Chapter 5: Trouble

It was late into the first day of the Flowsman's contact when the Gray's ship noted their arrival. The goings on around them led them to think that a new race was making contact with the Centauri humans. This was not a good thing, as the new ship did not come though the jump gate. Then they also took note of the arrival of the Centauri warship: Prime. Their conjecture was confirmed. Why else would the only warship in the Centauri inventory be here? Their low level x-ray scanning system was undetectable to the Centauri's. It also produced a wealth of data on their enemies and their warship. What worried the Grays most, was the lack of information concerning the new ship. They could see it on the optical scanner, however the x-ray scanner was producing nothing.

The Gray's commander decided that this was a direct threat to them, and that steps needed to be taken to prevent the Centauri from getting a hold of technology like this. He ordered a hyper wave transmission, even though he was sure that the Centauri's would detect it. When that was completed, he ordered the ships powerful x-ray cannon charged. Once trained on the Enterprise, it would be fired. A light speed burst of x-ray energy at this range, should do significant damage to that ship.

Jennifer was monitoring the new FTL scanners, when she detected the x-ray's coming from the far ship. She called out to Jim.

"We will be bombarded by a significant concentration of low level x-ray's, in eighty-five seconds. Source seems to be the silver based life forms."

Jim replied, "Can we do anything about that?"

"We don't need to" Jason replied, "The gravity well from our new shield will absorb all of it."

Jim, shocked, said, "New shield? Jason you need to keep me informed. Now explain."

"Sorry, Dad. I reconfigured the energy output from the drive at mom Annette's request, so that I could make your quarters a weightless or weighted environment."

"So that works, now?"

Jason, "Yes, Dad. Your room can now tailor gravity to any level that you could want. As I was installing your gravatic control panel, I discovered that a much lower setting on the gravitational settings, produced an almost impenetrable shield."

"And what is your idea for this shield?" Jim asked. He knew his son all too well.

Jason replied, "Basically it's a navigation shield. It will repel solar and other electro-magnetic radiation. It will even deflect small objects away from the ship."

Jennifer, "That's wonderful."

Jason beamed in his mothers praise. He was, after all, still a very young man. Jim agreed with her, and stated his praise as well.

Amber and Wendy piped up, "Tell him about the disrupters."

Jim eyed his son again. Jason pointed to the girls and spoke.

"That was your idea, and you should be the ones to tell him."

Amber looked into her dad's eyes and saw that he wanted her to go ahead, so she began.

"Dad, we found (theoretically, of course) that if we use the communications laser as the power source, we can osculate the wave patterns of the light, by focusing it though a gravatic lens. This creates a low harmonic variance, that will cause disruption to the molecular bonds of solid objects."

Jim was speechless for a moment.

Annette, "Is that a disrupter or a phaser?"

Wendy, "Disrupter, as it would only work in sunlight."

Jim, "Do I detect a note of a possible warp speed use?"

Amber, "Yes, Dad. Theoretically, if we had a dilithium lens, we could use the warp field to create an FTL beam. It would have the same effect as the disrupters. It would be effective at an unknown, though long, range."

As Jim listened to her report, he was once again was impressed with his children's insights. He was left with one question.

"Where are we supposed to find dilithium?"

Annette looked at the three stone diamond ring that was on her hand. It was a gift from her husband for her third child. She also remembered her grandfather's explanation of dilithium. It was nothing more than a perfect diamond. She looked up at the discussion going on around her as Leah came back to her station from her bathroom break.

Annette, "Grandfather once explained to me that dilithium was nothing more than a perfect diamond."

This took Jim aback. He spoke, "Are you saying that by using a diamond for a lens we could have FTL Disrupters?"

Jennifer, "No. They would be phasers, not disrupters."

Jim, "Tell me why?"

Annette, "Disrupters work on the same principles of Newtonian law that has held Earth back all these years."

"I understand that, so how is this really different?" Jim asks.

Jennifer replied, "Phasers work on the principle of an FTL wave form. As such, they are not limited to Newtonian laws."

Jim, "What are you saying exactly?"

Jim understood it better than he alluded; however, he wanted it spelled out by someone else. He was shocked when his 'quiet son' John spoke up.

"Dad, it means that phasers would not disrupt solids, they would release the energy from the atoms in the solid object."

Jim was shocked at what little John had just said. Direct matter to energy conversion would be like setting off a small nuclear explosion, wherever the phasers were focused.

Jim asked, "Can the amount of energy released be controlled in any way?"

Timmy spoke up, saying, "Yes, Dad. I think that you could cause the process to take place at a slower rate, if the oscillation on the wave form is delivered in a time-lapsed form."

Annette, "Are you saying that it would behave in the same visible manner as grandpa's vision of the weapon?"

John replied, "Oh, yes! That's it, all right. I have been trying to figure it out for two years, now. Thanks, Timmy."

Jim, "You started working on it two years ago? Why?"

John, "You said we couldn't use phasers to kill the bug eyed monsters, unless we could tell you how to make a phaser."

Jennifer, "You were trying to make a weapon for the game?"

John shrugged. It was just like any seven year olds reaction, when confronted with the truth, and they have no other response.

The main view screen lit up like a Christmas tree just then. The powerful burst of light speed x-ray fire was finally colliding with the gravatic shield that Jason had running.

Leah shouted, "It's a 12.7 Mega-Jules x-ray burst."

Jim paled at the number she read off.

Jason said, "I have a 20 percent drain on the shields. Whatever the cause, it's draining them."

"Source?" Jim crisply asked.

"The ship out there with the silver based creatures on it," Leah replied.

"Are you saying we are being attacked?" Annette asked.

"Shields down to 75%. Yes. I think we are being attacked," Jason said excitedly.

Jim didn't even think. He just barked, "Full shields! Now!"

Strange it sounded just like in the game they played.

Jason touched a virtual button on the display, and everyone felt a little lighter in his or her seat. The aurora around the ship turned to that of a crescent shaped yellow moon. The powerful antigravity based shields deflected the energy from the x-ray cannon burst harmlessly away from the ship.

The captain of Prime stared at the scene on his monitor. Someone was attacking the new ship. He watched the lightshow on the screen change as the powerful shields on the alien vessel glowed, grew, and then disrupted the attack. He had seen this pattern before. It was the favorite weapon of the Grays, an x-ray cannon.