Board Thread:The Mech Bay Bar'n'Grill/@comment-24930445-20140526230330/@comment-24866242-20140606223548

"It's working!"

Lauren grabbed the scanner from the desk next to her and hurried across the lab to stand next to Lawrence and Korbin. Vextis' science chief had been working closely with them since they had arrived. They had been hard at work for nearly a month at that point. The original device was beyond repair, its memory wiped and its circuitry fried.

Before they had made their escape they had discovered that huge chunks of Jos' database had been locked down. Lawrence hadn't wanted to try and break in, afraid that an attempt to do so would send a clear signal that they were up to something. Instead they had built their own copy of the device, using the tools and information they had developed for Jos' project. Tools the Vextis lacked.

Lawrence had set about rewriting the controller code from memory while Lauren and Korbin began detailed scans of their damaged copy, hoping to create schematics that Lawrence and Lauren could fill in the blanks on. There were a lot of missing areas, some of them critical, but now it looked like they had been successful.

"The field seems stable," Lauren announced. "We should test it."

Korbin picked up the device, still humming slightly as it generated its field. That was a bad sign, actually, since it indicated the device wasn't making efficient use of the surrounding ambient energy. Their early prototypes for Jos had exhibited the same problem, but they could overcome that given enough time.

This device was larger than the one which had burned itself out saving Lenits' life, about thirty centimeters on a side and cube shaped like the artifact it was a copy of. The lab had a test chamber already set up and Korbin moved the device into the room between a target and a beam emitter before coming back outside to stand next to them.

"Scanners are running now," Korbin announced. They gathered around the sensor screen and Lawrence pushed the button to fire the blaster at the target. On the screen they saw the beam passing through the field generated by the device fizzle and die without reaching the target. The device itself, however burst into flames less than a second later. Fire extinguishers in the room immediately put out the fire and the trio began examining their scans, microsecond by microsecond.

"You can see the energy adsorbing on the surface collection grid near the corners of the cube," Korbin observed. "It's more than the device can use though. I wonder if the original device was meant as a power collector rather than a defensive field."

"The original device didn't appear to be connected to anything that would make use of the power," Lawrence answered. "It all seemed to go to powering the field."

"If that were true," Korbin argued, "the field would just create a feedback loop in on itself, growing larger and absorbing more and more energy over time. We'd also be seeing a huge drop in ambient temperature around the device."

"The energy from the blaster bolt is setting off a cascade effect here and here," Lauren said pointing at the screen. "That's what's causing the burnout. Do you remember how we solved that before?"

The discussion continued for several minutes while they talked about what modifications to make to their design and instructing the computer to begin fabricating a new test model incorporating their changes.

By the time the third device came off the assembler four or five hours later, they had an audience. Korbin had successfully argued they should try dumping off the excess energy to the ship's power grid and he was in the test chamber wiring up the device when Stinel and his pilot entered the lab.

Sandra stood to one side and Lauren glanced at her briefly before warily turning her attention to Ben and Lawrence. Lawrence, for his part, seemed only mildly annoyed at the intrusion, but Lauren didn't find that out of the ordinary. He tended towards grumpiness at any interruption and he didn't seem to be reacting any more or less to the arrival of Stinel in the lab than he would for anyone else.

Lawrence nodded curtly to acknowledge his counterpart's presence. "Benjamin."

"Lawrence." Stinel glanced around the lab, perhaps noting the lack of guards. "Kat seems to have placed her trust in you."

Korbin's voice called from the test chamber, "I'm keeping close watch over them, Captain Stinel. Don't worry."

Ben laughed softly, shaking his head and looking back at Lauren before glancing at Sandra and frowning slightly to himself. He turned back to Lawrence, "I've been going over your debriefing. You said Jos' base was on the edge of New Oregon territory?"

Lawrence nodded, resigned to repeating himself for the hundredth time. "My version of New Oregon didn't exactly claim as much empty space as yours does, but yes."

"What about the original?" Stinel pressed. "You claimed it had been brought to the base from somewhere else but you didn't say where."

