Wandering The Quad

[rosetto 0]

He was as cheerful as the next, yet not found his direction. His thoughts were all out of focus and smeared about the page. The engineering curriculum was rigorous and required every bit of his concentration. It didn't leave much time for FUN and he would rarely be found off campus. Back on Mars he would augment his class schedule with exploits of the fairer sex. But, then again, the Principles of Microeconomics, Agri-Management and Accounting Principles didn't require any higher brain functions. Here he was challenged with Power Plant Engineering, Structural Design of Low Gravity Systems, SubSpace Physics, EPS Engineering (whatever that was), Transporter Systems Technology and Environmental Control Systems. If that weren't enough, he also had the general course studies that all cadets were required to take (The History of Star Fleet, Chain of Command, General Operations, Vessel and Starbase Layout, Emergency and Evacuation Procedures). It made for a busy day indeed and it was a wonder that he had any free time at all. Still, here he was, casually walking the Quad with nothing to do for the rest of the morning.

 

As he returns to his studies he is consumed in the concepts of faster-than-light travel. Pushing power into an unseen dimension, the highly excited Cochrane impulsor coils resonate and expand until the entire vessel is enveloped in a multi-dimensional bubble-like structure. The forces at work rise like unpenitrable walls protecting the vessel from the torrents surrounding it; the twisting of space and time itelf. These forces were only surpassed by that of a black hole, that mysterious void that punches through the continuum like a knife through butter. And then as the plasma injector frequencies are modulated to skew the continuum of the contained environment, the whole structure wisps rapidly away, disappearing altogether from the local reality and speeding toward its distant target.

 

The source of this energy was from the Matter/Anti-Matter Reaction Assembly. A delicate balance of the matter and anti-matter streams coming to an explosive meeting inside the dilithium crystals, a perpendicular stream of hyper-energy plasma pours out of the chamber and is captured and contained by the power transfer conduit assemblies. These plasma rich vessels route this liquid-like energy toward the awaiting warp coils.

 

He was like a child on a high from a sugar-coated strawberry. These systems excited him and he could hardly wait to get into the Warp Core SIMs to test some of the theories that were rushing through his synapses.

Edited May 5, 2010 by rosetto