Ensign Saavei - Phaser Fun
Tara W
(( Engineering Research and Development Lab, Amity Outpost ))
Saavei had received the request from Kaito and had been surprised, in truth. After the fiasco with Bob's Yacht Emporium, she wasn't sure how highly the security lieutenant had thought of her or her partner. She enjoyed building new things, however, and was content to be allowed to do so as part of a team. Selfishly, it was also a break in that it pulled her off repair work for half of her double and let her take a break from crawling around tight spaces. There wasn't a person in Engineering who didn't have raw hands, knees, or both from hunching over conduits, cables, and panels.
She managed to make herself look presentable enough and made her way to the lab post-haste. The doors *whished* open and she strode in, looking to Kaito as he smiled to her in greeting. She could see the holographic display beyond him, the tools on the table ready to go.
Saavei: Good afternoon, Lieutenant Moore.
Moore: Hello, Ensign. How are you today?
Saavei: I am well, sir. The trains have ceased their random acceleration and deceleration.
Moore: Glad to hear that.
Saavei approached Kaito and the workbench, her eyes scanning over it with a glint of curiosity.
Moore: Well, Ensign, I got the workstation set up, but if you need anything, please grab it. Have you been briefed on our project?
Saavei: Yes sir; modifying a phaser for future missions, such as our encounter on Uwe II. I am pleased to see your initiative was approved.
Her mind went back to being held prisoner by Norsel's guards in the basement. Commander Hopper had taken action and the others had followed in her footsteps. An easily concealed phaser may well have been missed in the guard's search and could have been used to instantly end the fight without resorting to physical violence. She'd been surprised, having come straight from the Academy, that they hadn't been issued such devices as a matter of course. Saavei had considered whether or not that was the FDC's preference, but as she was new and an Ensign, was hardly in a position to question her superiors.
Moore: It is an important one. We got too many fellow crew going into away missions unarmed, but there seems to be a fear of upsetting the press, and other powers. Plus the legit fear of losing the phaser on a pre-warp world. So if we can make something small enough, that is defensive only, and has safeguards to keep it from falling into pre-warp or enemy hands… Well, I think that is better than pine cones, and pretending a Tricorder was a weapon…
Saavei: Agreed. It would have been beneficial if some members of the away teams had been armed. I am unsure why the press or other powers would be upset about basic safety precautions. I understand Starfleet is here in support of the FDC but we have our own protocols to follow in such matters.
Losing a phaser on a pre-warp world was a different matter; there were mission logs from the USS Enterprise, under Kirk's command, encountering at least one planet where a device had been left behind. Saavei had studied them as part of the lessons on the Prime Directive.
Moore: Political optics, hearts, and minds. Seems some see us as colonialist. So we’re forced to play their game, adapt and overcome. That’s why we’re shrinking this.
Saavei looked at the holographic display. Phasers had been in service with Starfleet for centuries now. Modifying one should not be especially problematic though she was also aware that the Lieutenant had specified a number of factors it must incorporate.
Saavei: In terms of securing the weapon further, we could explore a biometric locking feature... oO Which had the added bonus of not being attacked with one's own captured weapon Oo ... though that would be more difficult to incorporate. Do you have a series of specifications in mind already, sir?
Moore: It needs to be small enough to be well hidden, and biometrics linked in with our Comm Badges. That way it can be passed between officers as needed, and work with the owner even if they don’t have their badge.
Saavei: I see. ::She was silent a moment, thinking:: Everything is a trade off when space is limited. A biometric feature, for instance, would mean additional power draw from a smaller serium krellide power cell that would have to be re-engineered to fit inside the device while allowing the new hardware.
For a basic defensive weapon, Saavei's train of thought ran along several different rails, but they circled back to the idea of 'simplicity' being ideal. In a 'perfect' mission, the phaser would never need to be used. It was a last-ditch defensive weapon for when violence was imminent, or other catastrophe, such as needing to cut one's way out of an enclosed space.
Moore: I’ve had a few ideas on tackling the battery issue. One of them is to spread the battery out. Instead of a single serum power cell, we do a small array of micro cells, four or six of them at different locations in the housing, but that introduces more complexity.
Lieutenant Moore used the terminal, the hologram deconstructing the phaser digitally and revealing its current battery.
Saavei: One way to alleviate the battery and power supply problem is to limit the number of settings. 'Stun', 'heavy stun', and 'kill' are basic inputs.
Moore: ::Nodding:: Well, that’s already an easy one. This is going to be purely defensive. Highest setting is heavy stun… but we might even have to lose that.
Saavei: I would prefer not to, if possible, sir. Some species, Klingons for instance, are highly resistant to anything except 'heavy stun'. Having engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the Uwezo, I believe their physiology would possess a similar resistance. Given the known dangerous species in the Delta Quadrant... the Hirogen, the Voth... more options are preferable to fewer. An array of micro cells would afford more freedom of space, if with adding the complexity of additional circuitry. With no 'kill' setting, we could shorten the emitter array as it would only need to funnel lower energy levels.
Moore: That could work, another feature that would be liked, though adding more complexity, would be a feedback circuit for the power cells.
Saavei: A feedback circuit... such as a phaser set to overload?
Moore: The idea being, if someone is playing with the phaser who shouldn’t be, after three or four failed bio-lock attempts, or attempting to open the phaser without a biolock, the power cells overload and fry the internals to make it useless even for R and D.
Saavei: A reasonable precaution. Starfleet mission logs are replete with harm caused to developing societies when they obtain advanced weaponry. That feature should be easy enough to implement, as a similar function already exists and we would merely need to reduce the reaction yield.
Saavei rotated the hologram they were working on, pulling up a diagram idea involving the emitter array as previously mentioned. She did a few, quick mental calculations varying energy yields and focal lengths to come up with a testable modification. It would have the added bonus, being shorter, of allowing them another few millimeters of space inside the weapon casing.
Moore: We’ll need an alloy that is lightweight, but strong enough to make sure it only burns the internals, but doesn’t turn it into a grenade. ::Pondering for a moment.:: Hmm. We could have blowout points to allow pressure to escape during the meltdown.
Saavei: It might burn the hand of anyone holding it but such injuries would be non-lethal. As for alloy... perhaps a tritanium-nillimite mixture... or duridium. Nillimite is light weight whereas duridium has shown some resistance to energy damage. This could assist us in achieving a more contained reaction if the failsafe is activated.
The hologram remained unchanged but metallurgical ideas were displayed in a list next to it now.
Moore: Response
Saavei: In summary... small size, 'stun' and 'heavy stun' settings, failsafe mechanism, and biometric locks tied to the combadge of the wielder or away team. The advantage of the latter, if we link it to communications, is the failsafe could also be remotely triggered. Either by the away team or by any support vessel in orbit.
There would be a risk of the signal being detected but it would be no greater than normal away team communications. Starfleet frequencies were generally encrypted, unless on an open channel, so this didn't seem to be a particularly large downside to Saavei. If a situation arose where the weapon they were developing needed to be neutralized, one communication burst was a low priority threat.
Moore: Response
Saavei: If we arranged the microcell power sources in line with each other... two on each side... ::She created a second image on the hologram to show what she was thinking of as she spoke:: ... It would reduce any complex circuitry. Fewer fail points, if the weapon were to be dropped or suffer some kind of concussive damage. Without a heavier setting, I believe four microcells would suffice for energy volume.
Moore: Response
Tags/TBC