Satan's Sat Nav

Posted on Tue Oct 23rd, 2018 @ 6:12pm by Zado Kasmir

1,791 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: S1:3: Myriad Problems
Location: Map Room
Timeline: MD 61-3.00

If someone had said a bomb had gone off in the map room, it would have been difficult not to dispute the facts. Wall panels had been pulled away to reveal power junctions and data feeds, where a serious amount of technological butchery was going on. The smell of arc welding filled the air, and every once in a while a screen would flash with a warning about an imminent electrical cascade problem.

And in the middle of it, directing a motley crew of Long Jump Project workers and Traveller Starfleeters was Zado Kasmir. She flitted around the map table, inputting instructions on a PaDD in the crook of her arm, or doing so on a flock of holographic displays that appeared and vanished near her.

"And...right on time," she said, pointing a blue-skinned digit at the door as Kohnar walked in. The pointed finger rolled around to form a wait signal. "Just a second, need to manual calibrate everything given there's not a computer backing up the math...and this is the sort of math that can kill with a dropped decimal point."

Jolani nodded. "It is. The fortunate thing is that space is mostly that." Curious about all of the maps, Jolani inquired, "What do we have from the navigation systems? Anything past or present?"

"The problem is filtering out what we're getting with what we need," Zado said through pursed lips. "See all of the sensors are still online, they didn't just magically die the moment we lost the main computer. What we lost was context and a lot of predictive models. Meaning everything from managing the fusion reactors for the impulse engines to balancing the gravity shear of the deck plating is running on manual."

She turned her head over one shoulder and nodded at a tech with thick work gloves, who gingerly reached out and pushed a cable into a connector. There was a sudden heaviness to the air, the humid crush that promised summer lightning storms. And then data began to spring up.

"So...I built a Nefarious Bullshit Detector, patent pending," she grinned and walked around the map table as the hologram began to populate with data. "Right now we need a single data point to chase down, and aiming the nose of the ship towards the sun isn't going to cut it right? So let's narrow the field down. What's unique about Abborax's ship? Kasmir Radiation."

A fuzzy yellow blob appeared on the map display. After a moment it deformed slightly, becoming a sloping wedge with two streamers of yellow stretched out behind it.

"K-radiation is a by-product of Phase Space acceleration. In high enough doses it can cause some pretty major neurological disorders. Its why the Traveller needed to enter the Long Jump Accelerator in a shielded faring. And yet the hull is still littered with K-radiation scars," Zado explained, using her fingers to expand the map image to zoom in on the shuttle bay. There a heavy golden knot of light danced. "And what was left in our shuttle bay?"

Jolani considered Zado's statements and after a moment said, "There is a flaw to your logic. Abborax's ship may have Kasmir Radiation but it is not a fixed point. It moves. As you said, you need to aim the ship at something and since we are working in three or four dimensional space, we need some other calibrating points. Of course, stars and planets move, as well, due to the gravity being what it is. However, once you are able to calculate the movements, which are fixed and their positions, you now have a basis for calculating other positions and now can safely warp. So, what we need are three fixed points that we can calculate from."

She smiled and continued, "Just think! We can navigate like the ships of old with a helm officer and navigator simultaneously working to fly the ship." She shook her head and then frowned. "On second thought, that's a horrible idea. I don't trust anyone else to fly my ship."

"But it gets us in hailing range of a workable navigation system. Which, right now, we do not," Zado nodded at the holo. "Using the K-rad data from Abborax's shuttle we now have a way of detecting where he is. Even closing in on the system's star isn't diminishing the magnitude of the K-rad readings, so at least we know the high dimensional physics equations still work. But yes the scary amount of math needed to get us a course that doesn't see us warping away from a gas giant and ripping the engines out is...well not so much daunting as time-consuming."

She clicked her fingers, and the holo shifted from the golden light of the KJ-Rad detector to a traditional solar model. There was the gas giant, there was the star, and close in there was the moon they were now orbiting. Between the Traveller and open space of the rest of the star system, were a dozen orbital trajectory lines.

