The following is an introduction to the lattice's as they are currently understood. While this is not all the information we have on the devices, this is most of it. Each lattice is covered individually in its later chapters.
Type definitions:
Rigid/Soft Body
If a lattice is rigid, the entire thing will cease to function if a tiny piece is taken off.
Conforming/Nonconforming
Whether or not the lattice will grow into a mold or stay its own shape
Shape dependent/ Shape independent
Whether or not the shape affects what the lattice does.
Variable output/ Fixed output.
Whether or not the lattice can be changed after formation or is ‘locked in’
Lift Lattice. (2-2)
Type: RN0V74
Color: GREEN
Pattern: L53 A
Power Signal: 324.7 to 693.2
Applications in ships: Lift Source, heat sink.
Applications in civilian sectors: Transportation, industry,
Functional Description: The aptly named Lift Lattice is the primary means that modern airships use to generate lift. When a charge is run through the Lattice, it begins to generate a force that opposes gravity. The amount of antigravity force is proportional to the magnitude of the current passed through it. For example, a 1 Amp charge run through a quality 1.00 Lift Lattice at a size of 100 Grams will generate an upward force of two hundred Newtons. When a current is applied, heat from the outside of the lattice(TS) is then transferred into the Lift Lattice’s surface (TL). The heat required to sustain the Lift Lattice is directly proportional to the amount of lift it is generating. When the lift Lattice runs out of heat to draw from the environment, it will rapidly draw energy from its own structure. Once its temperature reached Zero Degrees kelvin, the Lattice will shatter. Therefore, it is vital to keep the Lattice adequately warm when in use. Most ships utilize so called “Liftwater” systems, where the water is heated up by the ship’s steam engine, and then passed over the Lift Lattice to warm the surface. It is vitally important that this water never be allowed to drop below a certain temperature, or a phenomenon called “Tip breakage” can occur, resulting in the shattering of the entire lattice structure. An interesting feature of steam engines means that the colder the heat sink and the hotter the heat source, the more power you can get out of its engines. So, therefore, adding weight to a ship actually increases its maximum speed. This is due to requiring more lift Lattices to keep the ship from sinking, therefore allowing the ship to reject more heat into the Lattice’s.
Additional notes: The so called “Soul” of the ship, without these Lattice’s none of our ships could fly.
Portions of this text have been removed in accordance with the Official State Secrets Act of 635. Please refer to your nearest security officer for clarification.
Heat Lattice. (3-2)
Type: SCIV00
Color: Black
Pattern: L58 D
Power Signal: 125.8 to 268.6
Applications in ships: Fuel, heat storage units, refrigeration, weaponry.
Applications in civilian sectors: Electricity generation, refrigeration.
Functional Description: A heat Lattice is essentially a variable heat sink/source. Whenever the Lattice is receiving no current, its surface temperature drops to zero degrees Kelvin. As a current is applied, the surface is heated up proportional to the amount of current. When the temperature of the Lattice (TL ) is lesser than the temperature of whatever is outside it (TS), it absorbs heat. That heat energy is then stored for later retrieval and use. A heat lattice can store a limited amount of heat based primarily on its size and its quality. Once a current is applied, the surface of the Lattice instantaneously heats up to a temperature proportional to the amount of current. For example, passing a .1 Amp current through a Quality 1.00 Heat Lattice will result in a surface temperature of Ten degrees Celsius. The odd thing about the Lattice is that the surface temperature (TL ) will remain the same independently of the temperature outside of the Lattice. (TS). The only thing that will change the temperature of the surface (TL) Is changing the amount of current flowing through it. This results in the interesting phenomenon that when a current is applied to a Heat Lattice that has no more internal stored energy, the Lattice shatters.
Additional Notes: Most Islands use giant heat lattice arrays that soak up the dark’s heat energy and store it using Heat Lattice’s at a very low current. Once the heat lattice’s are full, they can be removed from the system and transferred around to ship or to a power plant offsite. That heat energy is then used to run power plants and steam propellers.
