Chapter 36 - Using the Transporter for Storage (Patreon)

I had been inspired by numerous episodes of Star Trek in creating this little endeavor. The idea of using the transporter buffer as a storage device was actually inspired by an episode of TNG in which Montgomery Scott, whose ship had crashed onto the surface of a Dyson’s Sphere, had come up with an ingenious modification to the transporter system as their rescue became increasingly improbable and supplies were quickly running out.

He and the other sole survivor of the crash had entered into the crashed ship’s transporter buffer after Scott had locked the transporter in a permanent diagnostic cycle, thus preserving the integrity of their patterns, while also cross connecting the phase inducers to create a regenerative power source for the power-hungry transporters. For 75 plus years he remained in the transport buffer, unageing, in some ways arguably non-existent, only to be rescued by the Enterprise-D who completed the materialization process and brought him back to life. His companion had not survived that jury rigged existence, but that did not take away from the sheer genius of what he had done with little in the way of true resources in the middle of a life-threatening emergency. With spare parts, an insane idea, and their very lives at stake, Scott had essentially created the equivalent of a 24thcentury gamer-style inventory, or pocket dimension, using transporter technology.

What Scott had done in an emergency situation 75 years ago, I had done on purpose with all my resources and the benefit of hindsight, or foresight, in my case, and had integrated this ingenious modification to the transporters into my design of the Temptress. With the advances in technology over that time span, coupled with all the alien technology I possessed, my ship’s ‘inventory’ was huge. By expanding the pattern buffers and memory capacity, coupled with more powerful and efficient data compression, my ship could hold a great deal more than it should.