the engine room, and headed up to the Bridge to meet up with Cass before they exited the ship.

<Tag guys. I hope that'll do for the engineering side of things.>