Bridging the Communication Gap

Posted on Wed Jun 23rd, 2021 @ 8:41pm by Lieutenant JG Avarak & Lieutenant Commander Bonnie "Bon-Bon" Durnell

Mission: Gamma Quadrant
Location: Science Lab - USS Sunfire
Timeline: Current

After her talk with Remal, Bonnie was left feeling a bit more confident despite having to work with someone new. The intimidation of an experience meeting and working with someone new had her anxiety on edge, balanced only by her focus on the subject at hand. She knew the computer cores and their capabilities. She just had to remind herself to be open to new ideas even as she pressed the chime to announce her arrival at Lt. JG. Avaraks office.

The science lab on the Sunfire seemed to have been severely underutilized, at least until Lt Avarak arrived on board. Following up on Avarak’s offer of assistance to Lt Durnell at the post-exercise debrief, he sat at his desk on a PADD, going through the equations he had been working on since his last semester at the Academy.

“Computer. Time.” Said Avarak. The female voice of the Sunfire’s computer responded promptly; Lt Durnell would be there any moment. She had seemed confused when Avarak requested that she bring a Heisenberg Compensator with her but instead of explaining what it was needed for over the comms, he figured it would be best to just explain it to her in person. He heard the door chime and beckoned her in “Enter.”

As the doors parted, she stepped across the threshold, the small case containing the cylindrical Heisenberg Compensator in her hands. Reaching out and placing it upon his desk she commented, "I brought it as you requested. I'm still not certain how it will help with the data flow problem, but I'm open to finding out."

“Very good,” he swivelled around in his chair to inspect the compensator and found that it was precisely what he was looking for. “Normally, we communicate using subspace communications, correct?”

"Of course." She said, placing her hand on her hip in a 'but everybody knows that' sort of way. "In fact any other form of communication would be slow and in most cases unmonitored."

“While faster than light, subspace communications still take time to be received, which is especially noticeable when the two parties in communication are at a long distance from each other.” Avarak continued. “What I have been developing, at least theoretically, is a relay network for quantum entanglement communication.”

"You're evoking the Einstein theory where he theorized transmitting subatomic particles through a series of measure and remeasure in order to check the state of the matter at hand." While quantum mechanics wasn't her playground, she did recall receiving high marks in her field theory class.

“Precisely, two subatomic particles are generated in an entangled state and any change in the state of one particle is reflected in the state of the other instantaneously, irrespective of distance. The problem is, the minute one of those particles is either directly observed or otherwise interacted with, the entanglement is broken; hence, the Heisenberg Compensator.”

"Okay," she appeared skeptical, "But even with the Compensator, if the entanglement state on the other end isn't listening and resolves the state of the particles as a +1 or -1 counter productive to our message particle, forcing the state would break the cycle no matter the state of the matter. And that's assuming you have your relay on the other end, set to listen. Without, you would just receive back a random set of instructions." She had acknowledged that it might be possible, but there was still one more issue nagging her in the back of her mind.

“Precisely, that is the downside of such a system, is that one requires a relay to always be operational. Additionally, there are much smaller bandwidth limitations compared to subspace. However, the advantage is naturally the lack of time delay between messages.”

She raised a finger to oppose but could find little flaw in his logic. Instead, she fell back on her remaining principal. "Okay, And the Drummond Uncertainty Principal, have you accounted for the idea that in a quantum state, there are an indeterminate number of hyper correlated yet unmeasurable variables at state in the field of subspace. Variables which can potentially break an entanglement state at the subatomic level, potentially rupturing localized subspace?"

Avarak nodded, these were good questions, and he realized that he had asked the right person to help him in his research. “This is precisely why we need the Heisenberg Compensator. It will not work as it exists now and we will need to make significant modifications but the underlying theory is sound. If you would look at my equations.” He offered his PADD for her to inspect.

She took the offered data PADD in hand and began reading through the information. True to form whenever she would read, she gravitated into the nearest seat. It took her a few minutes to reach a stopping point at which she realized her face had been expressing the amazement within.

"This is good." She expressed. "On the surface I can't find any flaws in either the data or the equations. And the structure is very easy to read. Have you considered submitting this to one of the Vulcan or even the Human based scientific journals?" She was smiling at the potential.

He nodded in appreciation. “I have previously been published in the Alpha Centauri Journal of Theoretical Physics, from my previous work as a post-doctoral fellow at the University. I had considered compiling my work as completed thus far. However, the work requires experimentation to be proven correct. If we succeed in our experimentation here, on the Sunfire, I would not be opposed to adding your name to the research paper once it’s submitted for publication.”

She shook her head vigorously, "Oh no, that's not really necessary." She carefully stood and handed him back his PADD. "I am just here to help with the work. And I do love a bit of experimenting. I've been taking things apart and putting them back together for as long as I can remember. So, where do we begin?"