by Doug Farren
10
The Test
Departure day! Kauffman sat at the stardrive monitor station on the bridge and listened to the well-trained crew as they made the final preparations for departure. “All stations, report departure readiness,” Captain Shoemaker requested in a calm yet commanding voice.
“Engineering has a green board. We are on internal systems. Main propulsion is hot and ready.”
“Helm and navigation are go. Inertial navigation is synced. Departure course is set. No other traffic is on the scope.”
“Communications are go. We have a hard lock on both the lunar and terrestrial AST uplinks. Traffic control has given us clearance for departure.”
Shoemaker listened to each of these reports then calmly said, “Helm: Initiate standard departure. Full power on the thrusters.”
“Aye sir. Standard departure at full power.”
The helm manipulated several controls and Jay felt the Starfire shudder as the ship’s engines ramped up to full thrust.
“Full power achieved. Acceleration steady at 0.013 G’s,” the helm reported.
“Acknowledged. Set engine controls to maintain current acceleration and plot a direct course to our target position.”
The acceleration may not have seemed like much, but over time it would increase the ship’s velocity to over 26 kilometers per second by the time they reached the half-way point of their journey. The ship would then flip end-over-end and decelerate for an equal amount of time so they would be at a relative dead stop when they finally arrived at the test area in 45 days.
As the Starfire’s propellant was depleted, the ship would become less massive and therefore would require less engine power to maintain the same acceleration. By ordering the engines to automatically throttle back to maintain the same rate of acceleration the captain had made the navigational calculations easier and therefore more precise.
The tiny acceleration did make for some comical situations for the crew. In the non-rotating section of the ship, the acceleration was welcomed as a friend as it kept the amount of floating debris to a minimum. It was a nuisance, however, in the rotating living section since it added another component to the already complex sense of 'down'.
The artificial gravity created by rotating the living section had a large Coriolis component. This is the same force that causes hurricanes to spin clockwise in the northern hemisphere and counterclockwise in the southern hemisphere. At first, this Coriolis force made life interesting on the Starfire since it was far more pronounced than on Earth. After a week, the crew’s brains automatically compensated and everyone had learned how to pour a cup of coffee without having the stream of liquid overshoot their cup.
Now that the ship was accelerating, another force in another direction caused things to move in unexpected ways. Once again, liquids and free falling objects seemed to follow strange and inexplicable paths. Water and coffee hit the table top instead of the cup. Waste basket basketball became a serious challenge. The ever adaptable human brain eventually compensated for this force as well and life once again returned to normal.
The Starfire’s systems ran smoothly and efficiently requiring only minimal routine periodic maintenance. Message traffic between the ship and Earth started to show signs of delay as the distance involved steadily grew larger. Real-time communication became unpleasant and the changeover to email exchanges went almost unnoticed.
The days passed quickly. The flip for deceleration at the halfway point brought a little bit of excitement and change. It wasn’t long, however, before the ship reached its final destination.
“Main engine shutdown complete,” chief engineer Simatowski announced after several indicators on his board changed color.
“Very well,” the captain replied. Activating the ship’s address system he continued, “All hands this is the captain. We have arrived at our designated test position. I want everyone to get a good night’s sleep. We will begin the testing sequence at 0800 tomorrow.”
Kauffman floated through the bridge hatch a moment later. “I was hoping to get the testing started as soon as possible,” he complained.
“Mr. Kauffman, I know you are as anxious as everyone else aboard this ship to test your stardrive but I want the crew to be well rested and ready for anything during the test. Besides, we need to make sure that AST is ready to receive your data.”
The disappointment was obvious on Jay’s face but the logic of the captain’s argument was unassailable. “Oh eight hundred it is then. See you in the morning captain.” Jay knew he would not be getting much sleep but he would at least try.
Shoemaker watched Jay’s receding back for a moment then turned his attention back to his bridge crew. “Coms: Inform AST flight operations that we have arrived at the designated testing area and we will begin testing at 0800 ship’s time tomorrow. They should be ready to receive test data at that time.”
* * * * *
“Solar activity is quiet,” the helm reported.
“Very well,” the captain replied. “Engineering: Take the cosmic ray shield offline. All other stations, shutdown all unnecessary equipment.”
The captain had issued these orders to make the ship as electromagnetically quiet as possible. This would give the stardrive field analyzers a less noisy environment in which to measure the drive’s field emissions. Several minutes went by, then Mr. Simatowski said, “We are electromagnetically quiet. All unnecessary sources of EM radiation have been shutdown. Cosmic radiation levels are holding steady at two point six three millirem per hour.”
“Very good Mr. Simatowski,” the captain replied. “Mr. Kauffman, it’s your show.”
