The journey back was the same old, more trees and nothing new to see. The first thing Ridge had spotted back was spots on the top of the wall being reinforced and shaped into a square tower. The defensive turrets or cannons at this point were very likely almost finished; it was probably Caroline who suggested they create these to install the turrets right away when they were one hundred percent complete.
Walking into the base through one of the four gates in the north, the group split up rather quickly, and Ridge, who had the samples and pictures recorded, walked straight into the laboratory.
Inside, Hopi and Ryan were currently doing work. They had actually moved their office into this building after the interior was completed a while ago; this way, the science wing, so to speak, within the main building made space for other things. Though, to be fair, there wasn't much to put in there other than maybe storage rooms.
After decontamination clearing, Ridge entered the lab with a container in hand and his suit still on. Ryan was the first to spot him; ever since they had last discussed the options for the crystal, Hopi had been engrossed in messing with it. The other two said it was like finding a completely unknown problem, and for science types like themselves, they simply crave solving unknown problems and gaining more knowledge in the process.
So he just took their word for it and dismissed the thought of the crystal somehow influencing her.
"To what do we owe the pleasure, Commander?" he said while getting up from his desk and cleaning his glasses.
"Knowledge, to put it lightly," Ridge replied while holding up the container he brought in.
Narrowing his eyes slightly, Ryan looked at the box and then nodded, "I see; we'll open it up in one of the experimental rooms."
Passing by Hopi to go to the room, Ridge noticed at a glance that she was working on that crystal again, only in a much smaller manner. Connecting it was all sorts of wires and devices.
Probably trying to use it for power generation, he thought to himself before moving his eyes away and continuing forward. The room wasn't very far, and after inputting a code into the wall to open the door, Ryan led Ridge into a white room filled with nothing but a table and a viewing window on the left.
Gesturing with his hands towards the table, Ryan made some space for him to put down the container. Nodding, Ridge put it down on the table and opened it.
Inside it was segmented into three spaces by the container's walls. The first thing he pulled out onto the table was the blue-colored berries.
Then he pulled out a piece of the black tree they had found, the only one in that entire area, so Ridge decided to cut a branch off, which worked quite well with just his sword.
Finally, he took out the small green colored fish with spots. It was already dead. Having experience in the area, Ridge decided to kill it with a rock he found near the small pond where he found it.
Ryan, who wasn't entirely impressed by his haul, immediately walked towards the fish with gloved hands.
"Interesting," He murmured while examining the fish. Eventually setting it down, he turned to Ridge, Is that everything, Commander?"
"No, here's data with pictures taken on animals we found. As well as an enemy we fought just a day or so ago," He replied, using his wrist panel to send over the data he was talking about.
"Understood. We'll spend some time analyzing these things and then get back to you as quickly as possible," Ryan said with a slight smile on his face. After all, these science types enjoyed work like this.
Nodding, Ridge moved to leave the room. "I'll leave it to you; no need to show me out."
"Got it," Ryan replied faintly as Ridge moved away. Looking immediately to Hopi, who was still engrossed in her work, he got up and patted her shoulder, causing her to jump slightly.
"Scared me, Commander. What brings you here?" she said while stretching her neck and back from leaning too much.
"I guess you were too focused to hear me when I came in. I brought some samples from my little expedition yesterday. I imagine you will find out about it from Ryan, but it's simply some kind of berries, a branch, and leaves from a black tree, the only one in the entire area we found it in. Finally, the last thing is a dead specimen of a fish we found.
Bringing back a live one would have been better, but we just didn't bring any containers suitable for it," Ridge explained.
Leaning on one hand, listening to him, she nodded occasionally at his words; he could tell from her eyes, though, that it was only of slight interest.
"How's the progress going on the crystal?" he said as he finished talking.
Her eyes suddenly lighting up, she moved and showed him what she was working on. Gesturing for him to come closer.
Leaning down, he turned to her and asked, "What is it?"
She smiled. "Well, the crystal and any future crystals, for starters, I'm calling Aetherite power crystals. After extensive testing, we found that it's a dense, translucent crystal ranging from deep blue to violet. Of course, this information was pretty much known as soon as you brought it to us. The next thing we found was that it seems to have formed naturally under rare geological and radiological conditions and incorporates radioactive isotopes within a highly stable lattice.
Don't worry, though; we tested the ground around it for radiation as well as the surrounding air while working with it and found no leaking radiation somehow," She paused and explained after seeing Ridge back away slightly.
Clearing his throat in embarrassment, he smiled. "Continue, please."
"Anyways, this structure allows a slow, controlled release of energy through radioactive decay and lattice vibration — functioning like the nuclear fission processes used in Federation ship reactors, but in a compact solid form," She explained more, before taking a brief breath to speak more.
"The crystals are self-limiting: significant damage tends to dampen rather than accelerate the reaction, making them relatively safer to handle than conventional reactor fuel. Which I think is a good sign, and after messing with some amateur wiring here, I believe after some shaping perhaps we can use it on things like equipment, vehicles, or even emergency systems aboard the battleship if necessary, though even with such talented engineers with us, I don't think any of them completely understand the construction and many systems within the battleship given its somewhat classified to prevent any wayward groups from creating their own ships and causing trouble, so I wouldn't really recommend that last suggestion," She finished calmly.
Before Ridge could even put in another word, he was interrupted by Hopi smacking her forehead, "I just remembered, regarding using these as a power source, it's doable, but the time it can likely last before essentially dying, similar to a battery, depends heavily on the crystal's size.
The one you gave to us, we classified as a large crystal, and it would probably last one to two years with mixed use, though if it is continuously used for heavy work, that will be reduced by maybe a year. Smaller, medium-sized crystals, like the size of our fists, will last around four to eight months with mixed use, but with heavy use, around four months.
Smaller fragments are good for around a few days to weeks, once again depending on its usage. Keep in mind these are all estimations based on the theoretical data we managed to acquire, so practical application will reveal more over time," She said, chuckling slightly at the sight of him being perplexed.
"Well, good work; keep at it. Oh, and what if was used for the base, as a quick question before my head explodes from all this knowledge?" He joked.
Laughing at him, she calmed down before answering, "Well, compared to smaller machines like the Trailblazer, which most of my estimates were based on, to power the base we can likely use a large crystal, and it would last for around two to four months with heavy usage and four to eight without. Keep in mind my estimation also includes all the buildings within the base as well as the cannons on the wall. It shouldn't change too much with more buildings.
Naturally, with a bigger base there is more power consumption, so multiple medium and large crystals would have to be in a power bank together. This way, it would last much, much longer as the base expands.
Though unfortunately we have no idea where to find more, so I wouldn't really waste this only large crystal we have on just powering the base. Our current power generators are more than enough for now," she said.
"Okay, thanks, I'll let you get back to work. Notify me if anything interesting comes up with those samples I brought in. Of course, any new information on that crystal would be great as well," he replied while walking away to exit the laboratory.
"You got it, Commander," she shouted, waving him out before getting back to work.
Letting out a breath of relief, Ridge finally left the laboratory with a slight headache. It was like going into a math classroom back home, he thought.