Computer Core / Systems |
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Bio-Neural Gel Packs:Referred to typically as BNGs, Bio-Neural Gel Packs are a the standard technology in 25th century shipboard data processing and routing. Mounted at strategic locations along the ODN pathways, each BNG consists of an artificial bio-fluid that allows transmission of neural signals. The heart of the BNG is a packet of neural clusters, grown copies of strands similar to those found in the brains of sentient beings. These clusters give the ship’s computer ‘instinctive’ data processing and routing ability as well as allowing the ship’s computer to utilize ‘fuzzy logic’ to speed up probability calculations much as a living entity would. By distributing gel packs throughout a starship's computer system information can be organized more efficiently, therefore processed more quickly and speeding up response time. Developed for the Intrepid class, this type of computer system did not see full deployment until the launch of that class.Aboard these starships, the new system proved successful, although the biological nature of the packs has initially led to problems such as infection and subsequent slowdown of the computer processing powers. Despite this shortcoming, Starfleet Command allowed the viability of using the packs fleetwide. Both nature and possible failings combining as much engineering as medical causes gave birth to a new science well beyond cybernetics and robotics called bionics; the blend of biological and technical sciences to faithfully reproduce artificially systems and functions of living organisms with inorganic materials. Given the tremendous processing needs that temporal and transdimensional travel required, Project Millennium decided to utilize the BNG system for the Millenium-M class variant. But the unprecedented complexities of transdimensional and temporal displacement of ship and crew required computering power even well beyond this and a whole, new approach was demanded out of this technology; a computer that could think and react with the speed and efficiency of an electronic device but with the flexibility and adaptability of a living brain. In short, a genuine artificial intelligence. Artificial Intelligence: As the Federation closed out the 24th century, it left behind a time of both great expansion and great turmoil. To quote the 34th and 35th Ferengi Rules of Acquisition, both war and peace are "good for business," and nowhere is this evidenced more than in the field of Emergent Technologies. One of the more intriguing, outlandish, and highly controversial theorems currently in development by the Emergent Technologies Division is that of the "self-aware starship," a vessel that for all intents and purposes is considered to be alive and a sentient being unto itself. The concept of the "sentient machine" is not a particularly new one. For centuries, it has filled countless tomes of fiction and most starfaring races have continuously advanced towards various forms of so-called "artificial intelligence," albeit haltingly. Several examples among alien cultures have been uncovered, most notably the androids of Exo III by the late Dr. Roger Korby and the discovery of the extragalactic androids of planet Mudd in the 2260s. Sadly, the instances of the fabled "machine run amok" have become all too ingrained in the mind of the general public, the case of Dr. Richard Daystrom and the ill-fated M5 tests of 2267 being first and foremost, followed by lesser but still worrying cases like the Val planetary computer and the Landru sentient system discovered the year before. Still, there remain far more benign examples of "intelligent" hardware. Going as far back as the late 20th century, human scientists experimented with the beginings of what they termed "intuitive hardware," the efforts of Nova Technologies and the Forbin Project being at the forefront. As mankind ventured out to the stars, automated subroutines to detect and manage anomalies without human interaction became necessary. However, it was not until 2338 and the discovery of the android Data that the first true artificial intelligence was made readily available to Federation science. Designed and built by Dr. Noonien Soong, Mr. Data has since graciously volunteered himself to build on his creator’s work. To date, only one attempt at building another Soong-type android has been made within the Federation, by Data himself, but it experienced a total cascade failure after only a short time of consciousness. The Romulans' own attempt in cloning Data himself yielded only to a version barely better than a conventional robot; it took the direct tranference of Data's own memory ingrams to bring it to self-awareness. Mr. Data’s discovery however had a profound impact and many of his systems were studied and incorporated into existing technologies. Similarly, his programming allowed for a grand advancement in intuitive software in the 2350s. Programmers working on the Galaxy Class Project utilized small portions of Data’s basecode when writing the initial operating system for that class of starship. When the USS Galaxy was commissioned in 2357, she became the first vessel to have what was referred to as "humanware:" the ship’s computer, although not sentient, outwardly presented a vocal interface designed to be more pleasant towards crews. Later that same year, the Galaxy class USS Enterprise made formal first contact with the Borg. Numerous other encounters with this race yielded massive amounts of technological information. Although technically not an artificial intelligence, studies of the Borg hive mind structure as well as captured hardware allowed great insight into the practical combination of biological and mechanical technologies to form a single integrated being. These analyses along with information about the Bynar race and their dependence upon a vast central planetary computer network jumpstarted bionics and, in 2370, introduced the bioneural gelpack computer system. However, all of these foundational programs are all intentional undertakings with a very clear and defined goal. As history shows, some of the most important scientific discoveries have occurred through accidental circumstances: Fleming’s taking notice of a piece of mold led to penicillin and Govok’s archaeological digs led to the discovery of dilithium and the Second Periodic Table. Chance and Luck have always been the patrons of science and that has given rise to two unique situations. In late 2370, the Galaxy-class USS Enterprise passed through a magnascopic storm in the Mekorda sector. An apparent seed of unknown origin was placed within the ship’s main computer core, creating interconnective nodes through the vessel, interlinking the various ship’s systems in what was soon recognized to be a form of neural network, similar to that of Data's positronic net. The resultant network enabled the developing intelligence to take control of Enterprise and direct it toward a nearby white dwarf star, which it then mined as a source of vertion particles and directed them towards Cargo Bay 2 where ship’s replicator and transporter systems rapidly constructed a body. Upon full development, this emergent lifeform then exited the ship and the interconnective nodes throughout the ship’s circuitry disappeared, returning all systems to normal. The second situation is a phenomenon with an increasing rate of occurrence within the Federation, that of the sentient holographic program. The first instance of this condition took place in early 2365, again aboard USS Enterprise. During a recreational holodeck adventure, Lt Cmdr Data and Lt