With the electromagnetic shield deactivated, the normally occurring cosmic background radiation was no longer being deflected around the ship. Most of this radiation was in the form of high-energy protons which could be deflected by a magnetic field. Without the shield, the crew would be receiving a slow but constant dose of radiation. This was not a problem for a short time, but constant exposure to even low levels of radiation over many days could result in medical problems such as an increased risk of developing cancer.
Jay turned to his specialized control console and activated one of the six computer monitors built into it. He brought up a menu and set into motion a preprogrammed sequence of instructions. The other monitors sprang to life. Several instrument clusters along the outside of the ship powered up and extended sensitive detection devices into space. Two of the monitors started to display a complex set of graphs.
In the center of the ship, power was applied to the stardrive and several thousand components began to spin up to their operating speeds. After a few minutes Kauffman turned and said, “As predicted, this area of space possesses the desired gravimetric field density necessary for us to run our tests. As soon as the drive emitters are up to speed I’ll be starting with an extremely low power test to verify the internal integrity of the drive. This test will take only a few minutes to run.”
Over the next several hours, Kauffman performed several tests at successively higher power levels. The new drive system appeared to be operating as predicted. While these tests were being performed the laser communications array was deployed and the link to Earth (and ultimately to CAIN) was established and tested. The main fusion reactor was also powered up and readied.
“CAIN and I are in agreement,” Kyle said. The transmission had been sent from Earth nearly a minute ago. “All of the data looks good. We should be able to power up the matrix field next. This will give us a good indication of the how well the emitters are aligned.”
“I agree,” Kauffman replied. “I will be deploying the field probe network and commencing with low power matrix field testing.”
Kauffman touched a button on his panel and the pod containing the field probes opened. A moment later, 1,800 self-propelled probes swarmed into space. Each probe guided itself using small jets of gas into a precise location relative to the Starfire. Once positioned, the probes then made co
ntact with the nearest of the eight concentrators. The concentrators then established a link to the Starfire and to each other. The entire process took nearly thirty minutes. Finally, the network was in position and ready to acquire data.
Kauffman checked the status of the main fusion reactor and then commanded the stardrive’s computer to perform the first test of the matrix field. A brief surge of power flowed into the drive and the field detector network collected data. This data was sent to the concentrators, compressed and forwarded to the computer aboard the Starfire which encoded it and forwarded the data to Earth and ultimately routed to CAIN. The machine chewed on the results for several long minutes, determined what adjustments were needed and sent the results back to the Starfire.
During the time it took for CAIN’s reply to make it back to the ship, Kauffman looked at the graphs and readouts which had appeared on his console. CAIN’s reply arrived while Jay was on his way down to the stardrive maintenance panel. Once there, he activated another monitor and began the delicate task of adjusting the emitters.
For the next three hours Jay used his intimate knowledge of the drive’s inner workings combined with CAIN’s analysis of the resultant field which had been created to adjust the shape of the matrix field. Hundreds of adjustments were made; the rotational speed of an emitter; another's spin axis in a particular orientation was adjusted by a few hundredths of a degree; power settings were tweaked. Some emitters needed only one adjustment while others needed several. Many were left untouched.
After completing all adjustments and double-checking them, Kauffman made his way back to the bridge and set up for the next test. After verifying the detection network was ready another pulse of power surged through the drive. This time the adjustments took only 45 minutes. The adjustments following the third test were very minor and took 10 minutes to complete. The forth test was run and Kauffman waited on the bridge for CAIN’s analysis.
Fifteen minutes later the expected transmission arrived. “CAIN suggests making another adjustment but I disagree. The field variance is so minute as to be almost buried in the noise. I think we risk putting the field structure out of alignment by making any further adjustments. But, you’re the one who designed the drive and it’s your call. Let us know what your decision is and we will proceed from there.”
Kauffman pressed a button on his console so he could reply to Kyle’s message. “I don’t think the variance is anything to worry about. I believe you’re right in that we run the risk of knocking the drive out of alignment in another direction in order to compensate for the variance. CAIN has always been a perfectionist. I am going to proceed with the first drive field test as soon as we can get things set at this end. Please ensure that sufficient communications bandwidth has been made available to analyze the incoming data. The test should proceed in about ten minutes.”
Kauffman spun around and addressed the captain. “Captain Shoemaker: I would like to address the crew. We are about to proceed with the first actual drive field test.”
“Very well Mr. Kauffman.” The captain touched a control on his command chair and an attention tone sounded throughout the ship. He paused to allow everyone to focus their attention on his next words.
“All hands, this is the captain! Standby for a message from Mr. Kauffman.”
Jay pressed a button on his console and said, “This is Jay Kauffman. I have completed the initial alignment and testing of the stardrive. The next test will establish a low power static drive field around the ship. We will not move since the drive fields have not been aligned to provide any propulsive force. Since this is the first time that such a field has ever been established it is uncertain as to what effect it may have on us. I will give everyone a countdown before initiating the first test. The field will remain in place for fifteen seconds. After the test I would like anyone who experiences any sensations what-so-ever to contact the bridge. Drive field test will begin in ten minutes.”
