LogFAQs > #875388681

B

"I can tell you his story while we work," you say.

Raven accepts the condition and the two of you swing over the Gravitation Drives.

"Gravitation Drives are installed into ground vehicles to allow them the ability to drive on walls or even ceilings," you explain. "This is possibly through an enchanted gyroscope and shock-absorbing springs. The first check is that they are following the 'exact materials' rule."

You and Raven pick up the power drills and unscrew crossheads again to pop the shells open.

"What is this made out of?" she asks as she looks at the gyroscope.

"The very center is a disk of brass. The framework should all be iron, except for the washers on the outside. Those should be made of a 56 percent copper, 35 percent silver and 9 percent manganese composite."

"Um... I can definitely tell the center disk is brass and these are iron," she says. "Why are the washers such a weird composite?"

"My grandfather had to improvise pieces for the very first Gravitation Drive gyroscope during World War II," you say. "He had no standard iron washer rings, so he used nickels borrowed from an American soldier he ended up meeting and befriending on the battlefield. Before World War II, nickels were 75 percent copper but still 25 percent nickel the element.

"When the war started, nickel became a critical metal to the war effort so the United States federal mint had to change the formual. They were allowed to substitute in silver for nickel and make the mix a 50-50 split of silver and copper, but were allowed to vary proportions and add other metals if needed. The end result was this 56-35-9 split of copper, silver and manganese. Therefore, those were the kinds of nickels Rorek the Sixth's friend had and were the kind shoved into the gyroscope."

"Huh. What a great little history lesson."

"Indeed," you say. "By the way, after the war, the nickel formula was allowed to go back to 75-25, copper and nickel."

Raven nods as you double check both gyroscopes.

"Alright, these all seem to be the right materials," you say. "Gravitation Drives are also proportional in power, so if something is the wrong size, even by just a millimeter, that will prevent it from working."

You take out a ruler and calipers and do the math on these Drives versus the one on Shadowfax. You get the proper lengths, widths and thicknesses of all parts and measure the gyroscopes in front of you.

"Here's the problem," you say. "The inner frame's too thin, it needs to be another two millimeters wider. Not to mention it isn't very uniform, there are spots where it's the right width but then the rest is the incorrect width."

"Is there anything we can do?"

"No, the pieces will have to be made over from scratch so that they're the exact specifications. That means our job here is done."

You make notes on the documents to make sure the engineers know to be more careful with the inner frames. You then put things away and you leave with Raven to the shipping yard, the separate building by the docks.

"Hello," you call as you and Raven approach the men loading and unloading trucks. "Is an Art Wilken here?"

"That's me," a man with long, shaggy hair says as he trots over. "So good to finally meet you, Mr. Null."

"Please, call me Rorek," you say. "This is Raven, a good friend of mine who was willing to assist on my visit."

"Hello," Art says.

"Hello," Raven says.

"Now, I see from this report that the only real problem the shipping yard has is the labor force," you say. "Are we behind schedule that often?"
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