Chronicles of Sol: The Fall

Vera studied the screen in front of her. It had been a few days since the task force had entered the Zah system. She didn’t really know what Umikaze or Coto were up to, but she was aware the Enterprise had taken up position in an asteroid field about six AU distant from the super gas giant that dominated the outer system. That giant was also very rich in deuterium, a key resource in energy production. Vera had caught glimpses the other day of them setting up an automated surface skimmer to collect it.

At the moment she was pretty sure their shields were holding, so she had taken time to work on the requested shield project. Atmospheric skin shields. A staple of starship hangers and emergency systems. Yet the Enterprise did not even have them. Thankfully someone had thoughtfully created a translation of the alien shield research in Valorian for her. That was quite helpful and it painted an interesting picture. Much of the alien knowledge was antiquated, but there were a few aspects in which they were ahead of the confederation.

There was one file in particular, that she found really fascinating, but she also questioned if she was supposed to have that one. It detailed how shields reacted with a charged ionic plasma stream. Along with modulation information and more. It was a completely different approach to ion weapons. The implications of the research were not lost on her. It was a game changer. Perhaps it was a good thing most other races didn’t realize this. Yet she was already thinking about how to improve it and how to protect against it. The defense she believed lay in the aliens' very own triphasic shielding. Something she was going to need to improve first, as right now it wouldn’t be much of a defense.

That was a project for later however. In the meantime she was going to work on those shields the humans wanted. She already knew how her people would go about it, but human technology was incompatible with Valorian technology. No surprise there, it would be surprising if their systems were compatible. The main crux actually lay in their power systems, but there were also issues with the alien armor system. Leaving Vera with a bit of a puzzle to solve. Thankfully the aliens were aware of the issues their own armor caused to shields. As they had solved it with their triphasic shielding.

Tapping a few keys, she brought something up on the second monitor. A rather interesting piece of design software. She was still learning it, but it was leagues better than what she was used to. The aliens didn’t skimp on their labs, and she was happy about that. This lab was small but it was better equipped than any shipboard lab she had seen. Even some planetside labs were outshined by this little lab. With her design software loaded, she started working on the design.

Rather than try to adapt the alien solution to traditional atmospheric shields, she instead decided to start with the alien triphasic shielding. Using the triphasic core created a few complications of its own, but she had a few ideas about them. She was tempted to try using gravitons, but she hadn’t had much time to experiment with them. Instead, she relied on known particle physics to solidify the barrier.

Solidifying her first design, she ran a simulation. Only for the computer to throw a few errors at her. Smiling, she looked them over. Running into a wall might be frustrating to some, but to her this was just a new learning opportunity. Vera quickly noted what the computer had found and made some adjustments. Then ran another simulation, which spat out more errors. Expected, she wasn’t going to get things right on a first try or a second. Even with some knowledge to guide her. Vera kept at it.

She was in the middle of yet another simulation, when there was a ringing. She blinked, that was the door chime wasn’t it?” Vera turned to the door, “Um, come in?”

The door slid open and the familiar form of Ruri walked in. They hadn’t interacted much, but Vera had exchanged enough words with the small woman to know she was brilliant and well versed in a number of fields. She smiled, “Ah, Ruri! What can I help you with?”

“I have some time. I delivered the prototypes for my own project for testing. Figured I would take a look at what you have designed so far.”

Her smile widened, “A second mind might be welcome. I’m trying to adapt atmospheric forcefield technology to your triphasic shield matrix. I have a rough design in mind already, just need to work out the issues.”

Ruri approached, “Hmm? So what do you have so far?”

Vera detailed her device starting with the broad strokes, “I started with a triphasic shield core and integrated with a sega-based flux-wave particle field generator. Utilizing twined focused emitters on either side of the aperture to create a high density triphasic forcefield. The core is working fine without issues, but I’m having issues with getting a stable field density.”

Ruri looked it over then frowned, “Looks like the main issues are in the power supply. I see you’ve tried to adapt it, but are still running into issues.”

She nodded, “I have, the Sega generator doesn’t much like your power systems and trying to get it to work properly in conjunction with the triphasic shield core was also problematic. I seem to have worked that out, but still have issues with the adaptor. I’m not sure why.”

Ruri simply brought up a file in the unfamiliar human language. The alien symbols having not been translated for her. “Give me a moment, I need to find whatever translation matric Jac made.”

A moment later the symbols shifted and a new passage formed on the side in neat readable Valorian. Vera looked at the heading. Sega based particle weaponry and system disruption, she frowned, “Um Sega based weaponry?

“It likely didn’t occur to you since Valorian power systems are different, and so are Cathamari. Ours on the other hand are vulnerable to disruption by concentrated Sega particles. As for the Krall? They share similar vulnerabilities but have hardened their power systems.”

