Wibbly-Wobbly Stuff

[Taeli Raaf]

Looking over the reports streaming to her datapad from Jaxson about hyperdrive maintenance costs from the ships going to Jen'asha Station was really starting to irritate her. Honestly, there had to be a better system to go into Otherspace that didn't fry a ship's hyperdrive so it required extensive repairs.

A new Otherspace drive had been on the back burner for Aurora Industries for a very long time, but it was time to put it front and center. Sending a message to Jaxson to contact her, she settled in front of her terminal and only had to wait a moment to see her COO appear on it.

"We're designing a new Otherdrive," she stated with finality, leaving no room for discussion. "I don't care what it takes, but I want this done. I'm tired of seeing those bloody maintenance costs appearing in reports. Find a way to get it done Jaxson."

"It will be my top priority," he chuckled. "I'll keep you updated on the process of the project. Will you be joining us for the development of this?"

"Soon I will," Taeli replied. "Keep me updated."

 

[Taeli Raaf]

Jaxson ticked away at his datapad while he waited for the turbolift into the lab's lower level to arrive at his destination. The boss wanted a new Otherdrive, she would get a new Otherdrive. Looking over the schematics they had gained by scanning and taking apart an old T-2000 Otherdrive, he could appreciate the idea but he could see problems and ways they could be fixed.

"Sir, we've been doing some brainstorming, but we wanted to wait for you before we buckled down on any ideas," a technician said as he walked out of the lift and was led to the lab where the testing and construction of the new drive was going to be at.

"Bring me up to speed when we get inside, and tell me they have the parts of one of the T-2000's in there," Jaxson replied. An audible gulp from the tech just made him sigh and send a request that one of the T-2000's be brought to the lab. They would need to strip one of the Jen'asha freighters of their precious drive, but research demanded they have the parts in front of them while they came up with the new idea.

 

[Taeli Raaf]

It took a bit, a definitely impatient time for Jaxson, but eventually the T-2000 was brought into the lab and he would finally allow discussion of the project to commence while the team looked over the old drive.

"Effective, but highly inefficient as we have noted, sir," one technician said, stating the obvious. "As a brief overview, the T-2000 creates a temporary second hyper wave length that fiddles with the hyperspace corridor for a few moments. Jostles the ship around and blows out the hyperdrive, but it gets you into Otherspace. Then repairs are done, and a normal hyperspace jump takes one out of Otherspace to one of the designated rally points."

"I'm aware of how it works," Jaxson snapped. "What we need to do is figure out the best way to create a similar disturbance and shift into Otherspace that doesn't fry the hyperdrive unit."

"We have a few ideas that we want to try, sir, if you will permit us to explain them," another engineer said, flicking a finger across his datapad and activating the lab's holodisplay.

 

[Taeli Raaf]

"So our first idea was to just streamline the arrhythmia method, mitigate some of the damage to the hyperdrive and..." the first technician started to explain before Jaxson held up his hand.

"We're going to move away from that method," Jaxson stated simply. "I have orders from Taeli that she doesn't want the hyperdive damaged at all in Otherspace jumps."

"Well that certainly limits out options," one engineer mused.

For the next half hour, ideas were proposed and rejected for one reason or another. Jaxson found it irritating that these were the best men and women they had for the job, and they were coming up empty on a way to adapt the systems effectively. Everything had a drawback that damaged the hyperdrive, some even had the potential to destroy the ship completely.

"What if we directly fiddle with the null quantum field generator?" one scientist proposed, looking closely at said system. "It's what is responsible for keeping the hyperspace corridor stable."

 

[Taeli Raaf]

"Hmm, that is a possibility," Jaxson mumbled, pulling up data on the hyperpsace corridors of a regular hyperpsace jump and one that went into Otherspace. "But adapting the generator alone would just cause the corridor to collapse eight times out of ten and that would have dire consequences."

"We would need to change the field guide as well," a scientist said and the team started to latch onto the idea now. It seemed like a viable option to them and Jaxson had to agree. "Change the energies passing through the field guide to fluctuate rapidly for a few seconds, but modify the null generator to keep the corridor from collapsing by being able to handle the changes, but keep it so it slips just enough that a disturbance throws the ship into Otherspace."

