An Interesting Concept

Posted on Mon Oct 16, 2017 @ 10:18pm by Commodore Michael Aravan & Lieutenant Commander Arrda

Mission: Strange Matter
Location: Commodore's Ready Room
Timeline: MD 30 || 1430 Hours

As encounters with the Borg went, that last one had been relatively painless. Douglas, Cusack and their people had not been forced to repel boarders intent on assimilating the crew. He was grateful for that. He was also simply glad that the oddness of the last couple of days was over -- first that Romulan ship, then an ellipse following them, and finally the Borg ship. Today's shift had gone without incident, and now he was headed to the commodore's ready room to talk to him about something more pleasant... for more than just himself, he hoped.

Having gone back to the quarters he shared with his wife and retrieved the silver case he kept his crystals and reader in, he had greeted her, given her a kiss and told her he would return soon. She had not asked, but that was likely only because asking the commodore about these crystals had been her idea to begin with. She was likely very pleased that he was following through on her suggestion.

Reaching the ready room, he tapped the chime and waited to be acknowledged.

"Enter," Michael called out as he updated the personnel files in the giant LCARS table.

Douglas tapped the key that opened the doors and entered, stoppong just inside the room. "If I'm disturbing you, Commodore, I can come back." he offered politely, seeing that the other man was busy with the LCARS table.

"Not at all," the Commodore said as he saved his work and cleared the table. "What can I do for you, Lieutenant Mallory?"

Douglas came further into the room, stopping just on the other side of the table from his superior officer. "I showed my wife something, and she said I should show it to you." he began. "May I?" he asked, motioning with his free hand to the now-dark table surface.

"Certainly," Michael said as he activated the table again to a blank LCARS Access Screen. "Or did you have something else in mind?" He had to wonder what a conversation between his Chief of Security and his wife would lead the man to his ready room.

Douglas shook his head at the table. "I don't need the display, sir." he corrected, realizing then that he had not been specific as to what he needed the table for. "I wanted to set this down on it so that I can show you its contents. I apologize for the lack of clarity."

"It's not a problem," the commanding officer said as he deactivated the table again and wondered what he had with him that required a surface to use.

Douglas set down the silver case and opened it, laying it flat open on the table. Inside, on Douglas' side of the case, were three rows of crystals. One was a dark green, almost hunter green. The next were a light, translucent green. The third were a deep royal blue in color. All three sets of crystals were the same shape though, polished into 6-inch-long, double-terminated, eight-sided points.

The other side of the case, the side closer to the commodore, housed a small device and three more half rows of the crystals. The device's shape was a small, five-inch-long square cylinder with a hole the shape of one of the crystals in one end.

Michael looked at them and tried to place them, but they didn't resemble any type of crystals that he only vaguely aware of, so he asked. "What type of crystals are these, Lieutenant?"

Douglas had not expected the other man to recognize them. "These all come from the Marai Cooperative's space." he clarified. He then pointed to the light, translucent green crystals. "These are Record Crystals. They are used to record events that need to be recorded accurately without any bias." he explained. "They record the event but none of the emotional content of the person recording."

He then indicated the hunter green ones. "These are Journal Crystals, used to record events with the emotional content of the one recording." He then indicated the deep royal blue ones. "But these are the ones I came here to discuss with you, sir. These are Experience Crystals. They are used, on my homeworld, to record an event much the same way that Journal crystals are in the sense that it is captured with all of the emotional content. These are different, however, in that a single event may be recorded on these by multiple users."

He paused at this point. He wanted to give the commodore time to process everything he had said thus far and ask any questions he had at this point.

Michael took a moment to listen to the descriptions of the different crystals and what they did. "Okay," he said at last. "These are fascinating, but what do you propose to do with them and how am I involved?"

Douglas smiled. "As I said, i came mostly about these." he indicated the Experience Crystals. "These are full-immersion experiences, all six senses. You live the experience as the one who recorded it lived it, from their perspective. Since each event is recorded from multiple viewpoints, each user can select one of those viewpoints to experience. Thus, an experience that was recorded by five people can be re-experienced by five different people." he explained. "And new experiences could be added to new crystals by new people."

"They are quite fascinating, but if you just came to show off these crystals and what they can do...." the Commodore allowed a slight note of irritation to enter his tone in the hope that it would encourage the Chief of Security to make a connection to the crystals which would involve him. Of course, he could be presenting a possible item for Intelligence or some method of training Security officers as well, Michael mused and regretted the tone he had used.

Douglas' intention with explaining the crystals first and not drawing the conclusion for the man was to (a) leave the options for how they could be used on this ship open for them to decide and (b) allow the other man to decide whether he wanted a demonstration or not. The tone told him, however, that he had given too much openness.

"No, I didn't come to show off the crystals, sir." he assured. "I came to ask you permission to use and distribute them. After all, they could be very useful as everything from training materials to entertainment vehicles. I only gave you the amount of information I did so that you could see how useful they could be. On Marai, the Experience Crystals are mostly used for entertainment, allowing users to experience things they might not have opportunity to otherwise.

"The immersion allows them to feel the event from a perspective that is not their own as well. This gives these an edge over, say, holodeck technology. Within the holodeck environment, the user is still himself with his own senses, perceptions and hangups. Immersed in the viewpoint of one of these, that same user can be someone else, feeling what they felt, experiencing the event the way they did. A non-telepath, for example, would have the experience including the telepathic input as well as the physical senses of the person who had recorded if he or she chose that viewpoint."