Portions of this text have been removed in accordance with the Official State Secrets Act of 635. Please refer to your nearest security officer for clarification.
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Shield Lattice (2-1)
Type: RCDF68
Color: Violet
Pattern: T52 S
Power Signal: 837.9 to 1788.9
Applications in ships: Shields, Bearings, Thrust couplings. Communication devices.
Applications in civilian sectors: Electricity generation, Industrial metal production,
Functional Description: The shield lattice is one of the simplest forms of lattice to understand at first glance, but delving into the deeper mechanics gets very complicated extremely quickly. Essentially, when an electrical current is run through a shield lattice, it will project a nearly invisible near-frictionless plane of force that is as far as modern science can tell is infinitesimally thin. The shape of the shield can vary based on the shape of the shield lattice that is projecting it. Nearly any two-dimensional shape can be created, and then contorted into whatever shape the user desires except thickness. The shield that is projected will always remain as thin as it is, and cannot be thickened by any known method. The user can also create a shape much larger than the lattice itself by varying the projecting lattice’s thickness. This process is difficult however, as the further away a shield is from its projecting lattice, or the larger the shield is in relation to its projecting lattice, the amount of current required to sustain the shield increases exponentially. The projected shield and the shield lattice are linked in space, what is done to one is done to the other. When an impact is felt upon the shield, the shield lattice will move back as the impact was pushing the lattice itself. Think of an invisible and untouchable ghostly metal rod that connects the shield and the lattice, moving one will affect the other. By the same token, the shield will transmit heat energy to its projecting lattice, at a near prefect ratio, and this is why a shield can be cut by a sufficiently hot object, especially if the shield is big in comparison to its projecting lattice. The shield can also be ‘rippled’ which is done by applying an alternating current to the lattice vice a direct current. Since a alternating current has peaks and troughs, the shield can be quickly turned off and on to allow objects to fall through the shields. This is especially important in ship battles, as a full railgun shot to a shield can break the shield lattice if it is not set to ripple. However, the longer a shield is in ripple mode, the more unstable it gets, eventually the lattice will either have to be set to full, or turned off entirely less you risk damaging the lattice. In a vacuum, a shield will come up to full power instantly, but in normal atmosphere, the shield takes much longer to come up, usually in the order of seconds. This is because the shield has to push all of the atoms in the air out of the way before it can be fully formed. In the mist, this effect is worsened, and can last as long as ten minutes in the lower layers. The denser the substance that the shield is created in, the higher initial power requirement that the shield needs to come up. Thus, the shield can be brought up in solid objects, but the power and time requirements are immense. Lastly, imagine an invisible cone created by the very edges of the shield to the shield lattice itself, another shield cannot enter this space, nor be created in this space. If this does happen, then both shield lattices will instantly shatter.
Portions of this text have been removed in accordance with the Official State Secrets Act of 635. Please refer to your nearest security officer for clarification.
Paired Lattice (1-1)
Type: SNIF19
Color: Clear/White
Pattern: C33-2d
Power Signal: 18.9 to 40.3
Applications in ships: Communications.
Applications in civilian sectors: Communications.
Functional description: The paired lattice is relatively rare in modern times due to the long growth times and the high-quality slurry required to grow them in the first place. The paired lattice boiled down to its simplest concept is the transmission of information. When a paired lattice is first grown, it grows into two spheres with a flat divot sanded away at the top of each of them. If the growth process is completed correctly, when an electrical current is applied to the top of the lattice where the divot is, both spheres will become entirely invisible. Any light that passes into one pair will instantaneously be transmitted out the other. Any low voltage, low current electrical current that is passed through on any side except the flat top or will also instantly be transmitted to the other pair in the exact same orientation that the current came in at. This process can happen regardless of the distance between the two pairs. As far as modern clocks can tell, there is no delay between the receipt of an electrical signal from one lattice (usually referred as the Alfa pair) and the receipt by the other lattice (usually referred to as the Bravo pair.)
