Editing Cloaking device (section)

==Dangers and Limitations of using a Cloaking Device==

===Spatial Ripple===
 
As a cloak engages and disengages, a momentary gravitational wave forms from the graviton polarity sources, while the subspace field distortion amplifiers phase-synchronize with each other. (Gravitational waves also called gravitational radiation or spatial ripples.) A gravitational wave is a ripple in the curvature of space-time In other words, it is a propagating gravitational field, or propagating pattern of strain, traveling at the speed of light. It carries energy and can exert forces on matter in its path, producing, for instance, very small vibrations in elastic bodies. As the ripple forms, the ships inertial damping system will attempt to respond. But because, on average, the inertial damping system lags 295 milliseconds to respond, there is a slight strain of the Physical spaceframe of the craft. If the ripple is fairly limited, no considerable effect will result, but, should the ripple be large, the systems will fail to adequately compensate and the ripple can cause a significant effect on the ship and crew. This distortion, although the relatively weak interaction between gravitational radiation and matter, can create an effect similar to that of spatial interphase, which alters the neural pathways in the brain, effectively rendering any humanoids exposed to the spatial radiation insane, or worse. Statistically, on a Mk 3.2a cloaking device, a ripple large enough that it cannot be adequately compensated for, should occur some 0.00007854% (39,271/50,000,000,000) of the time. A build-up of tetryons in the conduits that allow field bleed between the graviton polarity sources will significantly increase the chance of a spatial ripple occurring. A neural disturbance should occur approximately 0.0000001386% of the time, with a 0.000000000341% (341/100,000,000,000,000 ) chance of complete structural failure due to spatial ripple stress.
 
===Power Requirements===

If a ship had the ability to generate enough energy to maintain the cloaking device as well as defensive shields, the nullifier cores could neither mask all of the energy required to accomplish this, nor the interference created by defensive shields. In addition, the spatial distortions created by defensive shields would mean that the shield itself would have to exist within the cloaking field, and the larger the cloaking field is, the more energy is required to generate it. These reasons completely eliminate the possibility of using defensive shields.

=== Other Limitations===

Phased energy weapons make use of the rapid nadion effect. This is very disruptive to the cloaking device's plasma coils, even with a plasma buffer, and therefore cannot be used. If a cloaked ship did use their phasers, the beam would be bent off course and hit the ship at a diametric point and angle. In addition, the nullifier cores would attempt to dissipate the phaser beam and remodulate its energy signature to give the appearance of background emissions. The cloaking field would most likely collapse, causing powerful gravitational waves. However, it is possible for a phaser to penetrate the cloak from the outside if it is tuned to the frequency of a window opened in the cloak for sensory input.
 
Although the transporter system could be tuned to the same frequency as the cloaking device, the gravitational distortions usually prevent usage of the transporter system.
 
Warp drive operation is considerably affected by the cloaking device. The geometry of the warp field must be significantly altered because of the spatial distortions created by the cloaking device. Warp drive control software works in parallel with the cloaking generator coil's dedicated computer to minimize the effect on both systems. The translational field 
interaction between the cloaking device and the warp drive is somewhat chaotic, creating potentially catastrophic effects. Such as a spontaneous field collapse of the warp field or subspace compression. This is why subspace listening posts are an efficient way of tracking cloaked ships.
 
Because the navigational deflector dish radiates significant amounts of both subspace and electromagnetic radiation, it cannot be used when cloaked without an extremely powerful network of nullifier cores, which would consume a considerable amount of energy. Instead of this, a variant of the transporter system is used. This device converts the micrometeorite 
particulates to energy, lets the energy be directed around the ship as with all of the other light and energy, and then converts the energy back to matter. This method is only used when a ship is in very close proximity. Otherwise the magnetic constriction coils are tuned with the cloaking generator coils to reflect interstellar gases and micrometeoroid particulates. This method is more energy efficient than the method using a variant of the transporter system.