It Seems To Run On Some Form Of Electricity

Posted on Sun Dec 1st, 2019 @ 9:34am by The Narrator & Lieutenant Commander Mara Ricci & Lieutenant Commander Meilin Jiang

Mission: S1E4: Upon A Darkening Tide
Location: RCN Dauntless
Timeline: MD 1 : 21.00

The corridors and passageways of the RCN Dauntless were narrow but tall, with the industrial guide rails in the ceiling that suggested equipment could be moved along them with ease. Chief Stroma guided them quickly through the intestinal tangle of corridors, a pair of Ricipocracy Marines tagging along at the rear.

They passed work crews diligently working under blue arc lights to repair panels that had blown free of the bulkhead, revealing plumbing and power lines that had the familiarity of Starfleet design.

"From what the CIC passed on to me until I got called up here to be a guide when we entered their system we ran into an Active Censor Field. Do you guys know what a Censor Field is? Prior artefacts of a certain size tend to not like high powered events happening around them. Had we known this system had working Prior tech in it, we'd have approached at superluminal speeds instead of using Slipstream," Sorma shook her head. "We're lucky we crashed out in a controlled fashion, Presence be blessed for small mercies."

Meilin followed alongside Mara, content to listen to Sorma talk. Even if it was spiteful provocation and backhanded insults, there was still a whole new culture at hand. With a background in anthropology, Meilin loved nothing more than to unravel new cultures.

Passing through a twinned set of armoured hatches they entered a large cavern-like space within the armoured hull of the starship. It was clearly a power generation room, the frantic work of techs and tool's made that clear. But there wasn't an easily identifiable power source like a warp core or anti-matter reactor. Instead, resting in a burnished metal cradle, with a sphere of carved metal made the size of a shuttle pod. Looking at the intricate carvings on it made lines and dots appeared in the vision, and an itchy headache tickle across the brow.

"Right so obviously that's wrong," Sorma said pointing at the sphere. "Vacuum Reactor's should only look like that once, right before primary activation. But every time we try to kick start the siphoning algorithms and get it moving, it's like there's a tension in the local False Vacuum that's putting a drag on it."

She looked back at Mara and Meilin.

"What, am I speaking too fast? Should I be using small words and sock puppets?"

The comment made Meilin smile and shake her head in the negative, but she said nothing. She gave only a knowing smirk by way of reply and waited for Sorma to finish.

Mara have her a withering look. “Give is a minute,” she said irritably. “We’ve never seen anything like this before. But, I remain the only known person to have figured out the alien technology of a whole ship well enough to repair all the systems and keep her on one piece- all in the matter of three months and with half my memory missing. So, if you don’t mind, I’d rather you didn’t talk down to me today.” Was it snippy? Yes. But her arm was itchy and as it wasn’t a real arm, scratching it did no good. This made her irritable and she wasn’t going to take cheek on top of the itch. “Now,” she added, turning back to the sphere. “Is this the generator? Or the collector? Or the vacuum itself?”

"You're the smart one, why not tell me?" Chief Sorma said with a thin, sardonic smile. She held up a hand and gestured for them to walk around the cradled spheroid. "This is a False Vacuum Reactor. It has a much longer true name, but I don't have a minute every time I have to name it so gets called that. In essence, it taps into the sum total potentiality of our universe, making it virtually inexhaustible as a power source. The sphere is the tap, the etchings on its side is computationally compressed false matter that helps to mediate the energy transfer across dimensional branes."

She pointed up the ceiling of the engine room, where a mirror of the cradle on the deck was bolted.

"The two cradles are how we transfer energy to the ship's systems. Like I said, Vacuum Energy is nearly limitless, so the only limit on it is equipment fatigue. The cradles act as conduit and capacitor. Usually, they can store enough battery power to keep the ship running at full power for a week if we need to cycle the Reactor down. But because you have a Prior device operating in this system we didn't get a chance to do that. We blew our entire power budget on just crashing out of the slipstream in a way that didn't rend a hole in subspace," Sorma pursed her lips. "You can say 'thank you' at any time."

“We don’t have a Prior artifact,” Mara pointed out. “There is one, but it is not ours.” She again studied the sphere. “And that’s why it read like a Tesla coil,” she commented. “But the grooves would act as shielding without being shielding. That’s pretty brilliant, actually.” She wished to herself that she’s thought of it for the primary school science fair, but working dam she’d built had gotten her first place, so it didn’t really matter. Even so, such a simple solution to such a complicated problem was downright revolutionary. “What exactly happened when you got into the system?” she asked. “I mean, chain of events. Where did the failure start?”