"We didn't know where," Lauren objected to Stinel's treatment of Lawrence, but Lawrence waved her off, seeming calmer than she expected based on his history with the other man.

"The device was already in place when we arrived on the base. Jos kept us in the dark about a lot of things," Lawrence told him. "We didn't even know what the other two teams were working on, although we made some guesses."

Korbin emerged from the test chamber brushing his hands on his pants and smiling at the group, oblivious to any tension that might be in the air. "I have a good feeling about this one," he announced. "Let's give it a try!"

They started analyzing the effect of the device on the ship's energy grid first. Ben and Sandra stood to one side, observing their process quietly. The two of them leaned on each other and the wall behind them, shoulder to shoulder. "What do you think of him," Ben asked quietly.

Sandra considered the question before answering softly. "I think you're more alike than either of you cares to admit," she told him. "You've had very different lives though. That's had its impact. What about her?"

Ben studied Lauren from across the room and looked down at Sandra, again noting the similarities. "She looks like you," he shrugged uncomfortably when she glanced sharply up at him. "Well, she does. Not as much as he looks like me. I think she loves him."

"What could possess her to love a Stinel?" Sandra wondered ironically.

Across the room Lawrence looked up at them and waved them over. "We're ready," he told them.

Korbin narrated while Lawrence prepared for the test firing. "The device uses ambient energy from the environment to power its field," he informed them. The amount of energy collected is relatively small, static electricity build up mostly, some heat waste from the surrounding systems. Overall we see this effect as a slight reduction of ambient temperature in the room where the device is stored. Our copy is imperfect so when we do the test fire the device is overloading because it can't handle the excess energy. Mr. Lenits claims the original device was not dumping that energy anywhere but we're going to try that here, dumping the excess energy back into the ship's power grid. Since the power grid is supplying the energy for the blaster we're expecting to see the energy use from the blaster canceled out."

"Test fire in three, two, one, firing." Lawrence pushed the button.

On the screen they observed the video stream from the test chamber. The blaster bolt shot into the field over the device and fizzled out before it reached the target. Korbin cheered when the device failed to burst into flames. "Didn't I say this would work? The field is still active! It's still functional!"

Lauren and Lawrence were less enthusiastic, pouring over the data. Ben frowned at the screen, watching the video of the test fire replay again and again. "That seems familiar..."

"This isn't right," Lauren told Lawrence. "The original device doesn't dump its energy off like this."

Lawrence nodded his agreement but Korbin was unperturbed. "Maybe the original device is dumping its energy somewhere you didn't take into account. The energy has to go somewhere. That's the first law of thermodynamics. You said yourself you were copying components of the original you didn't fully understand."

Lawrence started to respond but Ben interrupted him. "I've seen that effect before," he announced before pushing the comm button. "Jarrid, can you join us in the lab? I'd like your opinion on something."

"Sure, give me a few minutes."

"Scott's World," Jarrid announced with certainty upon viewing the footage of the test. "No doubt about it." Jarrid and Marissa were still staying aboard the Vextis so it hadn't taken him long to get there.

Ben nodded thoughtfully, remembering their treasure hunt while Jarrid pulled up the sensor recordings the Colorado had made of the planet.

"That's it!" Lauren said excitedly. "That's the energy field from the original device! You can see the signature here... and here."

"That's not far from Joslynne's base," Lawrence commented. "Maybe a quarter of a light year?" Jarrid brought up a starmap of the region. Scott's world and Jos' base lit up next to each other. Different star systems, but the stars in the region were all relatively close to one another. The sector was densely packed.

"I want to go check it out," Ben said.

"Are you sure that's a good idea? That's inside New Oregon territory and they still have orders to arrest you." Sandra cautioned. "Probably me too, for that matter."

"I don't think you'll need to worry. They aren't patrolling the outer parts of the sector anymore. That's why Jos is able to operate a base there," Lawrence informed them.

"Think of it as our shakedown cruise." Ben grinned. "Jarrid, care to come along?"