Chapter 2 – The Brief History
The screens clear and a video begins playing in the center display. I see myself on the monitor.
“Hello James, this may come as a complete shock to you, but you are no longer in the solar system. You just made the first successful Hyper Shunt Transfer of a human being. In fact, if my, um your calculations are correct, you should be somewhere near or in the Alpha Centauri System. Please be sure to do a full scan of the region and archive it before you leave. It would mean so much to everyone back here.”
OK, HSDU, Hyper Shunt Drive Unit. That makes sense. By how did I get to Alpha Centauri? That is over four light years away. That must be one heck of a drive unit.
“The Hyper Shunt Project is a faster than light (FTL) drive that forces a wormhole shunt between two locations in space. The initial small scale test using a fixed generator and just pushing the test probes through, while successful in the near instantaneous displacement of the subject, resulted in total computer systems failures on the probes. The mechanical systems would be intact, any recording devices that did not have permanent storage would be wiped. All power would be drained. In essence a dead system out the other end of the shunt.”
Pictures of various probes and diagnostic reports are shown behind the voice over. Most of them look familiar, but I don't remember them specifically.
“The transition through of the shunt also seems to drain most electro-mechanical energy, including fusion reactor magnetic containment fields. Further tests showed that old chemical based batteries would retain their charge through the shunt. ”
The inset video shows a rather large explosion. “Here is the first probe with a fusion reactor we sent through to see if we could overcome the power issues.”
So that's why the reactor was off when I woke up. Good thing too, otherwise I wouldn't have woken up at all.”
“We trained primates with conditioned responses to activate a system restart, but when they came through the shunt they had no memory of any of the training. Extensive testing shows that the loss goes back about four to six weeks prior to the transfer through the shunt.”
Data showing the before and after stimuli response that backed up the observations along with a montage video of training and testing is on the screen at this point.
This would explain why I don't remember anything about this ship. Surely though I would have trained longer than six weeks so that some of it would stick.
The video continues, “The current theory is that the passage through the shunt is so 'unreal' that the AI can not cope and shuts down. That living brains reject the reality and forget anything surrounding the event.”
“You have been working on this system for over a year, You designed all of the safety measures, and programmed both the HSC and ERS.”
“This ship is equipped with a large power storage capacity of both chemical batteries for use immediately after the transfer and power cells for the restart of the fusion reactor. The reactor is a quad chamber design with the first chamber capable of external restart. There is a small fission reactor that is used to recharge all of the power storage devices and provide the initial load of hot deuterium to prime the fusion reactor. The Emergence Restart System handles all of the details of restarting the fusion reactor. This procedure is fully described in the manual.”
“The Hyper Shunt Control is responsible for the HSDU. There is no direct control link between the AI computer system and the HSDU. The AI can only monitor the system.”
“It is hoped that you will retain enough knowledge of the systems and processes to facilitate the return trip.”
No luck there, I do not remember anything directly. I just have some muscle memory here and there. Maybe anything to do with the Hyper Shunt Transfer is lost when going through. That would cover my current condition.
“Before you make any attempts to use the drive be sure to make a full archive of everything that has happened since you woke up. This will help to give us a 'living memory' of events up to and after a successful transfer.”
“As much as I would love to continue down memory lane with you, this ship needs to be made operational again. When this synopsis concludes, the computer will begin a level one ship diagnostic. Please follow any requests it may have with regards to reseting breakers and such. The AI should have the operations manual for the HSDU, insomuch as you have given it outside the H2IK sequence. That means it has coordinate tables and can do the calculations that you may not be able to do any longer.”
Yeah, that's right discount my mathematical skills, that I don't even know I have.
“One last thing, in the back of the manual is a place for recording the current coordinates. Be sure you make record of them prior to any use of the HSDU as the tables will need to be adjusted for the vagaries of real space.”
The message “End Of Record” shows up on the screen and the computer says. “Initiating Level One Ship Diagnostic. Please stand by.”
OK, I really want to know what H2IK stands for. I ask, “Computer, Query: What does H2IK stand for?”
The computer replies, “Level One Diagnostic in progress. Please try again when completed!”