"Run simulations on this, but keep thinking of new ideas," Jaxson ordered, sending a message to Taeli they had an idea that might prove viable.

 

[Taeli Raaf]

"Simulations show the method would be viable 87% of the time, so that is well beyond our original expectations," an engineer stated as the latest batch of tests on the method were finishing up. "Even the 13% where a viable Otherspace jump is not achieved, the ship just performs a small normal hyperspace jump. We did come across some issues that the new method does create though, not unexpected, but up to you sir on whether they are acceptable."

"What issues might these be?" Jaxson asked warily. It better not be something too extreme or else they would be back to the drawing board for this project.

"Well it puts most of the systems on a ship, besides engines, navigation, and shields, into a shutdown," the engineer explained. "Power is limited to just those four systems, everything else takes a beating. Luckily, life support is only out for a few seconds according to all of our simulations, but weapons and other systems ... the time varies sir."

"Not as detrimental as repairs, but still could be a problem," Jaxson said, stroking his chin in thought. "I'll consult Taeli on whether those are acceptable downsides. We might need to come up with a way to mitigate the problem to life support though. Don't want crews dealing with that at all."

"Yes, sir."

 

[Taeli Raaf]

"What do you have for me?" Taeli asked as she received the call from Jaxson. She was interested that her engineers must have come up with a concept already if he was calling her so soon.

"We have a working concept, but I wanted to run it by you if the problems associated with it are within acceptable parameters," Jaxson explained. "Modified field guide and null quantum field generator will allow the hyperdrive to remain functional after the Otherpsace jump, however, it does effect and disable the majority of a ship's other systems for differing lengths of time."

Jaxson watched Taeli tap her chin in thought as she weighed the pros and cons.

"You are clear to proceed on pursuing this method," she stated finally. "The pros of a functioning hyperdrive after an Otherspace jump are higher than the cons. Which systems remain operational?"

"Navigation, engines, shields, and power," Jaxson stated promptly. "We're going to make sure life support isn't effected, but our models show that trying to get any other systems beyond that will create additional issues."

"Then just make sure the ship maintains life support, the other systems can be rebooted," she said. "Great job on getting a concept already and let me know whenever the first prototype is ready for testing."

"Yes, ma'am."

 

[Taeli Raaf]

With the green light from the boss, Jaxson told his team to start working on the models and schematics to create the first prototype. Designated the A-XX 200 Otherdrive, Jaxson and his team started to work around the clock to get it done. The tough part was going to be making sure the energies and the hyperspace corridor achieved the proper effect.

Jaxson personally went over additional simulations and computer models to determine the true viability of the method. Everything he was seeing showed that the method would work, but they would need to get specifics out of the way. It would seem five seconds of rapid fluctuations in the energies within the field guide were needed to achieve the desired effect. Sending that data to the team, Jaxson started going over what modifications would be needed to be done to the null quantum field generator.

 

[Taeli Raaf]

The null quantum field generator modifications were going to be the really tricky part. The system needed to always get enough energy to maintain the corridor, but also it needed to vary and shift just enough that the Otherdrive would shift the ship into Otherspace itself. Going over the notes and data from the previous models and sims, he could see where they would need to make the modifications.

Lowering the base power required to keep the jump's corridor stable, while also allowing the generator to cope with the energies and make the necessary changes, was the way to go from what he could tell. Crunching the data and numbers, Jaxson and the team began the actual work of modifying the systems they needed. Jaxson additionally looked over the hyperdrive motivator, but he determined no additional tweaks were needed there.

 

[Taeli Raaf]

Looking over the first modified field guide, he had brought in some engineers from the newly acquired Nubia to get a second opinion on the data and models before they progressed further. Their opinion was mostly in line with what their own engineers had come up with, but they had suggested a few minor tweaks and streamlines to the process.

Their changes did mean life support would remain on, however, artificial gravity would be disabled for quite awhile to compensate. Jaxson and the team had sent a message to Taeli that the life support question had been solved and they were moving forward on the drive itself. He still wasn't sure how the Otherdrive knocked out the majority of other systems, but he had a theory.

