- Location
- England
Damnit, Star Fleet. Stop poking mysterious objects with a stick.
Send a probe. Meanwhile, be at least five light years away with the warp engines warmed up and tuned for a hot start.
The Voyage Without
- Thread starter Hiver
- Start date
Send a probe. Meanwhile, be at least five light years away with the warp engines warmed up and tuned for a hot start.
- Location
- france
Hum... It's not neutronium but could this be the same design as the Doomsday Machine from the Original series?
The cube is probably going to be more psionic smart matter, either assemble into a better ship (atleast faster than voyager) under Zephyrs control or it's gonna merge into him and make him an actual stellar dragon. Somehow anyhow these are my predictions for the things at that may occur.
Ace Dreamer
Verified Reality User
- Location
- Between The Unknown & The Known
Hmm. Sounds like a solid lump of computronium, passive until you poke it, at which point it starts processing, in such a way hat it seriously messes with local reality. In particular high-info density things - like people.
Or... it might be just a really fancy paper-weight, for really tall bureaucrats.
Winged One
Not the Simurgh
- Location
- definitely the ground
- Pronouns
- They/Them/It
I mean, a giant cube floating in space is a pretty reasonable way to signpost Borg presence. But space is really big, so signposting is kind of useless...
Ace Dreamer
Verified Reality User
- Location
- Between The Unknown & The Known
Well... It might manipulate probability/causation so it gets found?
And, where it was previously, that happened far too often, so, they dumped it a long way from anywhere?
Ginny McAllister
On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog
- Location
- Pacific NorthWet
Naw, it's a giant data archive, with bits stored in the pattern of iron and quartz.
KillerFish
Grumpy Owl, Bird Lawyer
Dammit, stop poking the giant Space Lament Configuration!! Do you want Cenobites, Kathryn?! Because this is how you get Cenobites!!
Darth Cooter
(Verified Lord of Cooters)(Dark Proprietor)(AP)
- Location
- error -loc root/users/dcooter not found
/Omake
Sensors report - "A Perfect Square Pane of...."
-Kneel Before Zod!
Sensors report - "A Perfect Square Pane of...."
-Kneel Before Zod!
64
I looked around the meeting room, "Well, the computer managed to calculate the track of the artifact back about four million years before the variables become too much to be accurate," I said and brought the path up onto the main screen on the wall using a flick of my eyes in my visor.
"Four million years," Janeway said, "Old. Very old."
"Actually," I continued, looking at her, "It's over eighty million years old."
"How do you figure that?" Kim asked.
I glanced at her, "The ship's computer lost track after about four million years due to gravimetric variables, stellar drift, orbits, slingshots and such. The thing in my head had no such issues it seemed and narrowed the possibilities down, just don't ask me how it did it. I finally found a real use for it. I looked at all the data we had and if all of it is accurate, this is the system that was the source of the artifact," I continued and zoomed out, extending the course, "Approximately eighty seven million years ago."
"Eighty seven?" Janeway asked with a frown, "Is that accurate?"
"Well," I admitted, "I don't know. But so far my ancient alien supercomputer has yet to be wrong. And that cube out there is even older than it is. For all I know, the same people built it."
"It is known that the galaxy has sustained advanced life for well over a billion years," Tuvok said, "We may think of the Iconians as an ancient lost race, but they were lost a mere two hundred thousand years ago."
I nodded, "You know what bothers me about knowing that? Where are they?"
"It is a long time, Lieutenant," Tuvok said, "Things decay with time. No civilization lasts forever."
"Perhaps not," I admitted, "I don't see why, but that's a different matter. Say life started getting advanced enough for space travel a billion years ago. We should be seeing dyson spheres all over the place. Dyson swarms, ring worlds, megastructures. Swarms of abandoned ships. Yes, space is big, but a billion years. What do we find? The random artifact left behind. Nothing else."
Dinah shifted in her seat, looking towards Janeway.
Janeway slowly nodded, "Actually Lieutenant, that's not… quite accurate."
I turned my head to her, "What?"
"We have found one dyson sphere," she said, "It's classified, captains and above, unless there is need to know. Lieutenant Navari knows however."
I stared at her, "You do!?"
