Chronicles of Sol: The Fall

May 21st 002 SDE, Captains Log:

I am pleased to log that we have managed to complete all needed repairs and resupply in the Zah system. Ruri is more than excited with the alien artifacts we brought back from the abandoned station near the local star. A station that is now nothing more than charred wreckage since Captain Reynolds saw fit to destroy the station after recovering his insertion team. Although given what I have heard about the place I can’t say I blame him. May the souls of those bird people finally rest in peace.

More interestingly we have pieced together more of what was being done to those poor souls. The subject of bioresearch. Apparently, the race responsible for this wasn’t the bird people, they were simply targeted due to their brain structure. Something about it being predisposed to multi-spatial mathematics and hyperspace calculations. This along with other clues allowed us to piece together the nature of Regthi technology. Their technology is bio-mechanical in nature, in other words cybernetic. Melding organic and mechanical components to achieve something greater than the sum. Analysis of their station just before we destroyed it revealed the entire thing was partially organic in nature and we can presume their ships were the same.

As for their research? From what we can tell the station was a black site, involved in questionable research in several areas. Outside of the bioscience which is especially heinous, we did find useful notes on various subjects including hyperspace. The aliens were apparently attempting to create some kind of transgalactic conduit. They describe it as a multi-spatial tunnel through hyperspace. The principles appear to mimic warp drive, but they have been applied to hyperspace instead of normal space. In addition rather than trying to create a bubble around the ship, a wormhole has been generated. The mathematics and implications are fascinating, but far beyond our current technology to implement. Regardless it seems we have stumbled upon the means to create even faster ships. Assuming this alien hyperwarp technology is even viable.

More immediately useful are their notes on high-energy physics. In their pursuit of this hyperwarp technology, they have devised high density plasma cells that store incredible amounts of energy. They used stars to charge these cells with the needed energy and the Zah star was prime for it given its unique characteristics. I already have Ruri looking into replicating the alien energy cells for use in our systems. Hyper-density capacitors and fuel cells would be of immense value and their solar charging technology if it can be adapted would immensely improve our range. It might also have applications for our own energy absorber tech. Something Ruri already has people looking into. Of course it might take some doing to adapt it all, but much of their tech is fascinating. Their notes on cybernetics have also proven interesting and our medical staff has appropriated it. Moral implications aside, the notes do have the potential for great good.

Countryman leaned back in his seat a little as he surveyed his bridge. It was fairly busy at the moment as they made final preparations to depart the system. The Enterprise had finished recalling all shuttles and processing the materials they either mined or salvaged. While the Coto and Umikaze were now in formation with the Enterprise. Their next destination wasn’t anywhere important. Just another system on their course.

A moment later Greyman came up the steps, “We are ready for warp speed sir. Richards reports the engines are reading blue across the board. No issues.”

“Excellent, signal the fleet. We are resuming our course, warp five.”

“Aye, sir!”

Greyman turned and relayed the orders. Moments later the ship was underway.

Reia and her sister were walking down the corridor. She heard the hum as the ship’s warp engines engaged. It was a familiar feeling and she was more than happy to know they were underway. Neira shifted in her step, “Seems we have gone to warp.”

“Yes I think we have. High warp from the sound of the hum.”

As they turned the corner a moment later and the tram lift came into view Neira stopped, “So um... Reia are you sure?”

Reia let out a breath, “Yeah I am. I should stay, I know she doesn’t like me and has every reason to be mad. I did leave her behind, but I really think I should stay here. Help her out.”

Neira looked up and then sighed, “I guess its better than just being left somewhere waiting for rescue. Cantra didn’t do us any favors either.”

Reia nodded, “I know. Nothing there is going to look good on my record and...”

Neira interjected, “I can recover from that and these people seem to be good. I want to help them. Besides I owe them and its not exactly a debt I can repay.”

