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It would be less dramatic though
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this post was submitted on 25 Sep 2023
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Risa
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Come on'n get your jamaharon on! There are no real rules—just don't break the weather control network.
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I saw someone once theorize that the console designers knew their creations would get dumped with tons of heat and current under battleshort conditions, and had to come up with some fallbacks. So they just filled it with a ton of mass to soak it up as long as possible, a big hunk of basalt. Unfortunately, when it gets overloaded, it tends to explosively fracture. But that's better than cooking every ensign to touch a panel when under fire
But, why? If it were part of the engine, or a pump, or a transformer, or something that requires a lot of power that would be one thing. But, there's no reason that the consoles should be part of a circuit that draws a lot of power or heat or anything.
Filling it full of rocks makes sense if soaking power was an issue, but this is just a basic UI element.
Ok, how about this: it's critical that consoles like security, navigation, steering, etc. always be available. Because of that, they can't risk any downtime in a battle, so they need to be able to self-repair. Their solution to this is to embed replicator technology into each console, so that any damage can be instantly fixed. Unfortunately, replicators need to be able to draw huge amounts of power / energy, which means the consoles need access to a lot of power. That's why when they get damaged there can be a big explosion, but also why they're never broken in those explosions. They self-repair so that someone can take over the console and immediately start using it again. Maybe it also explains the rocks -- raw material for the replicators to use when repairing.