Posted by Civilian Jessa Novar (Child) in Where does she get those wonderful toys…Science Dept…When the past doesn’t match the future or the present

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Tenzing Trainor (Chief Operations Officer/Science Chief) in Where does she get those wonderful toys…Science Dept…When the past doesn’t match the future or the present

Posted by Civilian Jessa Novar (Child) in Where does she get those wonderful toys…Science Dept…When the past doesn’t match the future or the present
SNIP
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0800 hours the next day in the science labs
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Jessa walked into the space tentatively looking around. She knew Lexi worked in the labs but so far had not seen any real working space on the Atlantis except for the medical suites. The room looked like the typical labs only with far fewer people in the room. If she didn’t see a need to be here, Jessa would have balked more in coming; however, she did need something. Like most kids, Jessa only saw what was directly in front of her nose. Her plan had been to come here, retrieve the Prism, and then return home. What Jessa didn’t count on was the physical aspect of returning home. The journey was far longer than she realized and without provisions, she would return home as a corpse. To avoid this Jessa needed a replicator and the only way to get one was to steal it or steal the tech on how to make one.

Jessa looked at O’Neill and began to explore slightly. Not being able to read their language meant Jessa could only guess at what was in some of the vials, beakers, and canisters. Moving over to an area that appeared to be botanical, she reached up to touch a petal from some blooming plant.

Jessa Novar

“Pretty isn’t it?” Tenzing asked, peering up from his industrial microscope at the station nearby. The young man pushed the microsope into its slot and approached Jessa. “I’m Lieutenant Commander Trainor, Chief of Science and Operations, and you must be our guest, Jessa?” Trainor said rhetorically. He was sort of able to get a reading on Jessa’s state of mind, but since she was a kid, a dominant emotion was hard to pin point.

Trainor
OPS/CSO

She was concentrating so hard on the flower in front of her that Jessa jumped a bit retracting her hand once she heard Trainor’s voice. “No,” she immediately responded without thinking. Biting her bottom lip, Jessa did not finish the rest of her sentence. Her immediate goal was not to re-educate the crew as it was when she arrived. Since the death of her compatriots, it was more important to play nice and make friends until someone came to rescue her. “It is more than pretty. It’s beautiful. What is it,” she reversed her stance on how she wanted to comment. Don’t be obstinate. Be pleasant, she reminded herself asking a question hoping it would create a small amount of rapport between him and her.

As he spoke, Jessa did not really listen to his answer but focused on the man himself. He was young, handsome, and in charge of the department if she understood their ranking system. Nodding as he finished telling her about the flower, Jessa posed another question that was of more interest to her at the moment. “Aren’t you a little young to be an officer in charge?” Her age and immaturity allowed her to ask the question that from anyone else might have seemed like borderline insubordination or lacking all manners. The questioning look on her face indicated Jessa was actually more confused or skeptical. “Did your predecessor die or…get promoted?”

Jessa Novar

Tenzing had a slight smile as he noticed Jessa fighting herself internally. “Neither actually,” Trainor stated as he rounded the station. In all honesty, the man wasn’t sure what happened to his predecessor but that his arrival helped fit two roles aboard the ship. “On paper, I’m about 38, but I keep finding myself at the other end of a powerful being’s jokes from time to time.....” Trainor didn’t think that using his age appearance could actually benefit them, but he did want to see how far that would take them to getting the information they needed. “So I spend my days as a 19-year-old, though I’ve yet to see if I’ll age or stay the same....”

Trainor
OPS/CSO

“Do you mean God,” she looked at him with a far more reverence. “God has granted you eternal youth?” Jessa was dumbfounded by this revelation. She had never heard of such a divination but the things one could do with it. “So why did you pick 19? I mean it is not that old I guess,” she shrugged as if Tenzig picked his eternal age to be 50 years old, “but are you old enough to do things like drink spirits and such?”

Jessa Novar

Tenzing raised a brow and shook his head, “No, no God.... God-Like, but certainly not immune to ethers around us,” The Science Chief explained,” I also didn’t choose this, though I have some thought on why this age was thrown upon me, rather than something older or far younger.” Lt Cmdr Trainor added. The thought of his situation being eternal was scary enough for him to ponder calling up the Q, though that would most likely cause more issues.

