The ship was busy all last night working with the new data it had gathered in our encounter. I tried my best to sleep however I was haunted with the images of the creature we had created. I ended up watching some of the data that the ship analyzed and dozed off a couple times in the chair while I did so. Finally I felt rested enough to function, but I knew I would be nervous all day. The psychic energies coming from the creature had been strong, amazingly strong. Sensors not built to detect those energies had detected them, which had given the ship an idea on how to finally be able to sense the mindforce energy without us having to continue in our experiments. I was relieved to have another possible solution, I really didn't want to try to manipulate life again to suit our needs and I forbade the ship from doing anything more along those lines as well, for now fragments were off limits. As for me, I had to work on developing my raw mindforce abilities, I could no longer rely on the technology to sense what I needed to and I had realized at some point in my sleeplessness that the creature had been able to access so much of my mind because of the implant, it would have to go. This would reduce my control over the ship, I would have to communicate more and be dependant on the entity. However, I would not need the PDA back either, we modified the ship so that wherever I was a console could be projected. It was good that we had developed the technology despite not needing it at the time. Once we double checked that all the interfaces I would need were created I had the implant removed and felt my absolute control slip away as well as my enhanced abilities.
Training was difficult, I had been so used to the technology in my head helping me harness and control my natural abilities that I had no idea how to really use them without it. The first thing I had to do was go back to sweating, it served no purpose for me to have vibrant sweat as the technology would not be useful to me, however I needed something basic to start with to start training my mind. All the sweat that I gathered the ship stored for me, I didn't have any technology on me anymore for doing it myself but I was grateful to be free of the burden for now. As my focus improved and I was able to concentrate better without the aid of technology I started to sense the creatures in the habitat more. It seemed as if all of them put forth a small amount of mindforce energy, each one felt different and none of them were malicious like the energy I had encountered from that thing we had to run from. I didn't even know what to call it, it was humanoid and if it hadn't been for the green hue in its skin I could have mistaken it for a human being. I decided it was best right now not to dwell on it, my focus needed to be in improving my own abilities for now.
As the day drew to a close I felt tired, I had been training most of the day and had some progress. I could better sense the creatures around me though this would still need some work as they had to be pretty close. I also could train without sweating now as I had something else to focus on. The ship was still conducting its research, there was a lot of data to go through from the brief encounter, however it said it should have some results when I woke up. It prepared a meal for me, one that it assured me should help me sleep. It wasn't wrong, the meal was delicious and as I jotted down my notes for the day I felt sleep coming quickly.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
The Way of the Mad Scientist
Well, all the simulations came up as failures with the fragments. We even tried different mixes of them to see if we could get it to balance, however the plants and the bacteria would end up killing one another. Being that it was all just a simulation we were only going on previous habits that we encountered in our observations, so I finally made up my mind, we'd have to actually try this with real plants and bacteria. We created mini domes within the room that was designated for this study. I also had the ship construct an observation room so we could further isolate these tests, I didn't want any of evolving life to corrupt our current habitat. Constructing the life didn't take long, they were very simple organisms and we were, after all, only modifying their genome, it wasn't like we had to create them from scratch. Once we had each mini-dome balanced out and functioning with living organisms we began introducing fragments into each one, of course leaving one untouched to base our results on. The plants and bacteria didn't go instantly berserk, the simulations had been accelerated in order to try to find our answers in a timely manner, this time we'd have to wait and see.
After a few hours we started to notice differences in the various little domes. The atmosphere changed within a few and the plants would change color. The bacteria were difficult to observe due to their size and our need to not allow them to escape, however it looked like one set of them had started producing a black light instead of white and the plants glowed eerily. The most interesting change was that one of them, the one we had put the fragments in we were planning to test with, seemed to be emitting a mindforce energy and a few of the other domes seemed to be responding to it. As the ship could not detect these energies I had to have a chair put in the room and allow the ship to analyze it from what my mind could detect of it. As I focused more on the energy so that the ship could get good readings I suddenly noticed that there were more energies coming from the ones that were responding. It seemed as if they were communicating with each other. I opened my eyes and looked again at the domes, they were changing again, the ones that were communicating, they seemed to be altering themselves much faster as the energies continued to flow between them. The light from the domes emitting the energy started to fluctuate, and as their light did so too did the light in the other domes until they all seemed to be performing their own lightshow. That's when I noticed that the first dome had started to crack, whatever was growing inside of it had stopped producing light and I started to notice that the energy was intensifying. With horror I realized that a balance had been reached, and it had happened because of them all communicating with one another. The thing in the first dome was the result of the bacteria and the plants evolving into something new, and it was trying to get free.