Reia had to agree with that sentiment. If not for the these people she would have lost her sister. She owed them as well. Just perhaps not in the same manner, but she also owed Sali. The poor woman had life ruined thanks to her own mistake. Reia had abandoned her, she hadn’t even tried to inquire about her fate.

A moment later the sisters stepped into the lift. Setting their destination for the lower levels. As the lift started to transit through the ship at impressive speeds. Neira inquired, “Do you think we can even see her?”

Reia nodded, “It took a few inquiries, but Sali apparently works on the lower levels.”

“Yes, but some of these areas on the lower deck are high security,” responded Neira.

“And we have been let into a few. As long as we don’t do anything I am sure it will be fine.”

“I guess,” replied Neira.

A moment later the doors opened into a crowded lower deck corridor. There had been people in the other one, but it wasn’t anywhere near this pack. Although that was simply due to their timing. The Enterprise like any ship had moments of relative calm and times where everyone was rushing from one point to the other. With so many people aboard it was hard to find a moment alone.

Here she was greeted with the sight of industrial bustle as men and women dressed in rugged work clothing moved in either direction. Shuffling crates and carts around. Several groups pausing to move to the side as a cart of what looked to be warheads was moved to an industrial lift just a couple of meters down the hall.

Neira commented, “Looks like we arrived in the middle of the busy hour.”

“I think they call it rush hour, but it does appear that way,” she responded while checking the paths. Noting a few men and women who were dressed like Sali always was. With little more than a light shift on. Something she was starting to learn the meaning of. Yet she saw little signs they were being treated badly, so perhaps they treated their criminals and prisoners well?

With other things on her mind, she signaled Neira and made her way into the traffic. Her sister close behind. With so many people around it was harder to maintain a conversation. So they drifted into relative silence as they made their way down to the factories. On the way she spotted a few guards. Easily noticeable with their distinctive armor. Some of them were guarding doors, while others were on patrol.

She didn’t pay the local security much mind and without too much issue she made her way down the corridor. Passing a number of doors and weaving through a number of people. Along with a fair amount of cargo being moved through the passages.

Reaching the door she was looking for, she paused. Gave her sister her best smile and made her way inside. She was greeted with a large space, filled with alien machinery. Not far from the entrance, she could see Sali feeding material into one of them. Where it entered a visible liquid and visibly distorted. Reshaping before her eyes as it moved down a belt in a liquid tube. Emerging on the other side as a finished product. All in a matter of seconds. Completely different to what she was used to.

A woman approached her, “First time seeing a Nano-Fabricator in action? These are the smaller ones.”

She nodded and looked to the human woman. “Its very different from what I am used to.”

“I can understand that. Anyway how can I help you? Did you come to place an order in person?”

“Um, no. I wanted to talk to Sali.”

The woman let out a breath, “I was afraid you would say that.”

Reia blinked, “She’s um told you?”

The woman giggled, “Not really, but you would be amazed how quickly news travels on a ship like this.”

“Great!... Everyone knows.”

“Pretty much, and um good luck.”

The woman walked off and her sister commented, “That went well.”

Well enough she figured and she walked on over to Sali, who let out a breath when she saw her, “What do you want?”

Reia was silent for a moment, then she began, “I want to apologize for just abandoning you here. I was wrong.”

Sali scoffed, “Yeah you were.”

Reai sighed, “I’d like to make up for it and help you out.”

“A little late for that.”

“I know,” replied Reia.

Sali didn’t say a word. Not at first. Merely turned back to her task of feeding materials into the fabricator. Giving Reia more of a view on how it worked. She even noted little arms moving around using lasers and other tools to assist the nanites as they assembled whatever object they were working on. The product wasn’t always the same either. It varied, but each them seemed to be small components.

“So what are you doing?”

“Making parts for something. I think they are for some lab project or something. They are constantly ordering various components.”

“I see, so they keep you busy.”

“Its something to do and a bit of a learning experience at times.”