Dinah nodded, "I was there when it was discovered. It was just before I left the Enterprise."
I slowly blinked, "...Why is it classified? That's… that's the biggest xenoarchaeology find of… ever!"
Literally.
"And it's much more advanced than we are, than any known species," Janeway said, "The technology found may be the key to defend the Federation against the Borg."
A dyson sphere.
Effectively unlimited living space. And we had one.
"Can we use it?"
Janeway shook her head, "The star is unstable, randomly washing the inside with radiation. Largest non-plant based life found is about the size of a gerbil."
"That's amazing," Ensign Kim said, "But… Why let us know, Captain? If it is need to know?"
She smiled, "Because it may become relevant. Besides, I don't see it still being a secret by the time we get back home."
I slowly nodded, "I have so many questions. Could I gain access to those files? That's fascinating."
I know what posting I'm applying to as soon as we get back home! Hell, if I knew about it back then I would be there, not here!
The Captain nodded and then motioned towards the screen, "Yes, But we are a bit off topic. How far to that system?"
"About a thousand lightyears," I said and sighed, "So that's a good trip," before I shifted my wings, "Luckily, it's not that far off our course! If we shift course slightly after meeting up with the Val Jean, we'll be able to get there in roughly a year, delaying our return by about a month."
Captain Janeway leaned back in her seat with a thoughtful look on her face before she looked to Tuvok, "Commander?"
"If there was a civilization there still, they may very well be able to assist us," he said, "However, it is unlikely."
I nodded in agreement. Oldest known space faring species was the Rokiti. They had a small ten system empire in the Alpha quadrant and they had been spacefaring for about fifty thousand years. Kinda gecko like. If you squint hard.
They were not an expansive species. Their technology was more advanced than ours but not by a lot, and they were friendly enough, but had no interest in other species nor expansion.
They had an ambassador on Earth to the Federation, I knew that much. I think it was mostly to keep us from bothering them however.
"If they're still there, they might also be hostile," Dinah cautioned, "But I think it's worth the risk. All likelihood, we'll not find anything but dust."
"Even if they lasted for millions of years after they launched this… whatever it is…the likeliest thing is that they have been gone for dozens of millions of years," I agreed, "For there to be anything left, they would need to build extremely tough. Even stuff in orbit is likely to be gone by now, just from orbital drift."
"Could be worth a shot," Paris said, "Even if they're gone, we might be able to find something."
Kim nodded, "Yeah, even if it's only a couple of artifacts it could be worth the detour."
"Alright," Janeway said, "Mister Paris, plot the course change for after we meet back up with the Val Jean. We have all the readings we're getting, we might as well be on our way. How are we looking for our next destination?"
Paris nodded, "We're about five days out if we leave now at cruising speed. We lost about a day here, if we step it up a bit, we'll be back to schedule."
"Make it so."
"Four million years," Janeway said, "Old. Very old."
"Actually," I continued, looking at her, "It's over eighty million years old."
"How do you figure that?" Kim asked.
I glanced at her, "The ship's computer lost track after about four million years due to gravimetric variables, stellar drift, orbits, slingshots and such. The thing in my head had no such issues it seemed and narrowed the possibilities down, just don't ask me how it did it. I finally found a real use for it. I looked at all the data we had and if all of it is accurate, this is the system that was the source of the artifact," I continued and zoomed out, extending the course, "Approximately eighty seven million years ago."
"Eighty seven?" Janeway asked with a frown, "Is that accurate?"
"Well," I admitted, "I don't know. But so far my ancient alien supercomputer has yet to be wrong. And that cube out there is even older than it is. For all I know, the same people built it."
"It is known that the galaxy has sustained advanced life for well over a billion years," Tuvok said, "We may think of the Iconians as an ancient lost race, but they were lost a mere two hundred thousand years ago."
I nodded, "You know what bothers me about knowing that? Where are they?"
"It is a long time, Lieutenant," Tuvok said, "Things decay with time. No civilization lasts forever."
"Perhaps not," I admitted, "I don't see why, but that's a different matter. Say life started getting advanced enough for space travel a billion years ago. We should be seeing dyson spheres all over the place. Dyson swarms, ring worlds, megastructures. Swarms of abandoned ships. Yes, space is big, but a billion years. What do we find? The random artifact left behind. Nothing else."
