Challenge #00550 - A175: Black-boxing It

Taken from an author talking about a piece of tech in their setting:

They’ve tried reverse engineering the displacement engine before. It goes a little like this:

Your moon is now a pretzel.

Your research is invalid. – RecklessPrudence

“So what is it?”

“I can’t figure it out,” said Helba, getting her facts out in the open. “I know what it does, it makes the gravity in this… place…” Station, ship… installation felt better, but it had plainly been here long enough to become a small planetoid.

The cargo cult seeing to its upkeep did a surprisingly good job for a bunch of mammals, but how it ran… That was the mystery.

“There are some elements I can understand but…” she shook her head. “There’s no reason for it to work. Yet it obviously does.”

Thokin scratched at her brow-ridges. “Can you try to figure it out? This technology could be revolutionary. We could solve the Long Flight problem. We could… we could build bases like this! Off planet. No central mass to keep things stable. Just… one of these. All we have to do is reproduce the technology.”

“I could try to black-box it. Replicate what it does.” Helba shook her head. It already seemed a daunting task. “I’ll come out the other side, either a genius or a mad thing.”

“The trick,” said one of the apparently-meditating natives, “is to be both at once.”

They shouldn’t have ignored him just because he was a male.

From the Last Journal of Helba Greyscale:

I can see it now. I’m so close. The key is the madness and the madness is the key. These insane little mammals made a calm machine, but mine is hungry. It demands a sacrifice.

It shall have blood. And when it has feasted it shall be the very glory of the empire!

Eeya mork g'risin f'thagen daas

The Nae'hyn reverentially sealed the invader vessel and tethered it to all the others who had tried and failed to copy their work. The remains would, in time, freeze-dry in their metal tomb.

They offered tours. They offered teaching. They offered to work for them. But every generation, the ones who ‘discovered’ their little station ignored their good advice and tried to repeat the impossible. And therefore went insane.

“Pay heed, my apprentices,” schooled Master Sun Swallow. “When copying unfamiliar technology, it is advisable to never throw yourself into your work. Figuratively, or literally.”

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