Transporter Signal Contamination, Usurpation and Expansion: An Analysis

Table of Contents

Vol. 330, No. 1, Stardate 239602 The Shayne Maneuver (Transporter Signal Contamination, Usurption and Expansion): An Analysis Randal Shayne Introduction Fig. 1. The Federation Starship Gemini, Dakota class Fig. 2. The Federation Starship Spartan, Defiant class (rogue vessel) Note 1: “The Shayne Maneuver” is a colloquial term, used for simplicity. Randal Shayne, the inventor of this procedure, has publicly stated his aversion to the title. Note 2: This maneuver is, under the best of circumstances, extremely unpredictable, and therefore dangerous. It should not be attempted outside of the gravest of emergencies. On stardate 239202.20, the Federation starship Gemini, which had been ordered to track and seize a rogue Starfleet vessel, found its target after more than three weeks of searching. The Spartan (the rogue vessel in question) had refused contact with Starfleet Command for several months, and was responsible for numerous attacks on Klingon installations within the border of their empire. After several volleys of phaser fire from the Gemini, the captain of the Spartan (one Jeremy Clarkson) agreed to surrender himself to authorities. However, during this time, a Klingon vessel, under the command of Jov’rok, who was also tasked by his superiors to retrieve Clarkson in order to try him for war crimes in a Klingon court, entered the system. With neither side able to surrender Clarkson to the other, both the Gemini and the Klingon vessel activated their transporters at the same time, onto the same individual. In essence, a tug of war began; both matter streams competed and interfered with each other, not only making a successful transport impossible, but posing serious risk to Clarkson as his molecular structure was warped and distorted. It was this stalemate that inspired the Shayne Maneuver. By tuning a stream of antiprotons to fire from the main dish, the Gemini was not only capable of fending off the Klingon transporter beam, establishing a solid lock, and beaming Clarkson abroad, but was able to incapacitate the Klingon vessel in the process, effectively preventing the possibility of being chased by Jov’rak. Shortly after this incident, Chief Petty Officer Kostanza dubbed the tactic “The Shayne Maneuver”. In-depth Description of Events In attempting to establish a secondary lock, the Klingon vessel inadvertently allowed several side effects to occur. The most obvious of these was the anticipated interference created when two transporter beams, especially if said beams employ different mechanical designs, interact at any point. When both matter streams came into contact, using Clarkson as the connection, a link was formed between them. This link was, of course, highly tenuous, and unable to stabilize sufficiently for any valuable or complex information or data to be transmitted between them, but a “bridge”, existing even in that limited capacity, was vital for the next steps. With this link created, remaining power was diverted to the deflector systems for a focused burst of antiprotons. These antiprotons penetrated the hull of the unshielded Spartan, and slowly began to interact with Clarkson. Normally, this would result in the immediate collapse of both matter streams, but because the antiprotons had been encoded with a specific frequency, the Federation transport beam was capable of filtering out the antiprotons without allowing them to interact. Additionally, by calculating the speed and ambient energy sources nearby, the main computer was able to extrapolate the course of the antiprotons with enough accuracy to reinforce specific parts of the confinement beam at certain points. The Klingon transporter beam, however, had no way to differentiate these particles from the other ambient molecules, and no way to prevent them from contaminating their beam even if they were aware of the danger. It was predicted that the Klingon beam would become unstable when the antiprotons interacted with it. The beam would then abort itself, and allow the Federation transporter to finally energize fully, and bring Clarkson aboard. In reality, this did occur. Unexpectedly, the results of this maneuver were far more wide reaching. The contaminated Klingon transporter beam carried along a number of antiprotons with it as it disengaged from Clarkson and retracted back into the ship. Once the antiprotons reached the Klingon transporter room, they dispersed. This created a glitch within the Gemini’s main computer; the parameters imputed by Shayne had not been designed to react with the antiprotons after they’d made contact with the Klingon beam, but because the signature of one had been imprinted on the other (and vice versa) the Gemini’s transporter vastly extended its lock-on, attempting to regain a positional bearing of the antiprotons with the assistance of a Heisenberg compensator. Instead of simply extracting Clarkson, the transporter used the man’s pattern as something of a trampoline, jumping off of his partially disassembled molecular structure and following the retracting Klingon beam back into the Klingon vessel. Once there, it began to dematerialize the transporter room itself- as wide, tall and voluminous a perimeter as had been traversed by the abundance of antiprotons. Though the pattern buffer was unable to successfully dematerialize and store the entire room, resulting in its total decompilement in the main computer aboard the Gemini, Clarkson himself was secured, relatively unscathed, and was returned to Federation territory. The Klingon vessel, meanwhile, experienced sudden and uncontrolled explosive decompression as a result of their entire transporter room being beamed away, and suffered a variety of power overloads, requiring immediate repairs. Transporter Overview Federation transporters have employed several safeguards to prevent occurrences similar to the “transporter intersection” experienced during this incident, inspired by the malfunctions that took place during the evacuation of Deep Space Station K-2 in 2272 (Skirn). Klingon transporters, however, are far less encumbered, and this lack of safeguards is one of the reasons this hitherto unheard of procedure was in any way successful. A brief summary of the effects of antiprotons on transporter technologies would seem to be appropriate as well. One of the more difficult particles on the spectrum to predict, antiprotons have posed a problematic challenge for transporter designers for centuries. While the body of an antiproton is generally stable, it’s inherent anti particulate qualities make transporting it with conventional matter all but impossible. Transporters are designed to abort the procedure if any antiparticles are detected in the matter stream. Failing to do so presents the risk of catastrophic damage, injury or both to any object or person within the transporter’s range. In this case, intensifying the strength of the beam, in order to compete with that of the Gemini, meant that even conventional safety systems were disabled, in order to attain a maximum edge in the fight. Future Applications Due to the unconventional, unsafe and blatantly desperate circumstances surrounding this procedure, and the dangerous possibilities it introduces, this particular maneuver should not be attempted in any but the most dire situations. The volatile and unpredictable nature of the variables at play do not just bear with them the excellent chance for disaster, but the variety of ways in which said disaster might manifest itself leaves few options when it comes to anticipating them. Indeed, the conditions that preceded this maneuver were extraordinary in and of themselves, meaning that the likelihood of this particular tactic being required approaches nought. However, because of the side effects and potential exploits this strategy presents, it is probable that an interest in furthering its tactical and operational relevance may evolve. To that, it is recommended that experimentation with any component of this maneuver be undertaken in only the most cautious and protected environments Works Cited Skirn, Dr. 2366. A Historical Overview of the Transporter. Bolius. Broht and Forrester.