INVINCIBLE by David Mack & Keith R.A. DeCandido

Author:David Mack & Keith R.A. DeCandido
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Pocket
Published: 2001-08-29T04:00:00+00:00

First officer’s log,CommanderSonyaGomez, planetSarindar,Stardate 53281.2

Today at noon we will be doing our first test of the annular confinement beam. This is the most important test we’ve done so far, as the ACB is an important component of the SA. The ACB is similar to the kind used in transporters, but much more powerful by several orders of magnitude. It will be used to clear a path of vacuum through the planet’s atmosphere, through which the payloads of chimerium will be accelerated with an eight-nanosecond high-warp pulse that will drive them up to the refinery.

I’ve been a bit concerned about this particular aspect of the SA, as it’s the most experimental, inasmuch as no one’s ever (to the best of my knowledge) created an ACB on this scale. It’s also a very good thing that I—or at least someone from Starfleet—was assigned to this project before this test was done. The power systems for the ACB were not sufficiently recalibrated for the increased power. The nature of the ACB is such that, as the beam increases in size, you have to increase the power output logarithmically, not exponentially. If they’d built this up to the original specs, as mandated by my predecessor, the bestcase scenario would be that the ACB would burn out and shut down. Worst-case: the entire SA would’ve exploded in a fiery mess, people probably would die, and the project would have to start over from scratch.

The original schedule the project had been on when I arrived didn’t have this test being attempted for another two weeks. My own revised schedule had it for two days from now. I would like to formally commend the foreperson Kejahna, my assistant Razka, and the assistant foreperson J’Roh for their exemplary work in putting the project ahead of schedule, despite the numerous impediments that have been placed in our path.

Morale has improved tremendously since the unfortunate incident with the so-called “monster shii.” I am still awaiting an autopsy report from Dr. Dolahn on the nature of the creature. However, my killing the thing has elevated me in the eyes of the Nalori workers. Many have taken to following J’Roh’s example and calling me “sañuul.” I have tried to discourage this, but to no avail. I’m also not entirely comfortable with the fact that it has taken me killing an animal to gain the respect of the workers.

On the other hand, I can’t argue with the results. We’ve worked the bugs out of the antimatter reactor, the magnetic containment system is up and running, and we’ll be ready to bring the antimatter pods online tomorrow. In addition, when I informed Kejahna and the workers assigned to the ACB that we’d have to so radically change the power systems output, his response to my criticism of the methods employed by my predecessor—for the first time since I arrived— was not hostile.

Now it is simply a question of waiting until noon, when we get our pulsar/quasar window.

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