“What about air?” Megan asked.
“Air’s easy,” Peterka said shortly. “There’s these things called air-bottles. Recirculate it through scrubbers to get out the CO2 and you’re golden. Heat’s the problem.”
“Thus the big vanes on the armor,” Herzer said, gesturing.
“Right,” Peterka said. “That would allow the heat to escape. If you were in shade. System had a thermometer system that shut it down automatically when it got too hot on the surface. There was a heat sink that would carry you over. Very damned complex system and one we hadn’t actually been able to test very well.”
“How did the skin suits handle it?” Megan asked, looking at the suit that was vaneless.
“Well, they actually sort of used sweat,” Peterka admitted. “A certain amount of water is gathered from the vascular system and it was released in measured amounts. Evaporating water is great for carrying off heat, lots of caloric transfer in evaporation. But it won’t work with armor, even appliquéd armor.”
“Appliquéd?” Herzer asked.
“Slapped on the outside,” Peterka said.
“Don’t tell me you don’t have an answer,” Megan said.
“We have one, but it’s not a good one,” Peterka said. “Ice packs.”
“Ice?” Herzer asked.
“Yeah,” Peterka said, sighing. “We’ll hook up a system to run the water through ice packs. The ice packs will melt and turn to water. Eventually, you’ll get damned hot and have to change the packs. We’re looking at some of the problems with it right now, but it will probably work. But you’re going to generate the most heat when you’re most active, like when you’re fighting. You’re not going to be able to say ‘Excuse me, Mr. Orc, could we pause a moment while I change my ice pack?’ ”
Herzer laughed at that and shook his head.
“Right, safety tip: keep your pack changed.”
“You think it’s funny now,” the dwarf said, shaking his head. “They’ll only last about fifteen minutes!”
“Oh, hell,” Herzer said. “That’s bad.”
“Why?” Megan asked.
“Most fights last longer than that,” Herzer replied. “Okay, this is part of your design. We’re going to need some way to… turn a switch or something, and switch to a new pack. That will be a training item, but the fighter will switch to a new pack when we’re about to engage in combat or as soon as possible after. And back if that one gets used up. Three or four would be nice.”
“Two or three is the most we’ll be able to do,” Peterka said, picking up a note pad and making a note.
“Okay, you’re going with appliquéd armor?” Herzer asked.
“Have to,” Peterka said. “We looked at all sorts of possibilities, laminar, scale, but your fighters already have their own damned armor. Fittings will have to be replaced but there’s no reason not to use it. Some… expansion and contraction issues, but lorica will flex for that and the light carbon steel they’re made of is actually pretty resistant to thermal cracking. They’ll tend to be… brittle in the shaded areas, though. Keep that in mind. Have to be careful about the collar area as well. Might put a bronze ring in to prevent it contracting too much. Have to put an insulator layer on the inside or when it heats up in the sun it’ll burn away your suit. By the way, did I mention radiation?”
“No,” Herzer said, sighing. “You did not.”
“Forgot that layer,” Peterka admitted. “The skin suits have an outer layer of xatanium. Very dense material developed in the twenty-third century specifically for suits. We’ve scrounged up enough of it over the years that we had a decent stock. At least for one thin layer. Very rad resistant but not totally. You’re only going to be good for about an hour exposed to the sun. That’s up where you’ll be working, mind. In closer to Earth, don’t get out of your vehicle if you can avoid it. Van Allen belt will have you making two-headed kids in about five minutes.”
“Got it,” Herzer said, sighing.
“The armored boyos will be a bit better off,” the dwarf admitted. “But not much.”
“How long for us to have minimal training gear?” Herzer asked.
“Years,” Peterka laughed. “You’ll have most of your team fitted in a few weeks, if I can find seamstresses we can trust. I’ve got six right now, all dwarves. They can only work so fast, even with powered sewing machines.”
“I’ve got one,” Megan said. “A very good seamstress. And trustworthy; one of my aides.”
“Seven,” Peterka nodded. “Everyone on the team will have to be carefully measured. The armor will have to be refitted, helmets refitted, we can mostly use those from the last team except for the locks. The packs for the armor suits will have to go outside the armor and we’ll have to run support from the suits to the armor.”
“Megan gets armor,” Herzer said. “Councilwoman Travante is not expendable and she’ll have the best you can get her in the time available.”
“Absolutely,” the dwarf said. “There’s a set of armor that will probably be the right size to modify and I’ll get my wrights to work on that right away.”
“Okay,” Herzer said. “There was nothing in the briefing materials about fighting in zero g. Thoughts?”
“Don’t if you can avoid it,” Peterka said with a bitter chuckle. “If you’re free-floating, especially on the surface of the ship, you’re totally screwed. You can grapple, maybe, if you can even get near your opponent. And we’ve got some devices for that,” he added, pulling aside one of the other cloths to reveal a selection of devices. One of them was a large pick-axe but the rest were a mystery.
“Right, this is a punch-stiletto,” Peterka said, picking up one of the devices that was a long tube with metal spikes sticking out to either side. “If you’re grappling, you can press it against your opponent and…” He touched a stud and a spike slammed out of the end of the tube. “Penetrate a soft suit easy enough, a hard suit if you’re at a joint, maybe. But if you don’t have a good hold, it will just spin you off into oblivion, got it?”
“Got it,” Herzer said, holding up his hand.
“Hold on.” Peterka picked up another tube and slid the spike into it. There were cutouts for the spikes on the side and he pressed the assembly down on the table, grunting in effort as the weapon was reset. “Cocking one of these things is a bloody beast,” he noted. “Safety,” he added, pointing to a switch. “Release,” he said, pointing at the stud.
“It’s safe if it’s on green?” Herzer asked, handling the weapon carefully.
“Yes.”
Herzer took it off safe and pressed the stud. He was surprised by the recoil of the thing; it nearly flew out of his hand without being pressed against anything. “Hard to use.”
“Won’t be anything easy about fighting in space,” Peterka said. “Generally, though, the whole inertial thing is overrated. You’re going to be using mag-boots. You won’t be able to jab without worrying if you or your opponent is going to be doing a flying Dutchman—”
“Sorry,” Megan said, “term?”
“Flying Dutchman,” Peterka said. “Floating off into space forever.”
“Ah,” Megan replied with a grimace. “Thanks.”
“But you can use your weapon’s momentum,” Peterka said, picking up the axe. “Ever trained with an axe?” he asked.
“Not lately,” Herzer admitted.
“Then don’t try anything fancy,” Peterka said, lifting the axe. “Set up a figure eight. Swing up and down one way, bring it around, swing up and down the other,” he continued, demonstrating. “Use the pick end for armor, the axe for soft suits. Don’t try to drive through your opponent. If you’re pushing down when it hits, you’ll be lifting yourself up. Use the momentum of the weapon only. Don’t try to maneuver; if you lift a foot you’ll probably go flying off. You’ll have safety lines, but I don’t think you’ll have time in combat to use them. We thought about installing small thrusters but they’re damned hard to use so… no thrusters. If someone does a Dutchman, you might be able to use a shuttle to recover them.”