Something about the changes of the energies flowing through the Otherdrive looped back into the main power systems of a ship and that in turn created a cascade effect. Some systems could handle it, but apparently others couldn't. Still, they had the answers they needed so it was time to move forward into first mock-up.

 

[Taeli Raaf]

It took several days, and two failed attempts as they made tiny mistakes in the modifications, but eventually the first prototype was up and ready for full testing. Sitting back in the observation room, they had commandeered the facilities at the Styx research station for this phase of testing. Limited testing was all they could do until he felt they could strap the drive into a ship and send it to Jen'asha.

That would be the final testing phase though, for now, he nodded at the technicians to begin the testing. As the Otherdrive began building up to the simulated jump, Jaxson found he couldn't stop himself from holding his breath. This was going to be the point of pass or fail for the project, and as the energies hit and the computer ran the simulated jump ... he couldn't stop a sigh of relief as after the jump began and they triggered the shift and everything went as they had planned.

Five seconds of power fluctuating and it seemed to create a viable Otherspace jump as it moved the simulated ship out of the normal hyperspace jump it had begun as.

 

[Taeli Raaf]

"Our simulation is showing the results as we expected, sir," a tech said as they powered the drive down and shut the jump off. "The simulated ship is sending the data on its systems now. Navigation is still online, shields are roughly at 67% percent but still up, power and engines are in working order and life support is up."

"What about others?" Jaxson asked.

"Lights are down, will take roughly five minutes for reboot ... weapons are disabled, estimated reboot is between twenty and thirty minutes, artificial grav and comms are both are rebooting at the same rate, estimated time is ... four minutes. Sensors are finicky at best, but a full reboot is minutes away."

"Acceptable for the most part," Jaxson said. "Not bad for a first test at all."

 

[Taeli Raaf]

Updating Taeli on the progress, Jaxson authorized more tests and to begin getting a ship ready for final testing. It would be crewed by droids, just in case anything truly bad happened to it. He wasn't anticipating anything, and further tests did show that things appeared fine, but they couldn't shake off a chance of the corridor collapsing and ... well it wouldn't be good. That chance needed to be eliminated before the moved into production.

It took another few week of tests on the prototype, but they could finally say the chance of a collapse was now down to just 2%, well within acceptable parameters. A ship was being rigged with the device now, just one of their Strider-class bulk freighters. If something did happen, no loss as the droids were just simple astromech droids and rigs designed to keep the ship going and to transmit data back to their records. If the ship reached Jen'asha, all the better.

 

[Taeli Raaf]

"Let's see how this goes now," Jaxson said, standing on the observation deck of the Styx station as the outfitted ship drifted just outside the gravity well of the gas giant. "Begin final testing of the drive. Engage normal hyperspace jump and then two minutes in, engage the A-XX 200."

"Yes, sir."

A command was sent to the droid crew and moments later, the ship disappeared into hyperspace. They wouldn't know what had happened until the ship either arrived in Otherspace or reached the programmed hyperspace destination. All the team could do was twiddle thumbs and go over the data from just before the jump.

"Nothing appeared out of the ordinary, so we should know in about four minutes," the technician monitoring the comm unit said.

It was a long four minutes, and he was just about to write off the test as a failure and go back over the data, when a comm frequency crackled to life and the droids began transmitting the data back to them. Everything had gone exactly as simulated, with the droids now in Otherspace and about to dock at Jen'asha. More concrete data would be coming to the team once the ship was docked and those waiting on the other end sent their reports.

 

[Taeli Raaf]

"Congratulations, sir, we've achieved the project's goal," one man said, the team celebrating around them. The data they had gotten back showed everything had occurred as predicted, the fluctuation of the energies had been enough of a change to the hyperspace corridor it had shifted to Otherspace while keeping the corridor stable and the flight going. The hyperdrive was still functional and could be used to head to the rendevouz poitn to collect the ship and its droid crew.

"Indeed, Taeli will be quite pleased by the demonstration and we can begin some limited production of these," Jaxson stated, chinking his glass of wine with the man. "I'm thinking the new teams at Nubia will be up to the task, with some oversight from the designers here to make sure everything runs smoothly. I suspect Taeli has an idea of what this technology means for us all. No more maintenance costs from blown hyperdrives from ships going to Jen'asha."