PGMP/FGMP Fuel & Starship Fuel

I've got two question which recent events in my MT campaign have prompted
me to solicit answers for.  Here they are.

1.  PGMP/FGMP ammo/powerpack costs.

  The Imperial Encyclopedia (pg. 72) says the PGMP, "consists of a power
  pack carried on the firer's back, the weapon itself, a flexible power
  link.  The power pack powers a laser ignition system in the weapon
  itself which heats hydrogen fuel to a plasma state.  The plasma is
  contained in the ignition chamber briefly and is then released through
  a magnetically focused field along the weapons' barrel.  The high
  initial velocity plasma jet is 2 centimeters in diameter, but it
  begins to dissipate immediately.  EACH POWER PACK HAS SUFFICIENT
  ENERGY TO DISCHARGE 40 PLASMA BOLTS BEFORE RECHARGING IS NECCESSARY.
  Each pull of the trigger discharges one plasma bolt."  [The emphasis
  is mine.]

  In the next paragraph, it goes on to specifically address the PGMP-13
  (which leads one to believe that the earlier discussion was directed
  towards the PGMP-12).  It says, "THE POWER PACK IS A SMALL FUSION
  REACTOR WITH EFFECTIVELY UNLIMITED FUEL FOR COMBAT PURPOSES (BUT IT
  REQUIRES PERIODIC REFUELING AND ROUTINE MAINTENANCE EVERY 24-36 HOURS,
  DEPENDING ON THE AMOUNT OF USE).  [Again, the emphasis is mine.]

  Then, on pg. 75, the following data is given:

        Weapon      TL             Price     Ammo Wt.  Ammo Price
        PGMP-12     12    ...     10,000 Cr.   3.0        2,500 Cr.
        PGMP-13     13    ...     65,000 Cr.   7.0       50,000 Cr.
        PGMP-14     14    ...    100,000 Cr.   1.6      250,000 Cr.
        FGMP-14     14    ...    100,000 Cr.   9.0       65,000 Cr.
        FGMP-15     15    ...    400,000 Cr.   2.0      300,000 Cr.
        FGMP-16     16    ...    500,000 Cr.   1.0      375,000 Cr.

  Well, that's it.  I'm totally confused.  The ammo wt. jumps all over
  the place.  And the price; does it refer to the hydrogen 'pellets'
  in the gun that actually get zapped by the laser, or does it refer
  to the hydrogen fuel in the power pack?  Based on articles in both
  the TDR Physics SIG and the HIWG (History of the Imperium Working
  Group), the 'hydrogen' in this case is some combination of deuterium
  and tritium (as opposed to the ol' vanilla protium which fuels star-
  ship power plants).

  Sooooo, in the words of Ricky Ricardo, "Somebody 'splain dis to me,
  please?"

2.  Fuel duration & multiple jumps by a starship.

  I have a design for a modified Beowulf-class Free Trader that has
  jump-2 and maneuver-2.  It burns up 405 Kl. of fuel per jump and
  has a total fuel capacity of 859 Kl.  It also has a duration of
  30/90 days (whateverthehell that means) according to the design
  rules in the Refs. Manual.  If I understand the rules correctly,
  that means that it can make one jump (jump-1 or jump-2, it doesn't
  matter 'cause the both burn 405 kl. of fuel, thanks to those
  mysteriously vanishing 'jump governors').  On the remaining 454
  Kl. of fuel, the ship can stay powered for 90 days in some sort
  of 'low-power mode (or '8-hour work days' as the Refs. Manual calls
  them).  This implies that the ship burns 5.0444 Kl. of fuel per day
  in that mode, right?

  Given those values, one can assume that for 2 weeks in jumpspace a
  ship would need 5.0444 x 14 days = 70.6222 Kl. of fuel, plus 405 x
  2 = 810 Kl. for the 2 jumps.  810 + 70.6222 = 880.622, which is only
  21.6222 Kl. more than my ship holds already.  By installing a small
  (say, 50 Kl.) auxillary tank in the cargo hold, this ship could
  ram-scoop a gas giant, jump-2 parsecs, and still have enough fuel
  to safely make a second emergency jump-2, right?

  I realize this completely ignores the other factors such as in-system
  transit time, etc.  It also doesn't address whether or not this low
  power consumption figure assumes the M-drives are going or not.
  However, I don't think the rules explicitly forbid this sort of
  action, do they?  All of this hinges on my understanding of the 30/90
  duration figure, which is zip.  So somebody enlightening me, okay?

One possible interpretation of the 30/90 duration (mine :-)).

  The 90 day duration is max. duration if the M-drives are NEVER run.
  This gives use a life-support (et.al.) fuel usage of 5.0444 Kl./day.
  The 30 duration is max. duration if the M-drives are run CONSTANTLY.
  Since we know life support burns 5.0444 Kl./day, we know that life-
  support burns 151.3333 Kl. of fuel in 30 days.  This means that the
  remainder of the 454 Kl. (which is 302.6667 Kl.) is 30 days of con-
  sumption by the M-drives, which works out to 10.0889 Kl./day.  Now
  that we've got these 2 figures:
        M-drives ------- 10.0889 Kl./day
        life support ---  5.0444 Kl./day
  We can derive per hour consumptions and determine right to the
  credit how much it will cost to refuel at that next starport! :-)

        [The scene is L'sis (0409 Pretoria/Deneb), in Lorraine's Adult
         Entertainment & Electronics Repair.  Hassan and Nonny are
         browsing through the Holo-porn:]

         "Check this out.  Over here in the Zhodani section, there's
          one called _Debbie_does_Herself_!"

         "Uh-huh.  Oh wait, now *this* looks interesting.  In the
          Vargr section, there's an X-rated remake of some old
          2-D flick called _One_Hundred_and_One_Dalmatians_."

                        - Paraphrased from last weekend's MT session
Later,

        Mark F. Cook

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