Variable Subspace
Posted on April 8th, 2015 by Ilaihr

Ilaihr marched into the weapons bay, waving over the two officers working in there the moment he entered. “Lads. I’m going to require the room for a number of hours and… for safety reason, it would be agreeable for you two to make yourselves scarce.”

They looked at each other, then back to Ilaihr and nodded. “Sure thing sir. What are our orders?”

He analysed the situation of the ship in relation to their question. “Since you are stationed to the weapons bay, it would be only logical for you two to assign yourselves to something relating to the tactical department. Check the weapon systems diagnostics, perform repairs to any of the power conduits or the bays and arrays if they require them.”

“Understood sir. We’ll leave you to your work.” They both smiled, and began to leave.

Ilaihr patted them both on the back as he followed them out, so as to seal the door when they left. The moment the door closed, he sealed it and erected a Level 12 forcefield around the room. He moved across the room and using the bay apparatus, placed a quantum torpedo on the work bench. He beamed in from the cargo bay, utilising a containment field, the ship’s supply of tricobalt. He even furthered his precautions by erecting a local subspace dampening field, making absolutely certain that the tricobalt didn’t cause a subspace detonation.

“Computer begin audio recording on my mark, please.” He asked the computer nicely, as he opened the access panel and unlock the torpedo’s casing. “Mark.”

“I currently find myself dissecting a quantum torpedo, and will in a moment be infusing the warhead with an added payload of enriched tricobalt. I have taken the necessary steps to ensure that the process will go smoothly and without incident.”

He started taking parts out and moving others around, with utmost care, making room for the added mass.

“I don’t usually work with substances like this; far too rich for my blue blood. Hauled it a few times back in the day; but those runs were more tentative and nerve wracking in a few day, than the six months I spent near Sheliak space. Bizarre species. Highly xenophobic and have an absolute disdain for humanoid lifeforms. Lucky thing I was there on a Tholian run then, they would have surely attacked Betty….. But yes, tricobalt is dangerous, fluctuates subspace and can cause massive kinetic, concussive and radiometric damage. When a weapon of this magnitude explodes, space literally ripples under the stress.”

He finshed doing whatever to the quantum, and moved over to cautiously handle the tricobalt. He deactivated the containment field, took a sampler, and; using Hamlet’s recipe, took a quarter of the containers contents, slowly and carefully taking it back to the work bench. He reactivated the containment field, beamed the remainder back to it’s special storage pod and immediately got back to work.

“Thinking of the Sheliak; I cannot help but think of our war with the Tzenkethi, and new intelligence I’ve heard of the Breen being involved now. The Tzenkethi acting alone I understand; they’re prone to the odd angry fit of rage, as many reptilioid species are. But the Breen… they are cunning. A mysterious race, that I know very well. Allying themselves with the Tzenkethi like this seems off for them. They are a very deliberate species, and they only act when they have the upper hand…..”

He mopped his brow before tentatively beginning the infusion process. Using a machanical arm and beam, he was essentially welding the alloy to the warhead, but trying to create a honeycomb lattice structure; helping to harness it’s destructive potential by having unstable subspace microbubbles forming within the weapon. This would be the lengthy part of the process.

“Something else is going on behind this war. I’m unsure what though. If we had the luxury, I would ask the captain if I could take on more diplomatic responsibilities. My name must mean something, somewhere still. I would like to find out more about the politics of this war, because these two species are not acting alone; someone is pulling their strings. I assume the Klingons and the Romulans are denying us assistance; so we need to be asking the Cardassians, the Tholians, maybe the Ferengi… because their territories are closest to Breen and Tzenkethi space… Although I guess it would be plausible that the Tholians are involved somehow; their spacial boundaries may have shifted again, I forget the cycle.”

He took a quick breath before getting on with what is going to take him several hours to complete.

“I may ask the captain if I can be of any assistance in those sorts of matters. I do have experience with a good many Alpha Quadrant species. I suppose I’m longing to do something more useful in the grand scheme of it, and try to bring an end to this war sooner with less bloodshed. But for the minute, I should focus on this very large, highly explosive and indeterminately unstable weapon of mass destruction….”

He put his head down, and for the next few hours all that was recorded was multilingual swearing and singing, grunting and the occasional ballad of humming.