BLACK WAVE

The Black Wave has not stolen its name. It is, in fact, a substance that is not only invisible to the eye, but also to the sensors. Even an advanced ship's sensors are only able to read it when one is actually looking for it.


This substance freely floats in space and is rarely ever found. It emits, or sends out, subspace waves of some kind, almost totally undetectable. It does not harm any living being, planet or ship and is so light a substance that it travels through any object. It may float through a person and this person would never know and would not experience any harmful effects. However, when it comes in contact with computer systems that have an artificial intelligence of any degree at all, it interferes with the computer's normal function patterns.


When the Black Wave comes in contact with such a computer system, there is no way to predict what the computer system will do next. Its algorithms will be so scrambled that anything could happen to anything the computer controls. If the ship's computer system controls the weaponry, it could suddenly target weapons and fire at will, without anyone having given the order. When this happens, it is very difficult to prove that this was indeed caused by the Black Wave, since when once it has passed through, it leaves practically no residue, leaving little possibilities to scan for it afterwards.


The only way to prevent from the computer system to perform such disastrous acts is to shut down the computer's artificial intelligence. That way there is little to no danger of the subspace waves interfering with a ship's AI.

 

(article by: Director Peter Svensson)