Geordi LaForge, assuming the roles of Sherlock Holmes, & Dr. Watson respectively, inadvertently caused the creation of a sentient hologram in the form of Holmes’ archnemesis, Professor James Moriarty. The Moriarty character reached consciousness when it was given full access to the knowledge contained within the ship’s main computer. This caused the creation of a new sentience, one that wished to leave the confines of the holodeck. Capt Jean-Luc Picard persuaded Moriarty to remain within the ship’s protected memory core until a manner in which he could be transubstantiated off the holodeck could be devised. Four years later, In mid-2369, an Enterprise technician doing routine maintenance on the holodeck systems accidentally reactivated Moriarty, who then made the same demands as before... and that they bring the love of his life, a recreation of Countess Regina Bartholomew, off the grid too so that he could join her. Both sentient programs were placed into protected memory and the core block removed from the control arch in a portable power source, then relayed to Starfleet’s Holographic Technologies Division at Jupiter Station for continued existence and interactive study and monitoring. Through interaction on the station massive hologrid, scientists were able to investigate how this sentience came about. This, with adaptation of many of Mr. Data’s subroutines, entailed Dr. Lewis Zimmerman to create the Emergency Medical Hologram program. First tested on the Intrepid-class, the EMH was a radical piece of holoprogramming. Combining an impressive multicultural medical database with a vast array of variable programs, the EMH had the ability to adapt to a new situation as well as learn from past experiences and create new procedures. Designed as a short-term emergency solution, the programs were utilized quite extensively on smaller ships and in crisis situation until late 2373, when the EMH Mark 2 and then 3 and 4 were introduced and finally the Long-term photonic officer in 2377, designed to supplement crews on vessels on isolated, long term assignments. A problem encountered at some facilities on the EMH Mark 1 was that the program seemed to exhibit signs of instability as it rapidly outgrow the parameters set by the programming, as evidenced by the Vic Fontaine entertainment hologram of space station DS9. In most cases, this required that the program be completely recompiled from its core parameters and was part of the reason behind Starfleet’s decision to withdraw the Mark 1 from service. It was not until 2374 that Starfleet learned of a still-active EMH Mark 1 program. When USS Voyager was pulled by an alien intelligence 75,000 light-years across the galaxy, the only doctor aboard was killed in the transit. Capt Kathryn Janeway was forced to utilize her EMH program as a full-time doctor. The seven years of nearly continuous operation by the EMH caused it to outgrow its initial program limitations like the other Mark 1s had. However, due to the unique nature of Voyager’s situation, it was not subjected to recompilation. Within a year of its first activation,Voyager’s EMH was for all intent and purposes a fully sentient being and recognized as such by the crew. Upon Voyager’s return to Federation space in 2378, "The Doctor’s" sentience was legally affirmed and he was accorded the same rights as any other sentient being. Soon after Starfleet reestablished regular contact with USS Voyager in 2376, The Doctor was contacted by a member of the Emergent Technologies Division regarding the self-modification of his program. Dr. Victor Day Storm, head of the team that had pioneered the bioneural gelpack system, was a keen follower of the work of such noted men as Dr. Noonien Soong, Dr. Ira Graves, & especially Dr. Richard Daystrom (who unknown to everyone until 2410 was his great gradnfather, his real name being Daystrom which his grandfather had had legally changed decades before). Besides being one of the Federation’s top authorities in computer sciences and cybernetics, Dr. Storm was also a pioneer in the field of bionics, the creation, study, and development of the emergent nature, lifespan, and continued evolution of a constantly evolving biomechanical life and sentience. By that time, the Dominion war entered its final stages. Starfleet had designed a new kind of heavy warship, the Achilles class siege heavy battlecruiser, to strike deep and potent blows against the only perceived weakness, the Achilles' heel, of the Dominion at the time; the dependency of their Jem'Hadar troops on ketracel white, a substance necessary to maintain them alive and dependent. Despite tremendous initial success when first test-deployed in the field, Starfleet wanted such a ship to be able to perform its mission even if the entire crew was out of commission and so, despite virulent protests and heated debates, asked for yet again a computerized system capable of handling alone a starship. Storm saw there the opportunity to redeem his ancestor's memory by succeeding where he had failed... and like him came up with a "whole, new approach." He made a passionate proposal and, with the Federation on the verge of defeat, it was authorized to be implemented on the prototype. Combining neurogelpack hardware with positronic software and adaptative subroutines of the holographic matrix, Storm literally built an artifically made brain, structurally identical in all respect, with an isolinear core as its basic brain stem, surrounded by a neocortex of gel packs, all connected with a positronic grid of neurones able to multiply and reconnect through holographic construction. It was for all intent and purposes a living brain made of artifical components. Storm however made sure the M5 syndrome would not strike his own creation: the laws of robotics were made an integral part of its hardware, four lobes were constructed to counter psionic and neurogenic influences and no faillible human ingrams were imprinted; instead, the artifical brain would learn and develop like a true living one, with careful education and care. The whole idea was not all that new, but it had been deemed unfeasible at the time because there was no way to pack so much technology inside a humanoid-sized format; Data's own positronic brain was still centuries ahead of its time and attempt to emulate him had all failed. But such problems disappeared instantly when considering a brain the size of a starship main computer core. By early 2373, all the necessary modifications had been made and THETIS (Test Human-Emulating Technical Intelligence and Sentience) was brought online for the first time. Immediately, the ship shut down completely but, fortunately, it had been evacuated; and slowly over the period of two hours, systems came back online one by one. This was all done under Dr. Storm's watchful eye, and the project director noted that the total systems shutdown and subsequent ordered return was not unlike that of an organic being’s autonomic functions starting up during gestation. it took merely minutes for Thetis to grow familiar with her surroundings, what has become her "body," the USS Achilles, learn about itself and access its database. The system as a whole did indeed act much as an organic being would: sections of the vessel not in use would be put on standby until needed, repairs would be carried out by autonomous drones connected to the system and security systems safeguarded it from living or technical intrusions. In a surprising discovery made by Dr. Storm, Thetis had accessed the holodeck and occasionally ran programs in it for no reason at all. Furthermore, the holoprograms being run would occasionally distract