The Nephilim sat in one of the mooring collars on Livadia, fires burning on several decks, the fires of a vessels final days, though scans showed it to be electrically stable. All circuitry was sound, no power leaks anywhere, but the ship was beyond repair, a long time in space, pushed to its max, had finally taken its toll on it.
Within, the situation was not much better. Ceiling panels fallen to the floor, beams that should sit between leaning on the floor at one end, whilst still attached at the other. Bulkheads on alternate corridors sealed off, and the lights flickering every few minutes. You could almost FEEL the ship dieing around you, yet scans showed time yet, more than would be thought of at first glance.
A little deeper into the ship was Max's laboratory. Beautifully adorned with the most high tech you could possibly get your hands on. Now THIS was a laboratory. Every tool imaginable lined one wall, with parts laid out on tables around the room, and a simple door at the end leading into a hangar for vessel repairs, and fittings. It was every researcher and mechanics dream, heavenly, but not perfect. Closer inspection of the tools found some to be broken, some parts already bent and warped. A pile of failed devices sat in one corner, some sparking occasionally. It represented the ship, failing, needing replacement, a side project for later days.
Turning to face the walls either side of the door showed camera feeds from the engine room and power core, with another feed layered on one side of the respective screens, showing output levels, and comparing that to the efficiency of what it was. It didn't look great. The engine room feed showed the strain on the engines, visibly trying to rock out of their reinforced housing. The power core, with many different cables and wiring attached. The output tremendously high for what it should be, the cables clearly working as dampeners and diffusers to spread it throughout the ship. But a look at the efficiency levels showed it to be incredibly poor. Every few moments, the power fluctuated as the power was fed back in to restart the core.
In the middle of the room, hanging from the ceiling, was a holographic projector. Similar technology could be seen running throughout the ship, rooms of importance having a projector, the rest of the ship a single projection strip to save space. From this one, however, was projected a pure black box, darker than the expanses of space itself, yet it was almost outlined by a faint blue glow. Sitting next to the table was the man in the wheelchair, Maxamillion Wolf. In his hands sat a small piece of metal. He was tinkering, perhaps a sign of nerves, or impatience. A spanner sat on the table, and a few tools hung from a belt about his waist. An oily rag in his lap, like he had just come from fitting a ship, a familiar sight that Sato would come to know in the coming days, weeks, maybe even months
Isamu Sato just arrived at the space-dock where the large vessel was docked, whistling to himself as he observes the status of the ship. Falling apart. Despite the status, it seemed that was where he was to meet this Wolf person he has heard a little about, impossibly being one of the geniuses of the group known as the Solar Runners.
Isamu had to chuckle to himself at that word. 'Genius' they said. Well, he'll have to find out himself.
As he enters the vessel, he is escorted down to the laboratories of the vessel, however he makes his escort stop as he passes engineering, crossing his arms as he looks down at the reactor systems of the vessel. "So these are the fabled relay cores. It seems like it's on it's last stand however, the high frequency sounds that pulsates now and then shows that it's constantly on a hardware circuit refresh.. Bad equipment, perhaps with use.. Typical, not taking care of the equipment."
Shaking his head as he finishes his analysis, continuing down to where he was required to be at the time. He enters the room after his escort inputs some identification, glancing around the place, eventually letting his gaze fall upon the man who was sitting near a strange floating box. "The first thing I come in to see, is an excellent projection which seems to rate at quite the high quality. I'm impressed so far. Well. I lied, I am not that impressed seeing the state this vessel itself is in, however I suppose that is why I am here."
Isamu wasn't the easiest person to deal with, he tended to erect a barrier around himself unless he considered the opposing person a 'friend'. A very bad habit that, he had trouble breaking.
Taking a seat at the table the opposite side of the man without waiting for him to say anything. "Well then, what are you trying to do. Best place to start, eh? Or perhaps introductions would be better. Up to you, of course. Either way does not matter to me."
He continued looking at the data pad before him, scrolling through the pages of data before him. Without looking up, he spoke
Good work. Now do me a favour and get the hell off my ship guardian.
He looked up, glancing quickly at Sato before staring at the guard standing in the doorway. He quickly stiffened, moving out of the doorway, fast. He turned back to the AI floating before him
Keep an eye on hi-
Already on it. You think you'd have a little faith Max.
