New Dawn (Wandering Engineer) (47 page)

"And that distortion is
carried over into hyperspace," he said continuing. Shandra looked up and
over her shoulder at the hologram. "Hyperspace means we are folding normal
space to move through it." He went over to her took the model out of the
pocket and let the membrane settle. “Now in normal space we would have to
travel this entire distance..."

He moved the model from her left
to her right hand. "Now in hyperspace..." She pulled her hands
together, forming the membrane into a sine wave. "Yes, as Shandra
demonstrates, in hyper we fold space for the ship to transit." He clicked
the remote for the projector and it changed to the graphic. "As you can
see, the higher the band, the more bends." He looked around the class.

"But so too does the effect
of mass effect the bands." Another click and the class oohed as a ball
distorted the image.

Shandra looked and then frowned.
"So that's how it looks," She murmured.

He shrugged. "This is just a
layman's interpretation. But that's why we have to chart masses in real space
carefully, and then plot around them," he explained. He clicked the remote
again and the hyperspace sine waves returned. "Now, the lower the band,
the less compression, so it takes longer to get from point A to point B."

The top sine wave glowed.
"But, as we go up into the higher bands, the compression increases
exponentially, and therefore the time goes down and the transit distance up.” A
graph appeared highlighting the exponential change. "Now, no ship without
a dedicated hyper navigator can handle transit inside a star's Roche
limit." A star system came up. "There's so much matter, so many
planetary bodies, and the star or stars to deal with so no civilian ship can
handle it," he said firmly. He changed the graphic. "That's why
civilian ships navigate in lanes and have jump points. These space lanes are
points between destinations that have been charted and can be easily traveled
by civilian ships."

One of the girls raised her hand.
"What about the bands?" she asked.

 Shandra nodded. "Okay.
Getting back to that," he said.

"Now, each band has its own
variant tunes. C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. They're named for musical notes."
Some of the class looked confused, others shrugged. "But each band has its
own order to it. It takes a lot of power to get into hyper, and the ship
creates its own mass shadow as well." The graphic changed. "The
higher the band, the higher the mass shadow and therefore the more power needed
to get there," he explained.

A graphic appeared next to each
sine wave, showing the exponential power demand. "Of course that power is
only needed to get into the band; we can collect power from hyperspace."

One of the girls raised her hand.
"How?"

He smiled. "Well, remember
how I talked about matter? Sometimes energy, electrons, and other particles get
into hyperspace. Ships collect this raw energy and use it as free power during
transit."

Shandra nodded. "That's why
we hunt for particle patches, so we can suck them up for fuel," she said
with an amused look on her face. A few of the faces cleared.

"Right, now the sensors
detect matter in hyperspace by their mass shadow, and tell the crew with the
holographic display." He clicked the remote and a display of the bridge
view port came up. "This allows them to steer around mass objects. Before
the sensors were slow and had a short range, so it was hard for them to see.
Now the ship can see further, and the navigators can plot courses well in advance."

Shandra nodded as she set the
membrane down. "When we get to the upper bands, we'll go faster, but it'll
require a lot more power, piloting skills, and computer cycles to
maneuver." The display changed to the same previous course, but moving at
a much faster rate. Shandra paled. "It used to take the ship six months to
transit some of the legs right?" he asked. The Captain nodded.

"A circuit takes three years
to transit, most of that's in hyper. So far you've made three circuits,"
he said. The screen changed to a star map. “Now that we can go faster, you can
make that circuit in less than a year," he explained. The class murmured.

 "When we get more upgrades
in place it will take half that if not less," he said. The murmurs
increased. The Captain cleared her throat and the class quieted, some giving
her guilty looks. "Thank you," he bowed politely. He typed a command
into the holo projector. "Now a ship enters hyper by projecting a mass
shadow," he said continuing.

