Le Monarque, the Alberta system.
26 April 742 AGS, 10:21
Emeline looks out the window, deep in thought. A quiet sound sweeps across her cabin and the front door opens. A man wearing a white coat enters the cabin. Her back still facing the door, Emeline turns her head just enough to see her guest.
-Oui? -Commandant, we are almost there. -Bien, Lieutenant, I shall come soon. Activate protocol Quatre. - As you command.
Emeline turns her head back and sighs. Slowly approaching the cabinet, she opens it and puts on a red enviro-suit. Suddenly, a repeating warning signal spreads across the ship.
-All specialists to their stations. Protocol Quatre in effect.
Emeline, now fully geared-up, exits her room and heads for the ship's main bridge down the narrow corridors. As she goes, Emeline notes how her crew handles the sudden call to stations. By the time she reaches her destination, the warning signal has already subsided, and the lights are on again.
"Commandant on the bridge," a loud command from the lieutenant welcomes Emeline as she takes her rightful place. "At ease," she replies quickly, with a hint of irritation. She looks around while the people are still looking at her, then proceeds to her place as they continue to work. Emeline enters her access code, enabling some of the usually-dormant research equipment down in the engineering compartment. "We work according to the plan,"Emeline commanded, before leaving the bridge.
L'Iton Annexe, CLASSIFIED.
25 April 742 AGS, 12:00
The room is resembles a small lecture hall at the university. Two hundred people wearing white and blue lab coats occupy all the seats. Then the door opens, and a red-haired woman appears at the entrance. A lieutenant standing by the door roars: "Attention!" The room goes silent. The woman goes toward the speaker’s pedestal, a large amount of papers under her arms. “At ease!”, she replies, putting down the papers and asking: "Is everyone here?" The lieutenant replies: “Oui.” Emeline selects several sheets from the stack and begins her speech.
- You all know the objectives of this mission. La Vigilance recorded the coordinates of a dark matter cluster where we are going. It's in the enemy territory, and there will be no escort or cover, so we act secretly.
Emeline takes a sip from the glass of water at her stand.
- This operation is of utmost importance. I hope you understand that only our team will know what happens there.
She presses a few buttons and a picture appears on the big screen behind her:
- We need to collect as much data as possible about the dark matter in this sector. The prototype of the dark matter collector has already been installed on le Monarque. It is similar to an energy shield that prevents the dark matter from escaping. Our previous operation has shown that standard military-grade energy field equipment was overloaded when we attempted to generate the shields of enough magnitude to contain the dark matter. Those of you who participated in the previous operation already know that. I prepared Protocol Quatre, which covers every last detail of the operation. You will receive full information aboard le Monarque.
Emeline is interrupted as the front door opens, and the Chief Engineer du Monarque hurries in. - Commandant, le Monarque is ready. The equipment is installed. - Alright, we're done here already. - Permission to prepare for take-off? - Yes.
The chief engineer leaves the room, and Emeline prepares to do so. “You heard the man, it’s time for us to move out. Le Monarque leaves in 30 minutes. Check your terminals once you arrive on board. That is all."
Le Monarque, the Alberta system.
26 April 742 AGS, 17:36
A large hall looks like a fighter hangar. Bright beams of light come from a spherical device in the center. The device itself works silently, despite the huge amounts of light it generates. Under titanium elements, photons and gravitons create an absolutely impenetrable shell for absorbing dark matter.
- It looks like a miniature Dyson sphere.
- You are absolutely right, Commandant. Visually, it should look like that, but the principle of operation is completely opposite. Using gravitons, DMR-1 attracts dark matter particles to the center of the structure, and the photon field prevents these particles from escaping.
- Can it work anywhere?
- Oui, dark matter is everywhere around us, but in small quantities. Next to this field, we get dark matter particles 10,000% faster than we would've been getting them at home.
- Can we increase the speed of refueling?
- The more dark matter there is, the faster the collection. Dark matter attracts itself. But getting such equipment started requires dark matter. That is why we are here.
- How soon will you finish?
- We have filled DMR-1 by 72%. I think it will take another two hours to reach 100%.
Alarm lights paint the room red. "Perhaps we will not have these two hours," Emeline hurries out of the room.
