Cloutia Generator
The Cloutia Generator is a M'K'Haren power source mentioned in Retrospectus. According to Jason:
“Gudersnipe’s captured and salvaged dozens of those things,” Hunter gestured. “They haven’t been able to figure out how they work or how to reproduce the technology. All anybody knows is you feed in helium-three and cesium-one-twenty-eight and you get more power than the laws of physics say either of those isotopes should be able to release. How do you even maintain a technology you don’t understand?”.
“Funny story,” Alternate-Jason sighed. “The M’KHarens don’t understand either. One of the people we rescued was the chief engineer, now he’s my chief engineer. Man’s been working on Cloutia Generators since he was knee-high, doesn’t understand any more about them than he did when he started. Says each generator is a little different, you just have to kind of learn its ins and outs and give it some sweet loving. I’m not really sure what he meant by that last part, but I guess nobody really knows how these things function, just that they do and they take up a tenth as much space as the photon reactor that came standard aboard the Forge, and generate twenty times more power. “The M’KHarens use it because they’ve always used it, they don’t know anything more. And frankly it hasn’t hurt them. We use it because we’re afraid. We’re more afraid of losing this rebellion than we are of this reactor, so we use it because it gives us an edge.”
“Remarkably risky,” Hunter nodded.