Dinah shifted in her seat, looking towards Janeway.
Janeway slowly nodded, "Actually Lieutenant, that's not… quite accurate."
I turned my head to her, "What?"
"We have found one dyson sphere," she said, "It's classified, captains and above, unless there is need to know. Lieutenant Navari knows however."
I stared at her, "You do!?"
Dinah nodded, "I was there when it was discovered. It was just before I left the Enterprise."
I slowly blinked, "...Why is it classified? That's… that's the biggest xenoarchaeology find of… ever!"
Literally.
"And it's much more advanced than we are, than any known species," Janeway said, "The technology found may be the key to defend the Federation against the Borg."
A dyson sphere.
Effectively unlimited living space. And we had one.
"Can we use it?"
Janeway shook her head, "The star is unstable, randomly washing the inside with radiation. Largest non-plant based life found is about the size of a gerbil."
"That's amazing," Ensign Kim said, "But… Why let us know, Captain? If it is need to know?"
She smiled, "Because it may become relevant. Besides, I don't see it still being a secret by the time we get back home."
I slowly nodded, "I have so many questions. Could I gain access to those files? That's fascinating."
I know what posting I'm applying to as soon as we get back home! Hell, if I knew about it back then I would be there, not here!
The Captain nodded and then motioned towards the screen, "Yes, But we are a bit off topic. How far to that system?"
"About a thousand lightyears," I said and sighed, "So that's a good trip," before I shifted my wings, "Luckily, it's not that far off our course! If we shift course slightly after meeting up with the Val Jean, we'll be able to get there in roughly a year, delaying our return by about a month."
Captain Janeway leaned back in her seat with a thoughtful look on her face before she looked to Tuvok, "Commander?"
"If there was a civilization there still, they may very well be able to assist us," he said, "However, it is unlikely."
I nodded in agreement. Oldest known space faring species was the Rokiti. They had a small ten system empire in the Alpha quadrant and they had been spacefaring for about fifty thousand years. Kinda gecko like. If you squint hard.
They were not an expansive species. Their technology was more advanced than ours but not by a lot, and they were friendly enough, but had no interest in other species nor expansion.
They had an ambassador on Earth to the Federation, I knew that much. I think it was mostly to keep us from bothering them however.
"If they're still there, they might also be hostile," Dinah cautioned, "But I think it's worth the risk. All likelihood, we'll not find anything but dust."
"Even if they lasted for millions of years after they launched this… whatever it is…the likeliest thing is that they have been gone for dozens of millions of years," I agreed, "For there to be anything left, they would need to build extremely tough. Even stuff in orbit is likely to be gone by now, just from orbital drift."
"Could be worth a shot," Paris said, "Even if they're gone, we might be able to find something."
Kim nodded, "Yeah, even if it's only a couple of artifacts it could be worth the detour."
"Alright," Janeway said, "Mister Paris, plot the course change for after we meet back up with the Val Jean. We have all the readings we're getting, we might as well be on our way. How are we looking for our next destination?"
Paris nodded, "We're about five days out if we leave now at cruising speed. We lost about a day here, if we step it up a bit, we'll be back to schedule."
"Make it so."
- Location
- England
Most people's perception of a Dyson sphere is a solid spherical surface that surrounds a star, often with inexplicable gravity on the inside and an atmosphere, etc.
Dyson's perception of a Dyson sphere was a swarm of solar energy satellites surrounding a star.
One practical point here is that neither is really necessary for advanced civilisations in the Star Trek universe. In Star Trek large scale FTL travel is possible fuelled by antimatter. FTL travel means they don't need the vast living space solid Dyson Spheres give and they have enough power generation for the core Federation systems to be pretty much post scarcity. (It's not really clear where antimatter comes from in the first place, but probably big fusion generators above gas giants and such).
Finding an actual solid Dyson Sphere implies, 1) That civilisation somehow failed to discover a practical FTL drive, 2) They were culturally or biologically limited to living in one solar system, 3) It was some Prestige project. Built to show off or for some strange cultural or religious reason.
Dyson's perception of a Dyson sphere was a swarm of solar energy satellites surrounding a star.
