David Mack is the national bestselling author of more than twenty novels and novellas, including
Wildfire,
Harbinger,
Reap the Whirlwind,
Precipice,
Road of Bones,
Promises Broken,
Rise Like Lions, and the
Star Trek Destiny trilogy:
Gods of Night,
Mere Mortals, and
Lost Souls. He developed the
Star Trek Vanguard series concept with editor Marco Palmieri. His first work of original fiction is the critically acclaimed supernatural thriller
The Calling. In addition to novels, Mack’s writing credits span several media, including television (for episodes of
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), film, short fiction, magazines, newspapers, comic books, computer games, radio, and the Internet. His upcoming works include the new
Star Trek Vanguard novel
Storming Heaven, an epic 24th-century
Star Trek: The Next Generation trilogy, and a new original supernatural thriller. Mack resides in New York City with his wife, Kara.
1.01 Causing Localized Seismic Disruptions with Tricorder and/or Combadge Signals Although creating controlled seismic events is extremely dangerous, they can be an effective deterrent if executed properly -- blocking the path of a pursuer or group of pursuers in a wilderness setting by causing the collapse of a large volume of earth, rock, snow, or other material.
This effect is sometimes easy to create with well-placed phaser blasts, but if phasers are not available or have malfunctioned, a variety of terrains might prove susceptible to disruption through the use of ultrasonic and hypersonic signals from a combadge or tricorder. Regions with great quantities of loose rock, muddy earth, or heavy accumulations of snow or similar frozen precipitation can be induced to collapse by using focused sonic waves to reduce their overall strength and cohesion.
For maximum effect, such controlled events should be directed into gullies, narrow canyon passages, or other close areas, providing the greatest degree of obstruction to a pursuer. However, great care should be taken not to execute such a tactic too close to any settled area, or in a location where there is an unacceptably high risk of the controlled event triggering subsequent, uncontrolled events that might lead to unwanted collateral damage.
If the disruption is to be effected using a tricorder:
• Scan the target area for its overall mass and molecular cohesion. • Press the GEO-1 switch on the tricorder to initialize geological scan protocols.
• Select sense option I for internal sensors, followed by command protocol Alpha to set the scan type to the geological mechanics subroutine.
• Run the "GEO Mechanics" subroutine to pinpoint weak areas and zones of maximum stress.
• Select the GEO-2 control to calculate the necessary frequency and amplitude of signal to induce a seismic disruption.
Small volumes of low mass are relatively easy to disrupt with a tricorder; disruptions of greater than 10 metric tons or of highly cohesive material require more power and will necessitate the creation of a collimated signal from the tricorder and any other signal sources immediately available, such as other tricorders and combadges.
If the disruption is to be effected using a combadge:
Using a combadge, the process of locating vulnerable areas and selecting appropriate disruption frequencies becomes one of trial and error, with manual adjustments being made through the ultrasonic and hypersonic frequencies until the trigger frequency is found. Caution should be exercised to ensure that while searching for the correct frequency to disrupt the target area, other zones of instability -- particularly if they are underfoot or overhead -- are not disrupted during the process.
• Open the back access panel and use a fine-grade, nonconductive tool to adjust the RF transceiver -- the triangular circuit assembly located below the lower right-hand corner of the subspace transceiver assembly -- through its preset frequency and amplitude test series. • Narrow the transmission bandwidth by adjusting the aperture control, a circular element located at the topmost area of the combadge's internal assembly, to direct the beam.
• Set the signal aperture to a field-of-view (FoV) of approximately .25 to .35 degrees of arc.
• Target the top point of the combadge at the target area.
• Cycle the RF test settings through the ultrasonic and hypersonic frequency ranges until the target area begins to show signs of disruption.
• As soon as disruption effects become visible, leave the RF settings in place and increase the gain to the RF circuit from the combadge's sarium krellide power cell until the desired level of collapse has occurred.
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