Heading Home

[WadeFKnight 0]

Saying goodbye to Anna and expressing how much fun dinner had been, Wade waved to Caroline and Tobias over her shoulder and headed down the corridor towards his room carrying a PADD and the last remaining Xintao beer. It wasn’t all that big of a hit, but the wine certainly served it’s purpose as a ‘social lubricant’.

 

Strolling along the corridor, his head just a bit fuzzy from what was consumed and a late night eating and conversing, he read the contents of the PADD, not really paying attention to where he was going. It was quite the wonder he didn’t bump into any walls, but if he had the halls were empty at this hour anyway – aside from the occasional late shifter, early riser, or midnight wonderer like himself.

 

The briefing still needed some work, and the plan laid out by it was certainly not complete, but in his mind it was the surest way of getting back to their time period. Mystical beings and fantastical gateways were just that: mystical and fantastical. He put little credence into these things, especially if they were not well studied or documented. “Believe nothing, no matter where you read it or who has said it, not even if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.” He wasn’t all that keen on Eastern philosophy either, but that particular Buddhist teaching rang true to him in every aspect.

 

Continuing on he read over the briefing he had prepared again.

 

General

 

1. Even with our advanced technology and limited experience with temporal manipulation and ‘travel’, theories concerning the nature of time still remain mostly speculative. Concerning the fears of ‘corruption’ of the timeline I have laid out in short in this briefing the theories which pertain to the possible alteration of events in the timeline, or the lack thereof.

 

2.Given the evidence of these theories, and following the well documented and most scientifically plausible theories pertaining to time ‘travel’ I have devised a possible means of returning to our proper time. These theories will thus be explained and the ‘plan’ revealed.

 

“You may want to watch where you’re going, sir,” came a voice from ahead of him, pricking his thought bubble. “Lieutenant?”

Looking up from his PADD, he found that he was almost inches from bumping into a middle-aged lieutenant. She grinned at him widely though it masked a look of worry, probably noticing his slight inebriation. “She probably thinks I need mothering,” Wade thought to himself, managing a sleepy smile. “Sorry about that, just engrossed in this,” he explained, holding up the PADD and tapping it against his fist. “Thanks for the warning,” he said with a wink, before sidling past her. “Or maybe she’s in security.” He resisted the urge to look behind him, continuing on towards his quarters, and after a few steps he had forgotten about her entirely and had his nose pressed up against the briefing again.

Skipping past the boring sections, he found the part he was looking for – the ‘plan’. It was well thought out, he admitted, but there were a few dangers involved. Nothing that could be surmounted, of course, given proper preparation and time.

Warp travel has allowed us to travel greater distances using non-conventional propulsion through “real” space, allowing us to circumvent the effects of time dilation, however the same does not hold true for Impulse. Impulse drive has been restricted to no greater than one-third the speed of light except in the gravest of situations. All impulse drives on federation star ships are only rated to provide enough propulsion to reach one-quarter of the speed of light, given their structural integrity, design, and power consumption. However, it is possible to reach speeds approaching the speed of light using Impulse through a series of “jumps”. In order to do so, energy must be stored in some fashion, usually in the form of plasma, to be expended all at once. However, as you approach .99% the speed of light, each jump requires exponentially greater amounts of power to perform the next jump.

 

Given the mass of the ship, and the capabilities of our impulse engines as well as our storage capacity for retaining plasma, I believe our maximum velocity will be approximately .999995 times C. Given this velocity it will be possible to return to our place in time in about nine days.

 

There are however some concerns that come with traveling at such high velocities. Each jump will bring about exponentially greater gravitational forces on the ship. During a jump we may experience some forces which the inertial dampeners may not be able to fully dissipate. Also, given the sheer amount of energies at force here, structural integrity may be compromised, and there is a possibility that any system could fail at any point. Sensors will be inaccurate as well, the closer we get to our desired velocity, experiencing what might be described as similar to a “red shift”.

 

Wade looked up from his PADD and at the number on the quarters door he had just passed. With a sigh, he hung his head and turned around, passing ten other doors before arriving at his quarters. Kicking off his shoes, he sprawled out on the bed, not bothering to get undressed. Uncertainty was not something he was accustomed to, but he still remained somewhat concerned that no amount of planning or magical entities on distant planets would ever get them home, no matter what a fortune cookie said.

Edited January 8, 2010 by WadeFKnight