That was just an example, but he hoped that he was clear enough now as to why he had brought these to the commodore. He liked and respected the man -- yes, Michael was much younger than he, but that didn't matter; he was wise for his years -- and had no interest in annoying him.

"First, let me apologize to you for my tone," Michael said. "After I said that, I realized the potential that you just clarified and expanded upon. They do seem to be an interesting concept and I approve of them. However, I am curious to know how you plan to distribute them."

Douglas smiled. "No apology necessary; I realize I didn't specify." He frowned for a second in thought. "Well, there are a couple of possibilities that I can see right off. One, we could create a sort of library or archive of them that crew could come in and utilize on-site. They could donate experiences to it as well, thus expanding the library."

He paused again for thought. "Or two, we could set up a small shop, for lack of a better descriptive, on our promenade and sell the experiences -- not the crystals, but the experience. People could donate experiences in exchange for uses or price-cuts." He shrugged a bit. "Just the first thoughts off the top of my head. Of course, if you had a better suggestion, I would love to hear it."

The Commodore mused for a moment before he made a decision. "Let's start with a small test bed," he said. "Offer each department head as well as myself and Captain Weisz one of the Experience crystals and we'll test it out and give you the results of what we experienced with them. After that, we can go from there."

Douglas nodded. "Reasonable." he said. "Using them is fairly easy.. Do you want me to show you now or at another time?"

"One moment," Michael said before he called up his schedule, then nodded. "Now would be a good time, Lieutenant. I'm curious to learn how these things work exactly."

Douglas nodded, removing one of the deep royal blue crystals from the case. He chose a simple one since this was only a demonstration. Rounding the table, he explained, "To activate the crystal, you will hold it like this." He stopped near the commodore and held the crystal between his hands, the points of the crystal pointing toward the ceiling and the floor. "You then simply close your eyes and think the activation request. All of my Experience Crystals use the same one: begin." He then handed the crystal to Michael.

Michael accepted the crystal and held it the way he had been shown before he closed his eyes and thought begin. With no idea what to expect after that, he started to open his eyes before an exotic scent filled his nostrils and the sound of waves crashing against a shore filled his ears. He felt a warm breeze ruffle his hair and when he opened his eyes, he found himself on a strange beach he had never been to before he recognized it as the S'alo'ator Beach on Delgra IV.

He sighed at the sight greeting him and then felt the warm sand under his three toed food. He looked down at his purple foot digging into the sand for traction, then gave a warbling cry before he took off running and chirruped at the sensations he was receiving from everything around him.

A minute later, Michael jerked his head and blinked, then blinked again. "Wow..." he said as he set the crystal down. "That...I was some form of avian species on a beach on a world I've never been on. That was amazing, Lieutenant."

Douglas smiled, pleased. "That was a very simple example of what you could experience." he explained. "And as you saw, it was very easy to use. Do you have any other questions, though, before I offer them to Captain Weisz and the other department heads?"

The ship's commanding officer smiled. "They seem pretty straightforward to me, but warn people what they'll be experiencing before they get a shock they weren't expecting."

Douglas smiled as well, returning the crystal to its place in the case and closing the case. "Of course. I always give the warning I gave you. Or do you mean telling them what type of experience the crystal I give them holds?" He probably should have done that too, he decided after some thought. "You know, I think I will just play safe and do both." he added after thatr small hesitation. "Thank you for your time, Commodore."

"You're welcome, Lieutenant," Michael said. "I'll be looking forward to the reviews of others."

Douglas picked up the case and nodded. "Do you want each as they come to me or a compiled report?" he asked.

"Compile them as they come to you," the Commodore said. "Then get it to me and I'll make a determination for the crew."

"Absolutely, sir. I'll let you get back to whatever it was you were doing now though. Again, thank you for your time." Since this was not an official meeting and Michael had not called him, he figured that dismissal wasn't necessary. Turning, he headed for the door, pleased with the outcome of this impromptu meeting and ready to talk to the other senior officers, though he wasn't at all sure how Captain Weisz would react.

Pausing a moment at that realization -- it finally processed -- he turned and asked, "One question before I go, sir, if I may?"

"Certainly."

"When did Commander Weisz become Captain Weisz?" he asked with a self-effacing chuckle. "Yes, it took me that long to process that. Not good for a Security Officer, I know."

"Earlier today," Michael replied. "Admiral Breckenridge promoted her on the station. She refused her own ship, but he still promoted her. I had nothing to do with it."

Douglas found it interesting that the commodore had added that last sentence. Douglas would not have thought otherwise; Michael Aravan seemed to be a fair-minded man. "I didn't think you had, sir. She earned her rank." he complimented even though she was not here to hear him. "I will remember to congratulate her when I see her. Thank you again."

"You're welcome and I'm sure she'd appreciate it," the Commodore said. "And if you have any other interesting concepts, feel free to bring them to me or her."

Douglas nodded. "I will." A smile and a nod of farewell, and he turned to leave. "Have a good day, sir." As CO's went, he liked this one. Michael was strong when he needed to be but flexible and open to new ideas as well. That, in his long experience, was a good combination.

"You as well," Michael said and went back to his reports after the Lieutenant left.