After disconnecting from the ship’s announcing system he said, “Engineering, please charge both power accumulators to one hundred percent and inform me when ready.”
While the accumulators were being charged, Jay made the necessary adjustments on his console for the test. As he worked, a part of his mind thought: This is the moment of truth. Will the drive field kill us all? Will we feel anything? Will this part of space cease to exist? God I hope this works!
“Both accumulators are at full charge,” Simatowski announced. “Main fusion reactor safeties have been temporarily reset to allow for one hundred and fifteen percent over-power.”
Kauffman paused a moment to review a mental checklist and to calm his nerves. His stomach had knotted up and a light bead of perspiration had appeared on his brow. After one final scan of his console he once again depressed the button allowing him to address the entire ship. One finger of his right hand was poised above the initiator button. “All hands! Static drive field initiation in five—four—three—two—one…”
At the count of zero Kauffman depressed the button. The indicators on his console showed that power was being fed into the drive. As the matrix field built up to full strength the power levels rapidly climbed. The console’s complex graphics indicated the matrix field was forming just as his equations had predicted. Suddenly, the power levels shot up as the accumulators were cut in and a huge surge of energy flowed through the stardrive. Kauffman watched in amazement as the primary stardrive field began to form.
11
Failure?
Anita and Kyle listened to Jay’s last message and waited in eager anticipation for the ten minutes to slowly pass. After what seemed like an eternity, the observers turned their attention to the data feed from the field monitors surrounding the ship. They watched as the matrix field once again built up to full strength. There was a brief surge of fantastic power and then suddenly—nothing.
Anita sucked in a quick sharp breath. Kyle’s hands flew over the controls and after observing the results for a couple of seconds said, “We’re still getting a signal from the probe network but there is no indication of any artificial fields being generated anywhere in the area. CAIN, give me an analysis of the last few seconds of the data feed just before the drive field vanished.”
The intelligent computer had already anticipated Kyle’s request and had been reviewing the data microsecond by microsecond. “One moment please,” it replied. “There is a tremendous amount of information to sift through.”
“What do you think happened?” Anita asked in a shaky voice.
“I don’t know and I really don’t want to speculate right now. One good piece of news is that the monitor network is still active. This tends to indicate there wasn't some sort of massive explosion. I’ve commanded the concentrators to perform a quick diagnostic of all the probes just to make sure they are in working order and weren’t burned out by the energy surge. We will have the results in a few minutes.”
“The drive field was only supposed to be active for fifteen seconds. They should be able to communicate with us by now.”
Kyle entered a command into his computer console and a deep space radar image appeared on the monitor. He keyed in a few more commands causing the image to change. The time index at the lower right of the screen showed they were looking at a time just prior to the drive field activation.
“This is our deep space radar array located on the moon,” he explained. “The radar has been locked on the Starfire since the testing started. This blip here,” he pointed to a dot just to the top left of the center of the screen, “is the Starfire. Now, let’s watch as I put the screen in motion at one-quarter normal speed.”
A few more commands were entered and the time index started to slowly advance. One second the blip of the Starfire was there and the next it had vanished. After twenty seconds of time had elapsed the blip had not returned.
“They’re gone!” Anita exclaimed.
Kyle continued to input commands into his console as he talked. “I’m instructing the
radar array to perform a scan of all surrounding space and to correlate the returns with all known ships and satellites. Any unknown objects will show up. We can reliably scan out to a distance of about the orbit of Mars but it’s going to take some time. If they are still out there we should be able to find them.”
“Kyle,” CAIN interrupted. “I have completed my preliminary analysis of the data stream from the field probes.”
“Did you find anything?”
“Possibly. The matrix field formed as before and the field structure appears to have been correct. Once the matrix field was stable the main drive field started to develop. My analysis indicates a stable drive field did indeed form and existed for 382.63 microseconds. The probe network then detected a slight shift in the field structure 0.184 microseconds prior to the loss of all field data. I have not been able to determine the cause of this field distortion nor have I been able to determine what effect it may have had on the Starfire. I am continuing with a detailed analysis of the final microsecond prior to data loss.”
“Do you think they may have been destroyed?” Anita asked.
“There are no indications of the Starfire having been destroyed,” CAIN replied without any discernible inflection in his voice. “The field strength suddenly dropped to zero. Radar has detected no debris and there was no energy surge indicating destruction. I would speculate that either they have unintentionally traveled at faster than light velocities in an unknown direction or the Starfire has been removed from existence by the unpredictable forces with which we are working.”
“Let us hope it is the former,” Kyle added. “Let us know if your analysis turns up anything else.”
“Acknowledged.”
Anita sat in thought for a moment then sprang into action. She pulled her ever-present cell phone from off her belt. “Dial AST central space operations.”