Commander Jo Marshall - Distributed Load
Jo Marshall
((Engineering Annex, Gibaria Outpost))
Like a cold start of an engine, the replicator coughed into life, as if it had cleared its throat and run through its initialisation sequence at once. However, it simply stopped. The distinct sound of a pattern buffer attempting to process a material request it fundamentally disagreed with cycled through the same error. Jo narrowed her eyes at it.
Marshall: That sounds like there's a template in its fabrication matrix and it's struggling with it.
Fenn: It could be parts for the device.
Kovar: I believe that is correct. ::He gazed at Jo's tricorder display.:: It appears that the unknown template has priority manufacturing status. It may not allow us to initiate any new production until we fulfill the previous instructions.
Marshall: Clear the spool and see what happens. It might kick start the process again.
Fenn's explanation weighed on Jo's mind as she watched the replicator with caution. In the back of her mind, the very reason one would make a harmonic resonance device with subspace coils was to create a wormhole, or a transdimensional gateway, if one were so inclined. If the resonance device could vibrate the membrane between dimensions to the right frequency to create a stable aperture, they'd create their signal hole in reality. Space corridors, the Iconians, scientists reverse-engineering that technology—it would all be entirely believable, and Jo felt it in the pit of her stomach: someone would.
It ran alongside the thought that playing with those harmonic resonance structures in subspace would cause subspace fractures, which would permanently tear apart the delicate fabric of space in that region. No more Gibaria Outpost. No more Gorkon crew.
Fenn: What do you think, Lieutenant? Can you recreate it?
Kovar: Under normal circumstances, I would not consider this course of action to be advisable. Given the state of this installation, it would be logical to say that the engineering crew here were not engaged in work consonant with either the ethical or technical standards of Starfleet. However, I cannot think of any way we can proceed in procuring the materials we need for our mission.
zh’Tisav: I think I can use this. And I think I can solve some of their problems. That needs to be a notch filter, that needs a bigger heatsink…
As Vylaa mumbled to herself over the schematics Maezel found, Jo turned her attention back to their Engineering ensign and the replicator matter (pun intended) at hand. Worry creased at the edges of her eyes as she pushed her momentary thoughts to the back of her head.
Marshall: How're you getting on? Made progress?
Kovar: It appears that we can now complete the replicator's programmed task. According to what information I was able to glean from its settings, I am unsure of what it contained within its fabrication matrix, other than it is of unknown composition and function. We may need to be prepared for anything.
Marshall: Well, we know it can't replicate anything living, so we can tick that off the long list. Weapons are unlikely, given the stability coding programmed into it. ::Her lips thinned as she exhaled.:: Watch it be a stem bolt.
Fenn: Response
Kovar: Indeed, I either anticipate success, or a highly educational failure.
Marshall: Ready when you are, Ensign.
Fenn: Response
zh’Tisav: Here’s hoping for the former. ::Pause.:: This looks familiar. It looks like they were building on an experiment conducted on the Enterprise-D thirty six years ago. I read a case study of it, on how not to do an experiment.
Folding her arms, Jo found the line between her brows deepened as the pieces arranged themselves in her mind. Things were beginning to take shape, in the weird way things did when brought into the light rather than being left to sit in a dark engineering annex.
Marshall: That explains a few things about why this place looks the way it does. What went wrong with it?
Fenn / Kovar: Response
zh’Tisav: The experiment created a subspace bubble containing a pocket dimension. This seems like they were using that to create a mobile pocket of safety, minus the dimension.
Marshall: So more like a shelter. They were trying to protect the people they might've sent through. ::The Gibaria engineers had been adapting the principle in reverse. She exhaled slowly, some of the tension leaving her shoulders.:: Which means if we can finish what they started, the away team could go through the gate with a portable bubble of normal space around them. Unknown atmosphere and local physics wouldn't touch them unless they stepped outside of it.
Jo picked up the mug, found it cold now, and set it back down with resigned acceptance. She wasn't about to sling it through the replicator to cook. All she needed to do was stick it outside of the annex toward the gate for a bit, though the reality of losing an arm in the process made that less appealing.
Fenn / Kovar: Response
Marshall: We're fighting a war on multiple fronts, then. We've got, ::she listed them out raising her fingers,:: tungsten-polymer radiation-resistant EVA suits, a subspace resonance device to repel the vine fauna, and potentially a portable subspace field generator as a mobile safe zone.
Fenn / Kovar / zh’Tisav: Response
Looking back at the replicator, then at the partially assembled resonance device on Vylaa's bench, then at the canister in the corner with the vine having uncurled slightly since she'd last looked, Jo figured the thing was listening to them. One vine had pressed against the side of the canister again, like it had leaned in. She looked away.
Three objectives sat in her mind like a priority queue waiting for the next to come up. The suits would be the most straightforward approach: they had a replicator that could handle the polymer composite work under Kovar's watch, the resonance device had reasonable odds of survival now Vylaa had it in hand, but the field generator was the biggest unknown. Adapting a theory which had failed thirty-six years ago into functional hardware with whatever they had remaining on the shelves was risky, at best. Explosive at worst.
Marshall: Vylaa, the field generator. What's your honest assessment? Is it possible to recreate it, leaning towards not doing what the previous experiement did?
Fenn / Kovar / zh’Tisav: Response
Marshall: Then we go hard on the rest. Kovar, the suits are yours. The replicator should be able to handle the polymer composite work. Radiation-resistant EVA configurations, tungsten-polymer layered into the outer shell. You've got the probe records for the shielding tolerances. Fenn, I need you thinking about what happens when the resonance device and the field generator are running in proximity. We need failure modes. I'll help with the resonance device.
Fenn / Kovar / zh’Tisav: Response
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