The AI replied quickly, the sarcasm dripping from its voice in an incredibly jokey manner. Max stopped, putting down the data pad and looking up at Sato
I trust you got my reply? Of course you did, your here. You are quite right about the state of the vessel, that is thanks to my brothers hand. Councilman for Fleets, as such, he likes to think of it as his command centre. We share... Hmm, different, views about this. As for BB, he is the AI of the councilmen, get used to him. He'll be working very closely with you, an invaluable resource at all times. You'll also find that BB is what keeps the Ares afloat, try to keep on good terms won't you?
What am I trying to do. What AM I trying to do? Question of the hour it seems. You read my papers, and your permissions will be updated now, you should have access to more than most runners do. You know exactly what I am trying to do, but humor me, please.
he wheels himself over to sit before one of the walls, indicating Sato follow him. Sitting before it, he moves his pen through the air before some components on the power core view screen, BB automatically highlighting them as he does so
As you can see from the overlay, the power output has been increased exponentially, but it's not particularly stable. The power is effectively reflexed back into the core, restarting it every time it fails. A rudimentary jump start in effect. Each of these additional cables siphons off the energy to the seperate electronic systems, effective enough for my uses. That larger "piping" to the right, that's the main power siphon, direct to the engines.
However, all that known and noted, it's unstable, and unsafe, hence the ares having a crew of two, and BB operating almost all the systems alone. Your evaluation, Mr Sato?
Isamu crosses his arms, gritting his teeth slightly as he thinks over what he was just told. "Getting to work already, eh? I suppose why not. There is quite a bit to be done.."
Standing up, grabbing a data-pad from the table and begins scrolling through the data he found on it, mumbling quietly to himself. After about five minutes of studying the data, he glances up at Wolf. "First point. ship is junk. If I came say.. six months earlier, perhaps something could be worked out. But this method you are using to keep the reactors running? The injection of energy back into the chamber is having a huge wear and tear effect on the wires. The amperage jumping down to near nothing after the auto-injection sequence, and suddenly blasted back up to full power with the influx of output energy? That's very, very bad."
Beginning to pace around the room. "Besides that, the reactor itself runs very inefficiently in this state, there have been too many modifications without making sure they were all compatible with each other. The energy matches with the high output that you specified here, however, the flux rate of the current is too variable. It's not within a safe range. Again, the efficiency is utter garbage."
Tossing the pad back down at the table. "My final verdict. Something of this sort should not be done in a single housing. Too much energy from a single source is not a good thing. Heck, even arc transport may be more efficient than this. And that's saying something."
Crossing his arms once more, giving Wolf a sideways look. "Well then 'boss'. What are we going to do? I'm the new guy, I have no call in this kind of stuff. Although I don't mind. It's more fun this way."
Pacing slowly once more, stopping infront of the strange black box hovering at the projection system. "Hm.. Now that's a toy I haven't seen before."
Max sits still, taking notes on Sato's evaluation and watching him pace round the room, pointing things out on the board. Sato stops, looking at Max. Placing his pad in his lap, he turns to face Sato, reading through his notes.
Well, i must say i am impressed. The people Harper usually sends my way aren't competent enough to even know what basic arc transportation is. Very good.
Now, your evaluation, on the ship being junk, this is true. She's seen more than her fair share of operations. What you see though, is not the fault of the reactor, more my brothers gun-ho attitude towards things. Rushing in and, "winging it", as he goes along. And yes, you are indeed correct, the system is awful. You should see it without though. Now that's bad.
Ahh.. the flux rate. Yes, i have my theories on this, experimental of course, not something i look forward to doing, meaning any suggestions on your part to keep this reactor running are welcomed. Same goes for the efficiency. A fresh outlook on this is welcomed, and very much appreciated at this stage.
Your final note, whilst true, is far too narrow minded. Under existing knowledge on the subject, yes. There is far too much output from a single source, but that's the point here. How can we maximise it? We want to push a single core to its limits, and then some, and still be operating at maximum efficiency. It would be revolutionary, and for definite a cheaper power source for those vessels that find themselves lacking with a single core. This is my reasons for my work anyway.
He trails off, realising by this point he had began rambling on. He looks over at Sato, whom had once again moved over to BB
Need me for something Sato, or are we going on a date first?
Isamu listens to Wolf talk for a few minutes, nodding his head as his suspicions are re-stated once more and confirmed. "I can agree with you, although the max power output and the max efficiency are not possible due to the physics behind the generation, which i'm quite sure you're aware of. However, efficiency can be counteracted by a similar source outputting less energy, with a slightly lower frequency emitted with the power itself. It 'can' be enough to contract the large amount put out. Although, that is on a small scale. I am unaware if the math would be the same on a core of this size."
