Action Reaction And Momentum Conservation ((free)) -

“Reaction confirmed,” Mira coughed, smoke filling the bay. “We have lateral delta-v. Twenty meters per second and climbing.”

The cargo ship Ulysses was dead in the black. Its fusion drive, a colossal cylinder of magnets and nozzles, had seized. Chief Engineer Mira Vasquez stared at the diagnostic hologram. The rotor, a fifty-ton beryllium-steel alloy wheel spinning at 15,000 RPM, had locked solid. Without its gyroscopic stability, the ship would drift. Without its reaction mass pump, they had no thrust. action reaction and momentum conservation

The ship lurched violently. A gout of incandescent gas and a twenty-meter chunk of beryllium-steel tore through the port hull, spinning end over end into the void. The Ulysses shuddered, creaked, and then—moved. The inertial dampeners whined as the entire 10,000-ton vessel accelerated sideways at a gut-wrenching 0.2 Gs. Its fusion drive, a colossal cylinder of magnets

She ordered the crew to the forward cargo lock. Six of them, in suits, grunting and sweating in zero-G, unbolted the batteries one by one. Each battery was a chunk of potential momentum. Without its gyroscopic stability, the ship would drift

On the command deck, the trajectory plot updated. The ship’s vector line bent away from the red swarm. It was working.