Some Things Are Easy, Some Things Are Kinetic

Posted on Wed Oct 23rd, 2024 @ 7:38pm by Commander Ichiko Gail & Lieutenant Commander Evelyn Rozia

Mission: Let The Games Begin
Location: Holodeck 3
Timeline: Day 6 of Preparations

Evelyn had chosen Holodeck 3 because it was the largest of the lot and she'd then all but locked herself into the space and only left when she couldn't replicate some sort of need, which meant that she'd been there the ENTIRE time. Building the field itself had been nearly simplicity itself and she knew that would be THE easiest part of the whole operation. The reason it was the easiest was because she'd just had to semi-randomize the playing field based on the videos and material she had been able to review. Then she'd contacted Lisa and given her specific instructions on what to replicate and install into the shuttlebay. There was no way that she was going to leave anything to the last minute and all of the shuttles had been moved already.

That had been the first two days, but aside from some breaks to eat and shower and get a few precious hours of sleep, she'd been head deep into the rest of the gear and material needed for the Ts'usugi game of Kinetic. The padding and external gear would probably be easier, though certainly there was something special involved, but that could be put off to later because once she'd solved the Inertial Capacitor, the Kinetic Impeller and the Discharge Gate, the rest would be... Trivial.

Surrounding the table she'd set up, she'd made numerous drawings of the pillar that housed the Discharge Gate and Inertial Capacitor, the ball that was itself the Kinetic Impeller that didn't lose momentum when impacting something at a glancing angle, but surely could be intentionally slowed down with direct impacts, then the field that surrounded the field to protect spectators. She'd started with what she deemed to be the easiest of the lot: The Discharge Gate.

Once she broke it down into what it was intended to do, that actually wasn't all that difficult for Evelyn to figure out: A pillar that was intended to crumble once enough energy had been stored inside the inertial capacitor. Building the pillar would be easy enough, with lines of a capacitor leading upwards to the goal 'hoop' that was the target of the ball. 'A Capture net'. She thought to herself as she designed the hoop. A general forcefield could do to capture even a speeding ball, then convert the captured kinetic energy to feed the capacitor. Set the capacitor to overload at a particular level of energy buildup and build the pillar to collapse at that overload feature? Easy, peasy.

Testing would have to take place, but that third day, after she'd designed the capture net and pillar-cum-capacitor had been made with old-fashioned cannon. She'd grinned as she shot kinetic projectiles into the capture net over and over again until the pillar had fallen once, been rebuilt by the holodeck, then again and again. Oh sure, it may be being done with Federation technology rather than Ts'usugi technology, but barring the actual tech being transferred, it should suffice. The spent projectiles had fallen to the ground after hitting the net and transferring their energy to the capacitor, so she'd gone back to the videos to make sure that would suffice.

(Alterations able to be made to make sure she did it right)

But no matter how often she'd watched the videos, she was concerned about the most important part of the entire game: The ball that was the Kinetic Impeller. No matter what happened, it just didn't slow down in everything she watched. Deflected, sure, but there was no loss of energy that she could determine until it hit the target. She'd already made three attempts to come up with something that would work, but every single time it had bounced off of the edges of the playing field, or an obstacle inside it, it lost some of the velocity she'd imparted into it, even though in this third attempt it was much less than before. That wouldn't do.

Finally she sighed, she wanted to involve the bare minimum, but she wasn't sure she could solve this bit yet, unless... She looked at the ball and the kinetic conservator she'd designed from scratch to keep the ball in motion. Friction? Could it be as simple as friction that would slow the ball? She dove into the gear schematics that she had been provided, which were minimal themselves. Magnetic fields could alter the trajectory of the ball, not stop it. Every planet had a magnetic field...

She dropped the ball she had and it went off in its own direction as she swept clear the table of everything but this design and began to spin it. Perpetual motion, even though planets would slow at an infinitesimal rate over time. The core had to be small, with a maximum magnetic field that would extend oh... A centimeter past the edge of the ball? Omni-directional impact sensors, to divert the energy inputs into the same direction of rotation of the core, which could create the magnetic field that would bounce off of whatever it hit.

She picked out a new piece of holographic paper and began to scribble on it again with drawings of what needed to happen and then she sat back as her eyes closed to exactly what the core would need to be made of and how to get it to function properly. Two point three kilograms (TO BE CHANGED AS NEEDED) in weight, effectively able to be null-gee. Not too hard to put together? And then she got to work.

Several hours later, Evelyn had in front of her what she hoped would be the solution to the game, but there really was only one way to find out. "Commander Gail, can you come to Holodeck Three please?"

"Of course, I'm on my way." Ichiko's response came through as the rabbitess started to traverse the hallways to the holodeck.