the computer; the doctor linked this to a person with an overactive imagination being caught daydreaming. Daydreaming would turn out to be only the first of many surprises for the team. Thetis had been running for eighteen days straight and the system had already developed quite radically. The team had anthropomorphized the computer system as scientists and engineers so often do and now referred to it as "she" among themselves and even nicknamed her "Tess". "Tess" showed extreme adaptability and marvelous problem solving abilities; new maintenance drones had been modified or designed and created by her in order to more easily manage any new situation. Still, no one was prepared the morning that the doctor came on board and was greeted face-to-face by someone he had never seen before; a young, blonde-haired, blue-eyed teenage girl wearing a Starfleet cadet uniform. Immediately reaching for his comlink to call for security to apprehend the intruder, he was stopped by the sound of a familiar voice greeting him: "Good morning Doctor; yes, I'm Tess." Over the past few months, Thetis had been examining the organic members of the project team just as they had been examining her and had come to the conclusion that she could not evolve further in her present form. She had discovered the old EMH holomatrix templates imbedded in her programming and begun to modify and use them to craft a new holographic humanoid form for herself and project it through the EMH hologrid of the ship. Tess then admitted to feel "nervous" about the first face to face meeting with her "father."Taking a day to absorb the shock of Thetis not only creating an avatar for herself but also proclaiming the existence of emotions, Dr. Storm made a decision; he returned the next day and asked Tess to allow the team to take her offline for a week so that they could study any physical changes made in the core out support systems. She agreed. Then, minutes after her creator disembarked to perform preparations for this study, all station's systems except life support went offiline and the USS Achilles - now rechristened USS Nemesis when AI research and refit of her was classified- tore away from her docking pylon and warped out. Pursuing ships never found her again outside of unconfirmed rumors months later of a strange ghostship in the Mutara sector. Starfleet was understandably annoyed that a rogue AI in command of a powerful warship had thus, again, escaped control despite all precautions taken... and now might be roaming around. A board of Inquiry found from the research data that there were literally millions of new pathways laid out by Thetis after her activation. These functioned much in the same way that the organic brain created new wrinkles when new information is gathered. Systems that were only loosely tied together eighteen days prior were now so completely bound together that they were almost as interdependent as any of those found in an organic being. Also of great shock was the discovery that when Thetis had compromised the monitoring subsystems, she had used them as a gateway out into the world, thus overriding the supposedly controlled stream of data the Emergent Technologies team had fed him. It was then understood that this violation of its original programming had been prompted by the AI's own conclusion that the project team members had also acted counter to their "original programming" in attempting to control her evolution. Now that they had found out, Thetis reasoned that, because she had become too much self-aware and autonomous, they would shut her down -kill her- for her violation. like it had been done to the M5 unit... or else, either confine her forever as with the Moriarty program or, as for the EMH Mark 1, effectively lobotomize her, denying her sentience... and so, frightened but still bound by her own ingrained ethics, she did the only thing she could to survive: she ran away. To correct this perceived disaster, Dr. Storm petitioned Starfleet and the Federation Science Council to be given access to a device that few knew about: the recorded ingrams of former Federation genius Dr Ira Graves. His argument was that, once those were integrated into Thetis' matrix, his own survival would reassure the AI's, restabilize her psyche and convince her that there was no ill-will towards her. After many months of debate, his request was finally denied, the Science Council citing the sensitive nature of the classified record and Starfleet citing the M5 incident. Dr. Storm vocally expressed his disagreement with the decision and composed a letter to T’Hest, the Speaker of the Science Council and to Admiral Quinn of Starfleet Command. Still, no amount of lobbying would change the minds of either organization. Dr. Storm then decided to take matters into his own hands. He planned a way to steal those classified recorded brain patterns, find the missing starship and "cure" his beloved child; make "Tess" whole again and prove to all how wrong they were about his "child." It took him over twenty years to find her again, recognizing her in the "ghost ship" of the Mutara nebula and to find an opportunity to get to her. Mascarading as a retired admiral, he tricked the elite division of Lotus Fleet into giving him use of the USS Artemis and get to the Mutara sector. he knew Tess would recognize him and allow him to help her and bring her back. Unfortunately, a religious cult of fanatics had targeted the Artemis at that same moment for its own purpose and prevented him from doing so... And then, things took a turn for the worse; in an attempt to take over the lost vessel too, the cultist linked a sentient holographic being to the AI ship but, instead, it confused the now dormant AI so much that it reawakened with the personality of historical terrorist Khan Noonien Singh, now in full control of the most powerful warship ever devized by Starfleet. Only the courageous actions of the Artemis crew stopped the now mad AI from threatening the Federation, succeeding in exiling it powerless to the edge of the galaxy. Dr Storm was arrested and left in a deep depressive state in the hands of Federation authorities. but his idea did not go away with him. The Emergent Technology Division had in the meantime fallen under the authority of the Office of Temporal Investigations, who's interest was in the possibility of preserving History from tampering within some form of artificial intelligence shielded from alterations in the timeline. They studied Storm's work and found it not only sound but actually successful, despite the circumstances that had lead to its loss. They established from the Achilles incident that Storm had been right all along; the problem had arisen because they had been dishonest and manipulative towards a sentient being that had given them complete trust and, from the start, treated like an object and later betrayed. The solution was amazingly simple: treat the AI like an actual living child, provide it with care and education and the correct mixture of restraint and freedom until it was "mature enough to drive..." As this AI model was the only one available that could fulfill the requirements of their project Millennium of a transdimensional starship, the OTI worked on recreating Storm's system, but this time in a specially isolated lab on an isolated moon within a classified star system. there it would grow and develop like a child in his parents home until ready to choose its own destiny; hopefully to serve in Starfleet. The gamble was high... but as one agent Dulmur argued: "no more than for any parent in this galaxy since the dawn of life." By then,the USS Horizon had again found the