Show and Tell

Posted on Sun Mar 16th, 2025 @ 1:01am by Chief Engineer Michael Burnstein

Mission: Cosmos
Location: Tech Expo, Esquimalt Station
1268 words - 2.5 OF Standard Post Measure

A little Grazerite moved furtively around a display pedestal, comparative in size to herself. In the antigrav beam above it was a small device rotating slowly. The small scrolling text line underneath gave away the engineer’s name, one “Lieutenant Commander Elli-Navine”. She seemed mostly human, but for the curl of goat-like horns and the little split between her upper lip through her nose. She kept polishing the readout panel, sure that the holo projector had a smudge over the display. Probably from her lunch. She’d spilled some of her salad dressing over it and had spent the last few minutes of her preparation changing her own uniform and trying to clean up the display casing.

The expo was very active and she was somewhat late getting started among the rest of her peers who had set up their displays ahead of time. Elli had brought her display early as well, but couldn’t keep herself from going back to make adjustments. It was something akin to stage fright, really.

Burnie had been strolling around the expo with a barely contained grin. As much as he loved his new life on the Mary Rose, he missed this kind of thing from his time in Starfleet. Coming upon the Grazerite’s exhibit, he smiled. “What do you have here?”

“It’s a–” Elli blurted as she startled and jostled the device out of the grav beam with a swing of her hand. It skipped across the floor into the busy footpath. Her eyes went wide as she watched it being kicked between the passers by.

The other engineer cringed inwardly in sympathy, and hurried to retrieve it. “I guess it’s not explosive,” he joked awkwardly, handing it back to her.

“Thank you!” Elli said, relieved. “I haven’t actually given it a proper durability testing yet.” She trilled a laugh. “I’ll… document this.” She toyed with the item in hand, flipping it open and closed, sliding the successive sections in and out, and surreptitiously checking it was all still assembled right. Finally, she sighed with relief.

“Glad it’s undamaged. Sorry to have startled you,” he said, dipping his head apologetically. “So what innovation are you showcasing?”

She held it up as if to ask, this? But of course he meant this. “It’s a Quantum computing subspace interfacing multiphasic chronitonic link!”

“Chronitonic?” Burnie’s brows rose. “So this is meant to resolve the multiphasic uncertainty in the subspace link? How do you account for potential interdimensional interference?Hmm.”

Elli nodded knowingly, obviously plagued by that issue. “The ship we have been testing it on has an Artificial Intelligence which can write a live algorithm to counter interdimensional noise.” She toyed with the piece in her hands, fidgeting. “But we’re hoping to have a better consolidation filter program designed for it.”

Hmm. Burnie stroked his chin. “AI isn’t really my side of engineering, but I used to know some people who specialized in space-time issues. I could give you some references, maybe.”

“Oh that would be wonderful, thank you. I was hoping to network here, afterall. You know how it is, you get so absorbed in development you forget to see if anyone else has been wrestling any of the same questions, comparing notes, that sort of thing. Or maybe… you don’t, I don’t know…” She put the object back into the display beam and it carried on its slow rotation, slightly askew, before she nudged it back onto the proper axis. “Do you work in a technical field? I mean, I assume. You’re familiar with multiphasic uncertainty and all.”

“I’m CEO on a civilian vessel,” he replied, and remembering his manners, extended a hand. “I’m Michael Burnstein, though most people call me Burnie. I was a Starfleet engineer, and had a sub-specialty in temporal mechanics, but that was years ago.”

Elli clapped her hands together, completely missing his offer to shake, although not from any intent to snub him so much as her tendency to miss simple social cues from time to time. “That’s wonderful, you still come to Starfleet events like this. I sometimes think we have all these insular different circles. I had a friend who left starfleet and he’s now very defensive about all of his work. I think he stopped trusting his work with others. It’s very sad.”

“That is sad,” Burnie agreed. “Though I understand it in a way. At one point I was buried in some classified stuff for awhile, and that can lead to that kind of mindset.” He shook his head, and returned to more pleasant topics. “Thankfully, I don’t have to worry about that now. But it is nice to get the chance to come back and see what Starfleet’s doing now.”

“Classified projects…” Elli echoed, obvious distaste in her tone. She’d clearly had her own experiences which she wouldn’t be able to relate. She shook her head. “I wouldn’t know anything about those. Nope.”

Burnie chuckled, recognizing that tone. “So no need for me to ask,” he said with a knowing nod. “But this current project looks quite absorbing. I do hope you find collaborators. I sometimes have a tendency to go ‘mad scientist’ locked away in my lab when I get an idea, but I find that the end result is better if I have other engineers to bounce ideas off of.”

Elli nodded eagerly in agreement for a beat too long before remembering something pertinent to the moment. “Oh!” She fished inside of her jacket pocket. “You should take a contact chip. I’ve put the specs for the Quantum computing subspace interfacing multiphasic chronitonic link right on there, along with all of my contact information.” Elli put it into his hand.

“Thank you,” he said, delighted, and slipped the chip into his pocket. “I will definitely look this over. I don’t have a contact chip, but if you have a padd, I can send you my info,” he lifted wrist, showing the minipadd strapped there, “or I’ll send it later with those references I promised you.”

Elli took another item out of her pocket. It was shaped like a palm-sized square with rounded corners. She touched one side of it and the item seemed to morph into a miniature padd. “My holo multitool.” She said, as though everyone had one of these now-a-days, even though she’d acquired it from an ancient advanced alien race in another galaxy. It was a long story she had no idea how to bring up. Instead she just held it up to interface with Burnie’s padd.

“Nice.” He eyed the multitool appreciatively, resolving to look it up. Until their recent alliance with the Fenris Rangers, the most of the tech on Mary Rose had been whatever he could make or they could scrounge, so he imagined this was more new item to catch up on. Or recreate himself, now that he’d seen it and was thinking on how it worked. “You should be able to contact me with this, and if not - we’re sometimes off, uh …normal trade routes - there’s a relay that will record the message so I’ll answer once it comes through.”

She looked at the logged info and anticipated sharing more with Burnie. “I won’t imagine that you’re ignoring me if there’s a delay then! Enjoy the rest of the exhibits!”

“I intend to,” he replied with a broad grin. “Best of luck on your exhibit!”