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“It makes you go crazy,” Murph summed up. “But only while the signal is hitting your ear. That’s why the effect goes away so quickly when the sound stops.”
“How can it affect everyone on the ship?” Juan asked.
“Because the infrasound is so intense that it causes the ship’s hull itself to act as a resonator, possibly even an amplifier, as would be the case with a submarine, whose entire hull could be hit by the disruptor when it’s underwater.”
“Do you have a countermeasure?”
Murph did the head tilt again. “Maybe. If we can cause our own hull to vibrate at the same frequencies, it could cancel out the waveforms.”
“But it would have to be something loud,” Julia said.
“And the only thing on the ship that can create a sound that loud is our sonar dome,” Murph said. “We’d have to modify it to focus it directly on the hull.”
“Which means we couldn’t use it as a sonar anymore,” Juan said, getting why Murph had not been as gung ho about the solution.
Murph shook his head. “It’s a trade-off. But it’s probably better than all of us going crazy. The good news is, we don’t have to go into port. I can make the modifications while we’re under way.”
“Can we use it as a weapon ourselves?”
“It might disrupt other sonars in the vicinity,” Murph said.
“But I don’t think it would cause the kind of effects that we’ve experienced,” Julia added.
Juan thought about his options. “And if Tate uses his weapon on us while we have this countermeasure in place, what happens to us?”
“I’m hoping the effects on us are mild. Maybe some unease or agitation, but no full-blown psychotic breaks. That’s the theory. But there’s no way to know until we actually experience it.”
Juan noted how many ifs, hopes, and maybes there were in the assessments, but he trusted their abilities. Besides, there was no other choice.
“You have my permission to make the modifications to the sonar.”
“I’ll get started pronto,” Murph said. He packed up the papers and equipment that he needed and left the infirmary.
“Do you really think this will work?” Juan asked Julia.
“I don’t know. If I could inoculate the whole crew against the effects, I would. Since the sound is conducted through the bones in our skulls, earmuffs or -plugs won’t work. Short of making everyone deaf, I don’t know what else I can do. This is our best shot.”
Juan’s phone buzzed, and he saw a text from Max.
Come to the op center. I have something to show you.
“Get some rest,” Juan said. “You look beat.”
Julia smiled wanly. “First, I’ve got to resupply the medical bay from the cargo stores. Then I’ll take a nap.”
“I’m sorry we’ve been keeping you so busy.”
“A beach vacation would make it up for me,” she said with a mischievous grin.
“Sounds like a great idea for all of us.”
She was going through her inventory as he left.
When Juan got to the op center, he found Max at the engineering station.
“You rang?” Juan asked.
Max looked up, startled. When he was deep into his work, he often didn’t notice anything around him.
