Cross-References

Posted on 01 Dec 2014 @ 6:16am by Lieutenant JG Kalos Jang Ph.D.

739 words; about a 4 minute read

I do believe that I've worked out what my initial main project is going to be. It's the, uh, the energy dissipation system. Starting with a base of the Starfleet uniform, because that's easiest. It's just a matter of developing the bots and a means of delivery, which shouldn't be hard. Ideally, it's a system that I can use as a proof of concept and move on to a biological integration within the next decade. I don't know if that's feasible, but that's the goal. Cross-reference with technical log Jang 235-Alpha.

Apart from that, I've already started to work on so many potential applications, just being out in space. The Galileo is a nice ship, as far as ships go. I never had my mother's love of starships, but I can appreciate a good set of lines and nice set-up, and this one has both. I've already thought about some upgrades for the computer system. In fact, I need to remember to get in touch with Ops in order to see what kind of computer access I can have. If I can really dig into the networking systems that connect our PADDs and tricorders to the ship's computers in real-time, maybe I can find another avenue of biological integration. Cross-reference with technical log Jang 101-Bravo.

Okay. So, this is supposed to be a personal log, not a technical log. What am I doing here? I've never been on a ship before. It's...well, it's kinda dead here. Shore leave, I guess that's to be expected. I wander the corridors sometimes when I'm not on shift, trying to get a feel for it. It feels so quiet with such a small number of crew here. It's good for work. I haven't been interrupted. And for the most part, people are respectful of--even interested in--my work. Back at the Academy, you say you're a nanoengineer and people remember the ghost stories. Swirling masses of self-replicating, self-aware machines that consume or destroy whatever they touch. Or even worse, the sorts of things that swim in the bloodstreams of Borg drones, keeping them enslaved to the Collective. They'd look at me like I was a mad scientist. There were actually protests once, outside our lab back at the Academy. Civilians and cadets showed up, concerned about our machines becoming, I don't know, viral. Humans have a lot of good impulses, I guess, but they take it a little far, sometimes.

I'm not the guy you put up there to hand out the press releases and sell people on what I'm doing. I can write a decent scientific essay. I even spell correctly, for the most part. But I'm not going to convince anybody of anything. All I know is if I can work out the science and build the machines, I can save lives. People talk about being integrated with technology and how that's unnatural, but we're already there. People have cybernetic eyes and synthetic skin. They walk around everywhere with PADDs and travel throughout the universe at warp speeds in giant hunks of metal. We're already integrated with technology, why not take this other step? If I can keep one person from getting killed the way Bimi did, it's worth it.

Not that she would've been a good test subject. Ha. Surly, violent, with a mean streak a mile wide. Give her these nanites, make her immune to low-level weapons fire, and watch chaos reign. But she was young. I always thought of her as old, but she was just a kid when she died. Almost half my age now. Shit. I wonder what she might've been. Maybe she'd have turned it around. But she didn't, and I'm here and I can do something for people like her.

I need to remember to look into a system for phasers. Maybe something to code a phaser to certain DNA records within Starfleet. Once a phaser gets assigned to a ship or a base, only officers from those DNA records can use those phasers. Then if they're stolen, lost, or turned on their owner, they're useless. I've drawn up some initial thoughts, I just need to talk to security. Cross-reference with supplemental...damn, which one was it? Uh...supplemental technical log Jang 477-Bravo-1? No. Jang 477-Bravo-3. Yeah, that one. Now I'm going to go find some ice cream or some booze. Maybe a White Russian. That's basically the ice cream of booze.

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