Vera looked at her blankly, then blinked, “I completely forgot about that. I’m just so used to systems being hardened by default it didn’t occur to me,” she frowned then glanced back at the title, “What’s with this article anyway? I can’t imagine Sega particles actually being worth weaponizing.”

“For a traditional particle weapon, no. Adding them to the particle bolt presents only marginal benefits at best. They do present some value but not enough to justify. Their system disruption benefits are interesting, but we already have a general purpose system disrupter, the Electro cannon. All that said, I’ve actually found an area where the sega particle’s properties present some interesting benefits. Its interactions with plasma and electromagnetic fields not only have implications for shielding, but certain energy weapons as well. I’m looking at two different weapon designs right now.”

Vera blinked, “Two? You mean it actually does have the potential to do damage?”

Ruri giggled, “I’ll show you later. In the meantime let's fix your problem.

Sali stepped into the bay. The crystal project in the factory was done. She had heard the finished products were being delivered to Engineering for final phase testing but it was unlikely new ones would be ordered. That left everyone in the factory free for new projects. Naturally new orders were already being made for things that thankfully weren’t slow to make crystals.

She herself had been reassigned which is what had brought her to this bay. A rather familiar bay. It was a massive cavernous room, the walls armored, the floor largely flat, marked only by alien equipment. The doors were heavily armored blast doors, and there were observation windows with blast doors to protect them. Above, she could see anchorages for alien shuttles and strike craft and the far door was a massive external blast door. It was one of the ship's hangers and she was pretty sure this was the same one her fighter had been pulled into all those months ago.

Her fighter was nowhere to be seen. Sali didn’t know its fate, but she wouldn’t be surprised if it had been taken apart. Perhaps its pieces were laying in some alien lab? She didn’t focus on its fate, but instead surveyed the alien shuttles settled on the deck. There were six large shuttles currently in front of her, their rear bay doors open. Allowing her to see crate after crate full of cargo. That cargo was why she was here. She had been assigned as part of the crew tasked with unloading those shuttles and ferrying their cargo to the refinery.

With a sigh, she stepped away from the door and followed behind her fellow workers to the shuttles. It was time to get to work. Thankfully she wasn’t transporting Rydium. That meant grav carts! The crates even had proper anti-gravs! No lugging heavy shit around! She glanced at the green lights, a sign the ship was still on green alert. She made a mental note to keep an eye on her radiation indicator.

Williams starred out of the viewport. The view was strangely pretty. Lights swirled across her view in a strange imitation of the famed Aurous Borielus back on Earth. It was something she had never seen personally, so she wasn’t sure how close it was. Yet for all the beauty she couldn’t help but think what it really was. The intense solar winds of the Zah star carried with them deadly radiation. It was those winds that were striking the shields and responsible for this light show.

Shields she couldn’t help recalling had been modified based on an alien’s words. She cursed that damn machine. There were too many of those bastard Valorians onboard. The first one was bad enough, but then he had the gall to rescue a bunch of them. They weren’t even worth the trouble. Damn bastards were perfectly happy to take potshots at them. Not that anyone wanted to listen to her. Machines and aliens just couldn’t be trusted and yet no one would listen. It galled her.

Footsteps echoed behind her. She didn’t need to look to know who it was. Williams had been expecting them. “So how did it go?”

“Well enough. I had a couple of close calls, but I got what you wanted.”

She smiled, “So? What did you find?”

The young man said nothing, merely handing her a datapad. She took it and perused its contents. It irked her that she had to resort to these methods to get information, but some things just didn’t cross the council’s table. One item stood out to her, a listing on advanced weapons developments. Mark II Photons, interesting, but not unexpected. Someone would have tried improving them. It was the item under them that she raised eyebrows.

She pointed at it, “What do you know of this?”

The man shrugged, “Not much. It’s Ruri’s project. Has something to do with the alien Sega particle, Beyond that, I wasn’t able to glean much.”

“Ruri’s project? Hmm, she seems fairly close to that machine. See if you can’t sabotage that project.”

“Understood. Anything else?”

“Yes, about that private meeting I wanted you to arrange? How did that go?”

“It took some doing, but I managed to get you scheduled.”

Her smiled, widened. “Excellent!”

Of course that was only the first hurdle. She needed to move quietly if she was going to get anything done. She didn’t know how, but she was certain that machine had eyes on her. Too many of her plans had gone awry for any other explanation to make sense. She took a breath and centered herself. This plan on the other hand? She had much more confidence in it. It would take time and she needed to set her cards just right. Get to the right people and then the ship would be hers. Like it should have been. Then she could fix everything that machine did wrong. It was just a matter of time.