11.7 Trinuclear Torpedoes

The trinuclear warhead (also known as a quantum hellbore) consists, externally at least, of a standard photon torpedo shell. The warhead, however, is a bit more complicated. It consists of three parts, layered to produce a 130 isoton nuclear explosion. Its construction is as follows: Stacked plates of fissionable Americium-242 are alternated with Japhexite, a quantum-core enhanced material. Am242 is capable of fissioning in plates as thin as 1\100 of a millimeter, so thousands of plates can be stacked inside a warhead. The Japhexite is a material similar to quantite, but only is core has been quantum-stressed; also, it is not as atomically heavy as standard quantite, so it produces less of a bang. The third nuclear material consists of metallic-deuterium and metallic he3 plates alternated with the Am242 to induce a fusion explosion. The he3-De reaction is primary, but side reactions include tritium and deuterium fusion, and straight deuterium fusion (byproducts fuse during the explosion as well). The explosion is ignited by a magnetic compression burst, which compresses the Am242 and induces fission; the fission explosion ignites the fusion reaction, which creates the necessary temperatures for the Japhexite to explode. The total combined energy release is 72.4 isotons.

The Camelot carries 100 trinuke torpedoes. The standard trinuclear torpedo carried by the Camelot is a elongated elliptical tube constructed of molded gamma-expanded carbon-tritanium alloy and a plasma-bonded binary-bonded terminium outer skin. The completed casing measures 2.1 x .90 x .6 meters and masses 260 kilograms dry weight. Phaser cutters, which also provide penetrations for reactant loading, split the finished casing equatorially for hardline QTDN connections and propulsion system exhaust grills. Within the casing are installed quantite holding tanks, one nanofusion plasma generator, central combiner tank with superconductive magnetic containment coils, target acquisition, guidance, superconductive magnetic burst battery, detonation assemblies and warp sustainer engine. The holding and combiner tank shells are gamma-welded hafnium tritanide. The tank liners, as well as the warp sustainer engine coils, are all constructed from high-pressure cast silicon-copper carbide to maximize field efficiency.

The multimode warp engine is a true warp engine, the first true warp engine installed on torpedoes since their invention. The quantite fuel makes it capable of sustaining the warp nine field grabbed from the ship for 15 minutes, maneuvering in any direction to chase down ships. The cell, a cylinder 17cm in diameter and 40cm in length, is limited to a narrow warp frequency range and cannot add more than a slight amount of power to the initial grabbed warp field. Other flight modes are triggered according to initial launch conditions. If shot at low impulse, it boosts the speed 75% higher sublight velocity. If launched at high sublight, the sustainer will not cross the warp threshold, but continue the high near-c velocities.

Several small meta-fueled thrusters located in the torpedo provide sublight maneuvering. Each RCS engine consists of a Meta reaction chamber, a magnetohydrodynamic energy field trap, and vectored-thrust exhaust nozzles. Meta fuel for each chamber is stored in 2 immediate-use supply tanks. Fuel transfer is managed by three redundant sets of magnetic-peristaltic pumps, pressure regulators and distribution nodes. Ignition energy for the reaction chamber is provided by a step-up plasma compression generator, and supplied power by a single-use sarium krellide battery. The reaction chamber measures .1 meters in diameter and is constructed of hafnium carbide .4 centimeters thick, with a .04 cm inner wall of cortanium tritanide.

A two-stage MHD field trap lies downstream from the fusion chamber. The first stage acts as an energy recovery device and returns some of the undifferentiated plasma to the torpedo's engine power grid. The second stage performs partial throttle operations, in concert with fuel flow regulators, to control exhaust products as they enter the thrust nozzle.

The actual firing operation occurs in the launcher tubes. The launcher is downstream from four loader stages, where the quantite and warhead fuels are injected into four torpedoes at one time. Each loader can place a torpedo into the launcher for volley firing. In each position, the launcher tube, 25 meters in length, is constructed from machined tritanium and pressure-densified cortanium carbide. It is strung with sequential field induction coils and launch assist gas generators to provide initial power to the sustainer and propel the casing away from the starship. Once fired, the launcher tube is purged of surface residues by flash sterilization, the coil charges are neutralized, and the firing sequencer is reset to await a new load of torpedoes. In the event a set of casings is loaded, and the ship then stands down from Red Alert, the warhead fuels are off-loaded and returned to storage and the launcher system is powered down.

All launchers can be loaded with as many as 10 torpedoes at one time for simultaneous launch. In such cases, all torpedo devices are ejected from the tube in a single impulse and remain together for approx. 100 meters. At this point, individual control programs assume flight and targeting control for each torpedo. This is an effective means for simultaneous delivery of torpedoes to multiple targets.