Before they knew it, the two of them were having their first friendly chat since their reunion. Well mostly friendly there was still this awkward tension and while Neira said little. Reia was more than glad she was there offering support just by being in the room. By the time she left, Reia was starting to feel she had at least patched their relationship. Yet she was left wondering how she would start to make up for what she had done.

Richards stepped out of the engine room. Now that the ship was underway and everything was looking good she was no longer needed. Well she was, but her time was better spent elsewhere. Not standing over her team micromanaging everything. That wasn’t how to get things done anyway. They knew what they were supposed to be doing. In other words they were good enough at their jobs that she could trust them not to mess up when she wasn’t looking.

With all that in mind, she was heading down to the labs. Both Vera and Ruri wanted her input on their projects and she had a meeting with the pair of them to get to. Something she figured would only take a few moments and then she would be able to move on to other tasks.

Thankfully with the lift it didn’t take long to reach her destination. A larger lab on deck 23. Stepping through the door, she was greeted to the presence of bothe Vera and Ruri. The two of them were busy at a workstation in the middle of the room. It was taken over with a rather large device. She took a moment to look it over as she approached.

“So what are you girls working on?”

Ruri looked up, “This is a new sega-based laser field generator and that,” she paused pointing at a second device she hadn’t noticed, “Is our new air skin forcefield generator prototype. Vera and I are still working out the kinks with it. The laser system on the other hand is about ready for implementation.”

“Oh? Anything I need to know?”

She nodded, “I’ve been working on utilizing sega particles for laser confinement and generation. Very promising. I’ve been testing it for use in the Energy Webs and the results are excellent. In tests we saw a reduction in power draw by nearly fifteen points and an increase beam strength by about thirty percent. These are phenomenal numbers.”

“I have to agree. What about the forcefield?”

“Well Vera being already familiar with the technology helps.”

Vera interjected, “The main issues were your systems, but thanks to Ruri we have managed to get a workaround for that. It still has a few minor issues, along with a notable stability issue when subjected to high energy bursts.”

Richards commented, “You mean weapons fire.”

The two nodded, “and anything else with a very high energy burst, such as our own fighter catapults. We are working on hardening it against the catapults at the least. In the mean time, my laser project is going well. Along with the other Sega-based weapons project.”

Richards had heard of that one, “How close is that one to implementation? Need any more help with it?”

Vera looked between them, “You know I am still not sure how else Sega particles can be used in a weapon. The laser is different enough, but...”

Ruri smiled, “Sega particles lend themselves to shielding and have natural applications for containment. I’m looking at them for containing highly charged plasma, which not only has applications for power generation, but also weaponry. Notably plasma projectiles.”

Vera blinked, “I see encasing a plasma round in a sega-based flux field would improve round containment but such a field would inevitably decay. The greater the charge on the field the faster it decays. We use the concept in pulse rounds, but not in our torpedoes. Plasma torpedoes simply have too much energy to properly contain. Not without a constant supply of new sega particles to prevent the field from collapsing..”

“Yes I have noted the problem as well. Its given me a few stumbling blocks, but I am fairly close to a working prototype.”

“Your own version of a plasma pulse cannon? I would love to see that,” replied Vera.

Richard smiled wryly. It wasn’t one of those, Ruri was a bit more ambitious with her design.

“Not quite, we don’t need a plasma pulse cannon. Our own particle cannons are quite effective. Rather instead, I created a new type of torpedo. A small energy torpedo intended for use on small ships, namely fighters and shuttles. I’ll show you later when I have time.” then Ruri turned to Richards, “On a different note, I also have some improvements to our fusion generators for you to look over and then we can discuss the implementation of the new sega-based laser generators.”

Richards nodded as she moved in with the group to discuss the possible upgrades. Refit plans, future maintenance requirements. Any crew training that might be required and possible applications for the new lasers in various fields. There was a lot to talk about and she ended up spending well over an hour in the lab with the two girls.