ILLUMINARRPG: (09-1240) - COps Lieutenant Dieter Gregory, ASO Lieutenant (jg) Jaton Alyl, Engineering Cadet Oda Berr

[Dieter Gregory]

*

NRPG: Tying up some loose ends and sending a Cadet off in style.

Mission: The Uncaring Stars

Day: 9

Stardate: 2445.10.22



(USS Illuminar - Deck 7- High Energy Particle Physics Lab - COps 
Lieutenant Dieter Gregory and Engineering Cadet Oda Berr -- 1240)


After lunch Berr had rushed to his quarters to dig out his personal 
PADDs that he had been workin on.  He did have to take a minute to eat 
some bread to settle his stomach.  That hesperat was still eating 
through his stomach.  And he wasn’t sure when he would be able to taste 
anything else again.


However, when had his PADDs and his actual drawn out designs he made his 
way to deck 7.  He stood outside the door for a moment.  He closed his 
eyes and took a deep breath.  ~Don’t muck this up Oda.~ He took a step 
forward and the door swooshed open.  Oda took a step into the lab.


Gregory was sitting to the side, by one of the analysis stations.  He 
had been inputting some data when Berr walked in.  Next to him was a 
woman Berr had seen before.  A Petty officer Ywan, as he recalled.


“Come in Mr. Berr,” Gregory said.  “Ms. Ywan and I were just finishing 
inputting the data we obtained when we were over in the engineering 
room.  Why don’t you take station one and get your data loaded up.”


Berr nodded and went over to the station that he had been directed to. 
He put the rolls of diagrams and plans down and they began to escape 
from their place. He tossed the PADDs down to collect the fleeing plans, 
and quickly looked to see if anyone had seen.


Once everything was back in place he began to unroll the diagrams. As he 
unrolled each one he looked at it, considering which he would share and 
which were just a little too crazy to share.  Once it was all organized 
how he wanted he sat on a tall stool and waited for whoever else was 
going to join them.


Gregory waited till everyone had settled down before speaking.  “As you 
know, and with the Federation's consent, if not blessing, have been 
given permission to retrofit the Sharlayan ship with fusion reactors to 
replace their thousand year old fission drive.  Clearly this is a 
better, cleaner energy source for them to complete their journey.”


He entered some commands into his station, and a holographic display in 
the center of the room lit up.  “We have to invent a way to fit a square 
peg into a round hole,” he began “using nothing but what we have.” As he 
said that, a list of resources started scrolling on everyone’s station.


Moments later, the display changed, “As you can see from this model, the 
proposal has been to place two smaller federation type reactors to 
separately power propulsion and life support, while providing redundancy 
as needed.  The details and specifications are at your stations.”


He paused, “However, this causes several levels of issues around General 
Order one, as well as training and operation.  Mr. Berr,” he motioned to 
the cadet, “has come up with a more elegant solution.  The purpose of 
this meeting is for him to present his ideas, while we vet them, make 
sure the math works and that we have the necessary supplies in store to 
implement it.  Failure, needless to say, is not an option.  I need every 
one of you at the top of their game.  We check, and double check, then 
check it again before we move on.  There is no rank here, just engineers 
and scientists trying to do what must be done.   Federation history will 
have its eyes on us today, on what we do.”


“Mr. Berr, the floor is yours.”


It was a daunting introduction to say the least. Berr mustered his 
courage and stood up.


“So the problem came to me as a way to create a safer and better source 
of energy than the Sharlayans had in a manner in which the Sharlayans 
might have come upon it on their own. Who knows, perhaps the engineering 
caste of their society had been working on it already. All we would then 
have to do is give credit for it to someone in their clan.”


He paused for a moment to let that thought settle in, and see if there 
were any questions.


“Well,”  he went on, “it seemed the next step was for them to move from 
a fission generator to a fusion source of power. I know that in itself 
is not a new idea, but if the Sharlayans had developed fusion power do 
they have the resources to build the generator?”


He pulled out the first drawing that he had made. It showed a scale 
image of a fusion generator similar to those of Earth’s mid twentieth 
century.


