The Doctor never stated the solution to the Deutschland’s last jump drive to the Captain. He claimed it to be an issue with the computer at first then discovered that it was the size of the solarium crystal that did it. Apparently when doing the math the eggheads figured that it would take a large crystal instead of the small one. They clearly didn’t account for the fact that solarium will pull an extraordinary amount of energy from nearby surrounding crystals more specifically the main reactor crystal. We did the proper math this time and discovered that if we use the depleted solarium crystals we should be able to avoid overloading the drive. We’ve also detected the residual energy from the first jump that got us here, it’s like we opened a rift in the time-space continuum, it may be our way back home. We’ve shrunk the tech down so we can outfit a trident fighter with it for a test before we risk the whole crew, a quick jump through the rift and back. Captain Richard of Thunder squadron volunteered himself and his fighter for the test. We’ll perform the test while the Deutschland is on patrol, otherwise Essen might protest to the idea of risking his best pilot. The possibility has been considered by everyone here at Dark Bastion, it’s a risk we’re willing to make.
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October REDACTED, 2019 1:45 p.m.
Richard is preparing to make the jump. The command room is filled with fortress staff. We watched Richard through the on-board camera. The fighter was still as he flipped switches and put in the jump coordinates. Doctor Williams gave him the go ahead to make the jump. Richard turned one last nob then the camera jolted and cut out. Now we prayed that the camera would come back on. The scans show no signs of debris and there is no evidence of him on the network. Williams looked at me unsure about what to do now, I wasn’t sure either. I checked my watch, 5 minutes had gone by before a very distorted image popped up on the screen.
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“Gentleman,” Richard said, “I am proud to report, we did it.”
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The whole room was up and cheering. Williams and I just stared at each other, unable to find the words to describe our success. The chances of it working were slim and we pulled it off. Now we just need to inform Captain Essen of our success.
Chief Engineer Raymund Arnold signing off.