Lt JG Imril - Oh, So THAT'S What It Does!
Chris Taylor
(( Main Mess Hall, Deck 3, USS Artemis-A ))
Imril: Start from the beginning, Roy. Give us your turbolift pitch.
Roy cleared his throat and sat up a little straighter.
Bancroft: Every doctor asks the same question: ‘where does it hurt?’ Trouble is… sometimes the patient can’t answer. They’re unconscious. Non-verbal. From a species that doesn’t even have vocal cords.
As he spoke, his hands began moving of their own volition, sculpting ideas from air and gesturing toward invisible graphs.
Bancroft: The scanners we have available today tell us where things are damaged, and to what extent. What they don’t tell us is how it feels. They don’t know if that shattered carapace, for example, feels like a stubbed toe or a supernova. That’s where W.H.I.M.P.E.R. comes in. It reads the neural and biochemical signatures of distress, runs them through a series of learning models, and translates them into a sort of ‘universal language of pain.’
His eyes were lit with the manic energy of invention. A waking dream aching to be made tangible. His earnest description of this dream cleared away the jargonal cobwebs.
Bancroft: It’s not mind-reading. It’s interpretation. Data, turned into empathy. In short, W.H.I.M.P.E.R. gives a voice to the voiceless. For the first time, we can see what a non-verbal patient actually feels – not just what’s broken. Which means we can treat the whole being during an intervention, not just the injury.
He let his words fall into silence for a moment, arms spread wide as if to say ‘ta-da!’
Tho’Bi: It is more Lieutenant Imril's area of experience than mine… I am really more of a bodger ::shrugs:: I guess we could… breakdown the prototype and draw up schematics from there.
Roy’s brow furrowed slightly.
Bancroft: Thobes, you’ve got just as critical a role here as either of us. And if I’d had the foresight to rope you both in from the beginning, this might have already been rolled out fleet-wide, improving patient outcomes. On my own head be it.
Imril: Trust me, Tho’Bi, half of invention is tearing something apart and rebuilding it to find out what didn’t work. Or just rebuilding it after something blew up. You’ll be all kinds of help.
The Andorian’s next words sounded a more enthusiastic. If just a bit.
Tho’Bi: …the design feels a little …random.
Bancroft: ::clearing his throat:: Right, yes, well– I think we can all agree the technical design is, generously speaking, an affront to engineering. In my defense, I’m a doctor, not an–
Imril: ::Wryly:: Endless list of alternative professions?
What was it with doctors always telling people what they weren’t? For all of their time reading history books, Imril was at a loss as to the individual who was the cause of it all.
Tho’Bi: Response
Roy grabbed his banana and stood from the table, the rest of his meal forgotten.
Bancroft: The prototype – well, what’s left of it – is currently residing in exile on Deck 11. ::grinning:: Field trip?
Imril was less interested in sacrificing their breakfast to this endeavor. They started shoveling the eggs and hash down in larger, barely-polite bites. Not nearly as jaw-breaking as the bites Tho’Bi had taken, though.
Tho’Bi: Response
Roy looked away sheepishly, peeling the banana just a bit too casually.
Bancroft: No, not in one of the cargo bays. Ops decided, against my passionate and wildly logical protests, to store it in the ::sighing:: Hazardous Materials Lab. Apparently ‘the risk of spontaneous combustion’ would trigger too much PADDwork.
Imril rose, taking the cup and what was left of the roll with them.
Imril: Am I the only one who remembers that power cells and combustible materials can be removed from an item before storing it away? I mean, there are procedures for that sort of thing.
This commentary was directed at whoever worked in the HML, not Roy.
Tho’Bi/Bancroft: Response
Imril followed after the others. Making sure of their way out of the Mess Hall not to cause a collision in the busy room such as Roy had.
Imril: It seems to me that what you’ve come up with here is a variation on a psychotricorder. One that maps and translates a person's nervous system rather than the part of their brain that stores short-term memories. That could be gear to look to as a guidepost for refining and streamlining your prototype. ::teacherly voice:: And streamlining is very important if you want to get approval for expanded production. R&D honchos always want to read about how efficient a tool is going to be, and help others to be. Oh, and lots of little blinking lights that don't readily appear to do anything but blink. They love those.
Tho’Bi/Bancroft: Response
Imril: Might I suggest a rename, though? ‘W.H.I.M.P.E.R.’ doesn’t set a soothing impression in the mind of a patient of what the device is going to do to them. You don't go around calling laser scalpels Stabby Burny Sticks, do you?
Tho’Bi/Bancroft: Response
Was Imril making too many suggestions ahead of actually seeing the prototype? Yes. But it was fun!
Imril: You know engineers. We love to change things.
Tho’Bi/Bancroft: Response
Tag/TBC
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Lieutenant JG Imril
Engineering Officer
USS Artemis-A
A240110I12