Lt. Commander Ayiana Sevo - Theoretical Maximum
Aaron Schimmel
((Power Plant, Gibaria Outpost))
Passing through the narrow maintenance tunnel, they arrived in a gigantic room with incredibly complex equipment. Conduits snaked in from various points towards the center, which was dominated by a large spherical device. Surrounding the central sphere was a toroid.
Sevo: It’s a lot bigger than I expected it to be.
zh'Tisav: It is. For the size of this facility, one half as big would have worked; just how much power does that gate need?
Ayiana would take the engineer’s word for it. While she could math out how much energy a singularity gives off via hawking radiation and frame dragging, she had no idea how much of that was usable, nor how much was needed for facility power. But judging by Vylaa’s comment, it was far more powerful than it needed to be, at least until the gate was created.
Kairis: Makes you wonder what's powering it from the other side now.
That was a scary thought. What could have as much power as a micro black hole?
Sevo: So what’s the plan?
zh'Tisav: Well, if this were any other type of generator we would shut it down and shunt the facility to backups until we can make repairs. But that won't work here, we need to find a way to throttle it back safely.
How would one “throttle back” a singularity? The only way to reduce its power output is by evaporation, which takes millions of years. As far as Ayiana knew, the only viable option was to “dump” excess energy as waste. As she was thinking, Vylaa approached the reactor.
zh'Tisav: Imagine this thing powering the Gorkon. No more antimatter, you can fuel it with anything. You just need a Bussard collector and a convenient nebula…
Kairis: It is impressive. ::A little of zh'Tisav's wonder echoed back into her own voice.:: I never thought I'd get to see one up close, either.
Sevo: ::Shrugging:: There’s probably a reason why Starfleet never adopted singularity reactors. Disposal comes to mind, for one.
zh'Tisav: I'm afraid I don't know much about singularities, just the basics, but I recall a discussion from the Academy. A cadet had the idea that feeding it heavier, less energetic elements could reduce the plasma stream output. But it was just a thought experiment, "spit-balling" as some of the Human cadets would say. Do you think it might have merit?
Huh. So that’s how they harnessed energy. Feed the singularity matter, and it releases energy in the form of radiation; gamma bursts, probably. Maybe even some energy from Penrose frame-dragging. Plus if it was large enough, a sizable amount of light and heat from its accretion disk. But a singularity inside that sphere must be tiny, or else the planet would be eaten. That was one reason to not build it on a planet.
Kairis: It sounds like it could work, but I think we first need to figure out if the full output is what's causing the instability in the reactor and other power systems, sir. We had a theory it might be feedback from the gate; whatever is now powering it from the other side might be bleeding through and interfering with the systems here.
Sevo: Well, controlling the energy output and gravity from the singularity is extremely difficult at best of times. I’m honestly surprised they were able to keep it stable this long. I don’t think even Romulan cores are this big, right?
zh'Tisav: Response
At its most basic, the core was probably of Romulan design, then heavily modified to produce the required energy to poke a hole in the universe. That sort of makeshift engineering was a recipe for disaster.
Kairis: If we can't stabilise it, then we need to find the backups before we bring the singularity to minimal reactivity. We have to maintain power to the rest of the facility, else we'll leave our teams stuck in the dark with nothing working.
Sevo: There’s no way to completely shut down a singularity, unless you have a few million years to spare. The most we can do is stop feeding it mass, then dump any excess energy as waste.
zh'Tisav: Response
Ayiana was completely out of her wheelhouse. She could provide the theoreticals and science behind singularities, but had no idea how all the equipment around her actually siphoned energy from it.
Sevo: I apologize ahead of time; I’m going to be asking a lot of dumb questions.
zh’Tisav / Kairis: Response
Sevo: If it's overly active right now, why is the system not drawing all that power from it?
zh’Tisav / Kairis: Response
Sevo: Did the earlier explosion destroy key components? Is there a way to replace them?
zh’Tisav / Kairis: Response
----------------------------
Lt. Commander Ayiana Sevo
Mission Specialist
U.S.S. Gorkon
V239109AS0
----------------------------