I was compelled by curiosity to not have the thing destroyed in the vaccuum of space or cast into the nearby star, I had to see what was forming from this environment we had constructed. The dome cracked more and through the crack started to ooze a dark green substance. As it continued flowing through the tiny seam it had created it began taking shape, evolving before my eyes, it took on a more solid consistency, appendages seemed to be forming. The color shifted from deep green to a more fleshy appearance, though it still had a green hue to it. Watching this thing form brought to mind one of the theories of how life began, that everything crawled out of some sort of primordial ooze and began its existence. It was wonderous to watch but horrible at the same time, this thing was monsterous in appearance, at least as it currently looked. The energies intensified as it took shape, even the ship was able to start sensing them even without the technology we were trying to develop. I felt my mind fighting against it, the energies seemed to be attacking me but yet I could not tell the ship to destroy it, I had to see what it ended up being. Slowly the green fleshly thing started to form eyes, it surveyed its surroundings as it continued to take shape. More and more it oozed out and took its form, more and more I realized the form was becoming human. It must be using my mind and memories to create a template for its body. It must have heard the thought, because as I realized it the creature looked at me and the mouth it was in the middle of forming grinned at me. At that moment I commanded the ship to send it into space, to cast it into the nearby star, to make sure it didn't survive. But it was already too late, the creature had power exceeding what a simple translocation gun could do to it. The ship fired many times but the creature only smiled more at our feeble attempts. It was a malicious entity, of that I could tell. It continued its attack against my mind, however I could feel my abilities increasing against it. My ability to jam mindforce was increasing, the onslaught against me was making me stronger. The creature realized this and I felt the assault slowing. At this point its physical form had finished and it was coming towards the glass, smashing all the other domes along the way and seeming to absorb the contents. The ship opened the room to space, trying to suck the entity out, but it held fast to the ship and with the balanced ecosystem we had developed in the first place it had no need of the atmosphere, it was self sustaining. After the vaccuum had stopped the creature got back to its feet and came to the glass, it started pounding on it and its strength was evident. The glass began cracking and the ship informed me that I needed to move to a safer area. I quickly ran back up the side of the ship and into my normal chambers, I didn't know what to do. The ship then informed me it had detached the nearly destroyed room and the creature was still in it, however it was attempting to get back on the ship. The ship then performed a gravity jump and we were gone.
I didn't know what to do, we had created something unintended from our research. The fragments held more mysteries to them than we could comprehend. We could do nothing against this creature, however I feared it would find us. It seemed to want to destroy us, or at least to destroy me. I recalled the story of Frankenstein, I had spent some time reading old stories and had laughed at the notion of a mad scientist creating a creature such as that. I had not realized that it could be possible to create something so horrific, something that would haunt your dreams. I knew that I would have to face this demon again eventually, I played a big part in its creation and I would need to ensure it didn't survive.
After a few hours we started to notice differences in the various little domes. The atmosphere changed within a few and the plants would change color. The bacteria were difficult to observe due to their size and our need to not allow them to escape, however it looked like one set of them had started producing a black light instead of white and the plants glowed eerily. The most interesting change was that one of them, the one we had put the fragments in we were planning to test with, seemed to be emitting a mindforce energy and a few of the other domes seemed to be responding to it. As the ship could not detect these energies I had to have a chair put in the room and allow the ship to analyze it from what my mind could detect of it. As I focused more on the energy so that the ship could get good readings I suddenly noticed that there were more energies coming from the ones that were responding. It seemed as if they were communicating with each other. I opened my eyes and looked again at the domes, they were changing again, the ones that were communicating, they seemed to be altering themselves much faster as the energies continued to flow between them. The light from the domes emitting the energy started to fluctuate, and as their light did so too did the light in the other domes until they all seemed to be performing their own lightshow. That's when I noticed that the first dome had started to crack, whatever was growing inside of it had stopped producing light and I started to notice that the energy was intensifying. With horror I realized that a balance had been reached, and it had happened because of them all communicating with one another. The thing in the first dome was the result of the bacteria and the plants evolving into something new, and it was trying to get free.