I expected something like that. So much for multi-tasking.
“Hello James, this may come as a complete shock to you, but you are no longer in the solar system. You just made the first successful Hyper Shunt Transfer of a human being. In fact, if my, um your calculations are correct, you should be somewhere near or in the Alpha Centauri System. Please be sure to do a full scan of the region and archive it before you leave. It would mean so much to everyone back here.”
OK, HSDU, Hyper Shunt Drive Unit. That makes sense. By how did I get to Alpha Centauri? That is over four light years away. That must be one heck of a drive unit.
“The Hyper Shunt Project is a faster than light (FTL) drive that forces a wormhole shunt between two locations in space. The initial small scale test using a fixed generator and just pushing the test probes through, while successful in the near instantaneous displacement of the subject, resulted in total computer systems failures on the probes. The mechanical systems would be intact, any recording devices that did not have permanent storage would be wiped. All power would be drained. In essence a dead system out the other end of the shunt.”
Pictures of various probes and diagnostic reports are shown behind the voice over. Most of them look familiar, but I don't remember them specifically.
“The transition through of the shunt also seems to drain most electro-mechanical energy, including fusion reactor magnetic containment fields. Further tests showed that old chemical based batteries would retain their charge through the shunt. ”
The inset video shows a rather large explosion. “Here is the first probe with a fusion reactor we sent through to see if we could overcome the power issues.”
So that's why the reactor was off when I woke up. Good thing too, otherwise I wouldn't have woken up at all.”
“We trained primates with conditioned responses to activate a system restart, but when they came through the shunt they had no memory of any of the training. Extensive testing shows that the loss goes back about four to six weeks prior to the transfer through the shunt.”
Data showing the before and after stimuli response that backed up the observations along with a montage video of training and testing is on the screen at this point.
This would explain why I don't remember anything about this ship. Surely though I would have trained longer than six weeks so that some of it would stick.
The video continues, “The current theory is that the passage through the shunt is so 'unreal' that the AI can not cope and shuts down. That living brains reject the reality and forget anything surrounding the event.”
“You have been working on this system for over a year, You designed all of the safety measures, and programmed both the HSC and ERS.”
“This ship is equipped with a large power storage capacity of both chemical batteries for use immediately after the transfer and power cells for the restart of the fusion reactor. The reactor is a quad chamber design with the first chamber capable of external restart. There is a small fission reactor that is used to recharge all of the power storage devices and provide the initial load of hot deuterium to prime the fusion reactor. The Emergence Restart System handles all of the details of restarting the fusion reactor. This procedure is fully described in the manual.”
“The Hyper Shunt Control is responsible for the HSDU. There is no direct control link between the AI computer system and the HSDU. The AI can only monitor the system.”
“It is hoped that you will retain enough knowledge of the systems and processes to facilitate the return trip.”
No luck there, I do not remember anything directly. I just have some muscle memory here and there. Maybe anything to do with the Hyper Shunt Transfer is lost when going through. That would cover my current condition.
“Before you make any attempts to use the drive be sure to make a full archive of everything that has happened since you woke up. This will help to give us a 'living memory' of events up to and after a successful transfer.”
“As much as I would love to continue down memory lane with you, this ship needs to be made operational again. When this synopsis concludes, the computer will begin a level one ship diagnostic. Please follow any requests it may have with regards to reseting breakers and such. The AI should have the operations manual for the HSDU, insomuch as you have given it outside the H2IK sequence. That means it has coordinate tables and can do the calculations that you may not be able to do any longer.”
Yeah, that's right discount my mathematical skills, that I don't even know I have.
“One last thing, in the back of the manual is a place for recording the current coordinates. Be sure you make record of them prior to any use of the HSDU as the tables will need to be adjusted for the vagaries of real space.”
The message “End Of Record” shows up on the screen and the computer says. “Initiating Level One Ship Diagnostic. Please stand by.”
OK, I really want to know what H2IK stands for. I ask, “Computer, Query: What does H2IK stand for?”
The computer replies, “Level One Diagnostic in progress. Please try again when completed!”
I expected something like that. So much for multi-tasking.
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