What's Victorium Got We Ain't Got?

Posted on Wed Nov 21st, 2018 @ 9:40am by Commander Rita Paris & Lieutenant Commander Thex sh'Zoarhi & Lieutenant Commander Sonak & Petty Officer 2nd Class Ila Dedjoy

Mission: Escaped Pantheons
Location: USS Hera, Deck 24, Main Engineering
Timeline: 2385

"So, you have the report, what Dauntless was able to decrypt of it at least, and we know that Victorium was somehow instrumental in surviving the transition through the energy ribbon that we're chasing. Then we need to analyze the projections from the EM barrier and find a way to shield the Hera’s power systems when inside it, or in transition, I'm not sure. Plus the Commodore was apparently using some sort of plus experimental spatial distortion shielding which ties it all together. So," Rita Paris spread her hands wide to encompass the group she'd gathered in Main Engineering. "You are all brilliant folks- is this the part where I leave you to speak in technical terms most of which I don't understand for a while then I come back, or would you prefer for me to stay and try to contribute?"

The question was asked openly and honestly, as one would expect from Paris. Her feelings wouldn't be hurt if they told her to go tend to other things, or she would happily stay and find a way to make herself useful.

Sonak raised an eyebrow.

"You are the first officer of this starship. As such, your main concern is the ship and her crew. As much as we might devise technical means to tackle problems, you will always keep in focus this most important consideration for us, while we ponder from the hypothetical to the theoretical. Thus, you will help us properly get to the practical."

As if the matter was settled for him, his grey eyes lost their focus a moment as he went inside his mind, then spoke.

"Shielding the ship from electromagnetic interference is relatively simple; either use dense atomic material, like gold or platinum, or ideally osinium or iridium, to construct actual physical shielding... or a more powerful form of energy to nullify it's force. That would be nuclear force which is a thousand times stronger than EM emissions but only effective at ten minus factor thirteen centimeters. It would require precise positioning and any loss of power could compromise it's efficiency. Ideally both approaches, energetic and material,would maximize our effectiveness."

Ila chimed in as she rattled off her knowledge of the Oberth class. "Victorium is used in Oberth class construction because of its resilience in spatial anomalies. On top of that, Intel tends to use experimental shields on the ones they dispatch. Since we have the settings for both... However, the Hera is made of a poly-duranium alloy. Victorium is used in place of trellium-k, which would be far easier to shield the ship with, but is highly toxic to all Vulcanoid races. Realistically, we'll have to come up with a substitute shielding to... Did the Commodore say something about space twisting around them? Maybe a form of warp shielding to simulate the effects of victorium?"

Sonak nodded.

"There are not many Vulcans on board. If memory serves, work on vaccination against trellium-K had been started as early as the 22nd century. That would be a possibility for our chief medical officer to explore and hopefully validate and implement. If all else fails, I and any other Vulcanoid aboard could wear either an old style 23rd century life support belt or if need be a vacc suit while the compound is in use. What must be first considered is the safety of the ship and it's capability to do it's mission."

"I could modify a few of the vacc suits to make it easier and more comfortable for you to move in." Thex responded as she was already looking through a starfleet database for anything that could help with this situation. " I'll need to clear out one of the cargo bays to process the Victorium so we'll have to move the cargo into the other bays."

Crewman Dedjoy had out a PaDD and was running a few numbers. "The trouble will be getting enough victorium. Oberth hulls are made entirely out of it and it seemed they had trouble surviving. We would need enough to almost rebuild the Hera. Commanders, with all due respect, as a geologist by trade, I estimate we would need about forty seven thousand tonnes of it to shield a ship our size. Even if we used trellium-k, it would take... Twenty three tonnes. That's a lot of mass to add to the Hera, not to mention the time required."

The Vulcan looked up at the crewman.

"The energy solution would appear to be the logical choice then. But to ensure safety, nucleonic forcefields protecting our systems should have a distinct, independent power source. I would suggest micro nuclear power plants, like those used in the old Constitution class to recharge emergency batteries when main power was offline. Not only are they already calibrated for the kind of energy we need to counter all EM emissions, but they can not be knocked offline except by utter destruction; which, if it happens, would make everything else irrelevant, since it would mean the whole ship has been destroyed. For added safety, a basic ejection system could jettison them out in case of trouble with them."

"Hum." Thex said from her seat as she flicked through a few diagrams. "Would need to dig the diagrams out of storage, but they could work. Would need an adaptor so they can work with our current systems." She looked over at Deadjoy, a polite look on her face. " How much Victorium would we need to create some armor plates to protect the weak parts of the ship? The airlock, shuttle bay doors.. etc. We may as well get them armored. "

"That's still a lot of tons of material and weight added, mass consumed and time and labor spent, Chief," the first officer shook her head. "I think for now we'd be better off focusing on fields to keep these distortions at bay. Additionally, the flight team has some shield configurations that they'd like for you to look over to see if you have some suggestions or input." Paris tapped her PaDD to bring up the configuration, then looked to the overhead. "Computer, please project Gonadie Delta Mala Three at one meter before me, chest height, one meter in size."

With a slight hum of holographics, a three foot reproduction of the USS Hera hovered there before them with translucent shields in the shape of an egg with a reinforced indentation at the back and shield fins in an X pattern towards the rear. "I'm leaning toward calling it 'the Bombshell' myself, but it's Miss Gonadie's project, so she gets to name it. Can we produce all of the micro reactors in time. And the fissionable materials, I guess it's just a matter of replicating the dense matter...?"

Ila raised a hand. "As a note, the current portable micro-fusion generator can power a Miranda class and take it up to warp two if needed and we have about four dozen of them in the pod ready to go."

