Posted June 9, 2021, 12:52 p.m. by Ensign Caelian Weir (Engineering Officer) (Jason Wolfe)
Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Sharah Fayth (Chief Science Officer) in Main Sim - Fulcrum Runabout - Reality Bubble Tests!
Posted by Fleet Captain Drudoc Andone (Commanding Officer) in Main Sim - Fulcrum Runabout - Reality Bubble Tests!
[snip]Trying very hard to tune out the repeated expressions of remorse, Caelian focused on the task at hand: locating the source of the problem. While a part of him appreciated—even needed—the encouragement and reassurance, it also drove the twinge of guilt deeper. It had been his engine design, his responsibility to anticipate possible errors, and his duty to check the runabout before they departed. While he knew full well that something could always go wrong, it had still come through him and because of him. Shaking his head, he glanced over his shoulder.
“Sir, with the situation we’re in—and until I can find the source of the spike—we should switch back to standard power systems.” It came out a little more firmly than he would have liked, but he pushed the regret aside. Softening his tone he continued. “I should be able to cycle out everything in turn to avoid our shields being down for more than, say, a few milliseconds. I’ll do my best to tighten that window so we’re not exposed, but with the guests knocking at our door for answers it may not be possible.”
After a heavy moment, he added. “The longer we’re out here working with an unproven system and in an environment we don’t fully understand, the more likely it is that something else will happen.”
—Caelian Weir, Engineer—
Sharah nodded, “One system at a time Weir, and if you can’t do it safely then don’t force it. We can put it back once we get back to Ark Angel. The engine worked really well. And you’re building from scratch, there is going to be things to work out. That’s why we made one for the runabout instead of Ark Angel first. Trial and error. And we can’t have success without first having failure. You’ll find the error and correct.” Sharah didn’t blame him at all, but she did expect him to figure it out. They had to.
Then as if the universe was still trying to complicate matters, there was yet another beep beep on the console!
Turning Mazi could see they had picked up a guest, or visitor in this case. Another small ship had arrived about .15 light years away and was near a concentration of small Reality Bubbles and Boridium out side layers to the nebula they were nearby. An mutli-phase ion pulse began to be emitted by the small alien ship not much bigger than their own Fulcrum runabout in fact. MiniFayth shuttered and there was a wash of anger and panic coming off her now. “..They are trying to take the .....the little ones! Those aliens!” she exclaimed.
GM CockRoach
Sharah turned to look at the readings and back at MiniFayth. They didn’t have the necessary means to defend them. “Try to tell them to move away from the pulse,” she instructed MiniFayth. She walked over to the comm station. =^=Fulcrum to Ark Angel. These energy bubbles are pre-sentient and someone is out here collecting them and we’ve been asked for help.=^=
Lt jg Fayth, CSO
”..The little ones eat the .....the stone, they can’t move away right now.” MiniFayth explained evidently the Boridium drew in the infantile like bubbles as a food source.
“They… eat the stone?” Caelian murmured thoughtfully. Well, there was one piece of the puzzle that slid more into place. Obviously there was an interchange between the natural boridium and the protoforms. Looking over his sensor logs, his brow furrowed in thought. “If that’s true, then I wonder…”
There was a pause before the Captain’s voice came back =/\= If these reality bubbles are non-sentient and formless Lieutenant how are they asking for help? =/\= She asked.
Drudoc Andone CO
Fayth tapped a couple buttons and turned on the visual feed. =^=Because, Cpt, when we interacted with one, this happened.=^= she moved out of the way so A done could see MiniFayth. =^=She is fully sentient and from what we can tell, physically, a minute version of me, right down to her telepathy, but her memories are her own. She can communicate with the reality bubbles. And she has asked for our help.=^=
Lt jg Fayth CSO
While the officers discussed the logistics of communication with sentient life, Caelian began to cycle out the runabout’s systems to get them back on deuterium. The lights in the cabin dimmed briefly before surging back to life. He left the shields for last, running several simulations before executing the final shutdown process. Once the boridium generator was completely offline, he decoupled the power cells before turning in his chair.
“Sir, I have an idea.” Caelian leaned forward a bit once they’d finished discussing things. “I’d like to beam the refined boridium a few dozen meters behind the runabout and put a tractor beam on it, make a quick pass through the densest body of protoforms we can and head for the Ark Angel. If these beings feed on the stuff, we may be able to lead them away from the aliens like a carrot in front of a horse.”
A sour thought came to mind, and he sighed. “Assuming, that is, what they crave isn’t the stuff we refined away before plugging it into the reactor.”
—Caelian Weir, Engineer—
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