Penance

Posted on Tuesday 4 September 2018 @ 21:59 by Ensign Riv O'Malley

Mission: The New Collective
Location: Engineering Lab II
Timeline: After Overwhelmed
1203 words - 2.4 OF Standard Post Measure

Riv walked off of the turbolift and down the short hallway to the engineering lab spaces. The labs on the newer ships for engineering were small, not too far away from the central computer core, and lined with extra bio-neural gel packs for added computation capability. In the newer models of vessels, like the Merlin, they even had holographic capabilities.

Riv walked to the center of the room, where a circular podium stood at waste height, and started typing some parameters into the system. After a few minutes, his burned arm started to act up.

"Damn it" he said out loud "looks like I'll have to use the voice interface. Computer, calculate the maximum energy output of the port impulse capacitance cell." Riv said out-loud, to the empty room.

"450 Terrajoules" the computer responded.

"And how long would it take to discharge with no safeties enabled?"

"17.85 seconds"

"Display characteristics for standard duranium wall plates"

The computer displayed them on the monitor, and Riv went to work.

A couple of hours passed as Riv continued to work. The long day started to get to him, and he began to doze on and off. He had been delayed onto Vega Xu, attacked by Borg, escaped the Borg, only to be attacked again. When he finally got onto the Merlin, he found himself working on life support and impulse engines. He though back. 26 hours he thought, calculating the last time he was able to get some shut eye.

Riv sighed. He wouldn't make much progress this way, being exhausted. He needed sleep, but he hated giving up on a problem.

"Computer, continue running a sturctural material analysis with composite capacitance matierals embedded in the duranium. Continue until you find several with the characteristics configured."

The computer chimed, acknowledging the request. Riv, feeling that the computer could handle this part of the job, slumped down into his chair, propped his feet up on the edge of the console, and drifted to sleep.

He closed his eyes and was transported back when he was a kid on a family tour of the U.S.S Bessemer, back when his parents were alive.

"Now look here, I dun think y're pickin' up what I'm laying down Commander, y'just canna put tha much energy into the converters and hope they'll survive." Jack O'Malley's thick Irish brogue rung out in his mind. Riv, just a blue boy, was hiding under the a console in engineering. Watching his father's legs, as he whirred around the engineering lab space aboard the Bessemer.

Riv was excited, he didn't get to go aboard the Bessemer often in those days. It was a smaller vessel, used for the Corps of Engineers, and his father was a Master Chief in their ranks. He loved hearing his father talk about his time away, but getting to live it was a special treat that young Riv rarely got.

"I understand what you're saying Chief, but we have to do something. The terraformers are stuck down there in heat that will melt a normal shuttle, and the shields wont hold because of radiation, I need a solution." The man said to Jack, sounding defeated.

"Look sir, why dunna you go and grab a bite, I'll work on somethin' and have it to ya in a few hours." Jack replied.

The other pair of legs walked off, through the doors that swooshed open and shut, leaving young Riv with his father.

"Now wee man, front an' center!" Jack called, Riv jumping to attention in the center of the room.

The rest of the dream became hazy, but warm feelings of working hard with his father, staring over his shoulder and trying to understand the readouts. It was a good dream, but the beeping of the computer had brought it to a swift end.

"Computer, status" Riv said, sleepily.

"No materials found given the constraints configured. Suggest expanding constraints."

"Not bloody likely." Riv said, looking at the chronometer on the nearest display. Four hours had passed, and Riv wished that he could go back to that dream, and ask his Dad for help. He foggily remembered the issue that his father was working on. A group of terraformers accidentally punctured the crust of Eta Sigma 7, releasing hot gas
into the atmosphere. A solar flare compounded the issue, igniting some of the gas, creating an oven on the surface. Given the way the terraformers had setup the air currents, there was no escape for the hot gas. His dad had come up with something to allow an old type 6 shuttlecraft to get down there, and ferry the terraformers out.

Riv stopped for a second. "Computer, list the missions of the U.S.S. Bessemer and the terraforming of Eta Sigma 7"

A few seconds of silence went by before the computer responsded. "There is only one mission that the U.S.S. Bessemer undertook to Eta Sigma 7."

"Bring up the details on the central viewscreen, overlay personal logs of Jack O'Malley."

The computer beeped in acknowledgement.

Riv started reading. His father had spent hours that evening replicating and installing micro thermal energy converters, and deploying them into the shuttle's exterior hull. The idea, as far as his father was concerned, was that he couldn't create a material that couldn't melt, but he could make a material that could move the thermal energy around, dumping it into the shuttle EPS system. Riv grinned wide.

"Computer, bring up research on nano thermal couples and piezoelectric converters." Riv commanded.

The picture was starting to become clear, and if the Lieutenant wanted a wall that wouldn't melt, he was starting to see how he could do that.

Riv worked on the computer, feverishly, stopping only to get more coffee to fuel him. Another 4 hours passed, and he looked up. Hovering above the central column was an enlarged hologram of a prototype wall. The two outer layers were pure duranium, providing the tough exterior a wall plate needs. Two inner layers were made of a lattice of piezoelectric and thermal energy converters were arranged in a crystalline pattern. At the core, an extremely low temperature plasma.

When energy would enter the duranium, the energy converters would convert it to energy, which would flow through the plasma. Very small magnets around the edge in a very precise fashion both fed on the plasma, as well as provided a field gradient for the plasma. The energy could then travel along the plasma in the center of the wall plate to a small EPS tap, dumping the energy into the EPS grid. The EPS grid could take the energy flux easily from several of these plates.

"Computer, how long would it take to replicate one of these plates?" Riv asked.

"12 hours and 43 minutes." The computer responded.

"Replicate a plate, notify me when its finished."

The computer beeped.

Riv walked out of the lab, toward his quarters. A lot of firsts today he thought hopefully a comfortable bed aboard ship will also be a first. Riv entered the turbolift, hoping that when sleep came, he'd be able to return to work with his father.

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