Chapter 79

Dear Willow and family,

I know that I can't do everything. The question always is: Have I done enough? Have I expended all my effort on something that will help. Or am I just standing in the way? One thing I know is that I don't want to stand in the way.

With that in mind I've been looking over the specifications of the armor you described. You or someone sent me a bookmark in the archives so that I didn't have to search for it. That was especially helpful as having to find something is always the largest challenge we face when searching the Confederacy archives. To put it mildly there are trillions of gigabytes of information at least. Some is well organized but some isn't, and at all times your search can be hampered by not knowing the correct questions to ask. Luckily I've been doing research on materials to make your tank better. That has led me to lighter and tougher versions of armor. I'm not sure if you've employed them or not. But I hope they have helped. It sounds like some of my work on your main gun is now paying dividends. That is good news.

The question I have, if you survive to answer it is this: In the Darling Downs environment, would adding antigrav generators to your tank help? Or would having them 'float' put you even more at the mercy of the winds?

I suspect the later. So with that in mind I've gone into the archive to see if I cannot find ways to strengthen your drive system while increasing your speed. I will be interested to find out if the Sa'arm are experiencing difficulties due to lack of food there too. After all if the wind keeps everything beaten down to the point that there isn't much foodstuffs available it might be best to attempt a naval blockade of the planet and just let the poor things starve to death ... And not to provide them additional food by landing troops there who are ill suited to the environment.

Now that I've expressed some thoughts on your tank, I'm getting back to armor of one sort or another. You said you're wearing some sort of protective suit, but you didn't include a bookmark for it. I'd be interested to see if I can improve it. The main problems with the power armor that you were talking about previously is that it is difficult to get into, and it is weak at the joints. I'm not sure what I can do about that right now, but I've got a bit of a search program running on the archive that is supposed to be able to provide me with at least leads for research. The question is this: will I be able to understand what I'm seeing and reading? I hope I can at least recognize it and request sleep-trainer time if courses exist to help a primitive like me understand the science of the Confederacy.

So far the challenge seems to be to increase your mobility without increasing the vulnerability of your joints. Second to that of course is the need to fit inside your tank without making major modifications to it. That is important because you need some sort of protection from the wind. Currently I'm researching various forms of what we were calling carbon nanotubuals before the Darjee contacted us. I know that we were developing armor based on various engineering plastics as well. Since the AI controls the replicator in the end I've tried to see what it can do to produce patterns for things that it hasn't 'seen' before. Even getting it and the replicator to acknowledge stuff in the archives can be as difficult as trying to teach an elephant to tap-dance though ... Often times I find that I have to find the item and then translate it to a CAD file and then use the interface that I've created in order to get what I want made.

The only good thing I have to say about the whole process is that once a pattern exists it can be transferred to any other replicator. That is especially helpful because once an idea has been proven to be a good one, at least I don't have to try to build a factory in order to get my 'mouse traps' to people who need them.

Whew! All of that to say that I believe I've found a pattern that will allow the replicator to make a suit of woven or knitted carbon nanotubuals. I had one made for myself just to see how easy it was to get in and out of. It is great. Soft to the touch in some ways so that it won't pinch or abrade your tender bits, yet tough enough to be used as ballistic armor. I created a dummy and dressed it in a suit made of the stuff then created a suitable backdrop in one of the unused pods we're carrying and tested it. It works, so far as I can tell.