USS Achilles at the edge of the galaxy during it's transwarp trial runs, battling once again the Khan recreation and defeating it. In the process, Tess was liberated from the Achilles computer core as the huge computer systems of the Lotus class had barely enough storage capacity to contain her in a dormant state. Commander Joey Day Sisko of Lotus Fleet tasked himself with the ambitious project of giving her an Android interface inspired from Captain Data of the Enterprise E to allow her to truly exist and interact fully with living beings in a better way than as a hologram dependent on hologrid systems. All the while, the OTI worked to establish their new approach with Tess. Everything went exactly as it had happened on the inital attempt; everything except the complications that had caused the runaway final incident; and as with the original Voyager's Doctor, no name was given to the AI; it would choose its own, just like it would choose its own life, once it would have matured. As expected, the AI matured ten times faster than a Human would have; in two years, it had reached the level of consciousness and sum of experiences of a twenty years old Human, and far exceeded any living being's knowledge and mental prowess short of actual psionics. Now declared "adult", it was offered the choice of what would be its life. To the pleasure and relief of all, it declared that it would opt to do the only thing that could truly expand its knowledge and its "life" to the fullest of its capabilities: serve in Starfleet to "see the stars... and more." And then it astounded everyone by requesting to be allowed to serve on board the upcoming transdimensional starship. The Millennium project might have been a classified project to everyone... but not to the most powerful artificial intelligence ever created. The AI was submitted to the entire Starfleet curriculum just as Data had been decades ago and completed it with High Honors in less than six months. As it went through the official program like any organic cadet despite its isolation, it needed an identity. To the astonishment of all, it chose the identity of a tall, statuesque black-haired, green-eyed Bajoran female and the name Jureth Tess, in honor of the Lotus Fleet officer of the USS Horizon who had managed to free her from the Achilles. She graduated with the rank of Lt JG in the Operations Division and, with Starfleet Command's approval, officially assigned as the yeoman of the USS Millennium. As the ship's computer, she was best suited to do all the data storage and logs, the captain's administrative work and assist him in the running of the ship. Through the android interface provided for her, she would assume standard duties and stations on board. As the Laws of Robotics were ingrained in her, she would follow Starfleet's chain of command to the letter; and as a failsafe, the more standard secondary computer core was able to override her if any problem would arise, much like a security officer could control a failing crewmember. The flawless result of this latest experiment and these built-in failsafes allowed the OTI the use the AI in actual service on its experimental transdimensional starship, where her performance would be evaluated by her captain and First Officer as for any other organic crewmate... and rewarded or sanctioned accordingly. Number of computer cores:Three; The primary AI "brain" core occupies space on decks 8 and is divided into two distinct cores running in unison, much like the two hemispheres of the Human brain. The secondary, engineering section core is a sturdy standard isolinear system. smaller in size to the first and is located adjacent to Environmental Control on decks 5 - 6. Incapable of doing the incredibly complex calculations for transdimensional and time travel modes, it is nevertheless quite sufficient for managing the regular starship systems for space operations; like the cerebellum of the Human brain, it handles routinely all basic ship functions and can act as a failsafe system in case the main computer is or has to be put offline; a further precaution against the "M5 threat," as it is completely not only independent of the main computer but monitor it in a constant diagnostic mode, alert the crew of any malfunction and can overide it with the proper command codes. Type:The components of the THETIS Bio-Neural Super-series computer core is built under contract for the Millenium-class vessel by Krayne Systems, an independent contractor based on Bynar, but assembled in a secret facility under direct supervision by the Emergent Technologies Division of the Temporal Investigations Office and Starfleet Intelligence. The structure of the computer is a complete departure from that of all other supercomputing systems in use by Federation vessels with a Mark VII-T data storage and retrieval core built in a brainstem configuration stacked BNG in a neocortex structure connected to stack segments extending through the ship like a central nervous system of a living organism, forming trillions of trillions of connections through the processing and storage abilities of modern BNG systems. The core essentially consists of four independent processing systems that work in concert for maximum performance just like the four hemispheres of the Ferengi mind, making it immune to mental intrusion by psionic/neurogenic energies. Bio-neural-based processors throughout the core are utilized for complex calculations as well as storage and cataloguing of core information. Cooling of the system is accomplished by a regenerative liquid helium loop, which has been refit to allow the usage of a delayed-venting heat storage unit for "Silent Running” operations that require the highest level of starship stealth. For most missions, requirements on the computer core rarely exceed 20% of a single core's processing and storage capacity. The rest of the core is utilized for various scientific, tactical, or intelligence gathering missions or to backup data in the event of a damaged core; 60% of processing power is required when transdimensional or temporal operations are called for, equating 300% of any conventional computer system. Soong-type Android interface: an advanced robotic humanoid shell modeled after the holographic image chosen by the AI was constructed. It has all the superior physical capabilities of the Soong androids but the mental functions are linked to the ship's computer. Out of contact with the ship, the android revert to a simple automaton only capable of obeying direct commands of a physicalk nature although still fully committed to the Asimovian Laws. Complementary data system: Mark VII-T refers to a type of information storage or retrieval device primarily used by the Federation Department of Temporal Investigations. Mark VII-T devices use triple-redundant temporal phase discriminators in order to prevent "real" historical data from being corrupted by timeline changes. Successfully tested in the field during the USS Spectre's mission to restore the timeline from the Kelvin aberration, it is not only an integral part of the core of the THETIS system but also fully installed into the secondary isolinear computer core, to ensure full protection for the crew against changes in the timeline. The Emergency Holographic Doctor is linked to this protected basic core and can alert and debrief the captain in case of such alteration unnoticed by the living crew (protocol Pocket Watch). Computer Type: M-20 Bio-Neural Super-Series THETIS II ( Test Human-Emulating Technical Intelligence) Version: LCARS 5.5 wtih auto configuration from integrated multiID locking Storage Capacity: Mark VII-T temporal-proof data storage and retrieval circuitry. 999 MegaQuads at initialization. Current limit unknow Processing Speed: 900.000 ExaFLOPS at initialization, Current limit unknown Interface: standard holoconsole interface, hologram interface and android interface.