Trainor
OPS/CSO

Jessa resisted pointing out that there was only one God so no one could be God-like. This meant that God granted him a divinity she had never heard of but still a divinity. Later she would explain why Tenzig should be grateful. For now, Jessa was here to show him some tech and figure out as best she could their tech. “So Ian said you had some questions about how our technology works. What would you like to learn about first?”. Reaching into her pocket, Jessa pulled out several of the small balls that the security feed showed she used in the promenade. In her hand, they looked like ball bearings but these same balls allowed four people to almost take over the entire promenade.

Jessa Novar

” I guess we can start with those,” Tenzing stated. The Science Chief stared at the ball-bearing-like objects, then back at Jessa. “How are the constructed?” Trainor asked. The lab was automatically scanning the objects, so they didn’t raise suspicion with the girl. His goal was to find a way to later recreate these objects.

Trainor
CSO/COO

“How should I know? I am twelve,” she looked at him as if he was crazy. Reaching over she picked up a scanner that looked a lot like the one they used in sickbay. “Do you know how this is constructed?” Her tone indicated she had little faith that Trainor knew anything about the device except how to turn it on and use it.

Tenzing reached over, grabbed the tricorder, and opened it up. “This is but a computer,” He stated. The Science Officer motioned it around, pretending to scan the area. “Its basic components are no different than that of a PaDD, communicator, or whatever electronic device that may come to mind.” Tenzing closed the tricorder and placed it back onto the table. “Inside, there’s a computer that’s programmed with every gas, metal, liquid, illness, or life known to Starfleet.”

Listening to Trainor explain the device Jessa raised an eyebrow as if in disbelief. “Whatever,” she dismissed his explanation with the simple phrase, “You are just old. Old people know all the things everyone else doesn’t.” While she was young, most kids her age in the Federation knew the bare minimum about how tricorders worked. If Tenzig had questioned how much Jessa knew about Federation technology, her comments showed it far bordering on next to nothing.

“Am I old though?” Tenzing smiled, taking a step back. “Sure, I’ve been around since the mid 2300s, but if you were to use that tricorder, you’d probably find that I’m biologically only 8 or 9 years older than you.”

“So I don’t know how these are made but they rely on our nanotechnology.” Rolling them around in her hands, it was obvious the balls were not fragile by the way they bumped and clinked into each other. “We use them for most of our work type jobs. Don’t be scared okay. I promise you I won’t hurt you so don’t hurt me.” It was a huge risk in activating a MECH again but Jessa needed help and allies until the fleet arrived to save her. Normally men of science tended to want to create rather than destroy. Hopefully, this Tenzig Trainor’s curiosity was stronger than his fear response.

Work type jobs? Tenzing thought to himself. Trainor cautiously looked over at the security officer standing near the door, then back to Jessa. “Let’s see it then?”

Jessa took a deep breath and tossed one of the balls on the ground. “Sakriy,” she stated. Her words seemed to activate the ball which caused the ball to increase its size over and over until one of the four-foot, bullet-shaped MECH’s was standing between them. The creation process was fast. Visually the growth of the ball looked a lot like the activation of the armor Jessa was wearing. It appeared to overlap over and over as it grew larger and larger. If Tenzig was recording the meeting with Jessa, he might be able to slow the visual enough to see it grow. In slow motion, the image would remind one of a laser printer where each layer was built on the previous one. Once grown the surface of the MECH was perfectly unmarred looking like liquid mercury but solid to the touch. Only a rectangular “eye” glowed blue.

Looking around the table, Jessa saw a cylinder. Picking it up, Jessa held it over the ground and let it fall to the floor. The broken shards splintered into pieces all around the two individuals’ feet. “Maramat,” she replied and instantly the MECH sent what looked like a tentacle to the ground slowly cleaning up the mess.

Jessa Novar

Tenzing was momentarily stunned by what he saw occur. “This theoretically shouldn’t be possible,” He said to himself. “…and how is this used in a workplace setting?”

