LtJg Lera Michaels - The Hole Explanation

[steve...@yahoo.com]

((Main Engineering, Deck 12))

Dewitt: Alright… Let’s start to work on this. This is going to take a lot of coordinated effort. ::to Vidya:: Is there any way to transport the masses out of the ship one by one? I’m almost positive we could get enough juice out of the backup batteries for 3-4 masses. But our transporter sensors cannot isolate their pattern. Any advice?

Valeris: We could always use the trusty transport enhancers and put them ‘in a box’, so to speak.

Lera looked at Vidya and wondered about the Velithari reaction to an engineering environment and the terminology so different from her own. How would the full meaning of "transporter" come through the universal translator to someone who's only concept of transportation involved physical movement from one place to another?

Vidya: Response

Michaels: ::to Vidya:: The transporters disassemble an object on an atomic level and then reassemble it at the destination. I am not certain it would address the individual fibers scattered throughout the ship. As long as we are limiting this to the major masses, that would certainly be feasible. The enhancers would need to contain the entire mass. If any of the masses have extensions beyond the central mass, those might remain.

Valeris: Wait… What about our light show? Could we tie the transporter sensors into the sensor modifications we made to make the filaments visible?

Commander Dewitt stopped abruptly and turned back to Mr. Valeris.

Dewitt: ::quietly:: That might just be the answer, Commander… ::more level:: We have already mapped out every filament and every mass on the ship to within a few micrometers. The underlying sensor signature could just be what we are looking for. Can we feed that signature into the transporter pattern buffers? We would not need to do anything by hand.

Valeris: In theory, yes. Might take some creative programming.

Vidya: Response

Michaels: ::to Vidya:: We have devices we call computers that can taught... "programmed" ... to accomplish various tasks. They do a great deal than mathematics. No doubt you have comparable devices.

Commander Dewitt called up a display. Both Lera and Vidya stepped closer to examine the blue web. Lera shook her head. The Velithari filaments had done their job well. While certain areas had a far greater concentration of the filaments than others, there were blue lines everywhere. Lera caught Vidya's attention and traced a few of the lines that went outside the ship. One curious thing about the lines was that they appeared to come from all sides.

Dewitt: Commander, you’re the architect of that light show. Connect the light show to the transporter systems.

Thelan smirked and nodded.

Valeris: Yes, sir.

Dewitt: ::nodding:: to Michaels:: Lieutenant, I would like you to verify the buffer can hold these non-standard patterns without smearing the lock.

Dewitt: Ma’am, if there is anything we should now before we proceed, now would be the time. We are about to lift things out of the ship that we do not fully understand. ::pause:: I’d also be interested if there is any particular destination we should transport the masses to?

Michaels: Miss Vidya. In the simplest form, the filaments will, momentarily, cease to exist when we transport them and then reappear at the destination. We can place them essentially anywhere within a significant distance.

Vidya: Response

Lera moved to another of the engineering consoles and called up the details of the transporter system. The data Thelan sent came through almost instantly. The individual fibers were surprisingly simple. Graphene tubes at the core with a polymer sheaf and a multilayer tip. On the most fundamental level, the threads were only slightly more complicated than an old fashion pencil. Lera shook her head, still mystified at how the threads were controlled.

Michaels: Commander Dewitt. We are capable of holding non-standard transporter patterns provided they are fundamentally no more complicated than living beings. ::beat:: We can handle these. The number of individual masses we can handle in a single transporter cycle could be problematic.

Dewitt: One more thing before we light that thing up. As I said, the reserves give us only three, maybe four masses. So the order matters. ::beat:: My vote is fusion reactors first. Every filament sitting on that, an EPS junction or a coolant manifold needs to go. Once we are above survival, the rest of this gets a great deal easier.

Valeris: We may need to use up one of those runs for pattern creation. ::gesturing towards his console:: We don’t have a complete pattern.

Michaels: Two observations if I may. If we transport away the filaments that are plugging the holes in the hull, we will suddenly have multiple air leaks. My preference would be to remove those filaments last and perhaps not at all. If we can find a way to detach them from their external anchor, we could repair the holes at any time. :: quick glimpse at Vidya and then back at Dewitt:: Second, the filaments in the nacelles that have been draining our power must be exceptionally effective superconductors to carry that much power in that amount of time. The graphene tubes at the core would explain some of that but there is still much to learn. If possible, I would like to retain at least one of those filaments for later study.

Dewitt/Vidya: Response

Valeris: We should be able to grab enough with the first run to help fill in the gaps and make the remaining attempts more effective.

Michaels: Agreed.

Dewitt/Vidya: Response

Valeris: Not much left to do but hit the button, sir.

Dewitt/Vidya: Response

Tags/TBC

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LtJg Lera Michaels

Engineering Officer
USS Khitomer
K240106LM2