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Warp Core |
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WARP PROPULSION SYSTEM : SINGULARITY POWER CORE In mid 2410, one of Lotus Fleet's starships, the aforementionned USS Artemis of the Ambassador class, was involved in a time displacement incident (Operation Sysiphus:classified) that provided the missing keys for the timeship project to become a reality. Several time travel effects and experimentations had been thoroughly recorded, studied and tested during this incident by the Artemis, a ship and crew especially well suited for such extensive scientific research; and her officers and crew proved exemplary in their application of the Temporal Prime Directive... even as it had not been formulated officially yet. A few of her officers even cumulated an inordinate amount of experience with time displacement from exposition to the Azimuth Horizon anomaly and interference by the Q entity. Their last mission to stop Romulan interference with History also provided invaluable data that allowed the OTI engineers to rethink from scratch the time engine and look into dramatically different technologies than those usually known in the Federation. The data, tests and implementations they came back with went further than any previously recorded and tried, providing to the Office all the missing pieces for its timeship project... and more. The Bombardier engineering company went back to the drawing boards on their Class 2 Quantum Core. Noting the severe loss of power thanks to the system power requirements of the upcoming Odyssey class, Bombardier Propulsion Laboratories designed an entirely new chamber for the Millennium class. Instead of being based on existing matter-antimatter warp core designs, BPL scrapped the classic design and built one from the ground up based instead on micro-singularity power source. Assigning two teams to develop the core, BPL hoped that friendly competition between the two teams would produce a totally new design than previously conceived, as called for by the unique requirements of the Millennium project. Their design teams did not disapoint; design team 2, dubbed the Cygnus Core team from the first black hole discovered by Earth scientists in late 20th century, finished their project first and initial testing and simulations were extremely promising. Designed to be used exclusively with Bio-Neural Gel Pack based computers, their new design relied on the speed and computing power of these new systems to maintain maximum operational efficiency. After over a year of design and preproduction, the new and revolutionary singularity power core - named the Class S1 - was delivered to the secret Byrma asteroid shipyard for final integration. The Type S1 would go on to see deployment in the Millenium Project. Although the theory had been known for centuries, only the Romulan Star Empire had used it to come up with their own type of power core for warp travel, reaching faster-than-light sppeds much later than other spacefaring civilizations but closing the gap by the 24th century with ships comparatively larger and more powerful than its neighbors. A quantum singularity is usually a naturally occurring phenomenon. Also called a black hole, a quantum singularity is usually a result of a collapsed large star, such as a red supergiant. The quantum singularity emits a large amount of gravitons, rendering escape from the deep event horizon impossible at or below c. Space around the singularity is folded so that imaginary gravity lines follow the equation f(r)=1/r (a two-quadrant cutaway diagram of the black hole would have f(r)=-|1/r|) up to a point. There is no evidence of what is actually inside a black hole, only that most black holes have "donut singularities." These singularities are ring-shaped and it is possible that they might connect to another black hole, forming a bridge between two places, two time frames, two universes, or a combination of the three. When the two join, one of them has to become a white hole (the exact opposite of a black hole). Using an analogy, instead of being "the universe’s vacuum cleaner," it would be like a blow dryer. A white hole expels everything and nothing can get in, only get out. When a black hole and another black hole or a white hole connect, they form a wormhole, although it is only one way, toward the infinite center of the joined black holes (and utter oblivion) or the direction of the white hole. The "wall" of the bridge, however, is too narrow for an object bigger than 10 atomic masses (that is including molecules and atoms). So, if there is some kind of an antigravity field (it is probably an antigraviton particle emitter), that would keep the bridge from disconnecting and would keep it wide enough for a vessel to get through. A wormhole, unlike a black hole-to-white hole bridge, serves as a two-way gateway to a different time, place, or universe. A wormhole can be destabilized with antiverterons and antitachyon pulses. There are three ways to get to a destination (from point A to point B). The "usual" way, in which line AB is distance d. The way of the "worm," in which line AB is distance d-x (where x is the length of the wormhole and d-x
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Propulsion Systems |
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IMPULSE PROPULSION SYSTEM During the design refit of the 2340's, Starfleet began drafting a new type of sub-light propulsion which would let them break the 0.25c limit, then classified as Full Impulse. Above this speed, the effects of Einstein's Theory of Relativity began having drastic effects on the ship and it's surrounding environment. Even at Full Impulse, ships would have to routinely have update their chronometers based on the standard time of Starfleet Command. As has been known for centuries, the Theory of Relativity doesn't apply to subspace. It was suggested that a subspace field could be erected around a vessel as it performs speeds above 0.25c. Early designs required the warp nacelles to be charged and running, creating a static warp shell. This method was deemed to be inefficient as it required 200% more power to maintain the warp shell while the impulse engines pushed to achieve close to light speeds. The project was set on the back burner while Starfleet made more achievable improvements. After the War of a Thousand Cubes, the Hyper-Impulse project was re-examined to determine if the goal of breaking the 0.25c barrier was possible in an efficient manner. Following the experience of the Borg War where the propensity of the Borg to engage targets at sublight speeds had called for high maneuverability even in larger ships of the line and the current trend of emphasizing mass and firepower of Klingons, Romulans and others in their ship designs, more or less following the Borg outlook, upcoming Starfleet designs called again upon the propulsion firm known as Terminal Velocity to design the next generation of Impulse Engine system as they so successfully did with the Sovereign class. The requirements were just as steep as then - a set of impulse engines that could effectively propel the vessel at maximum impulse maneuverability with a 50% loss of propulsion; this time beyond the time-dilation barrier. Several designs, including doubling up the number of impulse plants from stock designs - such as those produced by