Hawking Reactor

"The Hawking Reactor" (C) 2010 Jesse B. Dooley, All Rights Reserved

The USS Blackwood was a day out of Lunar L2 and had just swung around the Solar South Pole and onto the Outward Flight Path, behind two cargo ships and a Star Explorer trailing behind. Ships follow the path to the outer planets as they accelerate to light speed, a prerequisite for Hyperspace. This will cut the travel time to Bernard's Star, a Red Dwarf Sun, from six years to 14 minutes.

There was a knocking on the Reactor Compartment hatch. "Thump, thump, thump." Sounding like a fist pounding hard, so it could be heard through the thick steel.

Reactor Apprentice Sokolowski opened the hatch to find two young Marines standing at attention with great big smiles.

"Chief", Sokolowski said, "two jar-heads want to talk to you." Chief Petty Officer Jones lifted up heavily from a chair and shuffled over to the hatch. He peered at the marines over the top of his glasses. They were dressed in regulation MCCUUs. Their crew-cuts didn’t have a hair out of place. Clean shaven, faces scrubbed to a shine. Even their acne was under control. The MCCUUs were the four color digital camouflage utilities in the woodland pattern, olive green t-shirts. Blouse and trousers pressed. Pocket closures fastened. Ear plugs hanging from the left chest pocket. Tanned work boots polished. Shirts pulled out and sleeves rolled up to the elbows.

"Privates Guardado and Gonzalez, what do you puppies want?"

Guardado's smile grew even bigger as he said, "We come in peace bearing gifts. And beg to see the reactor." Sailors are territorial. Wondering through the ship when not invited can get exciting. An enlisted snooping around the Engine Room can find himself tossed out naked and covered in axial grease. Scuttlebutt had it that people vanished from the Reactor Room, thus the need for gifts to placate the Reactor God.

Gonzalez held out a bag. Jones opened the bag, took out a bottle and held it at arm’s length. "Two bottles of Dewar's Scotch, 12 years old. You puppies learn quickly. The offering is acceptable. Sokolowski, give them 30 minutes in the Observation Chamber."

The Control Room was brightly lit with a large black circle on the far bulkhead that displayed the reactor core. A small white circle in the center displayed the Event Horizon with a line across it indicating activity on the Accretion Disk. Digital Displays above it indicate fuel consumption and power outs. Computer, keyboards, displays, and telephones were neatly arrayed around the room. The place had a clean, efficient appearance.

Sokolowski lead them through another hatch, another compartment, then into a smaller compartment and closed the hatch. A light went from red to green. The compartment was rectangular, except the far which was curved, as if it were attached to a gigantic billiard ball. Sokolowski went to a hatch, about a yard square, on the billiard ball, and opened it. A light over the small hatch went from green to red. All three peered in.

Sokolowski started his stump speech on the reactor. "The USS Blackwood has an M-42a Hawking Reactor with a 300G rating. That's 300 times the Earth's gravity. The Anti-Gravity Plates on the containment shell," he knocks on the curved bulkhead, "allow 1G to pass through, giving us a comfortable Earthlike gravity. The Core, or Black Hole itself, is at the ship's center, with the decks layered over it like the layers in an onion. This scheme provides an even gravity throughout the ship. The Reactor produces three kinds of radiation that are harvested to power the ship, electricity, plasma, and heat. The rods you see protruding from the Containment Shell are Tesla Coils that draw electricity directly from the Black Hole. The Black Hole itself, see that small black ball surrounded by swirling colored particles? The two pure-white plasma jets emanating from the north and south rotational poles are piped directly into the engines. Between the Containment Shell and us is a Water-Jacket that is three feet deep. It shields us from the radiation and heats up enough to run the turbines, thus producing more electricity."

Guardado takes pictures with his camera of the colorful particles sweeping into the Black Hole. First swarming around the edge, then flattening into the Accretion Disk, and finally plunging with great speed through the Event Horizon.

Gonzalez looked puzzled. "How did you get the black hole in there?"

"Easy, we load atomized lead into the atomic accelerators and smack them together until we get an atom sized black hole. Then we feed it slowly until it’s big enough to power the ship," Sokolowski said.

Gonzalez, "What's the strangest thing you guys ever threw into this?"

"Ha! A wedding album, rings and all! Some Petty Office got divorced and he wanted to erase every memory of his ex. So we folded the album in half, squeezed the stuffed animals in. Then he tossed the wedding rings in. Cool sparks! All kinds of colors! The Hole ripped it to shreds!" Sokolowski said with a smile.

Gonzalez, "Does anyone ever, um, disappear from here?"

Sokolowski, "Never, the feed tubes are small. Besides, when some goofy wanders down here, we just send him to the Engine Room."

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