Need me for something Sato, or are we going on a date first?
Sato is dumbfounded for a few seconds, processing what he just heard. "That is the.." Glancing around the room to make sure there was not another person in the room.
"Dat-.. I really don't know what to sa-.." Giving Wolf a curious look. "Is that the box?"
I have a name, you know. Generic, although it fits quite well. Give me the numbers that you're thinking about. You're rambling Sato. Human inefficiency at it's finest."
Isamu stands there for a few seconds, slowly starting to grin like a child found a new toy. "I like this box, I like it quite a bit."
Max watches Sato grin like a small child, suppressing a grin of his own. Black Box often has this effect on first time meetings with people, and it never fails to amuse him or Max.
I'm glad you like it. Get used to it. Everything you do, you'll be working through with him. Use Black Box, or BB as he is colloquially known, for troubleshooting and access uses. He will be your best friend here...
Oh yay. Friends, that human concept...
WHILST you are working here. Anyway, your comments. The math is similar, you just need a factor to scale it all by. As for underlying sources, there is a possible solution, and it would still require some absorption on the other end. The absorbed energy can be used as effective "batteries". They could theoretically be attached to almost any of the ships systems. Run some simulations with BB later. It'll be a good start for you. BB
Yes Max?
Get Sato's station up and running, give him full access to my research, and anything he might require, within reason. Oh, you can also notify James, seems I owe him a million credits...
Max rolls into the research centre of Ares. Loading up the centre console, he opens the communique with Finn. Opening it, as well as files on the Ingenuus project , he calls Sato over
Sato. How are things going down here ? I've had enough keeping me busy with the Councilmen, stopping me from dropping by for a while. I'm back now though , and seems I may have found something to aid us.
The Ingenuus project is run by one Mr Finn McCool. A friend of Joe, and someone who asked for our help initially. We provided, and now we must ask him the same. If he is willing to share his research, which I should hope he is, then we may have a solution in sight. It will obviously require work, and adaption. We'll likely need to make it stabler... But you have complete access to the files now. Your thoughts on the project? And it's viability for us?
Max sat back, ready to listen. He had come a long way himself, had taken a liking to the boy. He hoped to train the young lad up, ready to cope with the effort invested by himself. One day, in case something happened. He had still come far from initially shunning the boy, to accepting his opinion as a valued and used piece of information.
When Max sees the man, he would quickly notice that Isamu had his legs crossed in the swivel chair he was in, slowly spinning in circles as he holds a data pad down at his lap, seeming to be typing on it as he goes. Slowly stopping as he wasn't pushing himself anymore, he glances up at Max.
"Rmm.. Max, how much trouble would it be to steal a motor to spin this thing for m-.." He mumbles quietly under his breath, pausing with interest as something called the Ingenuus project is brought up.
Listening to Max until he was finished talking, he nods his head twice and sets down the tablet.
"Viability is a really good question at this point. Yes, you have the materials that are required to at least get the thing to 'function', however using it in junction with a constant stream of energy to be drawn is a little more difficult. The fluctuations go above a 'surge' level. That basically requires the connected components be 'very' rugged. Sounds a little inefficient to me."
"Fixing something such as this would require study into how a small energy core is affected by the surroundings. We need to find something to regulate the intensity. Once we get past that step, we should be a little closer to using an energy core practically. Perhaps this information from.. Ingenuus would prove useful, what do they do exactly? The name has never crossed my field before."
Spinning in his chair slowly again, seeming to be thinking.
"I've had Black-Box work on some numbers to verify a few of my suspicions, which turned out to be correct. There is current, and voltage. It seems that the energy output of both of the two, are on a direct ratio between each other. If you lower one, the other goes up."
"Right then. What can 'I' do about this? Not much until two things happen. First, I want to know a little more about this.. Ingenuus, you have brought it up, which obviously means it could help. Which would be 'wonderful' right now.
Second? Black box, a small motor could spin the chair slowly, right?"
"Unless you've gained a few hundred pounds, which is.. quite possible, I see nothing wrong with that. Just make sure to put security cameras down, before I tell Joe to tamper with it while you're gone."
Isamu pauses for a moment and sighs. As useful as Black Box was, jeeze it was sarcastic as well. He appreciated that fact even more, it was a wonderful source of amusement as he worked.