|Sicily Rising| - Part 2

[Sciamach]

Phase 3

"Begin log, May 8th, 825 AS
Shipwright Harry Callahan addressing the heads of the families of the Union:

The Maltese Singularity Cores are technologically some of the most advanced, yet simple pieces of innovation to come out of the collective human consciousness in the past two hundred years - the Maltese's ascension past the bonds of our own humanity not withstanding. The experimental cores are part of a concerted effort by Maltese innovators to begin to overhaul the aged Maltese capital-ship line - the cores being slowly phased-into service over the course of the past decade into a handful of Storta's, dubbed the RM-2A pattern. These devices act as a smaller, more powerful counterpart to conventional fusion generators that trade operational parameters of space and fuel requirements, for the necessity for a larger number technologically-minded personnel, and constant, vigilant maintenance.

In a nutshell, singularities are entities that pop into existence everywhere in the universe constantly, however nearly all of them lack the mass required to sustain said singularity for much more than a few picoseconds at a time. This generation process can be simulated and singularities generated semi on-demand using exceedingly precise conditions in enormous particle-colliders, such as one located on Corsica, and are exceptionally difficult to stabilize to the point of usefulness. These singularities once generated, are siphoned off from the collider's interior using powerful grav-field generators, and placed into a large spherical 'shell' with a mirrored interior. The rest of the shell is comprised of a dizzlingly complex array innumerable sensors, graviton generators, EM-emitters, and Beryllium sheeting, all of which work in conjunction with one another to both protect the singularity from the outside environment and keep it permanently anchored to the absolute center of the shell, but also to protect any nearby crew compartments from irradiation.

Power generation via the singularity relies on the simple principal that they are not in fact static objects, and instead have immense inherent rotational energy. This means that the singularity is actually not a singularity after all; instead, it is classified as a Ring-Singularity, or alternatively a "Ringularity" - a point in spacetime with 0 surface area and still infinite mass that has a microscopic ring-shape, rather than that an infinitesimally small point, like a singularity. Harnessing this rotational energy from an object the size of the head of a needle rotating millions of times a second relies on the use of a small zone of space-time that surrounds the black-hole known as the Ergosphere; a warped zone just outside of the event-horizon "drags" local spacetime as the Singularity spins, alongside anything within it. Via the use of powerful EM-waves fired towards the Ergosphere from all directions, a process known as Superradiant Scattering begins, wherein the EM waves are continuously refracted between the ergosphere and the interior of the protective shell. As the EM-waves pass through the Ergosphere, the kinetic energy of the Ring-Singularity's spin is then imparted onto the waves, amplifying them immensely and transitioning some of the inherent energy of a spinning black-hole onto the waves. Some of the EM-waves do fall into the singularity, but the losses of energy involved are minor compared to what can be harvested via this method, and are easily off-set by adjustments to EM-absorption rates. Periodically (as in several times a second), the now super-charged EM-waves are harvested using transitional panels on the inside of the shell, and are then bussed off to the outside of the shell for transfer to the core's nearby power transformers, which convert the power siphoned off into usable energy that can be applied to ship power lines.

---



---

Stabilization of the whole process for extended periods of time however requires more grav-field generators than the 'shell' alone can provide. As such, a series of rotating concentric Graviton-Generator rings not only maintain the singularity in place, but also suspend the entire shell assembly hovering inside of the vessel's interior. The rings rotate and spin to constantly adjust and apply gravitational waves to microscopic points of space-time near the Ring-Singularity to nudge it in certain directions so as to prevent it from holding in place in space-time while the rest of its parent ship moves around it. This incredibly complex process requires constant maintenance not only from an on-board science-team, but also from a massive nearby server cluster specifically dedicated to the maintenance of the core alone.

Overall, the entire system - while marginally more maintenance-intensive - can produce far more energy than a standard fusion power plant of equivalent mass, while taking significantly less space internally. Fusion reactors - when damaged or when their containment fails -, must either vent their contained fusion-plasma into space via emergency venting, or breach the core-wall itself, rapidly expanding through the generator into the rest of the nearby compartments and possibly gutting its entire parent vessel. Upon failure for the Singularity Core however, damage is extremely limited- as the singularity lacks the mass or artificial graviton-wavefront to sustain itself, it would merely blink out of existence with minimal damage to even the containment system, much less the rest of the ship. This does however mean that the core would lack its own singularity, and would need to be sent back to Corsica to have another generated and stabilized. In such an instance, reserve power cells and a standard pair of small fusion backup generators are capable of sustaining an RM-2A Storta fror some time, easily long enough to return to Maltese space for maintenance.

Despite the overall advantages however, the entire Singularity-Core system is not without drawbacks. While the massive computational array that maintains the core's systems is one of the most complex systems deployed on Maltese warships, it is not perfect. Should the system not maintain a constant up-to-date connection with the vessel's mainframe, and therefore not be able to calculate the vessel's maneuvers into the constant adjustments made to the singularity's graviton-wave input: the singularity could instead be flung into one of the walls of the 'shell' and then fizzle out of existence due to a lack of available absorption-mass. Instances of such occurrences to the RM-2A Storta-class are limited, with 2 recorded since the core's first implementation years prior.

The Singularity Core as it applies to the Misericorde-class is an exceptional fit for the project- as the added compartments and power requirements are easily met by the core's capabilities; with the Galaxia sensor array alone nearly requiring enough power to run a Tridente-class escort. Furthermore, the increased mass and size of the Misericorde class causes the vessel to have a slower turning-radius, and overall more sluggish maneuverability than its un-modified counterpart. This turns out to be a benefit to the Singularity-Core system, as the slower, more predictable maneuvers performed by the larger vessel actually reduce overall computational load on the graviton-wavefront system, leading to a decrease in the chance for over-corrections by the servers and thus: a reduced chance of core failures.

While I understand that many of Malta's military experts - including signore Varela - are exceedingly dubious about the implementation of such experimental technology onto front-line vessels, I do believe the benefits of such retrofits far outweigh the dangers. These cores are smaller, safer, and far more capable than fusion-generators in terms of overall output- with the added benefit of vessels equipped with them not requiring anywhere near as much reaction-mass as those that don't. While at present this scenario is entirely infeasible due to the rate at which these cores can be manufactured; implementation of the Singularity-Cores for the whole of Malta's naval might would likely reduce its overall fuel-consumption by more than half, drastically reducing the need for hydrogen-skimming from Mallorca and fuel acquisitions from other sources such as the Sigma's trade routes.

These cores are a quantum-leap in ship construction and particle sciences, and the benefits of their application to the Sicily are immense. I've been informed by my logistics officer that the core is due to be delivered within the next few hours. That being the case, we're set to have it installed into the hull first thing tomorrow."

---

---

[ sci·am·ach ]
/sīˈamək/

A simple, angry man casually working his way through life on a personal quest to acquire copious amounts of street cred.