proximal Guanan derelict

            We like to think that the region of space that we call our own has been thoroughly explored, and although holds new wonders, is not likely to produce any great new insights into our heritage. However fate being fate, the chance event of deploying a new type of sensor array in the Guanan system discovered a piece of history that has sent ripples throughout the Federation since its discovery, its location not in some hard, obscure section of the solar system but not more than 50km away from a federation outpost.

            Of course there was a catch in the detection of this prize, though spatially it occupied a similar region of space to a Guanan research outpost, the very matter it was composed of was not apparent to our normal senses, the whole derelict had been shifted into a completely different spin state. The familiar universe around us is composed of matter of single particular spin state, not because all matter occupies this state, but it is the only state we can see, same spin state objects can only observe similarly spin stated objects, that is until recently. Spin state physics has until modern times eluded physicists, though they could infer the presence of, and affect single particles, it was not until the invention of a entirely new way of handling matter that allowed the scientific community to freely shift spin states of objects, and to see with new spin state eyes into a whole new cosmos.

The Proximal Guanan Derelict (PGD) was the first significant object observed in these new vistas of space, prior to this time the new spin states have offered up nothing but the odd subatomic particle. This immediately caused massive excitement amongst the scientific community, one of the logical applications of spin state technology would be the ultimate shielding device, if the nasty external environment all occupied spin state one, then you could leave it all behind by switching to spin state half, it would open up great new possibilities in exploring otherwise impossible areas, it would be the scientific communities front stage pass to effectively anywhere in the cosmos, to military designers of course, it offered perfect stealth and protection.

The immediate goal was apparent, retrieve the derelict, recover any spin shift drives (which would shave decades of spin state research), and investigate this new powerful race. This was easier said than done, though Federation scientists could manipulate matter’s spin state, it has only ever been conducted in labs, retrieving a 240m long vessel in cold, hard vacuum, in an area with an unfortunately high number of micrometeors due to the presence of the nearby Guanan Habitat Ring, was a huge leap.

The solution required many months of agonizing waiting for the scientific community, despite pouring every available resource on the project, the solution was however particularly elegant. A network of powerful spin state shift generators was required to enclose the whole derelict (slicing the derelict up into smaller segments and bringing the bits back was not only a deplorable act, but not actually possible with current technology as the field effects could only extract separate objects) each generator required a vast amount of power, almost as much as a small starship, and were cumbersome large objects. Then someone somewhere had the idea, take a middle of the range Orca protector, rip out the driver coil sets on each pylon, and you could just about squeeze a generator in each. The huge power-plant that used to power the driver coils could also be made to run the generators. Put the hull plating back on, and there you go, you have a mobile twin-set generator, with integral powerplant, and system handling, that although could only move on the remains of the fusion drive, could actually move. This grotesque swap and change was performed on 12 Orca protectors, a foundry unit was brought into the area for the job as even towing the modified Orcas would be horrifically time consuming.

            The Orcas very slowly closed in on, and further refined their positions around the derelict and powered up their generators. The spin transfer process took much longer than expected, the bulk properties of the derelict made shifting each particle across the transition energy between spin states even slower. The method of the process had to be done in single attempt, as if stopped halfway through the amount of shifted material would remain in this space and the remainder fall back to the other spin state, trying to then recombine these half ships into a whole one would be near impossible. Though the process was slow it was successful, and the derelict was recovered more or less intact. Immediately investigations were underway, the summary of the findings is seen below:

Conclusions based on exploration of the Proximal Guanan Derelict

1. Recovered derelict has no apparent spin shift drives, thorough searching of the drive systems indicate technology which is similar to our own asymmetric field propulsion, no systems have been found aboard, and no reference to them in the surviving computer archives.

2. The Derelict is incomplete, at the front of the derelict is an attachment plane for a vehicle subunit, it is thought that the main ship was crippled by a combined engine and system failure, which since then has self repaired, as the only indication of this event is recorded in computer archives.

