Death of a Neutron Star - Eric Kotani [12]
"How so, Captain?" B'Elanna asked.
"Over the past two hours I've gone back over some papers in the field of relativistic astrophysics, including several seminal papers on theoretical gravitational radiation from neutron-star binaries."
Both Seven and B'Elanna said nothing, so she went on. "In one of the last two papers in the series, a theoretically possible device is described for storing up the tremendous energy emitted by a close neutron-star pair in the form of gravitational waves, manifesting themselves as traumatic disturbances in the space-time continuum. The author of the paper thought it possible, but extremely unlikely, that there would be an opportunity to actually test the device in real life."
"But we now have that opportunity, don't we, Captain?" B'Elanna said, shaking her head. "I don't think we need any more on our plate, to be honest. It's going to be-"
Janeway held up her hand for Torres to stop. "You don't understand what I'm getting at."
"Captain," Seven said. "I am at a loss, also. The orbital energy and the angular momentum of two objects of roughly solar masses speeding around each other at relativistic velocity radiates away as gravitational waves. Correct?"
"Yes," Janeway said. "In theory."
"Then," Seven said, "as the orbit shrinks, the rate will pick up in inverse proportion to the fifth power of the separation between the two stars. It will be an immense quantity of energy. Am I correct?"
"Again, it would seem so," Janeway said, suppressing a smile.
"So you are proposing that we are to build a device that can intercept and store some of the gravitational energy that is being emitted from the neutron star binary?"
"To use it to help us get home," Janeway said.
B'Elanna frowned.
"In order to contain the immense amount of energy," Seven said, "within the confines of this device, we would need to distort the space-time continuum entirely out of shape inside the receptor."
"Theoretically, yes," Janeway said. "I can give you technical instructions based on the paper's theory. The original paper is stored in the ship's computer library."
"To be honest, Captain," B'Elanna said, "this sounds like a long shot."
By now Seven was so caught up in the hypothesis that she continued, ignoring Torres's reservations. "With such a virtually unlimited supply of energy, we should, theoretically, with certain modifications, be able to maintain a higher warp speed consistently, cutting many years from the length of the trip ahead."
Janeway nodded. "As well as supply our replication energy needs for a great length of time."
B'Elanna still wasn't convinced. "I don't see how we can connect the energy into the warp drives, let alone the ship's basic systems."
"A secondary concern," Seven said. Torres frowned. Janeway winced. If only Seven's tact were equal to her scientific acumen. "We must first gather and hold the energy before such a concern need be focused on."
B'Elanna actually snorted, but said nothing.
Seven turned to Janeway. "I trust you will want us to get started right away?"
"Yes," Janeway said. "I want us to be ready to start charging it up as soon after our arrival at the binary as possible. Our outside deadline, as I can figure, is that the device needs to become operational by the last day in the life of the binary. Theoretically, most of the gravitational energy will be radiated away during the last few hours, but we need the time to test the efficacy of the containment in advance. We ought to allow at least a few hours for that."
"Days, maybe weeks would be better," Torres said.
"I doubt we have that much time," Janeway said.
Both B'Elanna and Seven stood silently, clearly thinking about what she was asking of them. Finally B'Elanna sighed. "I suppose it's worth a try."
"At least," Seven said.
"I want this project kept secret from our Lekk visitors."