At that moment, Jaton walked through the door. He looked up as the 
others looked over at him. “I am so sorry I’m late. Plenty of fires to 
put out today for some reason. But I’m here now. So how can I help?”


“Right now, listen to Mr. Berr’s proposal.  After that, help make sure 
the math adds up,” Gregory replied.


Jaton nodded, and took a seat next to Gregory, nodding to Berr to continue.


“Mr. Berr, continue please.” Gregory said.


‘Ummm…” Berr collected his thoughts, “well… we were just starting 
Lieutenant.  I was just explaining what led me to the plans for a 
Sharlayan fusion generator that might solve any prime directive issues 
with giving them som Federation technology.  I believe that Lt. Gregory 
was looking for flaws in the plan or hello in how we can implement it.  
You are welcome to help.”


“I’ll be happy to in any way I can,” Jaton said with a friendly smile.


With that said he referred to the plan he had drawn.



“This is a standard plan for a fusion generator. But the problem with 
these types of generators use lasers to fuse atoms together to create 
energy.  That is a very inefficient method of creating energy as the 
quantum destruction of atoms is not imminent using lasers.  That was why 
I propose that we use deuterium and tritium infused plasma in multiple 
cores of the generator.”


He rolled out a second diagram.



“This would be the superconducting magnetic containment unit for the 
infused plasma.  These housings would fit inside the main generator 
which would contain the reactions.  To avoid the problem of the 
randomness of the fusion, the plasma will need to be superheated to 
about a million degrees Celsius.  The other problem is the production of 
gamma radiation, which will need to be monitored.”


He paused again and looked up at his superior officers to get a reaction.


Gregory looked up at the diagrams, “Superheating shouldn’t be a problem 
with the right superconductors, which also offer the advantage of 
eliminating the two most common problems of plasma systems, in 
particular VDE.  Some questions come to mind.”


“First, how do you plan to address the potential of thermal quenching?  
Second, have you considered adding a FLiBe blanket around the system.  
It’ll provide additional protection and should modulate the neutron flux 
outside the system.”  He paused.


Oda nodded and smiled as he stood up, suddenly very excited, “Yes, I was 
worried about that as well.”  He picked up the first PADD and tapped it 
to life.  He turned the display so that the officers could see it as he 
pulled up the display entitled “Thermal Quenching”.  “What I found was 
injection of large shattered pellets of variable quantities of deuterium 
and the high-Z impurities of neon into the plasma of the pods 
demonstrate a control of thermal quenching and current quench properties 
in mitigated disruptions.  You can see here that TQ radiation fractions 
increase continuously with the quantity of radiating impurity in the 
pellet, with a corresponding decrease in divertor heating. Post-TQ 
plasma resistivities increase as a result of the higher radiation 
fraction, allowing control of current decay timescales based on the 
pellet composition.”


  Berr knew he got very tech specific with that and hoped that the 
mathematical computations were enough to prove his point. But then again 
he had spent the last few days trying to explain his ideas to cadets 
that only really knew about warp cord technology and matter/antimatter 
reactions. To them this was an archaic and pointless exercise. They 
wanted to totally replace the present level of Sharlayan technology with 
something completely alien.   These were trained Starfleet engineers.


“As far as using a FLiBe blanket, to be honest I had not thought of 
that, but it would solve many of the attemperation issues. I had been 
looking at a Heat Recovery Generator, as well as high-pressure and 
reheat interstage piping, but that requires constant monitoring and 
repairs need to be made immediately, and to be honest I’m not sure the 
Sharlayan‘a are ready for that.  The blanket would be a great addition.”


He picked up the PADD and typed in the suggestion. He wanted to figure 
it out right now but there was more to discuss.


  “The gamma radiation issue is especially concerning,” Gregory went 
on.  ”We just cleaned up their engine space, only to introduce 
penetrating gamma radiation into the mix.”  Gregory looked down at his 
computer, “I am calculating we’d need to have a shield at least a meter 
thick around the system.”


“I was looking into this product called…” he looked on his PADD, 
“concrete. If we infuse lead into the concrete the shielding required 
would be significantly less. Perhaps on a third of a meter thick.”


