by Aer-ki Jyr
Tennisonne ignored her and used a series of shield walls to chop down segments of the growing reaction as Ryan feathered the amount of incoming particles and energy, reducing the reaction without smothering it entirely. That helped Tennisonne after the first few tries it took for Ryan to get synchronized with what the other engineer was doing, then the two of them gradually pulled back the reaction with both having to make constant mental adjustments.
“Halfway there,” Victoria noted, seeing the levels calming down.
“Confirm computer is recording.”
“Confirmed. Keep schooling it,” she prompted, checking the status on the other links in the reactor in case they somehow managed to get this one working. They all appeared nominal, but to date had never been tested, given that the first three stages were as far as they’d gotten.
Pushing aside all outside influence, Tennisonne focused his psionic abilities…a gift from Davis for his long service, and something that he’d devoted daily training time towards for just this sort of manipulation that normally only a computer could accomplish. The speed of the link allowed him to make adjustments far faster than his fingers otherwise would have allowed, though still not as fast as a computer was capable of. The difference was wisdom, for a computer could only do what it was programmed to do, and improvising was something that could never be programmed.
Inside the third stage of the reactor two exotic forms of energy that Star Force had only learned to produce a few decades ago were bombarding a slurry of molecules created in stage two. Those had to be kept at extreme heat and pressure, otherwise their unusual atomic configuration would dissipate. Those molecules were then spawning a precise number of andermob particles per cyclical spin, and in order to feed stage 4 a certain flow rate was required. At present the cycles were erratic, giving large surges of andermobs followed by mere trickles, none of which stage 4 could use.
Using the shields and flow rate, Tennisonne and Ryan compressed and relaxed the pressure in various regions of the slurry, adjusting the cyclical rate and trying to maintain a steady output into phase four. The tiny tier 2 subatomic particles had to occur in large amounts to feed the reactor, meaning that a large amount of the molecular slurry was required…which was what was causing the regulation problems. In test runs smaller amounts had been easier to control, which the computer regulation program had been designed to emulate, but given the larger numbers the slurry took on a different behavior, much akin to how a lake and an ocean differed in current patterns.
Tennisonne was having to learn those patterns and counter them, as well as to get a feel for the adjustments Ryan was making. He would have liked to have communicated with him telepathically so they could increase their efficiency, but his psionic skills were already being taxed by the interlink and he didn’t have enough processing power left over to shout a telepathic word, let alone coordinate in real time.
He could still speak though, given that that ability wasn’t psionic, nor were his ears, which Victoria kept annoying with constant updates. He could see the reaction as well, if not better than she could, so he didn’t know why she kept talking at him, other than just being bored with nothing else to do.
More on accident than anything, the pair of engineers managed to keep a stable reaction for a brief span of 4.2 seconds, their longest sustained period yet, which achieved the 3.04 seconds of continuous production necessary to activate stage 4.
“We’re through to four!” Victoria announced excitedly.
“Talk to us,” Tennisonne said, now wanting her input as he continued to chase a stable reaction in stage three.
“We have 79% transfer...stage 5 is activating. Wait, no…hold on,” she said, making an adjustment on her end. “Contained within 5. We’re at 68% capacity. We need more to get through in the next few minutes or we’re going to lose it.”
“Working on it,” Ryan said as he and Tennisonne tried to repeat their success. Again, through what seemed sheer accident rather than intent, the reaction stabilized for 3.8 seconds, sending another continuous burst into stage 4.
“That did it! Stage 5 has reached threshold, transferring to six. Massive loss…we’re only getting 31% through and…” she cut off suddenly.
“What?” Ryan demanded.
“Stage 7 complete.”
“Shut down,” Tennisonne prompted, holding the reaction in check until Victoria deactivated the entire assembly. When it went offline he disconnected from the Ikrid terminal, returning his normal senses to the forefront of his mind. He blinked away the disconcertedness and walked back over to his corner terminal and studied the results.
The reactor was reading .0003 milligrams of Erruvium, and according to the readings it was in a stable form. He’d worried about there being a transitional instability in the halo of neutrons surrounding the empty core of the atom being held together solely by corovon linkage, but the structure appeared to be holding, otherwise there would have been an instantaneous collapse into traditional C-type elements.
“Did we finally do it?” Ryan asked, looking at his own terminal with the other two engineers in each corner of the triangular room with the reactor and its precious contents between them.
Tennisonne cracked a smile, but it was safely inconspicuous from the other two. Most people considered manual override of computer control absolute folly, but he knew from experience…and a little Archon envy…that it was the preferred route to take in select situations.
“Welcome to the new age,” he said loudly and proudly, “of Arc Elements.”
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