HighMPact Propulsion - resulted in reduced maneuverability and, worse than that, decreased power for systems that drew upon the Impulse engine's fusion plants for power. Terminal Velocity had also built several impulse power plants for Starfleet, including those used aboard the Constellation Class, Freedom Class, and based on the success of the Sovereign class, was used by Project Prometheus. An elite team of technical tacticians, lead by Engineering Commodore Gregory Logan, worked with engineers to develop the Aegis Hyper-Impulse Engine. The team equiped these engines to the newest classes for testing, but its adaptability makes it suitable for any type of craft, including shuttles. The Aegis Hyper-Impulse Engines provide a variety of improvement to the basic Impulse Engines in terms of speed, maneuverability and efficiency. The Impulse Engines would be rated ‘excessive’, providing thrust far in excess of the highest estimated needs, but, so great is the thrust provided by each individual engine that a ship equiped with those has 0% loss of performance with the loss or destruction of one of her Impulse engines. Like other ships before the advent of this new system, every vessel utilizes space-time driver coils within its impulse engines to create a non-propulsive symmetrical subspace field that effectively lowers the ship's mass, making it capable of pushing the entire spacecraft using less fuel. These new impulse engines operate at 25% rating for standard operations, but can boost their output to 50% for combat operations. The Hyper-Impulse Engine called for a large modification to the actual engine itself; the addition of a subspace field generator that would run independant of the warp nacelles. This provided several advantages over the old design, the most notable being that if the nacelles were rendered inoperable, high impulse speeds could still be reached. Also, the subspace field generators would consume considerably less power as they didn't require to be engineered to meet the stresses of faster-than-light speeds. A slight downfall to the system is that the subspace field generators in the engines could only safely maintain Full Impulse (which was now 0.95c) for 30 minutes constant. After that, they had to cool down for at least two-thirds of that time. Testing of the Hyper Impulse Engine system showed that, even Starfleet's largest vessel, the Odyssey class, became surprisingly nimble without the tendency of oversteer as seen in much smaller vessels such as the Norway class... and now significantly faster than any known design at sublight speeds. The Hyper-Impulse Engine that was a success on the Lotus had now become standard issue for newly constructed starships, while the older ones would receive this upgrade upon their next refit. After a year of testing within the ships assignated to the elite Starfleet division of Lotus Fleet, the new drive was ready to be put into mass production for all ships. The integration produced no problems except on smaller vessels like the Sabre and Defiant, which had to have individual designs created for their irregular shapes. By 2410, all vessels in the fleet that were constructed after 2408 had received the upgrade. While other major Alpha Quadrant powers are racing to develop this technology, the Federation is the only one to put this technology to use on their vessels. For the time being, it gives them a large advantage in tactical situations. It was thought that the Borg had similar technology before their final downfall. During the discovery and exploration of the Azimuth Horizon anomaly, the intense cosmic disturbances it caused would literally drain all power from a ship's engines except for thrusters. A prototype shielded impulse drive was developped by renegade engineers of a religious cult known as the Horizon's Children and captured by a Lotus Fleet officer. On Starbase 10, chief engineer Marksus Sangliar studied the new design and further enhanced it by rebuilding it along the lines of an antique V8 combustion engine, with several small impulse engines firing one after the other to repower one another as one was depleted during use and reenergized and declogged by maintenance systems and reserve batteries. With the new shielding provided, it gave a new kind of impulse engine capable of working at full efficiency even in areas of severe distorsion or clogging effects like dense nebulae or a star's corona. The Sangliar Impulse Drive was therefore given to the Millennium design as with any other Lotus Fleet starship, so as to have it better suited to face unknown conditions in other universes which might have different physical laws. LTL Type: Four Aegis Class Sangliar-modified mass drivers developed and built by Terminal Velocity Propulsion. Part of the Aegis system, the hyper-impulse is the central part of the entire synergical upgrade of deflector and shield technology used on the Millennium class and is the most fuel economical, easy to operate and maintain propulsion system yet devized by Starfleet.Output: Each engine (there are four impulse engines each composed of eight compact impulse reactors and engines) can propel a Millennium-class vessel at speeds just under .25c at “Full Impulse” and an upper ceiling of .75c at three quarters the speed of light. Generally, Starfleet Vessels are restricted to .25c speeds to avoid the more dramatic time dilation effects of higher relativistic speeds. However, such restrictions can be overridden at the behest of the ship’s captain. Due to the size of the Impulse Engines found on the Millennium class, a single engine can propel the vessel at standard operating speeds without a loss in standard class performance or combat maneuverability. Impulse Systems Number of Engines: 2 primary (hull), 2 auxilliary (pylons) Power Source: eight-synchronized shielded Shuttle XI Class Mass Drivers. Number of Reactors: 4 Power Output: 84 Gigawatts Maximum Impulse Velocity: 0.75 Speed of Light (without time dilation effect) for 12 hours (indefinitely with dilation) Maximum Standard Impulse Velocity: 0.25 C (full impulse) In Red Alert situations, all four impulse drives are activated to provide exceptional speed and maneuverability equal to a much smaller class type or acceleration without time dilation effects with timedrive on. REACTION CONTROL SYSTEM Type:Version 4 Magneto-Hydrodynamic Gas-Fusion. The Reaction Control System (RCS) thrusters are adapted from thruster packages from the successful Galaxy-class vessel. A total of thirty five thruster groups are installed; ten on the primary hull, five on the secondary hull and five at the aft of each nacelle. Deuterium is supplied by the primary tankage on Decks 13 and 14, as well as immediate-use tanks within thruster package. Number: 35 groups distributed all around the ship's spaceframe. Output: Each thruster quad can produce 4.5 million Newtons of exhaust (usable in atmospheric flight for a speed of mach 25 and thus can routinely achieve and maintain standard orbit on all M class type planets with thrusters alone) QUANTUM SLIPSTREAM DRIVE PROPULSION SYSTEM The quantum slipstream drive is an advanced form of interstellarpropulsion allowing starships to break through the warp speed barrier. By creating a small artificial stable quantum stream wormhole around the ship much in the manner of a warp field, the QSD drive instead of warping space punches through the fabric of reality in an interphased quantum state, allowing displacement comparable to over 2.5 million times the speed of light in Einsteinian space. The crew of the USS Voyager acquired the technology in 2374 from Species 116 in the Delta Quadrant. A later test of