The ship floating changed as a translucent
sphere projected around it. "The ship's hyper generator uses the shields
to project the mass shadow to punch into hyper." He picked up the membrane
and folded it into an accordion. He motioned to Shandra and quietly explained
how to hold it. She stepped back, holding each pleated end in a hand so it was
vertical and away from her body. "Now without the hyperdrive this
happens." He poked his finger at the bands. The shape of his finger poked
out the other side as the membrane stretched. "Now, here it is with the
hyper generator." He morphed his index finger into a soldering iron, and
then poked it through. Even Shandra's eyes were wide at that.

He pulled his finger back.
"But won’t our action leave a hole?" someone at the back of the class
called out.

He shook his head no. "No,
like this memory plastic, it'll heal,” he explained. To their astonishment the
plastic healed. The class murmured. "Memory plastic polymer. It remembers
the shape it was cast in and will heal itself," he explained. He took the
plastic from Shandra and stretched it out, the holes were fading fast.
"See, not even creases."

"There are six known bands,
with a seventh theorized, but never successfully used," the admiral said.
The band scales reappeared on the screen. "This ship is only rated to the
A layer of the gamma hyperspace band, so that is the best we can do." He
looked over to Shandra who was looking a little pale.

"I didn't think of all that
compression is going to be fun to navigate," she said.

He nodded as she took her seat
woodenly. "That's right, it's going to be stressful to the helm and
navigators, they'll have to be on their toes," he said. He turned.
"To get above the Gamma band you need a lot of energy. Typically that's
supplied by antimatter."

He shrugged. "Since
antimatter can only be made with tremendous amounts of energy, I doubt anyone
will be making it anytime soon."

A few hands were raised. He
pointed to one. "How did you make it then?" the girl asked.

He smiled. "We had large
fusion reactors, solar farms, singularity taps, plasma taps of stars, and even
stations in hyperspace," he explained. Behind him the holo changed to show
each platform. He sighed as the class murmured in shock and awe.

"Each of those are gone, or
forgotten. It'll be a long time before we see them again." He looked off
to the side for a moment, composing himself. "But, we're making a start
here," he smiled. Some of the ladies nodded enthusiastically.

"I noticed you only did a
basic course on hyperspace..." the hoarse voice said as she floated over
to him.  Most of the class had drifted off in tight study groups when the
lecture concluded.

He smiled at the Captain.
"That was my introductory lecture actually," he admitted.

She smiled. "Introductory
lecture? You taught?" she asked.

He smiled. "I had a few
stints as a teacher at the academy, and of course on ship. It was a good
distraction during therapy," he replied. He tapped his arm.

"You had to work while
recovering?" the purser looked up.

"I worked virtually. I
linked into the network from the hospital and did lectures in a
simulation," he explained.

She looked confused. "He did
it in the computer Vanessa, don't worry about it too much or you'll get a
headache," the Captain said, in fine spirits.

The purser grimaced. "If you
say so," she muttered as she left.

"So, there's more?" the
Captain asked, motioning him to sit down as she picked up her cup of tea.
"Yes Captain."

One of the girls poured a cup of
tea for him. "Sugar? Cream?" she offered.

He looked over to her, feeling a
little amazed. The Captain caught the look and chuckled. "Yes, we are
coming up in the civilized department right? I loved tea, and loved to see it
in some of the holo novels," she said.

He smiled and held up a finger.
"One of each please." She smiled and added the materials, then handed
him the cup.

He nodded in polite appreciation,
and then studied the cup. "That reminds me of the Japanese tea
ceremony," she said. He looked up to the Captain's twinkling eyes. "I
never did understand it," she said. She gave an earthy chuckle. "But,
you were saying there's more?"

He took a sip. "Yes, there's
a lot more, the basic math involved, different situations, how to navigate in
higher bands of hyperspace, tuning, tensor physics, string theory... Quantum
mechanics..."

She grimaced. "A bit over my
head. Too old," she said.

He shook his head. "You’re
never too old to learn."

She looked up and smiled.
"Wasn't there an old saying about teaching an old dog new tricks?"

