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Ikaruga, deck 7 - Dead Reckoning - 03-07-2014 "Full stop." He felt his weight shift as Ikaruga lumbered to a stop. "Hold position. Ladies and gentlemen, we're going to be here for a bit, feel free to take a break. Brooke, you hold the bridge." Jim Hawking rose from his seat and headed to the elevator. He was never the hands off sort. Even though there were many engineers and scientists onboard just as qualified as himself, he couldn't resist partaking in the science of it all. The door shut behind him and he punched in Deck 7. The elevator whirred to life. Deck 7 was Jim's favorite deck. The science hub of Ikaruga. He was already lost in thought. How to increase the energy density of the power plant? Deck 7 had recently completed construction of a Mark IV class jump device. We can literally open a hole in space to wherever we need to go. The problem? How to power it. Ikaruga couldn't generate enough power to jump on her own. With mass quantities of high density external fuel, as well as the core at 100%, she could build a semi stable wormhole but only hold it for roughly 20 seconds before it collapsed. 20 seconds is enough to get through, but not a big margin of error. His thought stream was interrupted by the elevator jarring to a halt. He strode past the core on his way to the others. There had been a number of ideas that the team had come up with, but none safe enough to actually take beyond the whiteboard. There were thoughts of solar arrays, controlled reactor overloads, a second core... None of them particularly appealing. Hawking had a radical idea though. RE: Ikaruga, deck 7 - Dead Reckoning - 03-12-2014 He entered the meeting room. "Gentlemen. You've all been pouring over the concepts of where we can get this much power from. I'm here to offer a solution that we have discounted. I present to you, the core mark two." *a rendered image appears on screen* "We've been trying to work around the constraints of our existing power core. I suggest an entirely new one. This would be an extensive overhaul and we'd likely need to be moored up in Livadia for a few weeks, but my calculations suggest that it can manage to establish a stable wormhole to move Ikaruga and her escorts through safely." He paused for a second, "Sadly, it would not remove our need of external fuel completely, but it will be able to balance the fluctuations with the possible impurities in the fuel. On the plus side, the additional power output should enable some very interesting deck 7 and 8 experiments." The others in the room looked at each other and there were murmurs of discontent but they slowly came to accept that this might be the safest and most rational option. Taking apart a colony ship was something that rarely happened except when dire repairs were needed. However, the intrigue of more power hungry experiments was too much to resist. The jump drive operating would enable Ikaruga safe passage to Ames without needing to worry the Houses about a colony ship passing through. He snapped back to reality when the conversation became more than murmurs. "The math checks out Jim. I just hate asking Livadia to open her up again after we already went through all these retrofits.", one of the engineers said. "I know. Let me deal with that." He hit the comm switch. "Brooke, set course for Livadia. I'll be up shortly." He felt the familiar weight shift as Ikaruga came to life. Swinging to starboard, the engines sent a slight rumble through the ship that quickly dissipated. He returned to the elevator, his head swimming in the possibilities this new core would present. RE: Ikaruga, deck 7 - Dead Reckoning - 10-10-2014 Jim sat on the bed, staring into his own reflection. It had not been a calm few months. The retrofits had gone, in theory, as planned. The upgraded core was supplying Ikaruga with all it needed and then some. With systems fully powered and under load, the core was seeing a load index of 54%. Activating the jump drive raised the index to 87%. However, the external fuel feed was still necessary. For some unknown reason, the drive would not use all the available power core. That was where the troubles began. The science division began rerouteing cabling, adding larger feeds, attempting to at least see how little fuel could be required if it was managed to get the core to 100% load. The fourth attempt saw disaster. Shortly after opening the feeds, anomalies started coming up. Radiation spikes in locations that didn't make sense, navigation detecting slight disturbances outside the ship. And then the flood gates opened. Moving beyond spec, the core was outputting 105% it's expected output, a large majority being diverted from other systems directly into the jump drive. 105% was within operating parameters for short times, but the jump from 87% to 105% lead to the envelope being far larger than expected. In the excitement, Jim ordered Ikaruga through the gravity field. But size of it was putting undue stress on the core. Looking back through the logs, it was fluctuating from 101% to 112% load index. A warning flashing on the core deck was missed due to everyone celebrating how clever they were. The field collapsed as the core went into a fail-safe shutdown. What was supposed to be a jump to the neighboring system ended up being a jump into the dark space somewhere in the Omicron cluster. Worse, the core was heavily damaged and could hardly move the ship, much less create the power to even attempt to make another wormhole back to the starting point. 6 other ships had been pulled through the envelope with Ikaruga. Dreamweaver, an Aquilon. Fortitude, a Fearless. And 4 transports. They had not sustained damage from the field collapse. There was nothing out there but silence. Dreamweaver and Fortitude took up defensive positions on either side of the limping Ikaruga while the transports were torn apart for their materials. Long range scans showed nothing, but this far out anything was possible. The transports provided enough armor and material to the core to a stable repair. The fail-safe shutdown, while crippling at least maintained the integrity of the structure. Shuddering to life after the repairs, Ikaruga could fly with a minor radiation alarm. Hard to fully seal a core without the proper tools for bending metal shielding. Dreamweavers scanner had roughly approximated the current location and a course was set for Omicron-74. Jumping was out of the question, the core was wavering at 20% output on minimal systems. The flight back was trying. Some crew men lost hope, some began to lose their sanity being in the dark so long. Fortitude had a near mutiny that almost cost us the ship. Several men were locked up for the remainder of the flight. Jim helmed the Ikaruga while Brooke helmed the Dreamweaver. Fortitude was under Brookes command. Eventually, alertness subsided. Where originally there was fear of the dark, now there was only dreariness. There was nothing to fear from the dark space but themselves. A routine was settled into. Mind the core, mind the engines, count the days until the return or until food was exhausted. The biodomes were working overtime as they had to also feed Dreamweavers crew as well. After 6 months and 6 days, the 3 remaining ships crossed the threshold into 74. This journey was at an end. It was time to repair and carry on.