Lieutenant Commander Tenzing Trainor
Chief Operations Officer/Science Chief

“Well, she said in a confused tone, “to do things people don’t want to do like clean things up, build things, maintain public stability.” Jessa realized how hard this question was to answer with just a sentence. “See we use bots and MECH’s for most of the menial tasks to keep civilizations running. Our citizens control them based on their educational level in our society. So Watchmen can deploy MECH’s to maintain order or to stop criminals. Adjudicators arrive on the scene to try the individual on the spot and then if guilty, the MECH will take the criminal to detention. Architects will create a design and program it into the MECH. The construction crews monitor the MECH to ensure the plans are followed. Everyone has house MECH’s for the day-to-day tasks like cleaning and maintaining a home.”

“Hmmm…” Trainor said. The Federation didn’t have anything as sophisticated as this ‘one tool fits all’ gadget; Tenzing was really interested in seeing it further in action.

“See the display,” she pointed at the blue rectangle. “That is civilian mode. That means it…” she paused choosing her words carefully,” it helps those that need it.” Jessa deftly any negative aspect of the machine. She knew the crew had seen they could be used offensively and caught a glimpse of how they could be used defensively. The first was when the Marines entered the alien shuttle and the latter was when the Elders attempted to take over the Promenade. To Jessa, it was a trivial piece of information but Tenzig was a scientist and the Chief Operations Officer. He, like most of the other senior staff, would have gone over the holorecordings for hours and now he could compare. When the MECH’s eyes were red, they were in attack mode. When they were in blue, they seemed to be less lethal. The question one might wonder is if the colors could change on their own or did the modes require an order to change.

Jessa Novar

The science officer was silent for a moment. From what Jessa told him, these MECHs appeared to understand who was holding them, which meant they could have a form of intelligence much like an android. “How do the MECHs know who is holding them?” He asked, breaking the silence. “You all aren’t wearing chips are you?” The Science Chief asked.

Lieutenant Commander Tenzing Trainor
Chief Operations Officer/Science Chief

“No. It’s by DNA.” Reaching out she handed a ball to Tenzig. “It is not going to work for you because it was not imprinted to you. It is how we keep control of the MECH’s. Only people who require them are allowed to use them. You can keep that if you want but it is just a ball of metal.” The tone in her voice said she did not think the Federation had the skills or technology to even begin to figure out how to make it work. That was the folly of most teens: Having the absolute belief that before them, the adults had to have been wandering around lost before a teen could impart wisdom that would ultimately change their life. Pursing her lips, Jessa made a decision. “I could however give you control to this MECH…for a few hours,” she quickly added. “It will only be for civilian use. You won’t be able to use it for defense or access the weapons but you could break things and see how it cleans things up. All you have to do is say maramat which means fix or repair.”

Jessa Novar

Tenzing nodded slowly in reply, as he was lost in thought. It appeared the MECH could be programmed to certain people depending on their vocation, though he also wondered if the MECH could be brute-forced into being able to access all functions at once.

Without much thought to it, the CSO pushed over one of his beakers onto the ground, “Maramat!” Trainor called out, giddy to see the thing in action.

Lieutenant Commander Tenzing Trainor
Chief Operations Officer/Science Chief

The MECH swiveled to look at Jessa before it looked back at Tenzig and extended a long tentacle-like extension to clean up the mess. This time however instead of just making a pile while cleaning up the mess, it scooped up the mess forming a tray-like surface where it presented the mess to Tenzig. Holding it out patiently, the MECH waited.

Trainor eyed the thing, then turned to Jessa. Maybe he had misunderstood the MECH, and thought it would be able to fix the object.

“Okay before you ask,” Jessa hopped up on the science station letting her legs swing a bit as she talked, “it is not sentient. Creating a robot to think like a sentient is blasphemy. It is also banned and there are safeguards in place so that they can never get any smarter than this but it does have a basic learning application so it can think along some parameters. For example, I broke a glass thing and then you broke a glass thing. Since it was the same that happened twice, the MECH thinks the last attempt it made to fix things was wrong. The learning program is so that it can make decisions without direct intervention in areas of civil safety or to learn how you like things for home use.”