“I wonder,” Gregory added, ”however, if we can take advantage of the 
gamma radiation in another way.”


“How so?” Berr asked.


“There were some studies done that used gamma radiation to heat up lead 
and use that to generate electricity by coupling it to a more 
traditional steam generator.  I don’t remember the specifics, if we 
shield the habitable side from the gamma, and use a reflector type setup 
to guide them to a specific point, we might be able to harness 
additional power.”


“That would be amazing,” Berr sounded excited again. “I think I recall 
it had something to do with using silicon semiconductor cells made of 
p-type Si single crystal wafers. I can do some research into that.”


“Other preliminary questions for Mr. Berr?” he asked, looking around the 
room.


“I know that we’re still skirting around the Prime Directive,” Jaton 
began, “but can’t we just use the most recent declassified shielding 
technology we have and just adapt it to use the Sharlayan power grid?”


“Actually,” Berr said, “that will be essential.  The one thing that is 
going to be necessary in order for this to work, and to give the 
impression that the Sharlayans came up with all of this is to get as 
much Sharlayan participation as possible.  Granted, the Engineering clan 
of Kal’Shar was all but wiped out by the accident six years ago.  
However, their progeny are still viable alternatives.   I went through 
the manifest and found that the entire clan wasn’t wiped out, but their 
families, their children are now of age to take their parents' roles as 
the new engineers of Kal’Shar.  If we can train them now this could all 
be theirs.  They should already have a basic knowledge of how their own 
power systems work.”


Jaton nodded. “So we should definitely be focusing on the training. But 
I suppose the best we can do in this meeting is figure out how far we 
can actually go without getting a ticking off from the captain.”


Berr smiled, “At the academy we would always say it is easier to ask for 
forgiveness than for permission.”


Jaton returned the smile. “I’ve heard that too, cadet. I think your plan 
is sound, if a little conservative for my taste, but when it comes to 
the Prime Directive that’s inevitable. Now we just need to iron out the 
details.”


Gregory looked at Oda, “The elephant in the room remains.  The success 
of this plan requires that the Sharlayan people learn to run this 
themselves.  It’s not going to happen overnight.  We can technically get 
this setup in a few days, with lots of long hours, someone will need to 
stay with the Sharlayans and train their clan.  Are you willing to be 
that person?”


Oda’s eyes opened wide. His mouth begs to move but words didn’t come out 
at first. Finally his body caught up with his brain.


“Me sir?”  Was the first set of coherent words he could get out.   “I 
would be honored. But what about my studies, and the fleet?”


“We will have a ship following the Sharlayan vessel for a bit where you 
can get access to necessary material for your studies,” Gregory said.


“It would be a huge undertaking that would take me a few years to get 
done. But I would appreciate the opportunity. Thank you Lieutenant.”


Gregory stood up and walked over to where Berr was seated, with petty 
officer Ywan behind him.   Turning to her, she handed him a PADD and a 
small box.


“Attention to orders,” he called out.  Waiting till everyone was 
standing, he looked down at the PADD before speaking.


“Mr. Oda Berr.  In recognition of your completion of the proscribed 
course of study at Star Fleet Academy and your exemplary performance on 
your cadet cruise aboard the USS Illuminar, it is with great pleasure 
that you are promoted to Ensign, junior grade with all the rights, 
privileges and responsibilities appertaining thereto.  Effective 
Stardate 2445.10.22. Signed by Captain Sekal, Commander, USS Illuminar.”


Handing the PADD to the Ywan, he took the small box from her, opened it 
up and took out the Ensigns pip.  He removed the cadet rank on Berr’s 
uniform, placing the pip on his right side.


He took a step back.  Ywan called out, “Hand, Salute.”

With a smile, Gregory saluted the newest Ensign.  Dropping his salute, 
he reached out his hand.  “Congratulations Mr. Berr.  You have a heck of 
job ahead of you.  I have the utmost confidence in your abilities.”


(Reply none)

(Posted by:

Al -- Oda Berr

Tim - Dieter Gregory

Spencer - Jaton Alyl


*
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