BOOM
Another failure, this time though it was because of the material, I had tried to create a compound metal that could take more force and also be lighter but I had only succeeded in making it lighter and weaker, which was worse than just using crude steel. At least with crude steel it would at least fly a bit before the pressure destroyed it from the inside.
Looking at all the destroyed failures I held my head in my hand.
"Tsk" I clicked my tongue while doing so, none of them had worked, everything that I had done to try and make this succeed had ended in failure. When I had tried to separate it into different processes I had relied on gravity, gravity that we would not have in space and even though it worked it would not work when we were exploring space.
I sighed, bringing my head from out of my arms, there was nothing to do but try again. If I was discouraged by such a measly failure then I would get nowhere.
It was then that I looked to Delta, who had been watching, with each and every experiment I could feel the weight of her gaze growing more and more impassive, and even though I knew that she did not want to discourage me, I could still see the disappointment in her eyes. When I had dragged Delta from what she was doing, she too had been experiencing failures but at least with hers she was making progress. Progress on the idea that I had described to her, even with my faith in Delta I had thought it would take time to start seeing progress made on the particle engine but in the time that I was struggling she had made significant progress, of course most ended in failure but at least she was making progress.
Though it was insanely difficult she had made more progress on that than I had on my project, at this point I was contemplating giving up completely and just working on self improvement while Delta figured out our way over to those planets.
When I thought of all of that progress, of all the better things that Delta could have been doing instead of entertaining the failure that is me, the immense anger I felt at failing in my own task turned into shame and embarrassment. That piercing green eye looking on at me with veiled disappointment fueled the shame, fueled the embarrassment. Enough that my brain actually started to work.
When my brains finally decided to reboot and work again I desperately searched for a solution, for even an improvement but nothing came despite the immense focus I put into my thoughts.
Whenever I thought of a solution it all came back to different processes, if I could split them up and have only a certain amount of fuel be ignited then I could maybe solve this problem.
'But how… how am I going to solve this?' I kept on thinking to myself, again and again I searched for a solution but nothing came. It was only when Delta went to leave, her feet moving towards the door that something came to mind.
Right when Delta was about to exit the door I came up with a concrete solution, something that might even help with future innovations.
"Wait!" I shouted, wanting oh so desperately to show Delta what I had come up with.
As Delta was about to take that last step out of the door, she stopped hearing me, a almost satisfied smile on her face as she looked at me.
"Found your solution?" She asked, the smile on her face finally making sense, the veiled disappointment that I had noticed. It was all a trick, one to make me desperate, to pull out the ideas that she knew I had hidden in my mind.
"Yeah… yeah I have" I respond, my voice shaky as I look at her walking towards me.
A pat on my head and a sticker on my forehead was all that she did before truly leaving.
"You can do this, I believe in you" With those final words she left the room, leaving me stunned.
…
It took me some time but finally I was ready to begin with my idea, the first thing that I would need was a chamber for the fuel to be held and pumped through. To do that I wanted to compress it so that it would be shot out into where I needed it.
The fuel that Delta had made was extremely reactive, so much so that even touching oxygen caused it to explode, it was exactly what I needed.
The next part was another chamber that would instead of having fuel, have oxygen. Again this would be compressed and when the time was right both of these would be sent to another chamber where they would combine into an explosion.
The gasses created by the explosion would then be led out of the back where the thrust would be generated.
Once that was all drawn on a piece of paper, the multitude of ideas being combined, I started to actually build it.
I took some of the scrap metal that was lying to the side of the table and made a cylinder that was completely airtight. I then made a piston of sorts that would be the exact size so that when pushed into the fuel source would compress it with no gaps for the liquid to go anywhere.
Once that was done I made a hole in the cylinder, on the end where the fuel would be. After that had been made I created a hose that would fit onto the hole, on the end of the hose was a seal that would when released allow the fuel to be pumped to the chamber.
Once that was done I took water and filled the cylinder with it in order to test the device. I was not going to use the fuel as I was only given a limited amount by Delta and I would prefer not to bother her because I made an idiotic mistake. Oh, and it could also explode but the other reason was more important.
…
3, 2, 1 and go.
So far so good the piston that had been put inside the chamber was doing its job well. The water was being compressed and compressed.
BOOOM
Out of nowhere the water had pierced the metal turning it into scrap. Hurriedly I dodged out of the way making sure to not get hit.
Even though it had failed, I still smiled. I had made progress, sure the first attempt had failed but still, progress
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