One practical point here is that neither is really necessary for advanced civilisations in the Star Trek universe. In Star Trek large scale FTL travel is possible fuelled by antimatter. FTL travel means they don't need the vast living space solid Dyson Spheres give and they have enough power generation for the core Federation systems to be pretty much post scarcity. (It's not really clear where antimatter comes from in the first place, but probably big fusion generators above gas giants and such).
Finding an actual solid Dyson Sphere implies, 1) That civilisation somehow failed to discover a practical FTL drive, 2) They were culturally or biologically limited to living in one solar system, 3) It was some Prestige project. Built to show off or for some strange cultural or religious reason.
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Let's remember that the "dyson sphere" discovery is an actual Star Trek episode. No, it doesn't make sense, but considering Star Trek that's normal.
- Location
- England
Yeah, I mentioned the 'inexplicable gravity'.
That sort of depends on how large they are and how hot the sun is.
I don't think I watched that one.
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Relics was actually a really good episode. I recommend watching it.
Ace Dreamer
Verified Reality User
- Location
- Between The Unknown & The Known
Yeah, gravity control, super-materials to build the thing out of, careful control of the heat flow through the shell, and if you want to fake-up a day-night cycle, over at least part of the inside surface, shadow-generating structures between that and the sun.
As a Ringworld, Larry Niven did all this pretty thoroughly, and with a solid Dyson Sphere there's even more need for some amazingly 'solid', likely self-repairing, active infrastructure hidden-away, somewhere. Probably self-defending, too, to stop these half-intelligent beings from messing with it...
Odds are you need more than the resources of a single Solar System to build this, and you'll want to re-engineer the central star, and install control systems for that... Need to feed-in more hydrogen, from somewhere, extract heavier elements to prevent excessive accumulation...
Maybe this is a zoo, with ecosystems from many, many, worlds you'd like to preserve? Presumably ring-fenced so they don't interfere with each other? Going to be interesting if you want to simulate the effects of continental drift doing mountain building and subduction... Including volcanoes... The effects of satellites like Luna... But, how much detail do you want to get right???
The Star Trek Dyson Sphere was fun, never really explored, though. A weird variant on that would be where the Sun acted as the power supply for a sphere-wide holodeck running many different 'worlds' across the inside sphere surface... Replicating supplies for any non-holo residents... Untangling that mess would be... tricky...
Jack Chalker's Well World, or maybe his 'Flux and Anchor' (pseudo-reality) novels.
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It's more Dyson Spheres are extremely difficult to make, but for not much short term gain. The only reason I could see it is if a civilization is so advanced, that a Dyson sphere is comparatively easy to make compared to the benefits.
I mean just with Star Trek tech, with a Dyson sphere you could print ships easily with a replicator and harvesting mass from the sun. Depending on your setup you could easily create massive fleets with a replicator + infinite power + near infinite mass from the star producing hydrogen.
Is that much production capability worth the investment is the biggest thing stopping Dyson spheres being every where in startrek. One it would basically destroy a solar system, and two there isn't really a need to produce millions of enterprises(minus non replicatable stuff) a day.
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eeeeh, *waggles hand side to side*
with a full Dyson sphere, all the star's energy is getting caught by the sphere rather than most of it radiating away into deep space. Simple sunlight can convey enough energy to heat things up, and in a sphere it'll be a constant affect on the entire inner surface. Even a 'cool' star is still going to need some way of disposing of the heat/energy over time.
Now, if they can make a Dyson Sphere then they probably are advanced enough to handle that factor, admittedly. Some method of changing heat to other forms of energy that is then used to power other systems is likely.
- Location
- England
It doesn't matter how hot the star is, as long as the sphere is that much bigger. I don't know what you are not getting. You take however much energy is coming from the star, you spread it over the area of the sphere. As long as the material of the sphere is not a perfect insulator (and there is no such thing in our universe) the sphere will reach a stable temperature. You could have a blue giant inside it, and if the sphere is LARGE ENOUGH then that stable temperature could be a pleasant 20 degrees centigrade. All materials naturally emit radiation depending on their temperature and make up. There is absolutely no need to have any special mechanisms or structures to cool it down. You just need to do the initial math.