Lieutenant Wyatt Ral - The Subspace Nullifier

[Jason Price]

((Simulated USS Odin, Holosuite 2, Deck 5, USS Thor))

 

A brilliant flash of light followed by a negative sounding chirp from the computer indicated that they had failed, yet again.  The simulation reset and the consoles returned to their initial status along with the viewscreen.  Everything they had attempted so far had failed to fully protect them from the simulated subspace weapons.  They had been working under the assumption that not only would the Terrans solve the issue of the phase coil but that other species would not have left the same vulnerability in their own weapons.

 

Herrick: Not again. ::beat:: What number are we on now?

 

Wyatt looked down at the PADD in his hand which indicated the last modifications that they had performed and a count of the number of attempts. 

 

Ral: Twenty-Four so far.  The shuttles power systems just simply aren’t powerful enough to channel enough energy to the shields.

 

Tito: Response

 

Wyatt was glad that the first officer had decided on making these attempts practical simulations.  Although they could go through the parameters on screen and see the result of the simulation on screen, it was often much easier to understand the impact of the changes when you were in the middle of it.

 

Herrick: We need to turn this upside down a bit, see if there's a different way to deflect it, as I'm unsure the shields will be adequate to handle a blast just opposite the shields without a total redesign of the vessel.

 

Ral: We could change the warp field geometry to create a sort of subspace nullifier zone.  By extending this as far as possible we could effectively create a “dead zone” where subspace weapons cannot propagate. The idea is to collapse the subspace layers locally so they are not disrupted by the explosion.

 

Tito: Response

 

Herrick: Alright, let's feed the new parameters in and go for another round.

 

Ral: If we can make this work for the shuttle the Thor could produce a much larger dead zone.

 

Tito: Response

 

Wyatt brought up the warp field dynamics programming interface and started to make the required modifications.  Most of it was guesswork based on the readings from the weapon detonation they had experienced.

 

Herrick/Tito: Response

 

As the simulation started to run the attacking ship came into view and fired.  Wyatt hit the initialisation key and the static warp bubble formed around the shuttle before expanding as far as possible. 

 

Ral: Warp bubble geometry reconfigured. Subspace layers collapsing... field integrity holding at 82%.

 

Tito: Response

 

The weapon detonated but instead of the explosion expanding it just seemed to sit there as a small glowing ball in the darkness of space, like a small sun.  Moments later it winked out and the weapon had disappeared.

 

Herrick: Response

 

Ral: There’s a small harmonic distortion but nothing to worry about.

 

Tito: Response

 

Just as they were about to celebrate the shuttle judders and a low hum starts to increase in volume and frequency.  The cabin turns red and the alert klaxon sounds in the small cabin.

Computer: Warp field asymmetrical compression ratio exceeded safe harmonic thresholds. Evacuate ship.  Warp core breach in thirty seconds.

 

Wyatt pressed several keys on the engineering console trying to get the warp core under control.

 

Ral: The core’s magnetic containment is destabilizing. Attempting to compensate.

 

Herrick: Response

 

Computer: Warp core breach in ten seconds.

 

Tito: Response

 

 

--

Lieutenant Wyatt Ral

Assistant Chief Engineer

USS Thor NCC-85852

C239903WR3