We need a GERN thread

[Charles]

That cargo bay looks like it's fitted with a GERN QM-3 Condensor Unit: once the hatch is secured, that container will be reduced to a size 3% less than nothing.

Some folks think that GERN is "out of step" with the world of technology, but that's only because those folks are 3%-of-a-step behind.


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Still a small load, since opening the hatch to load another container would automatically blow up the previous load to a size 3% greater than it was to begin with. 8-)

Some of us are actually 3% ahead of the pack.

Oh, my, the innocence of youth. The experimental QM Condensors did suffer from that malady, my boy, as you so astutely deduced, but production models were fitted with a "STORAGE" mode, which allows the hatch to be re-opened without fear of any such occurrence. The latest versions, QM-3.1 and later, allow the reduction to take place with the hatch open. Unloading is simplified, too, in that any unit of condensed lading may be accessed, regardless of the order of loading, at the stroke of a key.
It should be obvious, especially to a bright lad such as yourself, that with these capabilities, there's no limit, other than common sense, to the amount of material which can be carried.
One difficulty which hasn't been mentioned is the weight factor. Obviously, with the material transformed to 3% less than nothing in volume, its weight is altered in a like manner. With a large intake of thusly reduced cargo, the vehicle itself will decrease in gross weight in inverse proportion to that of the cargo taken on, adversely affecting the handling of said vehicle. To counteract this phenomenon, GERN scientists developed a MASS Accumulating Gravitational Equaliser, which can be used to separate the weight component from select units of cargo whilst it undergoes the volume reduction, thus maintaining the vehicle's weight at it's original (tare) figure. Cargo thus treated is said to be, in the vernacular, MASSAGEd.

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