I was compelled by curiosity to not have the thing destroyed in the vaccuum of space or cast into the nearby star, I had to see what was forming from this environment we had constructed. The dome cracked more and through the crack started to ooze a dark green substance. As it continued flowing through the tiny seam it had created it began taking shape, evolving before my eyes, it took on a more solid consistency, appendages seemed to be forming. The color shifted from deep green to a more fleshy appearance, though it still had a green hue to it. Watching this thing form brought to mind one of the theories of how life began, that everything crawled out of some sort of primordial ooze and began its existence. It was wonderous to watch but horrible at the same time, this thing was monsterous in appearance, at least as it currently looked. The energies intensified as it took shape, even the ship was able to start sensing them even without the technology we were trying to develop. I felt my mind fighting against it, the energies seemed to be attacking me but yet I could not tell the ship to destroy it, I had to see what it ended up being. Slowly the green fleshly thing started to form eyes, it surveyed its surroundings as it continued to take shape. More and more it oozed out and took its form, more and more I realized the form was becoming human. It must be using my mind and memories to create a template for its body. It must have heard the thought, because as I realized it the creature looked at me and the mouth it was in the middle of forming grinned at me. At that moment I commanded the ship to send it into space, to cast it into the nearby star, to make sure it didn't survive. But it was already too late, the creature had power exceeding what a simple translocation gun could do to it. The ship fired many times but the creature only smiled more at our feeble attempts. It was a malicious entity, of that I could tell. It continued its attack against my mind, however I could feel my abilities increasing against it. My ability to jam mindforce was increasing, the onslaught against me was making me stronger. The creature realized this and I felt the assault slowing. At this point its physical form had finished and it was coming towards the glass, smashing all the other domes along the way and seeming to absorb the contents. The ship opened the room to space, trying to suck the entity out, but it held fast to the ship and with the balanced ecosystem we had developed in the first place it had no need of the atmosphere, it was self sustaining. After the vaccuum had stopped the creature got back to its feet and came to the glass, it started pounding on it and its strength was evident. The glass began cracking and the ship informed me that I needed to move to a safer area. I quickly ran back up the side of the ship and into my normal chambers, I didn't know what to do. The ship then informed me it had detached the nearly destroyed room and the creature was still in it, however it was attempting to get back on the ship. The ship then performed a gravity jump and we were gone.
I didn't know what to do, we had created something unintended from our research. The fragments held more mysteries to them than we could comprehend. We could do nothing against this creature, however I feared it would find us. It seemed to want to destroy us, or at least to destroy me. I recalled the story of Frankenstein, I had spent some time reading old stories and had laughed at the notion of a mad scientist creating a creature such as that. I had not realized that it could be possible to create something so horrific, something that would haunt your dreams. I knew that I would have to face this demon again eventually, I played a big part in its creation and I would need to ensure it didn't survive.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Virtual Construction
It appears some of the research that was conducted on the station before the aliens had seemingly abandoned it had involved learning more about genetics, specifically watching how things evolved and how the little changes in the sequence caused the changes in the creatures. Unfortunately they didn't find Calypso, I'm sure they would have learned a lot more from that planet than the one they had been observing. The knowledge they did have would definitely help us in our task and the ship would be able to simulate the anticipated results based on its continued observations and data collection. Meaning we wouldn't have to create a ton of failed mutant experiments to get the results we were looking for. The easiest life to work from would be the plants, their ability to regenerate would mean that a single plant would be able to continuously create what we would need. In preparation for the process we gathered a few more resources from the new star system we were in and constructed a second habitat for our genetically constructed plant life. This habitat was much smaller than the first and was constructed on the underside of the ship, we had the gravity bend around the ship and be reversed in that room so that you could walk around the ship and into this room and not down a flight of stairs or need to transport, teleport or take an elevator. We then got to work simulating the changes that would occur in a few plants as we modified their virtual genome.
