Ranarth began to enter the shield data into the Cutter's computer so that Nico could work on translating it into the programming code that they used and reconfiguring the drone's shield array. Then Max ran [Battle Optimization] on the data, in an attempt to make it compatible with the equipment that was already on board the drone, and Nico tweaked it again.
Fortunately, the Drone was equipped with the miniature Replicator system that was used to create bombs, and was capable of some level of self modification under Nico's expert tutelage.
"The shield line will be going offline for a few moments. I am testing on them first, before we risk an interaction with the Dyson Sphere, in the event that we have the configuration incorrect." Nico informed the occupants of the shuttle.
There wasn't much that they could do but watch as Nico modified the shuttles, and then implanted the optimized code into them along with the recommended circuitry to allow their shield generator to produce the shield modulation that Ranarth had recommended.
The shields came up, creating a slight distortion around the drones.
"Ah, there it is, the multilayer distortion and nullification shields, or the Void Shield as they were once known. These are a beauty of ancient engineering. They might not be as elegant as the ones that we use, but those are completely incompatible with your energy systems. These were originally made by the Arisen, and then modified by the human fleets for their own use.
When they are impacted, a large part of the energy gets deflected to another layer of space, dissipating harmlessly and leaving the shield intact.
The pattern that the drone is using should appear to your sensors to be thirteen layers, but really it's one system working together. They won't collapse as layers if the enemy does manage to overload them." Ranarth explained for the benefit of the crew that hadn't had a chance to see the technical specs.
Max helpfully put the predicted energy dispersion data up on the main display for everyone to take a look at, and the Research Team began to happily debate the advantages of many new uses for this technology.
It would disperse energy instead of needing to nullify it, so the calculation wasn't so much a matter of frequency optimization to allow the shield system to best absorb the attacks that it would be subjected to, which would allow them to use it on a far wider variety of objects that needed to be protected.
The only real limiting factor was the amount of energy that it took to form the shield in the first place. Because it dispersed energy through the layers to a location where it would interact with different natural laws which would render it mostly harmless, it required as much energy as a Portal Generator to bring it online, then a minimal amount to maintain until it began to take damage.
From what they could tell, the shield was nearly seventy percent more efficient compared to the shields that they had been using, and it was compatible with their Warp Field generators, so it wouldn't cause issues if they needed to go to Warp.
"The destructive testing can wait. Let's get back to the Dyson Sphere testing. First, we need to stress test it to maximum rated output and hold it there for one hour to make sure that there are no fluctuations outside the accepted variance, and no sign of overload within the circuitry." Max instructed.
The excited Innu visibly deflated before they realized that they would get to test the shielding, just not right now. Though, if the containment of the Dyson Sphere failed, they would get a very sudden test of the shields that had been erected on the drones in front of them.
Nico configured the Drone to fire a group of rapidly dispersing Laser beams into the distance, not aimed at anything, and then ramped up the power output until the weapons array couldn't take any more flow.
That wasn't nearly as much as they needed to overload the Dyson Sphere, but with the shields also on maximum output, they were at least able to test the stability of the output.
"It looks like we're having some troubles with the power transfer between the Sphere and the ship. Who was on the power relay design assignment?" Nico asked as she analyzed the data.
Max frowned. "That would be me. Let me take a look at it and I will see what I messed up."
He had tweaked the design based on the advice of [Battle Optimization] and his past life's memories, so it should be working. But looking at the data, there was clearly a surge in the power at that point.
Max went over the code, then checked it again with [Battle Optimization] and realized where his problem was.
His past life memories included the code to make everything work again on that decrepit ship, and when he had optimized the Dyson Sphere's output controls, he had started with that code as a base, and the translation between coding systems was getting output lag, even though the power pattern was correct.
Max added a bit of code to seamlessly translate the foreign code he had introduced, and the power flow smoothed out again, giving the sort of precision power that they had hoped for out of the Sphere.
"There we go. It was just a coding issue. We're going again. Does this code look familiar to anyone else? I swear I've seen this before somewhere." Nico asked.
"Not to us, I don't think any of us know that coding language, it came with the instructions for the Dyson Sphere, and we only learned enough of it to make things work." The researchers replied with a shrug.
"That's fine then. It's working, and we can train everyone further in the intricacies of ancient coding techniques when we have a bit more time. But for now, we need to get this Sphere to a safe location and into a protective case so that we can start doing some real tests on it." Nico informed the crew.
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