Re: [FT]A Scenario! Really!

Mark Reindl wrote:

> Same roll.  I justify it mainly because I always assumed that they
were
> powered by some sort of reactor, which needed time to get up and
> running.
>

Here is where there are troubles with the psb.	Current naval warships
fall
into two categories of cold iron.  There are the vessels that can  crash
start and respond to all bells within sixty seconds of someone pushing
the
start button and vessels that require several hours before they can
start
turning shafts.

Some psb for various types of powerplants: [Another of my exercises in
SF
writing]

Forced quantum singularities:
FQS systems have only two levels of operation-- Full rated power and
thermal runaway, resulting in matter-energy of the remaining mass of the
singularity.  As the energy output is the indirect conversion of mass to
energy (via black hole evaporation), very little fuel is needed, but it
is
used constantly.  Power level control is counter-intuitive, as adding
less
fuel will cause power to increase and adding more fuel will decrease
power.	If the matter injectors cannot transfer enough mass to the
singularity to match its current output, the output increases without
limit
(BAD THING tm).  There are two main disadvantages of FQS power systems.
The first is that it must have enough built in redundancy that segments
can
be taken out of service, while still maintaining the required mass
transfer
to the singularity.  The second is that it is difficult to securely
mount a
point mass.  FQS systems are also saddled with an enormous mass penalty.
Although too dangerous for planetbound powerstations, the FQS has one
advantage for shipboard use, they are easy to eject from the vessel in
emergencies, as, once the containment field is released, nothing will
keep
them from passing through the hull and the exit hole is easily sealed.
Being at full power anyway, the FQS powered starship (though not
necessarily her crew) is always ready for action.

Inertially Confined Fusion:
ICF initially used a spherical wavefront generated by multiple laser
beams
to compress a pellet of fuel to the fusion ignition point, but modern
systems used gravity waves.  The power is available in pulses, but the
pulses can be very close together.  Depending on the nature of the
gravitic
subsystems, this is pretty much an energy on demand system that can go
from
zero to full power as soon as the injectors come on line.  As the
injectors
are little more than pellet guns, startup is little more than a
handshake
with the field generators to announce a pellet's arrival.  Black starts
(no
external power) on cold iron are practically impossible.

Fission:
Fission piles are problematic for instant starts, as they are usually
operated with only delayed neutrons.  However, a small number of pulse
reactors (they take advantage of doppler broadening to shutdown after
releasing an enormous burst of neutrons) can dump enough neutrons into
the
fission core to kickstart a fission pile without threatening to push it
into it prompt criticality (a-bomb).  Unfortunately, there is a serious
risk of damage to the fuel elements from the thermal shock, so fission
piles are typically ramped up to full output over the space of several
hours.

Energy Conversion:
The response time of the the powerplant of a starship depends more on
the
energy conversion processes than the actual energy source.  The raw
energy
is in the form of heat, and we typically want electrical power.
Magnetohydrodynamics allow electric power to be generated directly from
the
gas coolant of the power plant, but require a significant volume to
expand
the gas.  Warships accept the space requirements of an MHD, because they
do
not require extensive radiator arrays on the surface of the ship. 
Merchant
ships trade surface area for volume by using a liquid coolant (typically
water, due to its low cost) to achieve high efficiencies by exhausting
the
waste heat into the black depths of space through some form of heat
engine,
often a combination of rankine (steam) and stirling cycles.

Warships powerplants can come online in seconds, or minutes, but
merchant
vessels tend to take hours to bring their coolant up to temperature.

Back to the scenario idea, the civilian contractors that were working to
refurbish the SDN will only abandone the work if there is a possible
escape.  Historically, civilian contractors have been on warships during
combat (The Prince of Wales scurried off to chase the Bismark with the
contractors aboard to finish the installation of the turret equipment
and