October 19th, 008 SDE:
It had been two days since they had arrived at Anchorage. Not much had happened in that time, aside from getting the civilians from the Lodge settled and berthing the damaged warships that had been brought along. The Drifter vessels would all need repairs and efforts were underway to further fortify the port.
Countryman found himself in one of the lower industrial bays on the Enterprise, watching new DP-12 defense platforms come off the line, fully assembled and ready for deployment. They had dozens more already in storage, each one equipped with a high-yield particle lance able to punch through battleship-grade overlord hull plating. “You’ve been busy.”
Richards came up from behind him and nodded “It will eat into the reserves, but with the new materials the Drifters agreed to sell us, we can afford it. This production run will be finished by the end of the week, and by then you should have one hundred twenty DP-12s to deploy.”
“Do they have Ruri’s Pulsar upgrades or are they standard mark ones?”
“Mark IIs; we had plenty to afford the upgraded version.”
“Excellent, I’ll talk with Greyman about deployment then.”
“Before you do, might I suggest talking to Vera? She was in here the other day,” said Richards.
“Some kind of problem?”
Richards shook her head, “Actually she had some design ideas she wanted to discuss. She’d been talking with some of the Drifter Engineers, mostly about how they protect their ships from the storm. Long story short; they just rely on their shields to give them a moment’s buffer, but that got her thinking about a project we shelved a few years back.”
“New ideas? On which project, we’ve shelved quite a few projects.”
“Surface shielding, recall how we explored the idea of focused forcefields right on the surface of the hull?”
“Right, that one. We determined the science potential sound, but far beyond our technical abilities.”
“More or less correct, we were having enough issues with atmospheric containment shields we chose not to add another complicated project. Especially when we didn’t have an immediate need for them.”
“So what changed?”
“Well apparently shields do help repel hyperspatial eddies, but not very well. A drifter ship might expect two, maybe three seconds of protection before the shield fails. Raider ships have better shielding, but they only last a few more seconds. In either case those few seconds are usually enough to get the ship out of the worst of it.”
“Interesting but a few seconds of protection might not be worth the expense. We’d be giving up the extra power we gain from the storm for that.”
“Right, so we would, but she thinks the idea might have merit. Had some interesting ideas on form-fitting triphasic mitigation barriers as she called them. I think you should listen to her about them.”
“Hmm, might at least hear her out then. Any idea where she is right now?”
“Should be in her lab right about now.”
Countryman nodded and then departed the construction bay.
____________
Sure enough, he found her in her lab conducting a test with a force field generator. He watched for a moment before speaking up, “Had any luck with that one?”
Not much more than usual, I’m afraid,” replied Vera as she looked over from the console, “Field stability only improved two tenths of a point, not exactly a stellar improvement. Anyway, what brings you by?”
“Richards said you had some kind of project in the works and had some interesting ideas about form-fitting triphasic mitigation barriers.”
“Well I’m more or less looking into the concept, wasn’t ready to present it as a project. Still, I can at least walk you through the idea. It’s more or less a new beam shielding project for the armor but more or less akin to the energy web’s interception barrier.”
“Sounds interesting.”
She smiled and turned to the console, quickly bringing up a simulation, “The idea isn’t too far fetched, I’m talking about reactive shielding or more accurately, predictive shielding. We use AI-controlled force shield generators to produce a high-intensity barrier at the point of impact. Incoming shots would be attenuated by the barrier reducing their effective impact.”
“So basically, the shields are only active for a few seconds and only locally. Hmm, that might work and would get around the issue of them interfering with power generation. Only question is, how feasible the project is.”
“Kinda what I was trying to figure out, why I went to speak with Richards, who then told you.”
“Right, so how far did you get into determining the feasibility of your reactive shields?”
“The science is sound, but we will come into issues with the cost of implementation. Producing a force shield of sufficient strength requires rare materials we don’t have in abundance and it will require a stronger force field than we can presently produce. Theoretically, a hard-light barrier would be best, but we don’t have the ability to make one.”
Countryman blinked, “Hard-Light? Now there is an idea I don’t hear often.”
“Well it does show up in your video games, you see it in that Halo game that everyone has been playing lately.”
“Right, it’s used in things like Forerunner energy bridges, and Jackal arm shields. Given you mentioned it I suppose you have ideas on it?”
“More or less, the idea never occurred to Confederation science or if it did was shot down by the corporations, they have a history of interfering with science when new developments might harm future operations. Hard-light technology would certainly harm construction companies and other corporate interests, I mean who would want to build a drawbridge when an energy bridge is all you need?”
Countryman nodded, the concept of hard-light technology was old. Scientists had tackled it a few times over the centuries, but the idea was easier said than done. Solidified photons have been made in lab environments but nothing at a practical level. With a little work they could be made to produce solid energy barriers. The applications for armor, weaponry, and utility devices were endless. “I can understand that, but last I checked we were a long way from practical use.”
“Agreed, I’ve compiled a list of what materials we will need based on past experiments. Some of them are in short supply.”
“Isn’t everything? One thing I can say about this Storm is it makes resupply interesting.”
“That it does,” then she took a breath, “and then there is the mutation problem it has given us. Has Robin made much progress on that one?”