"We crossed into your star's sphere of influence. That's generally the boundary-layer for any Prior tech. The problem is in slipstream it doesn't affect anything, it was only when we dropped out in the Oort Cloud that we began to register the power drop. We attempted to jump back into the slipstream on what power we had left but only ended up shorting the main computer. That's why we kept jumping in and out," Sorma shook her head. "We have a hell of a piloting team, it's the only reason we didn't end up jumping out inside of a gas giant."

She then looked at Mara.

"So you know you have a working Prior artefact? And you didn't put up a warning beacon? You've encountered the power dampening effect their tech has? The way it acts around high energy events? I mean you're still using anti-matter, so maybe the fundamentals of a technology that can selectively deactivate nuclear reactions on the atomic level might be just a little beyond you?" Sorma grinned. 'Well worry not, the Carcosian Navy has a spare warning beacon we can lend you. It's part of our mandate, helping the less fortunate."

"All nuclear reactions are affected at the atomic level." The comment was offered passively while Meilin's focus was on her tricorder.

While the other two were indulging in their banter, Meilin had been scanning the sphere. It did, indeed, contain a vacuum from which thousands of yottawatts of energy could be drawn. The superconductivity of the transfer cradles was perhaps as much of a wonder as the actual power draw itself. It was little wonder that the tricorder couldn't figure out what the cradles were made out of. And to think Meilin would look on this ship's wreckage as primitive technology. Like the ancient megaliths of Earth, appearances were deceiving.

"So what you're saying is that the Prior artifact nullified the second quantization of your quantized field and rendered the zero-point energy both null and infinite at the same time, collapsing the reactor's vacuum draw with an implosive explosion or explosive implosion, depending on the positive or negative value of your exponent, yielding a net draw of nothing as per standard physics. Subspace likely might have been damaged had either value been negated." While doing some quick math with her stylus, Meilin chewed her lip for a moment before continuing. "Assuming your materials and algorithms are intact, I don't see why you shouldn't be able to reinitialize straightaway. My preliminary assessment would be that your main computer isn't regulating the reactor properly. Reboot the main computer and see if that eliminates the unaccountable drag in the False Vacuum that's preventing the power draw."

While she was no engineer and this was all highly theoretical, Meilin felt confident in the age-old method of clearing out and starting over. This was, after all, technology derived from a proto-Federation colony that still used the same language. In many ways, despite the posturing and the unshakable aberrant feeling of the ship, this encounter was like a family reunion.

Meilin lowered her tricorder and returned Sorma's smile. "That means turn off and then on again."

Mara immediately had to bite her lips to keep from laughing. She crossed to Meilin and looked over the tricorder readings. She tapped a couple of buttons and nodded at the readout. "I agree," she said. "Is there any reason you can't reinitialize?" she asked Sorma.

"We need a jolt," Sorma said gritting her pearly white teeth behind her EV face mask. "A Vacuum Reactor generates a staggering amount of power, but to kick start the reaction you need to pump in a few terra watt's to get the ball metaphorically rolling. Usually, we'd tap into the cradle, which has an earmarked reserve for bringing the core back online when we have to power down to enter into a Prior Censor Field. Obviously, because you've only been poking yours with a stick, you didn't know the sort of havoc it can cause a more advanced civilisation when you don't put up a sign."

She then turned her look on Meilin.

"And just because you know your maths and science doesn't mean I like you. I worked hard to be Chief Engineer in the Carcosian Navy, so I'm not asking for help..." she said pointedly. "But, I might ask for the lending of an extension cord from your dangerously unstable antimatter reactor."

Meilin resisted the reflex to narrow her eyes in suspicion. Something about that didn't sound right. Losing her composure, though, would not only be wanton lack of cordiality, but it could also betray a premature conclusion. Her wary feeling very well could be nothing more than this technology eluded her understanding, which meant that she had to be the student before drawing any conclusions. Since she was not the Chief Engineer, she deferred the tacit request to Mara with a longful glance.

“I can do you one better,” offered Mara, eyes twinkling in a mischievous grin. “We can tow you in closer to the station. I once lassoed part of our space station and towed it into place. I’m sure your ship wouldn’t be as difficult as that.”

The small and angry engineer's scowl could have melted hull plates.

“I was kidding,” laughed Mara. “We have tractor beams.”

"Ah huh," she said untrustingly. "I'm sure I won't have to buff out to many dents from the hull afterwards."