As the XO entered the Holodeck, Evelyn was idly playing with the new ball that appeared as the one she’d been shown, but not moving it around much. Consternation was on her face, as was worry, but she perked up when Ichiko got closer, “Here, catch!” She tossed the ball in a low arc underhand, with luck…”

The rabbitess made the motion to catch the tossed ball, but it wasn't as easy as she initially thought. That ball wanted to keep moving. She had to brace, she had to push, she had to negate the momentum. It wasn't really working. "Impressive... where's the inertial sap?" she inquired as the ball continued its insistence on moving onward. "It feels very close to the source, though. Well done.... So, about that inertial sap?"

"A diffuse inertial compensator that has one hundred fifty contact points around the outside of the ball that responds to input from any direction with the same force in the opposite direction." She pointed towards one of the random obstacles in the arena, "Obeys gravity in the way anything does, but if deflected off the outer field or obstacles, does not lose any of the forward motion. The ball also emits a magnetic field that extends out just past the surface so that it can interact with the players equipment and the outer field. Magnetic field powers the compensator and is created by the rotating cobalt-cadmium core suspended in the center." Evelyn grinned widely, "I didn't have the right bit of Ts'usugi tech, so I used Federation tech and adapted it to do what I needed it to do. Once it hits the hoop, a static net will stop the ball and transfer all kinetic energy to the capacitor in the pillar. Once the capacitor hits the setting desired, it'll implode and take the pillar with it."

With that in mind, Ichiko gave the resilient orb a quick spin and toss towards the aforementioned hoop. Like the description went, the hoop siphoned off the kinetic energy of the orb, though not enough to pop the tower to score a point as it were. But enough to stop it. Rather than hanging in the air, the orb started to obey the laws of gravity once again, whereupon Ichiko gave a brisk jog and a dive to catch the ball before it landed harshly upon the ground. "Phew, that was.... sorry, I couldn't let your work go out in such a fashion." it took a moment for Ichiko to gently place the ball back on the ground, before she herself stood and dusted herself off.

"I must say, you've done a remarkable job with the limits you've had placed on you. And in such a quick timeframe as well. While there's still a bit of a gap between Ts'usu's mastery of inertia and the Federations capacity to deal with it, this is what happens when two species with different mindsets collide. The Federation learned to compensate for inertia, we learned to master it. Well done."

"Would you say, in an official capacity, that this project not only is entirely Federation contained, but is the current theoretical limit of the design?" she inquired, with a purpose behind the question. "Is this, entirely Federation technology and concept, as close as concept can get?"

That was high praise indeed and Evelyn wanted to sag in relief that it had passed muster, "Officially, I would definitely agree that this is entirely Federation designed technology in origin, but may not be the current theoretical limit." She wanted to agree with Ichiko, but honestly prevented her from doing so, "It is however as close to the concept as I can do in the time given to me, further research would require a significant amount of time and quite frankly, different personnel with a much higher grasp of gravitics and interactions than I have, just as nearly any technology can be improved upon."

Ichiko considered, and then gave a nod. "This is excellent work. Could you share the errr... final designs on a PaDD for my review?" the rabbitess inquired. "I'll make a point to note the limits, projections, and resources needed in order to further the project." she paused for a moment, "With luck, this project and a little ambition might yield fantastic results."

"Of course, I'd be more than happy to send those to your queue, I just need to make sure I made the final adjustments on the schematics." Evelyn smiled in relief, "Naturally, though, once I can get the shuttlebay fully set up, we may need to test it out, wouldn't we? I don't know if we've got enough people who'd be interested in the game to try it out, but I know I used to play soccer back in school and this is a bit similar, a bit only. Would be fun to try it out!"

Ichiko smirks, "Of course, such devices would require a proper test, to see how close to concept they are." she hinted. "While I run these to the Captain... How about... Computer, overlay current program with program Ichiko Sigma Theta Four."

The workshop was now no long simply in the black and yellow expanse. There was what looked like the ruins of a city around it. There was only about twenty feet of illumination around the work area, but it was enough to see the devastation. Pillars that looked like they had taken a beating, impact craters not just there but in the stonework floor. A battle happened here. A contest.

A sport.

There was a sound as more and more of the illumination widened, showing more of the region. More. More. More. A sound. A distant thunder, rising up in volume. Louder. Louder. Louder. This wasn't some museum recreation of a war zone. This was an arena.

The sound of thunder was the cheers of the crowd. Arena lights flared to illuminate the entirety of the arena, spotlights danced around as though following invisible beings running around the arena. Hyping up a crowd that wasn't there. Just the sound, just the spectacle.

"It's a tale as old as the stars..." Ichiko said softly. Audible to a point, "It sounds better when it's official."

Evelyn looked around in wonder, awed at the spectacle that she knew she could never truly be a part of. Even during those soccer games, there had only been a few hundred in the stands, maybe a couple thousand when they had been playing a rival, but this was different even if it were just a holoprogram. "I can only imagine.. The videos didn't do it this much justice.."

"It's an experience." Ichiko said, remembering. "I remember my first. It truly is an experience. I can't wait to share it with you all."