"This gas giant has a lot of moons. Not all big planetoids like the one below us, but enough of a kink in the gravity shoal to make warping hazardous without the main computer running all the correction programs," she smiled at Jolani. "So we don't warp out of here, at least not in the normal fashion. We fire up the main impulse drive and make a break for open space at full throttle. Once we're clear of the gas giants area of influence, we perform a number of micro warp jumps. Nothing big or long-winded, but enough for us to error correct to avoid hazards if we overshoot. We only have to go...9 AU's. Or 837 million miles."

She smiled.

"Almost easier to take a shuttle."

"Micro warp jumps," Jolani mused. "I have done that before." She bent over in obvious pain, a pain that had not healed. She whispered, "Sorry. I remember the last time I did this all too well. It was with fighters, not a starship." She steeled herself and rose. "I can do this," she told Zado in a way that would make him believe that she was trying to convince herself as much as reaffirming the fact that she knew how to perform this maneuver.

"I just wonder how we plan on doing anything to Abborax in this condition. They have the superior technology when we are not crippled. I am glad that I am not a Vulcan to try and calculate the odds of success."

Pausing dramatically, "So, what do you need me to do? Help you make the calculations? Or just manually adjust when we're making the jumps?"

"No offence, but you don't seem the theoretical physicist type," she tapped her fingers on the PaDD. "I've run the numbers. 14 micro jumps and we'll be on his tail, or at least within spitting distance of his tail. All I need is a starting point, and someone with a fine hand on the controls."

Zado walked around the map table, and gingerly placed a hand on Jolani's shoulder.

"As for what hope do we have against Abborax and his ship, we have to at least try. You think in the planning stages of his mission no one thought what would happen to one ship, by itself, against a superior enemy? That no one suggested the Project be shelved because of that one qualm?" she smiled. "Space doesn't want us here. Its hostile to life, no doubt. If the power on a starship goes out we all die. Pressure changes a little bit up or down, we all die? No air? No water? Space is dangerous long before you get into meeting the kids with bigger sticks. But it's what we bring to it, what we choose to fill the void with, that gives us reason to be here. A bunch of primates from an M-class world help form a mighty Federation. Dilithium gave us wings of starlight. My Accelerator gave us the universe...it just means we have to look deeper in ourselves to find the thing we choose to bring with us."

She stepped back, gesturing to the room.

"Abborax is a bully, and a thief stealing those wings from civilisations like mine, like yours. And I don't think they've been told we won't back down from them when they pick a fight," she grinned.

"I disagree that space does not want us here. Space has no emotions. Regardless, it was meant to be traversed and so we have and so we will. That is my job and it is the only thing left that I love. There are no better people to fly a ship, than me. I can plot well but if you have the calculations, I'll make whatever turn or manoeuvre that the Captain wants. I'm the best," she said as a matter of fact, not bluster. "Just tell me when you want something and I will make it happen, even if I have to squeeze this ship between proverbial twin black holes."

"Huum, been there and done that. Best not to do it again," Zado smiled. "I'll prepare the calculations, and if you can give them a second glance to make sure I've not made a horrible mistake we'll have the means to get Ari back. I cannot stress how important it is we get him back. For all our sakes."

Jolani shrugged. "Perhaps I am unimaginative but I see no advantage to getting a traitor back, other than to make sure that he is not in the hands of the enemy. However, surely by now, he has spilled everything there is to Abborax. Regardless, I will do my duty and I will make sure that your calculations are accurate."

"Believe it or not, he's the key to getting us home," Zado said with a smile. "I designed the science behind the Phase Space Accelerator. But building the machine capable of bridging higher dimensions without breaking the Kesler loop dynamic and undoing the fundamental rules of the universe...well I have Ari to thank for that. We brought the industrial replicators and mining drones needed to fabricate an Accelerator here in Messier 4. But they're more an art than a science."

"I do not care if we get 'home.' You may. I will do as I am ordered and I will fly this ship to make sure that we are all safe. But, a traitor like Ari is no concern to me," Jolani concluded.

"That's a very...monochromatic view of things," Zado said diplomatically. "But we have work ahead of us. A lot, even if we can get the computer on line."

"Indeed. So, let us get to it."

 

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