Shaping the plants was amazingly easy. It didn't take much effort at all to figure out where and what to modify in order to get the plant to either grow into the shape we wanted or to bear fruit in the shape we were needing it to be in. The next step would be in getting the plant to have circuitry within it, something that the ship could interact with or that would function much like the technology I currently had implanted in my head. The first solution to come to mind would be a nervous system in the plants, however this could give the technology the ability to learn to do things itself as the system developed and matured, this would not be an acceptable outcome with technology that was interacting with my brain. The second would be to have the plant grow on top of a technology shell, meaning we would have the wires and pieces run and the plant would actually grow around it. This seemed quite a bit more plausible for us to implement as it would be difficult to get DNA to construct conductive fibers where we needed them to go. The next problem we would have to face is how to get the plant to only grow where we wanted it to and how to care for it, a living organism would need nutrients.
The solution to control and nourish the plants actually would be interesting. The plan was, instead of creating a circuit for the plant to grow on, to create a mini biodome for it to live in with some bacteria specially engineered to provide light and recycle nutrients for the plants. The bacteria would also feed off of the plants and so the ecosystem would be self-maintained if done right. The virtual environment was created and balanced, the plants and the bacteria modified until they sustained eachother perfectly. We then introduced the fragments we desired into the equation. The results were a disaster. The plants and bacteria mutated far too quickly and the system collapsed. The evolution wasn't just the fragments, it was the creatures and plants trying to survive together with the new found abilities. We would have to continue working on this problem until we could either find a way to keep them from reacting so much with the fragments or until they actually evolved into a working order together.
Shaping the plants was amazingly easy. It didn't take much effort at all to figure out where and what to modify in order to get the plant to either grow into the shape we wanted or to bear fruit in the shape we were needing it to be in. The next step would be in getting the plant to have circuitry within it, something that the ship could interact with or that would function much like the technology I currently had implanted in my head. The first solution to come to mind would be a nervous system in the plants, however this could give the technology the ability to learn to do things itself as the system developed and matured, this would not be an acceptable outcome with technology that was interacting with my brain. The second would be to have the plant grow on top of a technology shell, meaning we would have the wires and pieces run and the plant would actually grow around it. This seemed quite a bit more plausible for us to implement as it would be difficult to get DNA to construct conductive fibers where we needed them to go. The next problem we would have to face is how to get the plant to only grow where we wanted it to and how to care for it, a living organism would need nutrients.
The solution to control and nourish the plants actually would be interesting. The plan was, instead of creating a circuit for the plant to grow on, to create a mini biodome for it to live in with some bacteria specially engineered to provide light and recycle nutrients for the plants. The bacteria would also feed off of the plants and so the ecosystem would be self-maintained if done right. The virtual environment was created and balanced, the plants and the bacteria modified until they sustained eachother perfectly. We then introduced the fragments we desired into the equation. The results were a disaster. The plants and bacteria mutated far too quickly and the system collapsed. The evolution wasn't just the fragments, it was the creatures and plants trying to survive together with the new found abilities. We would have to continue working on this problem until we could either find a way to keep them from reacting so much with the fragments or until they actually evolved into a working order together.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Working with Fragments
The results are fascinating. As we try out different energy levels, frequencies and even types the fragments respond differently. A single fragment has nearly limitless possibilities as you make minor adjustments. As intestesting as these experiments are, we really are looking for one particular type of response. The kind that gives technology the ability to enhance mindforce. So far from what we have gathered from the chips we were able to study is that the chips mearly create a conduit for a particular type of mindforce energy and then enhance it with the mind essence, basically just pouring the raw energy into the mind energy and they combine without any technology telling it to do so. Without the mind essence the technology would only be an energy filter, helping us control which power we are using, which for most of us wouldn't be very strong. The technology beyond that has no way of interacting with the energies involved in mindforce. The fragments, however, react to every type of energy. This is why, I believe, some of the creatures on Calypso have mindforce powers, and also why the creature in the habitat developed them as well. It would be interesting to see what would happen if the right fragments were used with a creature that already had the abilities naturally, however in order to find out we'd have to isolate which fragments were creating this ability within the creatures.
