With an entire research team hyped up to see a Dyson Sphere activation attempt, the bridge of the Cutter somehow seemed smaller than Max remembered it.
They had considered taking a shuttle, as the experiment wasn't a large one, but with all the drones and other safety measures that they were intending on taking, it was better for them to be in a Cutter, with stronger shields, additional layers of Drone Shields, and the experiment performed at extreme distance.
The managed to clear out of the Rae 5 system without any fanfare, and hopped through a portal to Koleska space, where they were planning to look for a neutron star for their experiment. There were a few that were on their map and not too far away, but they didn't want to be followed, in case someone else got insane ideas about what the humans might be doing with their technology.
So, once they were through the Anomaly, they quickly shifted into the secondary layer of space and headed out for the nearest Neutron star, making very sure that nobody was following them. The Cutter had their version of the Hunters' cloaking shield active, but there was no guarantee that the myriad of species that had gathered at the Koleska Station couldn't see through it.
Most of them were unable to see or access the other layer though, which gave them a big advantage, and for once, the activity here was quite calm.
Even the strange wind that carried the lesser Energy Beings seemed to have calmed down in the region, and Max made a note to ask Ranarth about it when he finished discussing the technical aspects of the Mobile Suits with Nico.
She had gotten him talking about the Darklings' war technology, and Max didn't want to interrupt a good thing and perhaps cut short his sharing mood.
With the cloaking field up, they made their way to the target, and Max ordered the ship to a stop at a distance of one million kilometres.
Their sensors could reliably see and control the drones from that far away, and a secondary layer of the drones around the Cutter should provide enough safety if something went wrong, but he waited until everyone slowly began to notice that they weren't moving any more before he said anything.
"Welcome to the middle of nowhere. Site of today's experiment. At a distance of one million kilometres and one layer of space away, there is a Neutron Star. We will be borrowing a small portion of that star today in hopes of kick-starting a CNO cycle nuclear fusion inside our experimental Dyson Sphere.
If the experiment to transport the ultra-compressed matter to this layer and fill the Dyson Sphere with the required materials is successful, we will be bringing the Dyson Sphere to a point one million kilometres in the opposite direction, safely out of the gravitational influence of the neutron star, where we can move it back into our home layer and theoretically the nuclear reaction should spontaneously begin once it is back under the normalized spatial laws there.
Is everyone familiar with their duties today?" Max finished.
"Recording station"
"Observation Logs"
"Material Transfer Verification"
"Cakes and Cookies"
Max chuckled as the last of their helpers chimed in with snacks duty, but it was on the list.
[Deploying the drone shield] The android pilot announced.
Nico perked up and ended her conversation with Ranarth when she realized that things were already getting started.
[Deploying the carrier Drone with the Dyson Sphere.] She informed the ship.
The small shuttle glided through space, minimally equipped with a cradle for the Sphere, and a Portal generator that would cut a precision slice out of the Neutron star. Or so they hoped.
That was also untested technology, but in theory it should work just as well as any other portal, only instead of a dangerous side effect, the portal slicing through matter was the intended consequence of the operation.
[All equipment is in position] Nico announced.
That started the crew's verification step, making sure that everything was working properly before the operation began, just in case there had been some error since the last check.
[All systems are good. Pie is distributed.] Nico mumbled, while Ranarth snorted in amusement as he picked a square from the tray.
[Beginning placement of the Dyson Sphere]
The drone carefully placed the experimental device in the marked location, with one panel open, so that they could verify the arrival of the core mass and inject the gas mixture into the power plant before sealing it up and verifying that the sphere was indeed containing all energy emissions.
Max knew for sure that the idea was sound, though once it was active and powered up, there would be no way to verify what was going on inside, except for the sensors on the sphere. It would absorb and convert all the energy that the reaction emitted, making it impossible for outside scanners to identify the internal condition.
At least, that was the theory.
[Gas transfer prepared. Ready for Portal activation.]
Nico activated the portal, and suddenly all the alarms on the sensor suites went insane.
[Neutron mass destabilized by lack of gravity. Injecting the gaseous mixture now.]
[Gas mixture injected. Dyson Sphere sealed.] Nico reported.
Slowly the alarms fell silent, and the indicators on the Dyson Sphere began to light up, indicating that it was charging its circuits and should soon begin transmitting data to them.
[Data stream is live. Extreme gravitational fluctuation inside the sphere is detected and contained. Preparing to move to the secondary testing location for movement to the primary layer to begin the fusion reaction.]
Gravity worked differently in this layer, and from what Max could see, the difference had made the compressed matter begin to undergo nuclear fission before they had even gotten the gasses into the sphere and sealed it.
Once that was done, it should have begun to stabilize, but with the Dyson Sphere still powering up, they didn't have the data to know for sure yet. They would only know for sure if it worked when the sphere was shifted back to begin the reaction, at which point it should be stable and could be safely moved wherever they liked.
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