Additional notes: The paired lattice is used instead of radio transmissions because the mist absorbs most electromagnetic radiation, including radio signals. Therefore, most islands have a so called ‘network’, or ‘spire’ set up. How it works is relatively simple, A solar ship wants to send a message to a Centauri ship on the other side of the mist barrier. The solar ship sends its message, encoded in an electrical signal, to solar tower through a paired lattice. Solar tower receives this message and forwards it to Centauri tower, who receives it and forwards it to the Centauri ship. This process can happen very quickly, and may even allow for voice transmission across islands if a dedicated pair is used.
Portions of this text have been removed in accordance with the Official State Secrets Act of 635. Please refer to your nearest security officer for clarification.
Signal Lattice (1-2)
Type: RCDF83
Color: Yellow
Pattern: A38-67y
Power Signal: 7.3 to 15.6
Applications in ships: All applications requiring lattices
Applications in civilian sectors: All applications requiring lattices
Functional description: The signal lattice is one of the more vitally important lattices. Each and every lattice gives off a specific signal in what’s called a ‘power range’ depending on the type while in use that can only be detected by this lattice. For example, a heat lattice has a range from 125.8 to 268.6. The more heat is stored in the lattice, the higher the signal. Without the signal, there is no way to detect the amount of heat energy in the lattice. The only thing that can block a signal is a active signal lattice that is in the band of the signal that Is passing through it. When growing, a voltage is applied to the lattice. If the voltage is raised at any point, that becomes the low end of the band, and when the voltage is removed, that becomes the high end of the band, opposite if the voltage is lowered initially. Once it is taken out of the slurry, that band is set, and cannot be changed without regrowing the lattice. The Signal lattice receives a ‘power’ signal that is in that band that is set, it will output a tone that can be heard or transmitted to a charge lattice. the amplitude of the tone is proportional to the range of the band. For example, if a 10 power signal is received and the band set is 0-10, the tone will be high amplitude. But if that same 10 signal is received and the set band is 0-100, the tone will be low amplitude. By utilizing multiple signal lattice’s at different bands, the precise origin location of a signal can be found.
Charge Lattice (3-1)
Type: RCDF91
Color: Blue
Pattern: G32-3v
Power Signal: 48.8 to 104.1
Applications in ships: Calculators, electrical storage and generation,
Applications in civilian sectors: Calculators, electrical generation and storage, prosthetic limbs.
Functional description: The charge lattice is the most complicated of all lattices. There are several different types that each have wildly different functions. During growth, each different type of charge lattice is created by applying voltages to different points. All charge lattice processes are nearly lossless and happen instantaneously. The charge lattice is commonly misunderstood as a source of infinite energy, though that is not the case. It must be supplied with a constant stream of electrons because if a voltage is drawn with no stored energy left, this will shatter the lattice.
The different types are as follows:
Cable type: During growth, no voltage is applied. During normal operations, a voltage is sent to one side of the lattice, and instantly can be drawn out of the other end of the lattice.
Battery type: During growth, a voltage is applied and no place for the voltage to go. During normal operations, the lattice will constantly generate that voltage at the opposite side from where the voltage was applied during growth. This effectively makes the battery type a perfect instant transformer/battery with a very high energy storage capacity that gets higher capacity the larger the lattice is.
Not: During growth, a voltage is applied with an outlet connected. During normal operations, the charge lattice will output the exact voltage that it received during growth only if it is not receiving an input voltage.
And: During growth, two distinct voltages are applied with an output path available. During normal operations, if the lattice receives both of the voltages, it will output the first voltage it received during the growth process.
Or: During growth, two distinct voltages are applied with no output path available. During normal operations, if the lattice receives either of the voltages, it will output the first voltage it received during the growth process.
Additional notes: If the charge lattice is vibrated (usually by sound energy) an electrical current is produced in the lattice that is specific to the frequency and amplitude of the vibration. Thus, the charge lattice synergizes well with the Signal lattice as the sound that the signal lattice generates can be transmitted to an electrical signal.