• The crew rather than waiting for their ship to recover from this massive failure took to a command subunit, whose drives and systems were autonomous to the main drives structure, and left the rest of the ship behind, (no bodies were recovered in the derelict, no sign of bodies in early internal sensor information).

• Or, the crew deliberately scuttled this part of their ship and took off in the sub module (if this was so, why was this part of the ship not damaged enough to stop self repair? This answer and the one above make no attempt to explain why this subunit has not since been recovered or why the ship was spin shifted)

• Or, the crew were researching on Guanan Habitat Ring artifacts (as many found aboard in storage bays), and something went terribly wrong, leading to either damage of the main drive module, or the necessary self destruction of the module (but not enough to crack open the hull? Risk of release? Nothing dangerous has been found aboard, though this would explain why the ship has not been recovered since, and even shifted into this spin state)

• Or, one of their experiments spin shifted this part of the ship, and severely damaging it, whilst the crew managed to get away in the command module (the only theory so far that explains why it was found in this spin shift, though no one can find anything that can possibly achieve this affect on board)

• The computer archive information does not explain what happened, the above are mere speculation. It is hoped that other evidence can be found to define what really happened here.

3. The systems and design architecture are in parts closely homologous to existing Federation technology, however the ship is in many respects much more advanced, and attempts at recovering some of this advanced technology has not been greatly successful. Some say that the computer design system is suspiciously close to our own, suggesting this could be a future federation vessel, on a similar level some suggest that it could be of Soroteth design, as much of Federation design architecture is founded on Trenoc designs which shares some design homology to Soroteth relics. It is clear though that the technology at use in this craft does not match the technology recovered from the habitat ring.

4. The age of the craft has been approximately been determined from isotopic analysis of the DCM components (as DCM is preferably made isotopically pure, and decay products are proportional to time), fusion reactor core linings, and ‘pure’ metal components, assuming that the craft was assembled at roughly the same time, and that there are no long term effects of spin shifting, the age of the craft is less than 50,000 years old, though these techniques are also suggesting a degree of isotopic control within the structure, it is unclear how this has been achieved.

5. The ship was discovered with no internal power, though computer archives suggest that the craft remains dormant for long periods of time, but occasionally returns to full power for maintenance, it is unclear what mechanism or generator initiates the power up procedure, as the craft was discovered in a dead state.

6. Though the delicate computer archives were the most affected by time, a lot of data has been retrieved, though frustratingly none of this data is very useful, its internal design blueprints, and ship’s manifest indicate most of the big computer cores were situated in the command module, and it has been accepted that the really interesting information would have been situated there. The cores were also stripped of most of their information prior to command module release, this may have been a matter of course, but perhaps they did not want others to learn of their work there.

7. Since recovery, power and supplies have been provided to the ship, and it has not returned to a dormant state, some more repair work has been observed, and confirms that the repair agents are extremely sophisticated nanites, much more advanced than the rudimentary systems used on current Federation vessels. The vessel has made no attempt at flight, and does not seem to be performing any other function, it was hoped that the craft would have an instantaneous communication device, but it appears that this too was installed only in the command module.

The Federation is trying to recover some of the more advanced technologies from the derelict, especially the nanite repair networking, and the advanced engine designs, but most of the more sophisticated technology has been conceived of already by Federation scientists, but as yet not manufactured, it is hoped that having some physical proof that these concepts can exist will help bridge the gap in thought and manufacture. The Federation has concluded that although this technology is advanced, some new methods of manufacture would be needed to implement it, and as such this vessel does not immediately offer any useful technology, but rather focuses our current research. It is also from this viewpoint why this particular derelict has not fallen prey to censoring activity, as its technology is not so far removed from the minimum required to extract it from its spin shifted state. Some conclude that  this is another example of ‘appropriate censoring’ where objects are hidden proportional to their technological or informational worth, and so when uncovered they do not confer the discoverers with dangerously new or advanced technologies beyond what they already possess, needless to say a lot of Federation space is planned to be spin shift censored in the next few years, possibly bringing to light more evidence to explain this derelict.