Bride of Classified Briefing

Posted on Fri 11th May, 2018 @ 1:06am by Lieutenant Colonel Brooklyn Wellington

993 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Brushfires
Location: Marine Country, SB 109
Timeline: MD 11, 09:15

Cassidy looked around the room, and her eyes settled on Captain Beck. "So much for the flight deck. Now, Captain... you, the woman who wanted to know how much attention to pay. Captain, are you familiar with the Picard Maneuver? Would you kindly review it for us?"

"Yes, Sir. I've not yet been desperate enough to use it," said the captain, "but the basic idea is that if you accelerate a few moments at fast warp toward an enemy, data is coming from the position where you started, and from the faster position. The enemy fires at the first one which arrives, which is where you no longer are. This leaves you in a position to attack from much closer than the enemy expects."

Cassidy nodded. "Very nice summation, Captain...?"

"Beck, Sir."

"Thank you, Captain Beck." Cassidy nodded. "Now, let's perform a couple of little thought experiments. If you have a tango with a top speed of warp six, and a system defense boat with a top speed of warp four, what is the applicability of the Picard Maneuver? Colonel Wellington?"

"It depends on the distance between the two vessels," Wellington replied. "Most of the time, the ship using the maneuver needs to be within sight of the other vessel for it to work, or the move won't fool the sensors. The closer the ship using the maneuver is to the other vessel, the better chance it has of succeeding."

Cassidy nodded again. "What you say is true, ma'am, but what I had in mind was this: the vessel with the higher speed has tactical control. Because of the light speed lag, the faster vehicle can be gone from the target area two or three seconds before the defenders are even aware it has left. And, once that vessel has departed the target area, the defenders are no longer in a position to threaten it. They can't outrun it, and they can't even keep up."

Nordstrom clicked the link into Arrow 5, and when the Major nodded at her, she said, "Master Warrant Nordstrom, Sir. I think I'm hearing you say that using the Picard Maneuver gives us the opportunity to run away." She made it a statement, but her voice had a question in it, as if she couldn't believe that was what the Major meant.

"I'm saying that speed gives you the option to control the battlefield," Cassidy corrected. "If you have the faster craft, you can choose where... and whether... engagement happens. And yes; if it's warranted, run away. Your training, your experience, benefit neither the Corps nor the Federation, if you're dead."

Helena nodded thoughtfully, but said nothing. It was another point of view, and considering events with pirates and a certain Sovereign Class starship, perhaps she should give it consideration.

"Right. So. Some among you may argue, 'but Major, all warp-capable vessels use the same type of drive, and the larger the drive, the more powerful it is. A fighter is never going to be as fast as a gunboat!'" She paused, looking around the room, as if searching for someone to make the argument. Finding no one to do so, she went on, "And you'd be right... except that these craft are a test-bed for a new form of energy generation."

Beck's ears perked up at the word "new". Things were about to get interesting, if the Major explained the energy. She hoped it wasn't something top-secret, inside a locked box, marked "Not For Your Eyes Ever".

Cassidy grinned. "I see I got some of you back from lunch," she teased. "This is a subject that depends on a lot of math and physics, and honestly, I don't understand it all myself. Fortunately, I don't have to. I'm going to give you the non-Engineer's version of how this works. If you have a need-to-know, you'll get the technical details."

A simplified diagram of a standard M/ARA assembly appeared in the air next to the Major. "As we all know, matter and anti-matter are additive inverses. Starfleet has used this useful property for centuries to derive enough energy to fuel the drives which warp spacetime around our craft. Deuterium and anti-Deuterium are fed into a chamber where they mutually annihilate, and that annihilation liberates energies which are then channeled and focused through dilithium to energize a plasma stream."

Cassidy looked around to be sure everyone was following her, then changed the cartoon diagram. "Matter / Antimatter reactions, however, have become about as efficient as they possibly can, so the boffins at BuShips needed something else to provide more power in small plants. What they came up with is Quark-Gluon Plasma."

After a moment of looking at the diagram, the Major went on, "Now, I don't understand the physics of it all. As I understand it, quarks are the building blocks of sub-atomic particles, just as those particles are the building blocks of atoms, and atoms build molecules, and so on up the chain. Gluons are the mayonnaise which holds the quark sandwich together. What we have, therefore, is a soup of quarks and gluons held at incredible temperatures and pressures so that they stay a soup of quarks and gluons, instead of becoming sub-atomic particles."

Nordstrom sent a note to Beck. Are you getting any of this?

Beck soon sent back, No, but I'm getting hungry again. In fact, Rebecca was managing to hold on to the general main idea. It was pretty heady stuff, but she wanted to know what was keeping her alive in the Big Black. She knew the minute she let herself become overwhelmed, she'd lose it all, and she made notations in her PADD to help. Sub-atomic quark pieces = bread. Gluons = mayonnaise to hold bread together. Cook it high and mash it hard, stays mushy instead of changing form. She read it over. Yes, that was pretty much what the major had said.

 

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