As the research continued we learned much about the fragments. We had some potential experiments that might give us the results we were looking for, however I wanted to make sure we were in a better known environment when we tested as we weren't sure what some of the results would be. I knew it would be just another day or so when we finally arrive at our destination. A star system should allow us all the resources and safety we need to finish these tests, at least the ones that involved the ship. As for the tests that involved my implant, we could begin those whenever because of the controlled environment within the ship. We had some prototype changes we could try, however I was reluctant to implement them yet as the technology was still very fragile. We had to find a way to use the fragments without them shattering, I imagined it would be very painful to have broken pieces of technology in my brain, plus, we had no idea what would happen if I died in this particular layer of space. The revive terminal was completed, but we had no need of using it yet and I didn't feel like volunteering for it right now, especially when the results were so uncertain.
Living tissue. That was what made these fragments stable. This is why they interact so well with living things because it is within them that they find stability. With stability they are able to work indefinitely and that's why things can evolve so quickly when these are introduced into their systems. This might also account for why the robots went crazy if these were indeed the things that affected them. Without stability they would be in constant flux, a broken fragment wouldn't have a negative effect, but the fluctuation of energies would have caused conflicts within their circuitry. This meant that unless we drastically altered the ship it wouldn't be able to use these fragments either in any stable manner. This meant we were going to have to begin engineering something biomechanical, it would most likely have to be growth with the technology in it. I wasn't sure how we would do it, but this would be the process we needed to go through in order to produce the desired results. The ship informed me that there was some information the aliens had that could assist in this, I was going to need another knowledge infusion. Having no need to wait I finished up what we had, made some notes and sat down in the chair. By the time the infusion finished we would have arrived at our destination.
As the research continued we learned much about the fragments. We had some potential experiments that might give us the results we were looking for, however I wanted to make sure we were in a better known environment when we tested as we weren't sure what some of the results would be. I knew it would be just another day or so when we finally arrive at our destination. A star system should allow us all the resources and safety we need to finish these tests, at least the ones that involved the ship. As for the tests that involved my implant, we could begin those whenever because of the controlled environment within the ship. We had some prototype changes we could try, however I was reluctant to implement them yet as the technology was still very fragile. We had to find a way to use the fragments without them shattering, I imagined it would be very painful to have broken pieces of technology in my brain, plus, we had no idea what would happen if I died in this particular layer of space. The revive terminal was completed, but we had no need of using it yet and I didn't feel like volunteering for it right now, especially when the results were so uncertain.
Living tissue. That was what made these fragments stable. This is why they interact so well with living things because it is within them that they find stability. With stability they are able to work indefinitely and that's why things can evolve so quickly when these are introduced into their systems. This might also account for why the robots went crazy if these were indeed the things that affected them. Without stability they would be in constant flux, a broken fragment wouldn't have a negative effect, but the fluctuation of energies would have caused conflicts within their circuitry. This meant that unless we drastically altered the ship it wouldn't be able to use these fragments either in any stable manner. This meant we were going to have to begin engineering something biomechanical, it would most likely have to be growth with the technology in it. I wasn't sure how we would do it, but this would be the process we needed to go through in order to produce the desired results. The ship informed me that there was some information the aliens had that could assist in this, I was going to need another knowledge infusion. Having no need to wait I finished up what we had, made some notes and sat down in the chair. By the time the infusion finished we would have arrived at our destination.
Sunday, September 26, 2010
The Creature
Catching one of these little critters posed a huge problem for us. Even with a bunch of probes flying around the habitat they were hard to spot and the moment they were noticed they ran off and hid somewhere else. We couldn't even get a good view of what they looked like because of their habit of hiding. They were timid, but curious little creatures. They wanted to figure out what we were doing but they didn't want us to know they were there. We finally settled on a plan that would use their own curiosity against them. I went back to my haven and lied down, then we simple needed to wait for one to get close enough. The guns were well hidden and aimed at a variety of spots that they could hide in. Finally, a slight rustle was heard and one of the guns fired. The creature was caught and it was in an observation room where we had translocated it to.
Getting a good view of this thing was impossible, not only did it not register on our life scanners but it also had the ability to change its coloring, it was so good at this that if it shut its eyes you had no idea it was there. We modified the room to shift colors and patterns, this only gave us a vague idea of where it was at any point because as fast as the ship would shift the room's look the creature would shift its coloring to match. Finally, we realized it would be too difficult to study this creature under these conditions, it moved around too much and its eyes were never kept in a direction that would reflect the light. We switched to thermal scans of the room and had a hard time viewing the creature this way as well, it hardly put off any heat. Finally I decided I would need to go in there and try to make contact with it, I took some food and had the ship transport me into the room, hopefully not landing on it.
