Pneumoraq

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Dance, O Freest Aeon

This content is a part of Cosmoria.

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Index / Lexica / Timeline

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"They called me mad, told me to accept the limits of technology and move onto magic if I was so desperate. But I am a man of the people, and one day soon my people shall swim through the hearts of stars. They shall meet and embrace in seas of boiling plasma, and we will all rejoice." -Relkane Virpraettho

Pneumoraq

Physical and Technical Properties

Inventor

Relkane Virpraettho

Invention Date

5466 CE

Energy Consumption

~260 kJ per degree C per hour, lower at temperatures above 600 C

Energy Output

~99.6% of energy consumption

Major Producers

Manufacturing technologies producers, planetary exploration and habitation supply manufacturers

Major Consumers

Eos, exploration agencies, hobbyist travelers

Average Price

Generally a luxury

Mass

~33-80 kg by model

Unique Properties

Superconducting temperature deflector through the device itself to keep it cool
Internal temperature intake for energy recycling

The Pneuma-Biomatic Thermo-Raqia Modulator, known everywhere besides its official patents as the Pneumoraq, is a truly astounding piece of personal augmentation technology. Taking the limitations and failures of its sister-device, the Animavitrifier, as a challenge, its inventor decided to pour everything into making an alternative to extraplanetary protective suits for hot worlds. The ability to feel scorching atmospheres on one's skin, to swim in seas of molten metal with fluid resistance being the only concern. These are the things envisioned by its creator, who poured 70 years into its development.

Function

The Pneumoraq's primary function is to allow skin contact with incredibly hot environments while still supporting survival. It has an entirely separate type of challenge to conquer compared to the Animavitrifier, that being the problem of reactivity. It's common knowledge that chemical reactions and protein denaturings occur at high temperatures, the obvious example being cooking. Preventing this is while still raising the effective temperature of an individual to potentially thousands of degrees is a massive technological hurdle. Anyone else would likely solve this with insulation, either through a bulky exosuit or some kind of entropic barrier that fully stops thermal transfer. Relkane Virpraettho, inventor of the Pneumoraq, would not accept such compromises. His motivations were unclear in this regard, but they inspired his design.

Built off of essentially a cheat engine for temperature, the Pneumoraq's main mechanism is relativistic temperature modulation. That is to say, it utilizes the properties of relativity to adjust temperature as necessary. First, the device effectively kills the user by shutting off metabolic processes, taking vital functions into its own manual controls. Its nodes and harnesses across various parts of the body synchronize, vibrating every individual molecule of the body in the same direction and in phase with one another. From each molecule's perspective, all the others would be still. Relatively, they do not move and bump into one another more, and the internal metabolic temperature is not heightened. The real temperature, however, rises very quickly. This "modulus temperature" serves as a sort of buffer against chemical reactions, preventing flesh from searing even in lead-melting temperatures. A bit of excess chaotic temperature is needed, of course, used as the manual metabolism for the processes within the body.

The main device is attached to the back, with harnesses on the torso being designed especially to keep it stable. Heavy-duty wires carry energy and information between the different straps and nodes, including the vital ones on the heart(s) and brain of its wearer. These induce the vibrations necessary to create the modulus temperature. Outside molecules interact thermally based on the combined modulus and metabolic temperature. As an example, humans normally have a 37 degree C body temperature. If a modulus temperature of 400 degrees was added, the atmosphere would transfer heat as if the body was 437 degrees C. The body itself, however, would react and metabolize only as if it was its 37 degree temperature.

The device itself has internal superconduction plates that can activate and siphon heat out of itself, usually into the atmosphere around it. These keep it at its operating temperature well beyond the melting points of its components. One might point out that this method could also be used to solve the temperature issue of the body. Relkane Virpraettho is noted as saying this on the matter:

"It isn't cheating if the machine does it for itself. But it'd feel disingenuous if someone's body was just deflecting that heat instead of using it. I'd feel like a hack. If you want an easy answer that gets you halfway to what I'm doing, go right ahead. Just don't call yourself my colleague anymore."

This superconducting dispersion field is used to quickly cool the body down in the event of modulus failure, though. It was implemented as a safety measure against the inevitable disruptions in the modulus vibrations that happen on impacts like stepping, sudden stops, and in combat. They work to mitigate the damage done by a de-synchronized vibration. That is to say, a planar cross-section of the body where the waves fail to synchronize will be cooked as if cut by a laser. These are adjusted for in microseconds, which prevents damage from accumulating quickly. This superconductive measure is also what restarts the body's metabolic processes during shutdown.

As for energy consumption, there are a set of thermomagnetic generators on the main device that turn excess heat into spare energy, albeit somewhat inefficiently. It lasts significantly longer in hotter environments, more than enough to counterbalance the energy cost of adding that much more of a thermal adjustment. Visuals displaying energy usage and reserves are not optional with the Pneumoraq, since it is so variable by temperature adjustment.

Respiration has been described as feeling uncanny. Breathable gas has to be kept from burning in extreme heat, but gases are notably more difficult to modulate than a body of solids and liquids. The solution is to simply eliminate any source of fuel until the gas is within the body, letting it be absorbed much faster due to its increased reactivity. Invasive tubes into the respiratory system are common for this, though a simple nasal plug is what many humans opt for.

Flaws

The main flaw of the Pneumoraq is that it only works in one direction, much like the animavitrifier. However, its existence is the solution to the animavitrifier's flaw. But by far a larger concern is that any resting temperature hot enough to melt the components is infeasible storage for the Pneumoraq. It cannot protect itself when unpowered, and so is inaccessible to any species that lives in an environment hotter than its metals can naturally exist in.

The Pneumoraq is also similarly fragmented to the animavitrifier in a way that makes its cables weak points. Any severing of the cables makes the modulated vibrations to that part of the body cease, meaning it can be cooked. This point of failure is only really relieved by the fact that the cables transfer power and data, not gases. They can be made hardier and are not hollow.

Energy consumption is also a major concern. The Pneumoraq lasts for anywhere from a week at higher temperatures, where its energy recycling is able to maximally function, to only about a day. It has a separate store of energy for expelling the heat and shielding the body during the cooldown process, though this only contains enough to perform that function twice before needing to be recharged.

The major drawback to consistent use is damage from micro-scale heating of the body. Planar burns or muscle strain accumulate with consistent use. Higher amounts of tearing in the body from activity occur, and damage accumulated is difficult to heal while using the Pneumoraq itself. Bleeding can lead to a gaseous siphoning, which is almost always fatal.

Benefits

The Pneumoraq allows much more freedom of movement and expression on very hot worlds. It allows silicon-based life on frigid worlds to experience the habitable zones of every other species, which would otherwise annihilate them. The limit for how much of a temperature differential it can handle is enough to be past all necessity.

The Pneumoraq's technology is, unsurprisingly, very useful for manufacturing. Certain components can be kept solid well beyond their melting or even boiling points, which is useful in forges, construction, or even transportation.