Fob eagerly clung to Den as they proceeded to the drive facility. Den was happy as they finally had the opportunity to make the necessary repairs and see the dream come true.
Michael watched the perky little Fob hold closely to Den as they walked. It was refreshingly nice to be reminded of how close one can be with the people they care about who are around them every day.
He wished he could be as close with Kay as they strolled along behind them. The surrounding atmosphere of the ship and the solidarity of the crew made it feel all the more inviting to come closer together.
He watched as her hands swayed at her side while she walked and he proffered his hand toward it but she moved away. He glanced her way to see if she noticed but she never seemed to look back. Trying again, she all but told him to stop as the connection failed.
”The spacecraft is definitely what’s at the heart of the matter. These people are just starting on the exploration of space and it’s got its bumps and startup problems as well. Within a couple of hours, we,” she said looking over toward Michael, “should be able to get something working again.”
“‘A couple of hours’?” Michael protested as Kay closed the comm. link. “So that’s how much faith you have in my abilities?”
“Just think of how impressed they will be when you fix it in less than an hour.”“I don’t think I can do it at all,” he said candidly. The device was a complex marvel of stellar engineering. The Geno’m had made this landmark achievement for their society which amounted to the collective of scientific breakthroughs and theories; all he was was a recreational theorist, not an engineer.
Kay left, confident in his abilities, or oblivious to the fact he had no idea how any of this worked. Fob made offerings to Den for any amenities to eat or drink which he turned passed on.
The multitude of sparkling lights fitted into hundreds of connections that formed the Accelerator’s core was like an aurora; far more colorful than a Starfleet warp core.
“And you guys designed all this?” he asked staring at the thing.
“Oh no,” Den shouted, “this was the accumulation of the greatest minds of our world. We built the foundation for realizing all the theoretical principles that make up how we’ll travel to new worlds.” The passion for this creation shown in the focused gazed he placed upon the machine.
“So, you’re not really scientists, are you? You just say, ‘here’s how this works. Okay, this does the thing that makes that happen’?” They nodded somewhat confusedly at his ramblings. “So you’re…engineers? Not a part of the ‘great minds’?”
“We designed the Accelerator based on proving the principles. It was our intention to turn the theory into reality. Once online, the governing truths will become fact,” answered Fob.
“It was the goal of ours,” he motioned around to the whole ship, “to make possible what was only numbers on a page,” Den chimed. “Fob and I, as well as many of the others, believed we could accomplish the propulsion theory in real life proving the validity of all the research and proposals.”
“So…engineers?”
“Yeah.”
“Basically.”
“What about you? Are you the Engineer or lead scientist for your ship?” Fob asked.
“No, I’m the pilot. But I follow and take part in the field of study that seeks to cross new boundaries with regards to flight and propulsion.”
“Why?”
“Because, then I get to fly it,” he smiled with glee. “So, what
are the principles behind all this?”
To the Geno’m, there was no Prime Directive governing the divulgence of knowledge. For them, this was the convergence of knowledge and wisdom across different minds; no matter whether it came in a large, pasty shell (he doesn’t get out much
).
The StarQuantum Accelerator formed a subspace enclosure around the vessel it was installed in and uses the compression of space within to bend the area between A and B –with A being the start of the journey and B being the arrival point- toward each other making it possible to make a light jump from one point to the other essentially as an electron making a quantum leap from one part of the orbit to another around the nucleus would do.
The Geno’m were remarkably brilliant in the case of quantum theory. Their entire race had put upon its shoulders the goal of making all this come through. For them, it was the only way to expand their future and these two were part of the very soul of that dream.
Michael’s head hurt listening to and trying to grasp the principles behind this level of science. Even if it were simple warp theory, he wasn’t quite the equationist or theorist who could match their understandings however, he did understand the process of application and results.
“Now what happened as you tried it for the first time?” he asked.
“Space began to fold into compressed geometry and, as we flew through the compressed space, we continued to accelerate until we cut the engines and found ourselves stuck in all of this.” Den explained.
“Sounds like you created something comparable to a quantum slipstream. When we entered, there was an extraordinary field of energy building up when we tried to engage our propulsion systems. Our communications were a mess as well. It could be that you’ve created an opening into subspace and your engine is generating that very subspace field.” The two looked on in stupor as he theorized the problem. “If one weren’t careful, they would be caught by the subspace field and accelerated to such velocities that they would scatter apart into molecular dust as each particle went its own direction.”