He chuckled with her. "Yes,
but it just takes a bit of time and patience." He waved to the cabin.
"We have that in abundance," he said. She nodded.

“Captain, about the Chief...” She
waved it away. “I'm sorry about her behavior. I'm not sure what got into her.
The doctor said her hormones are out of whack, that might be it. I'm not sure,”
she sighed, and took a sip of her tea, staring off into space.

“Well, paranoia goes with the
job,” he said cautiously after a moment. She grunted.

“Captain, I know she has a
vendetta against me, but overall, she's good at her job,” he said.

The Captain turned and gave him a
surprised look. “You’re the last one I would expect to see defending my
granddaughter.”

He smiled. “To tell you the
truth, it surprised me at first as well,” he admitted.

She smiled. “Oh, don't worry,
she's in trouble, but she'll grow out of it. It'll take some time before I let
her back in my good graces however,” she finally said.

He nodded. “Thank you Captain.”

"Admiral, what are we going
to do about the military data in the database?" Sprite asked.

He looked around the room, nodded
to the guard, and then sat back. He tapped a stylus against his chin
thoughtfully. "Is there a lot of it?" he sub vocalized.

"Not much, a few terraquads,
but there's the standard military gear loaded in the files of the
replicators," Sprite reminded him.

He grunted. "Any of it
classified?"

Sprite appeared on his HUD.
"Not much. I can lock it down so it can't be seen in the menu," she
said. He nodded.

"Archive all the military
data and bury it in the net deep. Make sure it's encrypted too," he
ordered.

She nodded. "You do realize
that we're technically leaving classified data in the hands of civilian’s
right?" she reminded him.

He sighed. "It's not like we
have another place to put it right now Sprite," he said.

She nodded. "True."

He swiveled his chair back and
forth. "How is Io coming along?"  he asked.

The AI looked amused. "I
think you mean the AI right?" she asked. He gave a short nod. "Now
that you've rebuilt the core, I've unpacked my build files and started growing
her neural clusters. Defender has added a few, but Proteus has been the one
monitoring her progress," she reported. Data streamed near her virtual
head.

He stopped swiveling.
"Her?"

"Well, since most ships are
considered a female persona, and this ship is named after a female..." she
said.

He smiled. "Okay. So, she's
what, about the level of a fetus?" he asked.

Sprite nodded. "About that
level yes. Her neural dendrites are growing nicely, but it'll take time before
coherent thought begins to form. We've grafted as much of our own code into her
net, so it may help. She's making the connections, so we may see some growth
spurts," she said.

He picked up his coffee and took
a sip. "Hey, does this make me a mother?" Sprite demanded after a
moment.

He chuckled. "Something like
that. But it also makes Defender and Proteus the fathers."

She blinked. "Okay, forget I
mentioned it," she growled. He chuckled.

"Admiral to the
bridge!" an anxious voice said. He looked up the speaker.

"Sounds serious," he
said. They had just exited hyper less then an hour ago so he wondered what was
the problem. He looked over to the guard. "Any scuttlebutt?" They
looked up from their comms and shook their heads.

"No Admiral, but a ship was
detected two minutes ago in orbit of the planet," Sprite answered.
"All right, let’s go ladies." He waved to them to proceed as he set
his tools aside.

"Don't you need them?"
one of the guards asked.

"No, something tells me, this
time they aren't needed," he said. They jogged down the corridor to the
nearest lift.

"Permission to enter?"
he asked as the doors opened.

"Get in here," the
gravelly voice of the Captain cut through the chatter of the bridge crew. The
crew quieted. "We have a problem; there's a ship in orbit," she said.
He nodded as he walked into the bridge and then looked up to her station.

"Thank the goddess you folks
rebuilt the sensors, we would never have seen them until we were almost in
orbit," the Captain grounded out. He nodded.

"Pirate?" he asked,
scanning the bridge stations. Sprite brought up a system status on his HUD as
he looked at each station. He lingered at the sensor station.

 "Maybe. It might be a
freighter," she said. He nodded.