"Or, sure, we might have literally dozens of them on hand, sure," Paris changed course fluidly. "So you're saying no problem on the nucleonic forcefields because we can easily and deeply redundantly power them, Miss Dedjoy?"

"Ahh..." Ila tapped at her PaDD doing some quick math. Inventory and specs like this were part of the purview of the Captain's Yeoman so she had these numbers ready at hand. "The field generators will need to be replicated since those we don't have in stock... But, yes I believe we have enough spare portable generators as long as Commander sh'Zoarhi can manage the shield mechanics of... Whatever that is. Field generators are much easier to replicate thankfully."

"Ah. so just field generators- that's a relief," Paris nodded, then turned to Thex. "Ms. sh'Zoarhi, do we have an appropriate design for these on hand or does one need to be designed for the task at hand?"

"The standard federation field generator is a hefty beast. I'd like to add a little more shielding to them, but I can do that in five minutes." Thex replied eagerly.

There was a pause of a few seconds where the crimson-clad commander blinked a few time, then parked a perfunctory smile on her face "That's interesting, but it didn't answer my question, chief. Try again? Nucleonic forcefield generators. Do we have an appropriate design for these available or does one need to be designed for the task at hand?

"Yes, we do have one." Thex responded politely.

"Thank you, Commander," Paris nodded then turned to the chief science officer. "Lieutenant, do we have any science packages that you'd like to install in the sensor bays for this mission-specific opportunity to record data or telemetry? I believe flight control has some energy wavelength apparatus they will be employing on the bridge- you may wish to liase with them to perhaps assist them with the sensors or perhaps enhance our sensor readings with their principles. Ensign Gonadie and Lieutenant Dox are working on that as we speak."

Sonak stood straighter and offered her a PaDD where his fingers rapidly input algorythms for her to peruse.

"Indeed Commander, I do. The planned mission will require the best we have to detect, record and analyse energy matrices and biometric data and correlating the two. Such data, beyond scientific knowledge, should prove most useful in devizing effective defensive measures for the Hera and her crew; if onyl as an early warning signal. I could program the computer to link our navigational sensors as well as our tactical sensors to work along our lateral sensors and create a sensor grid specifically tailored for what we expect to encounter. A simplified version of this programming could also be downloaded to our tricorders."

"Excellent. Please have your teams coordinate with engineering so we aren't working at cross purposes. So, that covers shielding and sensors, power needs and hull shielding- yes, hull plating, We touched on this earlier- Yeoman, what were you saying about the elemental compositions of the hull plating in relevancy to Victorium?" Paris paused, then shook her head as she muttered. "I cannot believe I remembered all of that."

"Sorry, Commander?" Ila glanced up from her PaDD. She had been lost in thought, her normally passive doll-like face deep in concentration. "Ah, the victorium? Our hull is composed of a poly-duranium alloy. Durable and excellent for large ships like ours, but for leaping into spatial anomalies, not the most resilient. However as a geologist by trade, I've studied the geo-harmonic field densities of most minerals, including victorium. Using quantum resonance emitters and some creative engineering, I've been able to force certain elements to mimic the properties of other elements, which can be useful in scanning and defensive technologies, but isn't very energy efficient."

Yeoman Dedjoy waved her PaDD around a bit, trying to explain. "It's one of the principals that earned me my given name - we discovered a new element on a planet but had no way to scan for it so I had to invent that too. The long and short of it is that using some of the new equipment in the pod, I believe that I can convince our poly-duranium hull to mimic most of the properties of victorium for about... Fifteen minutes? Maybe twenty minutes? I would just need about ten kilos of victorium to resonate off of."

"You're going to alchemically alter the skin of the starship. The future is so very amazing. Do we have any victorium onboard or do we need to go scanning the area of the ribbon to see if a part fell off the Oberth?" Paris asked with a chuckle. "Will Mr. Sonak need to suit up to avoid exposure with the hull plating or is that a shot the Doc will have to come up with?"

"For that small of a quantity I think the debris samples of the USS Cossette that we have from our last mission should be sufficient." Ila nodded and pulled up the inventories on her PaDD. "It seems that's still in cargo bay two. as for the toxicity, refined victorium is perfectly safe for all vulcanoid races but I would keep any smaller pets from licking it."

"So we have redundant systems in place to protect us as we try to surf a cosmic energy wave in space," the 25th century career gal asked. "Any concerns from the Engineering or Science departments we should address?"

Sonak spoke with his usual deadpan tone.

"Probes should also be altered as the ship. We may need them if our sensors fail or getting close proves too hazardous or unfeazible. I would suggest a few EVA suits should also be properly modified in case they are needed.And we should not forget not only shuttles but escape pods, in the eventuality that we have to abandon ship while still in the critical area."

"Put your teams on it, coordinate with security and flight control please. I rather like the idea of firing our a probe or two before we fly in there ourselves, Mr. Sonak- excellent stratagem. Authorized, please keep me apprised daily or as developments warrant. Chief, any worries from the engine room or structural concerns, flying through a spatial distortion?"

" Current conditions look good. The Hera can take a beating and keep going. Though I'll continue to reinforce some areas that would be in the most danger. " Thex replied honestly.

"Spectacular. Let's move forward with the plan for the nucleonic force fields and the quantum resonance emitters, definitely reinforce her structurally wherever you have concerns, we'll prepare a probe or two, and it sounds like we're well prepared. Thank you all for your input," Paris nodded to each of them in turn.

"Now let's make all of this happen, so that when we go do the impossible this time, we make it look easy!"