“We’ve been trying to get the subspace field to properly form around the
Mw’phfi but it won’t generate a proper geometry. I’ve tried everything that I know is possible but it keeps eluding me.”
Fob comforted Den’s dismay at not finding the answer. “Every idea we could think of to get the field to form has stalemated leaving us with no answer in sight.”
“I’ve always held a certain belief. You may not be able to invent something that’ll do all these things, but you can invent something that’ll do this thing and something that’ll do those things. Then you can figure out how to put them together. Try taking the parts that don’t work and find ways to make them do what they should and then make those things go together.”
Den’s eyes then flickered at the varying anomalies in the drive operation as Fob consulted with him on what he theorized. The flickering passion made him seem like the old Den and she was glad to be with him during it. She’d always been drawn by the conviction he had to the things that mattered most and she held his friendship most dear.
Systematically, they would check each reaction. Whether it performed or not would determine what needed to be sourced out to external reaction. And it might take some time…
=^=Aarons to Kay. Hey…zzzzrzirfzzskrzfrizrzzz.=^= The comm. system in the communicators was not responding even in a more local area such as the ship.
“Well, I can’t call Kaylana; that’s going to be a problem.”
Fob pulled from an access panel a small device. It was mostly black with a slight protrusion possibly indicating the front.
“We have these. They allow you to connect with anyone on the ship.” She handed it to Aarons and it was styled very much like a plus sized Bluetooth.
It was explained to him how to operate which didn’t take long. “This should be real helpful, thanks. I need to go find Kay.”
Navigating the
Mw’phfi was like moving through an old submarine with linear, squared-off passages that weren’t even that big. Many of the concepts employed in Federation starships were there including auto-doors but much of the innovation and refinement was absent. It would seem that the Geno’m were very much still in the infancies of their development but demonstrated remarkable progress and brilliance.
It was almost delightful to Michael to see such stride and accomplishment especially out of a race that was really kinda cute. The unfortunate part would be in the absence of the Federation as someone to look toward in the Galactic Community as an ally and support; there was no indications of how they would deal with those who might do them harm if they even could grasp it. It wouldn’t do so good to have them become members. Somehow, it felt like they’d become just a footnote in the grand scheme of things (or heavily exploited).
The sounds ahead indicated he’d found where Kaylana was. She was in the company of the other team-members looking over the parts of the ship. He approached her and let her know he was there.
“Oh good, you got one of those. We need to stay in contact with each other while we tackle this problem,” she said spotting the headpiece. She wore one as well and looked kind of smart on her. The others had them too.
“Yeah, especially since the signal seems to have abandoned us. I would venture that we’ll be cut off from the ship for a while.” Kaylana agreed and inquired towards how they might hail the
Rainier. “Can I talk to you for a moment? There’s something I’d like you to see,” he said pulling her aside.
Standing in front of the StarQuantum Accelerator, Kay was dazzled by the spectacle of lights. Michael stood there beside her, watching as she was mesmerized by the hypnotic beauty and appreciating her company.
“It’s breathtaking, isn’t it? They built all of this to jump from world to world almost instantly and see what they’ve never seen before; wonders more amazing than even this that may surprise them or even surprise us.”
He slid his hand up her arm and leaned against her shoulder. Fob tended to Den’s comfort as both candidly noticed the two of them talking over by the Accelerator. She didn’t say anything at first but before he could affect any more upon her, she asked, “So what is it you needed to tell me?” Right then, a little piece of joy dwindled away.
He bundled up all of the anxieties and reported, “We need to manually feed this machine to determine what part is not doing its job; the science is right as I’m led to understand. This means we’ll have to go through each of its parts; it’ll take a while.”
“You shouldn’t have much difficulty,” she assured him confidently. “And I understand you’ve got the two lead specialists there as well. So, do your best.” She smiled and turned to leave. Her hand briefly grazed his in passing. He stood there as he wanted to reach out to hold it but she was already halfway out the door.
The alien tool was odd in his grip as Geno’m hands were smaller than his. The three of them started to map the Accelerator reactions as he began to see images of Kay in the patterns of light coming off the engine. Aarons thought about how much she’d become such a dear friend after all this time together.