It took probably a good two hours of sitting in the room to make any progress. I talked quietly to the creature and heard it moving about the room. I had placed a few pieces of fruit on the ground, just a couple feet from where I sat. I heard the creature sniffing at the food and then heard it trying again to climb up the walls, to find some escape from the room. Eventually the food lifted and vanished before my eyes, it had grabbed it and hid it under its body so that the food would not be visible. I heard it eating a bit and still moving around, I assumed it was inspecting me, trying to figure out if I intended harm to it. I placed some more fruit next to me and closed my eyes, listening to its movements. It was then that I began to see it, with my eyes closed and listening to it I began seeing it in my mind. It, like all the other creatures had that cute quality to it. From what I could see it had a thick fur to it, which would probably account for the inability to sense it properly with thermal scans. Its eyes were not nearly as large as those of most of the other creatures, however they had an innocent look to them. At this point the creature took the food I had near me and retreated, the image from my mind fading. It was a proximity image, a kind of psychic projection of itself. With this information I knew that the next step would be in finding a way to give the ship the ability to have a type of mindforce power similar to my own, I would also need to upgrade the implant in my head to allow me to see them better and from farther away. At that we opened a passage for the creature to return to the habitat. It looked like my next step was going to have to be to work with the fragments, I believe they hold the key to enhancing this technology and allowing the ship to interface with it as well.
Getting a good view of this thing was impossible, not only did it not register on our life scanners but it also had the ability to change its coloring, it was so good at this that if it shut its eyes you had no idea it was there. We modified the room to shift colors and patterns, this only gave us a vague idea of where it was at any point because as fast as the ship would shift the room's look the creature would shift its coloring to match. Finally, we realized it would be too difficult to study this creature under these conditions, it moved around too much and its eyes were never kept in a direction that would reflect the light. We switched to thermal scans of the room and had a hard time viewing the creature this way as well, it hardly put off any heat. Finally I decided I would need to go in there and try to make contact with it, I took some food and had the ship transport me into the room, hopefully not landing on it.
It took probably a good two hours of sitting in the room to make any progress. I talked quietly to the creature and heard it moving about the room. I had placed a few pieces of fruit on the ground, just a couple feet from where I sat. I heard the creature sniffing at the food and then heard it trying again to climb up the walls, to find some escape from the room. Eventually the food lifted and vanished before my eyes, it had grabbed it and hid it under its body so that the food would not be visible. I heard it eating a bit and still moving around, I assumed it was inspecting me, trying to figure out if I intended harm to it. I placed some more fruit next to me and closed my eyes, listening to its movements. It was then that I began to see it, with my eyes closed and listening to it I began seeing it in my mind. It, like all the other creatures had that cute quality to it. From what I could see it had a thick fur to it, which would probably account for the inability to sense it properly with thermal scans. Its eyes were not nearly as large as those of most of the other creatures, however they had an innocent look to them. At this point the creature took the food I had near me and retreated, the image from my mind fading. It was a proximity image, a kind of psychic projection of itself. With this information I knew that the next step would be in finding a way to give the ship the ability to have a type of mindforce power similar to my own, I would also need to upgrade the implant in my head to allow me to see them better and from farther away. At that we opened a passage for the creature to return to the habitat. It looked like my next step was going to have to be to work with the fragments, I believe they hold the key to enhancing this technology and allowing the ship to interface with it as well.
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Evolution
The ship informed me that it had taken advantage of the proximity to Calypso to deploy a probe to a remote location where there were no human or robot presences and gathered samples from the flora and fauna on the planet in order to continue its study of these fragments that we were able to find. It had extracted several more types of fragments and was already in the process of improving the habitat based on what it discovered. At this I decided it would be a good time to find out what the ship had been up to while I had been working on the new drive and upgrading the ships defenses.
The fragments had a drastic impact on the species. Many of them had become much larger, although they were still sickeningly cute. A few of them were showing signs of advanced intelligence and the plants had modified themselves a bit more to suit their new life in the ship. In essence, everything was making changes at a rapid rate to accomodate the new place it was living. The ship seemed pleased with the progress that the fragments had brought about. I informed the ship to not continue this type of study too much or else we might be overrun with more advanced life than we were ready to deal with. It informed me that it had already figured this study would be hazardous if continued too far and assured me that it had learned what it needed to already and would just keep the information in the database should we need it. This being done, I silently praised the ship for making the changes, it would be nice having creatures and life that was better tailored to surviving in the ship instead of worrying about how they would be negatively affected by all the moving around we would be doing.