Jessa looked at Tenzig with a smile seeing how interested he was in the device. “Gailektik staindard mein chaar ghante tak aagyaapaalan karen,” she spoke in Galactic Union Prime. “I told it to obey you in your language. It seems silly for me to translate everything you might want it to do. It is going to wait until you give it an order.” Jessa hoped Tenzig would be happy with her decision. The Elders or her people would not but Jessa had broken so many rules in the past few days this one would not matter.

Jessa Novar

“Take the glass to the replicator,” Tenzing said to the MECH.

The MECH paused for a long second, not moving but the blue eye pulsed in long slow tones. As a scientist, it might look to Trainor as if it were an old-time computer processing the command. Language and writing had been and continued to be a huge barrier for Jessa. She might be able to speak the language but not all vocabulary was the same.

“Pratilipikaar,” she replied to the MECH. “Umm,” Jessa looked around the room until she found the device Trainor was indicating. “That box on the wall,” she pointed to it. Turning to look back at Trainor, Jessa explained. “We don’t have replicators on Vela Astria. Honestly we don’t have them anywhere in the Galactic Union. It didn’t know how to follow your command.”

“We have androids that are programmed to think like humanoids,” The Science Chief stated, “We’ve even had one serve in Starfleet!” He exclaimed. LtCmdr Trainor paused for a moment a looked at Jessa. If her people were against sentient robots, they probably wouldn’t care too much for the Federation.

Lieutenant Commander Tenzing Trainor
Chief Operations Officer/Science Chief

The information made Jessa’s eyes widen slightly. “Here.....on this ship. You have a sentient bot?” Jessa looked around the room and felt an urge to shift the MECH to offensive mode. These people were going to be the literal and figurative death of her. Mind seers, sentient robots, staunch opposition to the union: When Pellan arrived she would have to make sure everyone trod lightly.

Jessa Novar

Trainor shook his head. “No no no…” He said, trying to calm the girl down. “There was really only one that was sentient enough to serve aboard a starship, the others do menial tasks in ship yards or farms....” The CSO explained. He didn’t dare tell Jessa about how they were hacked and had attacked Mars.

Lieutenant Commander Tenzing Trainor
Chief Operations Officer/Science Chief

“We were in a war millennia ago with artificial intelligence,” Jessa announced with a pronounced neutral tone. “They came out of nowhere and spread like a plague against civilization until we defeated them.” It was apparent Jessa was reciting some fact however it was not in the zealous way she spoke about the Galatic Union. Whatever had happened, had occurred so far back in what her people considered history it was nothing more than a footnote to the girl with no meaning past historical significance.

Sensing Trainor was less than impressed with the MECH, Jessa chewed her lip. “Our MECH’s do have a civil defense mode what makes them more free thinking. I could show you that,” she said more hestitantly.

Jessa Novar

“Hmmmm, interesting,” Trainor responded. He noted the child’s hesitancy, but his curiosity was getting the better of him. “Would that mode be a tool used in defense, or used as an actual stand-alone defense, sort of like our auto drones?” Tenzing also wondered how a civilization could continue to avoid AI so long after their incident, while the Federation was finally coming around to reintroducing AI after a decade or two.

Lieutenant Commander Tenzing Trainor
Chief Operations Officer/Science Chief

“If you are asking if the MECH’s can be used for an offensive purpose the answer is yes but I don’t think we should do that mode in here.” Jessa looked around as if surveying what type of damage could be caused if she enacted that mode. “As I said they can be programmed to protect someone or a group of someone’s at all costs. Lemme show you,” she stated in a questioning tone.

Reaching over the table, Jessa pulled her backpack over to her and pulled out a small disc that visually resembled a hockey puck. Touching a button on the side, the device sent a projection up from the middle. While the technology was impressive, displaying a large panorama where a battle was obviously raging. The MECH’s were firing weaponry at something beyond the screen and formed a picket line so that no enemy shot were able to penetrate it. Behind the MECH’s was a group of people fleeing the scene with the typical chaos that occurred when civilians were under attack.

While Tenzig had only seen the fallout from the Atlantis Marines trying to board the alien ship, now he had a complete version of what happened in a sense. The place and people were different but Tenzig was probably witnessing something similar to what the Marines had encountered on the Beacon of Hope.

