Mmm. Cake.

[WxMurray 0]

“Alright. Prep the shuttle for launch. I'll start working on the mask.”

 

As Crewman Plierslip moved towards the ship’s remaining shuttle, the Brickwedde, Murray headed for the launch command center on the starboard side of the shuttle bay. Inside he found launch technician Crewman Nicholas O’Tyme.

 

“Crewman, I need a bit of help masking this shuttle from detection. Can you give me a hand?”

 

“Sure. What did you have in mind?”

 

“Uh…”

 

“I thought so. Well, let’s go have a look.”

 

The two walked down to the shuttle. Plierslip was inside getting her ready for flight. As they entered the shuttle, O’Tyme looked at Murray and asked, “Now what exactly do we need to do for this shuttle? The Glenn was modified to have the warp signature of the Agincourt. Are we doing the same thing here or something completely different?”

 

“This time we just need to mask it to keep it from becoming target practice.” Murray took a seat in the pilot’s chair.

 

“I see. Well...we could modify the engine emissions to appear as your standard gases, but that still leaves the shuttle as an object on the sensors. Could we disguise it as something by installing holo-emitters?”

 

Murray shook his head. “No, she doesn’t have enough power for that, nor do we have the time to replicate and install the emitters and find something to disguise the ship as. I was thinking something more along the lines of some sort of reflective/refractive material.”

 

The crewman was visibly confused. “Reflective/refractive material? What in the world is that?”

 

“Well, I was thinking that we could coat the shuttle’s hull with a reflective/refractive material. The idea is that the orbital weapons platforms would see a false shuttle on their sensors. Light hits the shuttle and is reflected back at a stronger intensity than normal. The coating would also refract the light, making the shuttle look to be in a slightly different position. The end result is the sensors reading the shuttle to be slightly closer and slightly behind where it should be. The weapons platforms will be aiming and firing at nothing. Some stray shots might hit the shuttle, but it shouldn’t be too bad.”

 

Crewman O’Tyme stood in thought for a moment, trying to find a flaw in the engineer’s plan. Ah, there it is. “But if a stray salvo hits the shuttle, it’ll damage the coating. The shuttle would be visible.”

 

“Do you have a better idea?” When the crewman didn’t respond, Murray said, “That’s what I thought. Now, let’s go make this coating.”

 

It took a while for the computer to comprehend the request, but after twenty minutes, some swearing, kicking, and general threatening the computer finally gave them what they were looking for. It was a think spackle-like compound that smelled like month-old coffee still being kept warm in the port. Within thirty-five minutes there was a giant shuttle-shaped cake sitting in the shuttle bay.

 

“It’s not going to be a lot of fun when we take it off.”

 

Murray grinned maniacally and turned to look at the crewman. “No fun at all. Let me know how it goes.” He walked off to assist with final shuttle preparations, leaving O’Tyme with a dumbfounded look that resembled a Venus fly-trap awaiting its dinner.

 

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Notes: Shuttles are usually named for scientists, astronauts, and people who worked on Star Trek, such as the Galileo, the Chaffee, and the Lauritson, respectively. Ferdinand Brickwedde produced the first measurable amount of deuterium in 1931 at Penn State. He was also the co-discoverer of deuterium, for which he won the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1934. Deuterium, of course, is the “matter” used in the matter/antimatter reaction of the warp drive. John Glenn is famous for being the first American in orbit and the oldest person in space.

Edited April 21, 2005 by WxMurray