Transporters

By Alan Reading

Ever wondered how the transporters actually work, well wonder no more, here are some general details & a little journey through a typical transport sequence.

The normal operating range of a transporter is up to 40000km, although this varies in relation to payload & relative velocity of the material being transported. Emergency evac transporters, carried onboard most starships have a typical range of 15000km depending on power available.

The transporters cannot function whilst shields are raised or while traveling at warp, unless the target beamdown point is moving at precisely the same velocity as the source transporter.

A typical beamout sequence is as follows. Once the material or person to be transported is in place on the pad, the transporter chief begins an automated diagnostic on all relevant transporter systems to ensure that everything is operating within normal parameters. These include the primary energizing coils, the phase transition coils, the molecular imaging scanners, the pattern buffer, the biofilter, & the emmiter arrays & targeting scanners on the outside of the ship.

The destination coordinates are input directly by the transporter operator or relayed via the target location, the transport begins once the system indicates a state of readiness at both source & destination & activation of the transport sequence has been initiated.

Confinement now takes place - The Annular confinement beam creates a spatial matrix from the primary energizing coils above the subject to be transported, a secondary inner field is available as a back up safety feature to prevent an energy discharge if the ACB is disrupted.

Scanning - Four redundant molecular imaging scanners in the overhead pads create a memory file of each persons quantum state, this pattern is then stored in the ships computer as a retrievable transporter trace & an entry in the transporter log records the actual beamout.

Disassembly - The phase transition coils in the lower pads initiate a widebeam, quark manipulation field to begin the actual disassembly of the subject being transported by partially unbinding their energy at the subatomic level. Once this has been recorded, each subjects matter stream is then held in the pattern buffer until the Doppler shifts between ship & destination have been determined by the relevant transporter subsystems.

Pattern buffer - The pattern buffer is a superconducting tokamak device which holds the pattern in suspension until beamout. One pattern buffer serves two transporter chambers but as with every stage of the beamout process, a back up is assigned for emergency shunting if needed.

Beam out - Once beamout is secured, the Annular confinement beam directs each patterns matter stream to the emmiter array on the hull of the ship & thence on towards the target coordinates. A booster set of coils & scanners then work in reverse within the ACB to reassemble each pattern into it`s original form at the beamdown point within five seconds of the cycle being initiated.

Because no special receiver equipment is necessary for beamout, a transport destination may be another point on the same ship, another ship or a planetary location. In adverse conditions however, a destination sites transporter can be used to enhance reception if the need arises.

This of course is a brief foray into the realms of the transporters, Stay tuned for a further, in depth analysis for publication at a later date perhaps.