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Maclintock, Serosian, and Dobrina all turned their eyes on me.
    â€œExplain, Commander,” said Maclintock. I shuffled my feet and took in a deep breath.
    â€œI’ve been working with Lieutenant Longer on a hybrid drive, mixing the impellers with the sub-light HD drive. I had intended to use it only if it was required to win the bet, sir,” I said.
    â€œWell, that won’t happen now,” said the captain. Then he motioned Longer to come up to the command deck and join us.
    â€œWill this thing work, Lieutenant?” he asked. Longer’s face went a little pale, but he answered readily enough.
    â€œTheoretically, sir,” he said. “Essentially, it’s a KERS, Kinetic Energy Reclamation System. The electrons generated by the HD drive can be processed in such a way that they can be mixed as a plasma with the chemical propulsion fuel cells. Sort of like a hyped-up hydrazine fuel source. In our tests we achieved almost a fifty-percent boost in output from the impellers, sir. But there is a risk of . . . a more explosive result, sir.”
    The captain looked annoyed at that. “Say what you mean, Lieutenant. We don’t have time for mincing words right now.” Longer swallowed and cleared his throat.
    â€œThere is a twenty-one percent chance the mixture will cause a burst from the mixed plasma, sir, a sort of ‘Big Bang’ of energy before the plasma flow integrates and settles down. Theoretically it
should
be a powerful enough burst to get us out of this jump tunnel space, just a lot more violent than the impellers in a normal mode, sir,” said Longer.
    â€œHow long will it take to hook this thing up?” asked Maclintock. Longer looked to me and all eyes were focused in my direction again.
    â€œIt’s already hooked into the impeller drive, sir. Just waiting on your orders to activate it, sir,” I said.
    â€œYou hooked up something that dangerous to our propulsion systems without permission?” said Dobrina to me. Her tone was even and controlled, but underneath I could see she was fuming.
    â€œOnly for testing, XO,” I responded.
    â€œWho gave you that authority?” she said, pressing.
    â€œWith respect, XO, I don’t need your authority to implement process improvements to systems under my supervision. I only need permission to test those systems from the captain, and since we had no intention of using this device without proper testing, I’ve done nothing that I have to apologize for,” I replied.
    Maclintock stepped in then. “Enough. The system is in place. We don’t have time to test it,” he turned to the Historian. “Serosian, could you please review this thing before I light a firecracker under my own ship?”
    â€œI can be ready in twenty minutes,” he replied.
    â€œGood,” said Maclintock. “Then let’s get to it. Mr. Cochrane, you’ll either be on my report or getting a commendation from this.”
    â€œYes, sir,” I said. Maclintock waved us away and we went back to our stations. I followed Serosian to his. Once he had sat down he turned to me and smiled privately.
    â€œI hope this works, Peter,” he said.
    I leaned in close to him and whispered, “Me, too.”

    Twenty minutes later my Historian friend reported to the captain that our hybrid drive was theoretically sound. He also reported that if we weren’t out of the jump space tunnel in twenty-seven minutes we never would be. We had all gathered around the captain’s chair for a final conference.
    â€œSo you’re saying this hybrid drive will work?” asked Maclintock.
    â€œI’m saying that
theoretical
ly
, it appears to be within functional safety margins,” replied Serosian. “But that doesn’t insure it will operate as theorized.”
    â€œAnd the possibility of a plasma mix burst?”
    â€œHigher than twenty percent, sir. But with our Hoagland Field