I took some time to study what the ship had figured out about the fragments, both the old and the new. There were definitely some tests we would need to do on them to find out more of what we could do with them in our technology. I knew from my previous experience with them that the technology developed from them was very fragile, this would need to be remedied if we were going to use them for ourselves. I started off by creating the various enhancers that had already been developed and then studying them to see how the fragments had already been utilized. Most of what was done seemed to involve feeding energy into the crystals that would enhance signals within the electronics. Based on which crystal was given the energy and how that energy was delivered determined how the circuitry responded, meaning that sometimes it would allow the technology to create a more powerful explosion, make a beam hotter, or amplify a signal being sent out. All of the research into this was going to be very involved, however I had the time to do it, we weren't even half way through our trip to the next system.
I decided that before I would settle into exploring the new potential technologies that I would enjoy a little bit of relaxation in my little haven. As I lied there allowing my thoughts to drift I heard some rustling in the undergrowth near the entrance. As I peeked over at it I saw two little black pearls shimmering in the low light, I instantly knew it was a creature's eyes that I saw. What was odd is that normally the creatures ignored me and what I did and had no interest in getting near me. I inquired of the ship what kind of creature was there, however it responded that the sensors were not picking up a creature's signal in the near vicinity of where I was. A bit alarmed I got up and cautiously approached the location where I saw the eyes. The creature, whatever it was, instantly turned and ran away, all I could make out of it was a shadowy mass. Again I inquired if the ship had sensed what it was, but it informed me that despite it seeing what I saw that no sensors could pick up a creature that had moved in the area. I knew then that the evolution might have gone too far, these creatures were developing a sort of technological stealth and we were going to need to capture and study them to figure out how to keep track of them.
The fragments had a drastic impact on the species. Many of them had become much larger, although they were still sickeningly cute. A few of them were showing signs of advanced intelligence and the plants had modified themselves a bit more to suit their new life in the ship. In essence, everything was making changes at a rapid rate to accomodate the new place it was living. The ship seemed pleased with the progress that the fragments had brought about. I informed the ship to not continue this type of study too much or else we might be overrun with more advanced life than we were ready to deal with. It informed me that it had already figured this study would be hazardous if continued too far and assured me that it had learned what it needed to already and would just keep the information in the database should we need it. This being done, I silently praised the ship for making the changes, it would be nice having creatures and life that was better tailored to surviving in the ship instead of worrying about how they would be negatively affected by all the moving around we would be doing.
I took some time to study what the ship had figured out about the fragments, both the old and the new. There were definitely some tests we would need to do on them to find out more of what we could do with them in our technology. I knew from my previous experience with them that the technology developed from them was very fragile, this would need to be remedied if we were going to use them for ourselves. I started off by creating the various enhancers that had already been developed and then studying them to see how the fragments had already been utilized. Most of what was done seemed to involve feeding energy into the crystals that would enhance signals within the electronics. Based on which crystal was given the energy and how that energy was delivered determined how the circuitry responded, meaning that sometimes it would allow the technology to create a more powerful explosion, make a beam hotter, or amplify a signal being sent out. All of the research into this was going to be very involved, however I had the time to do it, we weren't even half way through our trip to the next system.
I decided that before I would settle into exploring the new potential technologies that I would enjoy a little bit of relaxation in my little haven. As I lied there allowing my thoughts to drift I heard some rustling in the undergrowth near the entrance. As I peeked over at it I saw two little black pearls shimmering in the low light, I instantly knew it was a creature's eyes that I saw. What was odd is that normally the creatures ignored me and what I did and had no interest in getting near me. I inquired of the ship what kind of creature was there, however it responded that the sensors were not picking up a creature's signal in the near vicinity of where I was. A bit alarmed I got up and cautiously approached the location where I saw the eyes. The creature, whatever it was, instantly turned and ran away, all I could make out of it was a shadowy mass. Again I inquired if the ship had sensed what it was, but it informed me that despite it seeing what I saw that no sensors could pick up a creature that had moved in the area. I knew then that the evolution might have gone too far, these creatures were developing a sort of technological stealth and we were going to need to capture and study them to figure out how to keep track of them.
