Space Odyssey: Spectre

Chapter 615: Power Issues

Jace set down the containment unit and it locked into place on the ground in the reactor room. After setting it down he collapsed back onto his ass and watched as a pair of automated arms connected to the containment unit. After connecting to the containment unit the room hummed for a moment and he could almost hear a melody of sound.

"Power output from the reactor room just doubled. We are picking up speed to accommodate the over abundance of energy." Cain announced almost immediately. "The auxiliary power storage units are filling almost immediately."

Jace took a breath and focused. He reached out with his power and connected his electricity to the ship. When he did he felt invigorated as electricity coursed through his body. He slowly began pulling himself up.

"Jace, we need an additional outlet for our energy usage." Cain declared. "I am doing all I can but I also need a few ideas. I also need you up here for the new coordinates. It has been ten minutes after all."

"Cain, I said ten minutes to get to the reactor room." Jace answered with a grunt as he stood up fully and looked out the door to see Gaz still harnessed to the cart. He moved to the door and removed the harness before patting Gaz. Gaz snorted before running off somewhere to rest.

Jace turned and started running down a corridor. "Fully activate our shielding at full strength at all points around our ship. If you activate the hover plating as well and put it maximum, any and all kinetic weaponry will be slowed or repelled completely."

As he ran he could hear and feel the hum of the ship as he moved. Just like before he could feel a melody as he moved. While his body felt invigorated and energized with how much electricity was coursing through his body. The amount he was building up was massive and more than he had before. He might actually reach his limit soon.

"We are still over by about 53 percent with excess power. Any other ideas?" Cain asked as Jace turned a corner and skidded to a stop just outside of the bridge.

"We have basic shipborne system intelligence aboard the Lance of Thanatos. Can we focus our excess power into its computing power?" Shilla asked as Jace pressed the button for the elevator.

"I will but only so much additional power can be added without additional computer systems and stations." Cain answered honestly.

Jace stepped into the elevator as he thought of an idea. "Cain, expand our scanning. Do one second internals at maximum range and capacity. Include having the ship scramble the scanning signal for each pass."

"What should I do with the information it provides, that much would overload our current systems in only a minute." Cain responded as the elevator quickly climbed, actually causing Jace to bend his knees at how quickly it moved before a sudden stop caused him to jolt slightly.

"Have the files condensed immediately after scanning and stored. That will use some additional power." Jace answered.

"You can also have filter systems running constantly." Shinobi added in. "That should use up a decent amount of power."

"Okay, I think we are good for now, but we are still running at 21 percent above average. But it is no longer to the point of an emergency." Cain informed them. "Jace-"

Jace walked out of the elevator and right across the hall and into the bridge. "I am here. Spin up the wave rider and warp drives." Jace ordered as moved to the navigation console and picked a destination.

"This goes straight through unmapped space." Cain pointed out when he looked at what Jace picked.

"I know. But with our scanning running at full capacity we will not have to worry about hitting anything." Jace pointed out as he could hear the song of the drives spinning up. "That is a beautiful song." He commented as he listened to the almost classical piece of music that the ship was playing.

"What song? All I can hear is our breathing and the static from the communication station." Valkyrie pointed out from her position. West nodded in agreement.

Cain looked over at Jace for a moment who just shrugged for a moment. "I just... hear a song. It sounds a bit like ancient earth classical music." Jace thought about his response for a moment before deciding to modernize it. "Or the noble ballroom music."

"Oh?" Valkyrie nodded her head. "Hymns."

"You are attuned with the ship, there are a few records of ship engineers and pilots that have talked about a song from the ship in the midst of a ship’s flight. I believe you have experienced something similar before." Cain admitted.

"I have, but that was more of a tuned sound. But this is a full-on song." Jace explained as he watched the screen change as they entered warp and wave rider. First the stars in the distance became elongated before suddenly the scene changed again as it almost looked like the ship was riding a wave of energy from the screen.

"We have entered wave rider mode and are using it through our warp field. Time until arrival is... one minute." Cain spoke in confusion. "How is that possible?"

"It is because we are using both at full power." Jace answered as he prepared the next set of coordinates which would be a jump across five other systems in a different direction. "It was always the theoretical capability of the wave rider system combined with a warp drive but we never had a powerful enough power source to test it out."

"What would happen if we tried the faster than light drive in addition." Valkyrie asked, poking for a bit more of an idea on the theoretical capability of something he knows she does not know that much about.

But Jace was perfectly fine with explaining more, especially since it relates to this particular detail. "Then you run into tachyon particles and if you have the misfortune of not being torn apart then you will probably be changed by the experience or aimlessly travel through time." Jace explained. "Either way, we are nowhere near the technological development level to do either."

Valkyrie nodded her head as she spun in her chair. "Sounds like a fact rather than a theory. I am guessing either the Vexical or Victorium lost a bunch of scientists to figure out that information."

"No comment." Jace answered and watched as Valkyrie turned to Cain.

Cain gave an unknowing shrug with his robotic dog body. "I have no idea. There is no record of what Jace is talking about in my data banks. Either that particular information has been removed or they intentionally kept this information from me."

Valkyrie turned back over to look at Jace with wide eyes. Jace just shrugged, "what? Cain may be my right hand. But he is still not me, he does not know all the classified intel that I do." Jace pointed out before nodding at the view screen. "We are arriving."

"That was fast." West pointed out.

Jace looked at the navigation screen and his eyes twitched as he saw that a chunk of the Milky Way Galaxy had been mapped. A lot of which was not even mapped before. Areas of space and systems that the other nations in this galaxy had yet to find. "We... um..."

"We received a high quality radio message while in transit." West declared suddenly. "I do not recognize the origin.

"It is one of the undiscovered systems we passed through." Jace answered. "What is the message?"

"Numbers, words, and binary?" West answered.

"It is the name of systems, planets and other information. The shipborne AI is already relabeling that particular system." Cain explained. "It is nothing harmful and appears to be an automated message we picked up when we passed through their system."

"That was clever." Valkyrie pointed out from her seat as she looked at the view screen that had changed to normal space. All they could see was a nearby yellow rock of a planet. "Are we at our final destination?"

"Nope, we are doing another jump." Jace answered as he sent the next set of coordinates and watched as the view screen moved as Cain adjusted their heading. "We will be doing two more before we get to our destination."

"Now that we are all alone with no possibility of someone overhearing us. Might you explain where we are going?" West asked.

"No, but you can have the rest of the staff stand down. No need to be stressed. At this point it should be impossible for anyone to keep up. I just want to go on a particular trail so the local governments are unable to follow our path for at least ten or more years." Jace explained.

"Why won’t you tell us?" Cain asked in what was definitely a tone of annoyance.

"Because it will be a better surprise if I do not tell you." Jace answered with a slight grin hidden under his helmet.