The interior of the ship was far more packed than Ayjax's. Red hadn't been given any instructions on where he was or wasn't allowed to go. So, he was currently headed to the center of the ship in hopes of finding the weapon room. He knew that this one would be much less advanced than Torrent's. That was fine.
Seeing a simpler cannon system could be helpful as well. In fact, he was pretty sure that he could learn more from a simpler system than a complex one like Torrent's. The simple ones would be all about efficiency. A ship owner like Cairen wouldn't want to spend a large amount of money on a weapon system. He'd want it to be as efficient with resources as possible.
Efficiency required an entirely different design than those focused on power. However, those two weren't mutually exclusive. Red could look at his own shock blasters as an example. They were as efficient as they could be made, but that didn't mean they lacked power. He couldn't make them as strong as possible. Nevertheless, they were still above average.
That wasn't his only reason for heading down here, though. He suspected that the person in charge of the weapons would be an engineer like him. It didn't matter how skilled he was; everyone had their own quirks and techniques that could be immensely valuable for expanding his repertoire.
This part of the ship was completely barren of people. Red hadn't seen a soul since he left Derrin outside their room. He had gone to practice with some of the mercenaries on deck. Now that they had left The Fallen Isles, the deck was actually open. Red had decided to leave him to it. Perhaps Derrin could learn a little more about where they were headed.
Red entered a dimly lit room. He wasn't sure how deep in the ship he had gone. He hoped that he had guessed the right area for the weapons systems. The interior of Torrent was always lit by a slight ethereal glow that seemed to emanate from the surrounding walls.
Cairen's ship used much more mundane methods. There were small containers hung every few yards in hallways. Each of them had a small device connected to a core. Red had studied them before, and they were fairly simple contraptions. It allowed the device to slowly siphon off a fraction of the core's power. Just the smallest amount was used each time, allowing the cores to remain charged for up to a week.
For many, that was still too expensive. However, Cairen didn't seem to worry much about the cost. He clearly made enough to balance out the prices. A thin teal glow suffused the room. It was empty save for the door he entered through and the one on the other end. Red sighed. It seemed that he had misjudged the room. He would have to look some more to find what he wanted.
Just as he prepared to leave, the inner door flung open. A lanky young man staggered through the door. Dark circles hung under his eyes, and his face was covered in grease. His sandy hair was stretched in all different directions and had been stained with the brown of oil. He wore a pair of blue coveralls…maybe they were blue once. Now they were simply stained brown like the rest of the man.
"Uh, Captain? The systems are all online like you…" The man paused and finally looked at Red, "You aren't the captain."
"Definitely not. Do I look like that grumpy old man?"
With the door now open, Red could hear the hum of machinery. The slight electrical scent tingled at his nose. It seemed he had come to the right place after all.
The man coughed, "Well, I guess."
It was hard to tell the man's age from his messy face. After listening to him speak a couple of times, Red was pretty sure that the man was actually a boy. He may have even been younger than he was.
"Is this the weapons' room?" the doorway was only slightly illuminated, making it almost impossible to see deeper.
"It is. Sorry, but I need to get back to work since you're not the captain. He'll have my hide if he finds me dottling."
"Mind if I come with you?"
"Why?" He genuinely seemed curious.
"I want to see how you run things in there. Is that a good enough reason?"
"Sure. I don't really care. You're the first person who's wanted to see inside here other than the captain," The boy paused, "Wait, you aren't like a spy, are you? Cause this would be a great place to hide a bomb."
Red blinked in surprise, "No, I'm an engineer…like you."
The boy nodded, "Alright."
He disappeared into the gloom, and Red followed, "Do you get that a lot?"
"Get what?" The boy didn't turn around, and Red was having trouble keeping track of him.
"Spies?"
"Never seen one before."
Red scratched his head. Whatever floats his boat, I guess. He laughed at his own joke.
Red stepped out of the hallway into a massive room. He couldn't help but stare. Machinery hummed all around them. The crackle of electricity and the hissing of steam filled the room. It was as if they were no longer aboard the ship.
"Holy crap," Red muttered.
It was all so…primitive.
"You run everything, like this?"
"Of course," The boy stopped in front of a massive spinning gear and began fidgeting with a metal nut attached to the side of it. One wrong movement and it would take his entire arm off. This was not at all what Red had expected to find in the center of the ship.
