tlb wrote:I thought that it was stated to be physically bigger. But is that enough to be obviously different? Mission of Honor, chapter 4:But the Mesan Alignment hadn't abandoned it, and finally, after the better part of a hundred T-years of dogged research, they'd found the answer. It was, in many ways, a brute force approach, and it wouldn't have been possible even now without relatively recent advances (whose potential no one else seemed to have noticed) in related fields. And even with those other advances, it had almost doubled the size of conventional hyper generators. But it worked. Indeed, they'd broken not simply the iota wall, but the kappa wall, as well.
Yes, it is bigger. But is that enough to tell apart a modern, big generator from an older, inefficient generator? Freighters are probably used for over 100 years, so finding older generators is not unusual. Plus, there must be hundreds and maybe thousands of manufacturers of generators, so Cheapo Generators Inc. may be making them big to gain economies of scale with cheaper materials.
If such a freighter had come to Manticore and inspected, the inspectors would be chuckling and giggling afterwards about the shoddy manufacture and how theirs is better. If they were so inclined, they'd also be wondering what the manufacturers or owners were compensating for...
That may not fly for a D.B., though. By definition, a D.B. is a fast vessel and space is at a premium. Finding a double-sized generator in a D.B. might raise red flags too early. Note how the streak ship Harahap used was carefully hidden.
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