Jessa looked at the screen with pure admiration. Like most people, Jessa saw what she wanted to see. The MECH’s defending a group of people. It was honorable and something one should be proud of and aspire to help others in the same fashion that are weaker or in need. Since she was not an adult, Jessa could not flip the script and ask the questions adults might such as why are they fighting and who is running away. History was always written by the victors and in this case it was safe to say the authors of this story was the Galactic Union.

Jessa Novar

“Impressive,” Tenzing said once the projection ended. The reassurance that these things could only activate to the assigned person for the more sophisticated was reassuring. He couldn’t help wondering what would happen if the wrong person was assigned a MECH with these capabilities.

“Is the MECH able to disobey an instruction, Jessa?” The CSO asked.

Lieutenant Commander Tenzing Trainor
Chief Operations Officer/Science Chief

“No. Why and would you want it to not do what you said,” she looked at him with the expression of disdain all teenagers carried for adults. To Jessa his question made no sense. “I mean who would want rogue bots roaming all over without a direct purpose? That would just cause chaos and confusion.” Her rate of speech was slower and each word slightly more pronounced as if she was trying to explain a difficult concept to a small child. Pursing her lips, she let out a sigh. Sometimes people needed to learn things the hard way. “Give it a try,” she gestured at the machine. Jessa’s age was playing against her. She was naive and fully indoctrinated in the Galactic Union’s way of life. Any order that was given she believed was the right order. The MECH however was a machine and like any other machine would do as it was told regardless of what that order was. Jessa had already admitted that the MECH’s could be used militarily and the assault on the Marines by the MECH’s on the ship proved it. The question was more had Jessa been on the military side of the MECH instead of the civilian one.

Jessa Bordeaux

Tenzing looked down at the MECH more cautiously than before. He wasn’t exactly sure what its full potential was, but he was certain that would be a job for the security department. However, Trainor was never one to back down from knowledge and discovery, so he took this opportunity as a chance to learn something useful.

The Science chief set the tricorder onto the table and switched it to an active scan of the MECH, hoping to get data on it while it was active. Tenzing didn’t let Jessa’s tone with him get in the way, after all, anyone would think they were just a few years apart. “Do you know the command for the lightest defense setting?” The man asked, not wanting to get pulverized by the MECH.

Lieutenant Commander Tenzing Trainor
Chief Operations Officer/Science Chief

“There is no lightest defense setting. It will defend its target until,” her voice trailed off. There had to be a way to show Tenzig that everyone would be safe with these machines onboard. She was too naive to see the other side of the question Tenzig might be asking. If they were able to find what weapon could break the device in defense mode, it might break it in offensive mode.

Walking over to a potted plant sitting on a desk she picked it up and nodded, “may I”.

Moving the plant to an empty lab table, Jessa motioned for Tenzig to come closer and issued the MECH a command to defend the plant. The eye sensor turned a bright blue and several, liquid-like tentacles emerged from the smooth sides of the MECH. They reached out to the plant and pulled it closer to the back of its metal body. “Paudhe kee raksha karen. Hamalaavar ko chot na pahunchaen.”

Out of Jessa’s view, a console spontaneously turned on. The brightness of it would be hard for Trainor to miss. A message scrolled over the screen. We think she just said defend. Our best guess on the last sentence is something about attack or offensive. Lt. Daniels (linguistics) The more Jessa spoke her language, the more samples the Altantis could accumulate. Given a large enough sample, the secret language of the Galactic Union would be translated.

Jessa Novar

OOC: Might as hit two or three birds with one stone lol

IC: Trainor wasn’t sure that Jessa was grasping the undertone of his line of questioning, and he thought she might only have a one-sided view of this piece of technology. The CSO had watched as the tentacles wrapped itself around the plant in its attempt to defend it. Ironically, the MECH appeared to be doing more harm than good as the Science Officer watched a pedal drop from the plant and onto the table near the MECH.

“One could say defend, but the other, hostage....” Tenzing muttered to himself. The CSO was dying to find out what would happen if he approached the plant now. He slowly inched towards the plant and reached his hand to the pot’s base.

Lieutenant Tenzing Trainor
Chief Operations Officer/Science Chief