Friday, September 24, 2010
The New Drive
I knew the gravity drive was still going to be the fastest way to navigate, however I also knew that when we were converted to heavy energy we basically were losing time. This would not be acceptable, especially if something were pursuing us. So when we jumped away from the current system we only went far enough to end up outside of the galaxy in dead space. It was here that we felt we would be safe enough to continue research before continuing on our journey to the next galaxy. We began by recreating the translocation chip and the wormhole chip, these were key to our plans. The knowledge of wormholes would definitely be the most useful, and being able to translocate matter would allow us to improve our defense systems, both in the habitat and for outside the ship. We then began the process of reverse engineering them so that we could improve the technology and make it suit our needs.
It didn't take long for us to finish, it was simple enough technology. We were able to create wormholes with ease though they didn't go very far, the technology was never anticipated to be used to create a stable wormhole of any great distance. As we experimented with the technology we came to realize that despite it giving us the ability to work during our travel time it would still have a fatal flaw, a flaw similar to what the gravity jump had. If we used either technology to move to the next galaxy we would be severly limited in options, meaning once we did either we were committed to the location we would land at. There was no changing course mid-flight so if we suddenly realized that something had figured out where we were going and had a way to arrive there first we could do nothing about it. This would not be acceptable. We then turned our attention to the translocation chips. These chips accelerated mass to the desired location, the only flaw to them was that they normally required knowledge of the area you were going, however there were some properties in the technology that could be useful. The translocation chip gave us the knowledge we needed to enhance our normal gravity drive to work more effectively, this would allow us to move much faster in normal space. We then used the wormhole knowledge to find a way to create a tear in space, essentially creating only half of a wormhole which would allow us to enter this inbetween layer of space that wormholes punched their way through, we could then be traveling at much faster speeds, though we would not feel the forces due to being in a layer of space where the laws were different. We put this technology on a probe first to test it out. The probe flew a ways off and created the tear, it then propelled itself into it at great speeds, due to the nature of the wormhole and the fact that we were not creating a complete one the hole collapsed right after the ship went through, basically when the thing powering it was no longer there to provide it with energy. A few moments later we received a transmission from the probe, it had arrived safely to its destination. The drive was a success and so we added the new drive to the ones we already had, making it so that we could normally move around in this method and in a pinch throw ourselves really far really fast using the gravity jump drive. Satisfied with this outcome we continued our journey to the next system using this new drive.
It didn't take long for us to finish, it was simple enough technology. We were able to create wormholes with ease though they didn't go very far, the technology was never anticipated to be used to create a stable wormhole of any great distance. As we experimented with the technology we came to realize that despite it giving us the ability to work during our travel time it would still have a fatal flaw, a flaw similar to what the gravity jump had. If we used either technology to move to the next galaxy we would be severly limited in options, meaning once we did either we were committed to the location we would land at. There was no changing course mid-flight so if we suddenly realized that something had figured out where we were going and had a way to arrive there first we could do nothing about it. This would not be acceptable. We then turned our attention to the translocation chips. These chips accelerated mass to the desired location, the only flaw to them was that they normally required knowledge of the area you were going, however there were some properties in the technology that could be useful. The translocation chip gave us the knowledge we needed to enhance our normal gravity drive to work more effectively, this would allow us to move much faster in normal space. We then used the wormhole knowledge to find a way to create a tear in space, essentially creating only half of a wormhole which would allow us to enter this inbetween layer of space that wormholes punched their way through, we could then be traveling at much faster speeds, though we would not feel the forces due to being in a layer of space where the laws were different. We put this technology on a probe first to test it out. The probe flew a ways off and created the tear, it then propelled itself into it at great speeds, due to the nature of the wormhole and the fact that we were not creating a complete one the hole collapsed right after the ship went through, basically when the thing powering it was no longer there to provide it with energy. A few moments later we received a transmission from the probe, it had arrived safely to its destination. The drive was a success and so we added the new drive to the ones we already had, making it so that we could normally move around in this method and in a pinch throw ourselves really far really fast using the gravity jump drive. Satisfied with this outcome we continued our journey to the next system using this new drive.
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