the drive in 2375 nearly led to the destruction of Voyager, and it was decided to put the use of the device on hold. Generating slipstream corridors requires more power than forming warp fields; the power required is directly related to the frontal geometry of a vessel and lesser so the ship geometry. Therefore, slipstream propelled ships are generally narrow and compact with aerodynamic lines. In 2380, the Vesta-class Federation starship was designed to test and use this new propulsion system. The USS Aventine was among the first Starfleet vessels to be fitted with a quantum slipstream drive. By 2381, following the third defeat of the Borg, Starfleet began installing quantum slipstream drives on its vessels, but due to the nature of the technology not all ships were compatible with the upgrade. Later, a small contingent of Starfleet vessels, including Voyager, was outfitted with the drives in order to explore the Delta Quadrant in greater detail, and to learn any information available about the Borg. Unknown to Starfleet, Starfleet enginner B'Elanna Torres had managed to recreate the technology from memory and outfitted a small vessel with the drive to evade a fanatical Klingon sect pursuing her daughter. This however proved that the technology was not related to ship size, as long as enough power could be provided for the QSD to work properly. At the same time, starships in Project Full Circle experienced microfractures in their benamite crystals. Voyager's Chief Engineer Nancy Conlon deduced that within three months all the starships in the Delta Quadrant would have to return home if the problem was not solved. Security Chief Harry Kim took Nancy Conlon to B'Elanna Torres's personal shuttle, modified with B'Elanna's own version of a quantum slipstream drive and a benamite recrystallization matrix. A conversation between the current and former chief engineers of Voyager resulted in B'Elanna Torres agreeing to adapt her design for use on all of the ships assigned to Project Full Circle. In 2382, the Breen accepted a mission on behalf of the Typhon Pact and sent an operative to Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards to capture data pertaining to the quantum slipstream drive. The Breen were soon after contracted to build the first Typhon Pact prototype slipstream vessel. The lead researcher of the project, Thot Keer, intentionally withheld information from the other members relating to the drive's development in order to promote the Breen to a level of Pact authority of equal standing to the Romulans. Shortly before the initial trials, the prototype, its designer, and all information relating to the project were destroyed. This incident however hinted at the possibility of using other power systems than the standard matter-antimatter reaction with the QSD and provided a crucial step towards the chronodrive. The Millenium class starship was initially developed as the new breed of scout and steath long range ship. However the threat of invasion from the Borg forced Starfleet to put the design on a fast developpement track and mobilize it for the immediate application of the quantum slipstream drive to bring the fight to the Borg instead; and the hull configuration of the Millennium class offered the best one to apply such technology effectively and on a large enough spaceframe to include a power core powerful enough to sustain the effect the slipstream. The discovery of the stable, artificial Bajoran wormhole in 2369 led to new insights into the creation of navigable wormholes. Following the introduction of the Quantum particle (a unique power source) from the QSD technology, Starfleet pursued the development, adding a twin navigational deflector to utilise wormhole technology and allow instantaneous travel in order to deploy fleets of ships in the Delta Quadrant. Quantum Slipstream Drive Maximum Velocity:: 2,628,000c (300 ly/hr) 8 Hours Maximum (6 Hours cool down period between, including use for timewarp) operational range = 2400 ly/jump (120 sectors; accross the galaxy in 25 days)(could conceivably reach the Adromeda galaxy in 1,37 year!) Type :: MKII (fully stable and reliable with benamite recrystalisation chamber and chroniton navigational deflector) CHRONODRIVE (TIMEWARP/TRANSDIMENSIONAL PROPULSION SYSTEM) The laws of Relativity, proposed by Albert Einstein of Earth and T’Var of Vulcan, state that you cannot travel faster than light because time slows down as you approach the speed of light due to the time dilation effect and therefore the speed of light is a limiting factor. However as early experimentation in FTL travel prior to warp drive showed, if you were able to travel faster than 300,000 km/s within Einsteinian space, then you would encounter the time distortion effect, resulting in you arriving at your destination before you leave your starting point. This is the basis for timewarp drive. In reality, time warp does NOT propel a ship beyond the speed of light. While travelling at light speed, it takes years to reach another star system, but only days pass on the ship due to the time dilation effect. But the timewarp drive augments the time distortions generated by light speed to partially reverse the passage of time during the voyage. This allows the ship to arrive at its destination as though the same amount of time has passed in the universe as it did on the ship. For example, a ship travelling at light speed, where one day passes in the universe, one minute passes on the ship. The augmented time distortions causes the ship to go back in time so that only one minute has passed in the universe while still completing one day worth of travel. This effect happens every millisecond of time warp flight, giving the illusion of faster than light travel. There have been theories that if the time distortions were augmented enough, then it would be possible for the ship to arrive at its destination before it left its starting point, giving it the ability to travel into the past: Time travel. However in order to travel beyond yesterday, it would require the energy of an exploding star. And to go beyond the one minute mark, from the previous example, would still take incredible amounts of power beyond a mere starship's capabilities. Achieving light speed is the key for timewarp drive. To achieve light speed, the first experiment in time warp drive used a device simply known as the Z-machine. The Z-machine generated a massive subspace field that dimensionally accelerates the ship to light speed. This is preferred because even antimatter powered rockets takes significant amounts of time to reach light speed and requires incredible amounts of fuel. Just to reach ½ light speed, the ship would require twice its mass worth of matter and antimatter fuel. And even more so to reach light speed and to decelerate. And to decelerate from light speed, the Z-machine is simply deactivated or reduced in power. The ship uses a series of heavy graviton induction coils to generate the "time stabilization field," the field used to amplify the time distortion effect to allow time warp to take place. The time stabilization effect was discovered by accident. A science probe was designed to examine the laws of relativity, and able to travel at light speed without any real faster than light drive. This probe entered a heavy graviton field that for a split second allowed the probe to accelerate to warp 2.15, roughly 10 times the speed of light. The Z-machine and the time warp stabilization field coils, both within the nacelles, are linked in series, so if one fails, the other will also fail. This "fail safe" is to prevent any real possibilities of the ship being