“Last I heard? Afraid not, have you had any problems?
“A few,” she replied, “I’m missing a few organs that I had a few days ago and I have been experiencing some weird cramps lately. How about you?”
“I could list the changes, but we’d be here awhile,” replied Countryman.
That bad?” she replied with a sigh, “Can’t say I’m surprised. Now of more immediate use, while I was looking into reactive shielding, I came up with a way to increase field density and depth for AIF systems. I ran it by Ruri and we conducted a few simulations and a lab test with some funds. We think we can develop thicker, sturdier armor plating.”
Countryman blinked, a breakthrough in next-generation armor? Given the delays, he’d figured it would be a few more years, especially given all that was going on, but with the new materials being developed thanks to the Dregari encounter and this? They’d be able to produce an entirely new generation of armor. Supplies might be an issue, but it would certainly help once they leave the storm. Hell, even in the storm there might be a few applications. “I look forward to the proposal at the next council meeting.”
_______________
Felki stepped off the ramp, a bag in hand. With all the repairs she wasn’t going to be able to stay in her quarters. Temporary lodgings had been prepared on Anchorage for her and the thousands of displaced Drifters they’d brought along. On the walls she could see the shimmer of an active internal shield grid, something the Refuge had installed in preparation for their arrival.
Not only that but she’d noticed they had made a number of changes on rather short notice. The people of Sol were certainly an industrious bunch, it painted a good picture for their deal with them. Resource limits would be the greater issue, but she figured the league would get as many ships as they paid for. It would certainly help them win this war, they needed ships. Crews weren’t the problem they had plenty of people to recruit from.
She’d noticed the refuge on the other hand had the opposite problem, they were much fewer in number. It would be hard for them to recruit new crews, but with their industrious nature and technology they weren’t a soft target. They were worthy of respect.
Reaching her assigned temporary lodgings, she opened the door and dropped her stuff off. Without anywhere she needed to be at the moment and with time to burn she figured she’d look into local entertainment options. Noting a local, she walked over to the young man, “Hey, sir?”
The man turned, “Can I help you ma’am?”
“I was wondering if you could tell me what there is to do around here?”
“Entertainment?” he asked. “Hmm, well there are a few options, plenty of bars, a few gardens, and even some theaters. The best options however are on the Enterprise.”
“I’ll keep that in mind, any recommendations?”
“Well if you can get a time slot for one, the Virtual Reality Pods are incredible. Failing that...”
“Virtual Reality?”
“Yeah it’s pretty popular, almost always has a waiting list. Anyway, if you do get one, you just lay down, activate the interface and you can join a virtual world or simulation. There are both solo and multi-person experiences.”
“Interesting, I might just check it out,” she replied.
“Well if you can’t get one, just remember to look up the Appleberry Gardens, they are the best gardens on the ship. Just ask the couples, they love the space too.”
“I’m not exactly looking for a date, you know.”
“Hmm, in that case, you might want to check out the bars in ...
____________
Felki stepped up to the pod and took a look. Luckily she’d been able to get a slot, but the young man hadn’t been kidding about there being a line. Most of the other pods were already in use. The device was sleek with rounded corners, the interior was a padded bed with alien gear around the pillow. Still she was rather curious, VR was something many cultures had to varying degrees, but this was somewhat different to the devices she’d seen. Just one more mark in the more advanced column for the Refuge.
Taking a breath, she settled into the pod and pressed the activation button. Almost immediately the world dissolved away and she found herself in a room. The walls were white and silver, blue glowing lines ran across the floor, leading to a gateway and right in front of her was a pedestal. Right at the top of the pedestal was glowing text in silver letters, Welcome to the doorway of dreams, please choose a destination from the list below.
Earth 152 CSD [Third Colonial War]
Earth 157 CSD [Earth-Cathamari War]
Mars 117 CSD [Second Colonial War
Fairy’s Forest
The DarkDragon’s Dominion
The Crystal Woods
Alternate History, Europe 1004 BC
Alternate History, Asia 998 BC
Alternate History, America 1021 ADAlternate History, Europe 1066 ADAlternate History, Asia 1205 AD
There were more options than that, it was quite the list of scenarios. After a moments thought she chose to stick to the first page. There were several that looked interesting, she wasn’t sure what a Dragon was but the word Dominion made her unsure of that, and she wasn’t interested in War, so picking the war scenarios was out. Something about Crystal Woods appealed to her, so she picked that one.
Almost immediately the gate shimmered and came alive. After taking one last look around the virtual room, she walked up to the gate and stepped through.
What she found on the other side was an entirely different world. The sky was alight with swirling color, hues of green blue purple and red danced in a dazzling display of shifting lights. Yet as impressive as the sky was, it didn’t hold a candle to the ground. Towering spires of crystal rose all around her, each one subtly different, the depths of the spires dancing with swirling color just like the sky, while little lights flitted around the spires.
This sight alone was worth it. One such light suddenly moved toward her. Zipping around her head a few times, before a female voice spoke up, “Welcome to the Crystal Woods. I’ll be your guide while you are here, and I’ll guide you out when you wish to leave. Now how would you like to start your adventure?