Countryman had been listening for a while, and since they weren’t deciding on anything just yet, decided to change the subject. “Ruri, how is your Phase Lance project coming along?”

Countryman was very curious about the answer as its results would improve their gunnery. He was hoping the new weapons it created would be more effective at penetrating energy shields. She adjusted her posture, and replied, “We are progressing well ahead of schedule. Thanks to the Erentium the fleet has provided we have entered the prototype phase for a new beam weapon. Initial testing shows it is viable, and to continue we would need the fleet to actually test it.”

“Oh!? That’s great news, and I was afraid I would have to wait a year. I guess we will refit a few ships to carry the experimental upgrade. If things go well it will be ready for fleet-wide implementation in what? A month?”

She nodded, and replied, “That would be a good assessment. However, keep in mind that only applies to our beam weapons. The pulsed cannon has proven a good deal more troublesome.”

Leaning forward and clearly interested Airi asked, “What is the problem with the pulsed version?”

Before Ruri could even answer Samantha Grayman whose primary area of expertise was shipboard education answered, “I have been helping out a bit, and the problem is similar to those suffered by early pulsed laser and particle cannon designs. The cause, however, isn’t the same, and we haven’t been able to solve it.”

Ruri took advantage of her pause to elaborate, “The particle pulse uses a completely new method of containment. Normally a spatial projector bubble is used to contain the particle stream. Instead, we are using an exotic high energy laser stream and firing it through the particle stream. The highly charged photon stream polarizes and lases the particle stream and completely eliminates the need for the older and bulker spatial projector system. Unfortunately, we have encountered issues when pulsing the beam. Most notable is a loss of beam focus, and a scattering issue. I have a few theories for why, but testing will be needed.”

Countryman scanning the other faces said, “That is very interesting, and I would like to discuss how the Erentium was applied to solve earlier issues, but we need to get back to discussing the fleet. We have had several engagements, and it seems that the Battlehawk is lacking the punch needed to punch through the heavier armor and shielding found on Cylovan capital ships. Our new torpedoes can help with this, but it would be preferable if our ship gunnery could penetrate the armor.”

Greyman catching on, asked, “Would it be feasible to configure the Battlehawk to carry the heavier particle cannons mounted on the Firebird?”

Megumi lit up seeing that there was finally something she could contribute to, “There are a few small issues to work out, mostly mechanical, but it wouldn’t be much of a problem. The cannons actually work far better than they were expected to. We would have to make a few modifications to the power configuration, and remove a few of the medium cannons to make room for them. If I had to guess we would lose about five banks of medium cannon, but overall firepower should be improved.”

Airi then proposed, “since we are going to be up arming the Battlehawks we might as well equip them with the experimental beam weapons. It would likely save us both manhours and resources to lump the two projects together.”

Countryman nodded, and others were quick to agree. Then the conversation shifted back to the build orders. They had finally agreed that they needed more ships. Especially given that the majority of their current income was thanks to their military campaign against the Rykoni in this sector. Once they made the agreement, the value of Countrymans suggestion regarding cruisers started to have more merit. Especially considering that it would allow them to field a fourth full carrier group if they needed to. During the discussion, they choose to table the Sabre and other ship loadout adjustments to a later date. The Sabre had so far performed satisfactorily in most missions, and the Firebird was also performing well.

After the meeting broke Ruri was quick to intercept Countryman on the way out. “I have been looking over your notes for possible replacements to our current Titan Alloy.”

Countryman chuckled, and said, “I noticed the access. So what do you want to discuss?”

“I noticed that you have added Pholite into the latest mix? I was wondering why you were looking into adding Pholite to our armor?”

Opening the lift, and holding the door so she could step in he replied, “The material has some rather interesting properties. Combined with Rydium it appears that we can increase the structural enhancement ratio by a further thirty-eight percent. So far the latest material I am testing is roughly three times stronger than Titan Alloy is without a field and twice as responsive to structural fields. Even better, it has about half the mass of Titan Alloy. If the simulations continue to hold we can then shift over to physical tests. After that, we can then tackle the issue of production.”

Ruri nodded, and said, “How much of an issue do you expect production to be?”

Countryman sighed, and replied, “It really depends on our ability to secure materials. Honestly, it will be at least three months of testing before I am willing to settle on a mix. I still have over three hundred different variants of this composite to test. I should be finished with the simulations in two months, and then the lab can synthesize the mix with the best results.”

The lift opened onto the main laboratory level for the ship, and Ruri stepped out. A playful expression on her face as she said, “Given your specialty in propulsion and energy fields, it amazes me how well versed you are in material science.”