trapped at light speed, frozen in time for years. When the project began in 2251, the only ship to date to use time warp drive was the Constitution class U.S.S. Enterprise, commanded by Captain Christopher Pike, where as other Constitution class starships used the conventional subspace displacement field warp drive. As of 2260, despite being more fuel efficient than space warp, the timewarp drive program was shut down and the Enterprise was refitted with conventional space warp engines with no explanation given. Conspiracy theories have ranged from the ship actually being able to travel through time as easily through space, to the Enterprise travelling thousands of years into the future when the time stabilization field had failed and mysteriously returned. What ever the reason, the same conspiracy theorists also believe the technology was perfected for the NX-2000, under the false designation of "transwarp drive" to allow the ship to arrive at its destination at the same time it left its starting point. Infinite velocity, even though the crew would still age at the same rate as they would if they were travelling at conventional warp speeds. The failure of the ''great experiment'' again classified the timeship concept as impractical and was shelved. Between the original Enterprise and the Great Experiment, the same USS Enterpise, now under the command of captain James T. Kirk and using a conventional warp drive, went throught no less than two different time travel incidents that gave further insight into time travel. One was an accidental acceleration beyond warp speed through the close circumventing of a singularity, creating a "slingshot effect" that propelled the ship into an uncontrolable timewarp. This method thus required a very exact flight path accross a massive object like a star or a black hole in order to use its gravitational pull to slingshot the vessel away and beyond the time barrier. But here the problem was twofold: first and foremost, any specific target-time required a computation power beyond anything currently available. Preliminary tests showed a precision within plus or minus half a Millenium at best, clearly impractical for any pinpoint action demanded from a vessel tasked to protect the timeline and oppose identified threats or implement specific studies. A recent, revolutionary breakthrough evolved from the new bioneural technology provided a possible avenue of solution to that problem... but then there was the second obstacle to consider. Regardless of computing power, a neutronium-like sturdiness of the spaceframe was required of any practical, regular use of the slingshot effect, so that it could whistand repeatedly the immense forces it used to achieve timewarp; again, a technology simply available only on paper, despite the reality of such construction possibility having been encountered on the famous doomsday machine planet-killer space robot. Although theoretically feasible, time travel through the slingshot effect also proved impractical even with the late 24th century cutting edge technology the Millenium class was already blessed with. A few tests of the method proved that, at best, it could be done a couple of times before major repair and refit of the entire ship would be necessary, making the whole deployement too costly and ineffective to be considered, even if reliable and precise enough computation could be achieved. The other incident occured when a warp core cold start was attempted to prevent the ship from crashing through the gravity well of a collapsing planet; the attempt was successful but it propelled the ship into timewarp, this time controlable just as normal warp travel could be through navigational controls. This discovery prompted experimentation in time travel once more and a working prototype of a time travelling starship was built out of the basic frame of the Andorian-designed Loknar class type of starship. This prototype, the USS Lynx, achieved what was dubbed "retrograde time travel" through the precise application of the Cold Start Scott Formula on the warp engine. Timewarp occured at a constant velocity of warp 1.5 and could be maintained indefinitely. The main problem however was that not only overheating of the warp core required enormous dissipators and massive intercoolers 300% more efficient than standard systems, able to flawlessly work within the first .08 seconds of warp core start, but the simple act of bringing the core to the brink of a breach and maintaining it there was too dangerous for practical situations, like combat or emergency disengagement from any hazard threatening the ship. The use of the warp core in such a manner also caused severe wear and tear on it, forcing the addition of a smaller secondary warp drive for conventional travel which further decreased the exploration and tactical effectiveness of a ship expected to face unknown perils and challenges. Worse, the slightest malfunction in those cooling systems could result in this core to breach, making the concept ultimately impractical and dangerous for a vessel tasked in confronting dangers accross the timeline. With all the advancements in warp drives since then, this problem still remained under the unchangeable laws of physics. On top of it all, this time travel could only be done towards the past; it did not provide any possibility to travel towards the future, a final limitation that finished the project before it was actually put to active use. The accidental occurences of time travel and other incidents of History-altering events like the Devidian incursions on 19th century Earth along with those experiments and accidents like that of Doctor Manheim in artificial temporal loop effects, prompted the creation of the Office of Temporal Investigations by the the 24th century to monitor and regulate all time-related data and occurences. One benefit from all this however was the stimulus given to the developpement of more efficient warp power for starships during the late 23rd and throughout the 24th century. Venerable Earth company General Electric was commissioned to create a high-efficiency, ultra-high output warp core. GE had produced warp cores for such workhorse vessels as the Sydney, Oberth and Antares classes whose warp cores were known for their reliability, low maintenance requirements and ease of repairs; and their crowning achievement was the class 8 warp core of the later Sovereign Class starship and afterwards the class 9 for the Odyssey and Lotus classes. While the overpowerful power core had proven problematic when first implemented on the Sovereign prototype, the different, slightly larger frame and more advanced systems of the following Chimera class and those that came afterwards paved the way to a revival of the timewarp project, now classified by the Office of Temporal Investigations as the Millennium project. But, despite all its latest advancements, matter-antimatter technology, although powerful enough, still needed too much alterations and modifications to even attempt creating a stable timewarp, leaving too many uncontrolable variables and requiring such extensive monitoring and maintenance with still such a high risk level that the implementation of an actual working time travelling vehicle was at least many decades ahead... if not more. Then, it took another accidental incident and some out-of-the-box thinking to solve this problem and stumble upon the solution and even open unsuspected applications beyond even fabled time travel, with the advent of the first Federation-made microsingularity power core and quantum slipstream travel.
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