"Why don't you use cores for any of this?" Red asked as he stepped up beside the boy.
"Captain says it's too expensive. He isn't wrong. Running a big ship like this off of cores would be bloody astronomical. A ship that carries people and cargo doesn't make very much, no matter how efficient. Not that I know much about that sort of thing…" He trailed off.
All of his focus turned towards the rotating gear. He used a massive wrench to secure the nut he had been spinning into place. Red turned away and began wandering the rest of the room. It was hard to guess what most of the equipment was for. He knew the ones near the outer walls were for the cannons, but the massive piece of machinery in the center of the room was something else entirely.
"Hey, what is this for?"
The boy didn't even look up from where he was working, "That's the Halo Beacon."
"The what?" Red asked in confusion.
He turned and stepped up beside Red, wiping his hands on his overalls, "Sorry, that's just what I like to call it. It's my shielding device."
His eyes widened, "For the whole ship! You managed to do that without cores!"
He shook his head, "No, to pretty much everything you just said. It only protects the surrounding rooms and this one, unless really empowered. That way, if we sustain damage, we can ensure none of the equipment blows. As for your second point, well…this is the only part here that is supplied with cores. The cores aren't used to sustain the beacon, but the energy of the cores is required to summon the shield."
That was very cool. If he had a week to spend down here solely focused on this piece of equipment…that would be incredible. Even a day would be so exciting. Obviously, he wouldn't be allowed to take the thing apart, but even studying the entire contraption would help his own shielding design.
"Do you think I could check this out?"
"Well, I can't really okay that. It is my design, but I don't actually own it. You'd have to ask the Captain," The boy frowned, "Actually, I could show you the blueprints if you're interested."
"Very."
The two of them walked over to a small work table in the corner, "This is the final design. Well, the current one at least. It's being constantly updated as I change things."
The boy spread out a massive sheet of paper across the desk. It was covered in intricately drawn designs. Arrows and schematics dotted the page. Red took all of this and then more. It was incredible. The uniqueness behind the entire design was astonishing, even if relatively simple. He wanted to see other people's ideas for this exact reason.
"Why did you decide to run a set of piping through here?" Red pointed to a spot near the center of the drawing, "Wouldn't it make more sense to cut straight across there?"
He wouldn't pretend to understand everything. It would take days to register it all.
"I can't even begin to explain how frustrating that was!" he grumbled, "I tried that several times, but the heat from the steam exhaust coming through there kept superheating water in the pipe. I tried moving the outlet to other places, but it's hard with a machine this big. In the end, I just settled for extending the piping."
Red rubbed his chin thoughtfully, "I have to say…wait, what's your name?"
"Vizim."
"Well, Vizim…I have to say that this is an absolute masterpiece."
"You really think so? I was worried that this section threw the entire design off balance."
"I wouldn't say so…the only way you could properly shrink this down would be to change out the entire steam engine with cores. I think that this is perfect for the situation."
"Thanks."
"Here, let me show you this," Red said, pulling out a crumpled piece of paper and laying it beside the blueprint. It was his current miniature shielding design.
Vizim's eyes practically fell out of his head, "Is that a…"
"Yup," Red said cheerfully, "Not finished, of course. I'm missing something, and I think your understanding of cooling systems can help me finish."
"But…but…I can't work on something as important as this!"
Red laughed, "What in the world are you talking about? I couldn't have done what you did here without cores."
"I guess, but I need to keep up with all the maintenance down here…" Vizim trailed off.
"Oh, I'm sure that I can help you out with that. In exchange, I want your help with this," Red pointed to an empty spot on the page.
He had tried so many designs to prevent the blasted device from overheating. The problem with cores was that they released an immense amount of energy. To counter that, it required some very intricate machinery. However, intricate machinery had the habit of burning up if one wasn't careful.
Vizim was an expert in that field. Even if he didn't realize it himself. Red had taken one look at the systems he had designed and knew he couldn't recreate them. The idea behind it was simply genius. He had to take advantage of it. This could be the only time he would get an expert to help with something he was inexperienced in. Red would have no problem exchanging a few hours of manual labor for that expertise.
Red stuck out his hand, "I'm Red, by the way."
Vizim shook it hesitantly, "I just don't want to get in trouble."
"Trust me, Vizim. When the world sees what we are creating here today…there will be no reason for you to be getting into trouble."
Unless, of course, the entire design blew up in their faces.