Countryman followed her off the lift, and in a confident tone replied, “The fields aren’t entirely unrelated and after a couple hundred years I have picked a few things up. An engine isn’t any good if the material fails to withstand the stress of its operation. So naturally, I learned a few things about material science.”

They chatted idly as they walked down the corridor for the next few minutes until they reached their destination. A large isolated laboratory that had been set up specifically for the Phase Lance testing. It was here that Ruri had been testing the latest mockups of the new weapon system. In the lab a small scale prototype Phase Lance was set up on the one side of the room. On the opposing wall, a few test targets had been set up. Mostly reinforced armored plates of various thicknesses. Ruri and Countryman immediately went into the observation chamber. A room surrounded by a reinforced transparent steel. A material that was also used for the ship’s viewports. It wasn’t as strong as Titan Alloy, but it was a very good transparent material.

From the chamber, Countryman looked over the cannon noting that it had a number of mechanical differences to current generation particle design. He did notice parts that resembled modified laser generator components from the lasers that were in use nearly a century ago. It was quite clear looking over it that this was a hybrid design. That combined older technologies with newer ones. “So how exactly was the Erentium used in the design?”

“It was used mainly in the laser generator part of the beam cannon. Running the beam through a crystal Erentium focus stabilized the laser beam and tripled the output of the generator. Erentium was also used in the particle generator, and accelerators. It has properties that we were able to exploit to increase the efficacy of those components. Allowing us to reduce their size without a compromise on power.

Thanks to the Erentium we were able to fully stabilize the beam, and greatly increase the output compared to the previous prototype. These changes however also required us to enhance the cannon’s particle containment with Pholite to keep the mass down. I am going to demonstrate a test fire, and you will be able to see the effects of the phase lance yourself,” said Ruri. She activated the weapon, and it instantly began to hum. The turret turned to lock onto a plate. Within, the particles were accelerated to high C-fractional velocities, and compressed into the accumulator. Suddenly an energy beam fired through the accumulator. A bright violet-blue energy stream blasted out from the emitter and tore into the test plating. The plate rippled and glowed in reaction to the energy stream. It held only for a mere fraction of a second before the beam punched through it and into the wall behind it. The cannon stopped firing after penetration.

Countryman stepped around the observation panel and inspected the plate up close. The damage was very apparent up close, and the penetration was cleaner than the current cutting beams could achieve. “Impressive, if it performs this well outside the lab it would be a welcome addition to the fleet.”

“The important thing is that particular plate was shielded, by an energy shield that Selia was kind enough to lend me. That helped a lot with refining the beam. The shield experienced a localized failure at the point of contact and was unable to stop the beam. In the same way, the Krall cannons worked the Phase Lance can brute force its way through shields. Testing has also revealed it to be more efficient at draining energy shields than current generation weapons. Not to mention that the lasing process has tripled the effective range of the weapon compared to current-generation models. Which reminds me, I think we can adapt the process to work with our Electro Cannons. It may come with some drawbacks, but the increased range would be helpful.

Anyway, before you ask I already took a look at the energy shield she gave us and it is mostly unremarkable. Its components are a little more refined, and it is more compact than similar devices we have studied. Honestly, it seems to be a low-end portable field generator. Likely intended to be disposable at least for our Sylnari friends. To other races, this would be a state of the art piece of field equipment. Regardless we learned absolutely nothing from it. Well, nothing of major value anyway.”

Countryman sorting through her decently long explanation turned short monologue said, “So you have a new idea for improving the Electro Cannon?”

This was intriguing as the current theory for increasing the range involved employing spatial field projectors to contain and control the energy stream. In fact, that was exactly how they had improved them over the first generation ones that were originally mounted on the Enterprise. The fields had improved the range, but the method just wasn’t as effective as it was for Particle cannons. Mostly due to the volatile nature of the energy being contained. It was a very disruptive energy using particles generated by a special Rydium reaction inside of a plasma field. The Rydium reaction is very carefully controlled, and a spatial projection is used to project a plasma stream at the target. The highly charged and ionized plasma stream that results from the process is highly disruptive even before it is fired. Something that has made working with the systems a bit of a nightmare. Especially in anything involving containment, as its disruptive nature has led it to disrupt most traditional forms of containment. The current method of containment hadn’t changed in the last seventy years.

The conversation quickly shifted to cover it, but before they could really get into things the comm panel went off. It turned out that Countryman was needed on the bridge. He left the lab quickly and promised to discuss things further at a later date. Then he briskly made his way down the corridor towards the lift. All the while wondering what the call was about.