Pet Project (Jamie/Dylan)

[Jamie McConnell]

Players: Jamie Shen and Dylan Torngate (PM if you'd like to join us)
Summary: Jamie has enlisted the help of the young engineer Mr. Torngate to help her with her pet project of nanite surgery bots.  If it works they could save lives. 

[Jamie McConnell]

Jamie had prepared the holodeck as best as she could, though she was pretty sure that the young engineer that promised to help her could do a much better job.  Her expertise was not in the technical arts but in the medical ones.  Drop her off on a wild planet with a first aid kit and she was good to go.  She was even good at diagnosis without the need of a medical tricorder, although the technology did make it more precise.  Before the tricorder a doctor would have to give it his or hers best guess depending on experience.

Those days were long past and technology had jumped leaps and bounds.  Just in the last few years medical advances had increased as the addition of new races were added to the eager Federation minds.  Exploration had allowed Starfleet to increase their technology many times and Jamie wanted to use that for her own idea.

Floating in the center of the holodeck simulation was a bioscan of a bullet ant especially of its mandibles.  Jamie looked at it with a smile and made the projection open and close its clawed facial appendages in what she wanted the nanites to have.  "Well,"  She told herself as she waited for Dylan to appear, "Hopefully we can copy natures design, its a good design."

[Dylan Torngate]

Dylan was sauntering down the hallways as he went toward the holodeck. He'd been requested to show up by an Ensign Shen, and the proposal had interested him. He'd agreed to meet her, and would hear her out.

As he drew nearer to the room, he thought back to what little he'd gleamed from the messages. It was pretty simple and vague, all he knew was it involved nanites. He had brushed up on his knowledge of the technology before entering, as he'd done a little study of them at the Academy.

He entered the holodeck and first took in the scene before heading in. it was definitely just the holodeck, with a giant ant floating in the centre. He walked over to the Ensign. "I'd assume you're Doctor Shen?" he asked, looking at her. He took in the surroundings, setting down his toolkit he'd brought, as always, and waited for her to respond.

[Jamie McConnell]

Jamie turned towards the voice and offered a generous grin, "Call me Jamie, please."  Dylan looked much younger than she thought he'd look, but it was the young ones that came up with the best ideas.  It was almost as if their brains were firing neurons all the time; and they probably were.  "Dylan Torngate I assume?"  She teased and motioned at the floating giant ant.

"Something from a 20th Century horror movie huh?"  She laughed and hugged herself. "Well I don't want to waste your time, so here's the jist of it."  Jamie tucked a strand of long dark hair behind her pointed ear and began, "Okay, so this insect is used to clamp up wounds when sewing is not an option.  My idea is to make nanites that can do the same thing inside the body when surgery is not an option."  She turned towards him, "What do you think, can it be done?  Oh and feel free to move things around to your liking in here.  I'm not the most handiest when it comes to Holodecks."

Jamie bounced on the balls of her feet, "Unless it deals with jungles and the wilds of Earth."

[Dylan Torngate]

"Alright then, Jamie." he said, smiling back. "And yeah that's me. If we're going informal call me Dylan." His mind was racing, analyzing the entirety of the holodeck he was in. "So this creature here, what is it for?" he asked, an eyebrow raised in confusion, but then he immediately had his question answered.

"Alright, I appreciate it." he said. "So you want to make a nanotech robot that can do surgery, and yet not pinch together things it's not supposed to... Interesting concept." He began running down a few ideas. "The holodeck is fine. But where'd you learn about the creature here?" he asked, not knowing her background.

[Jamie McConnell]

Jamie nodded, "Not really perform surgery so much as to find an open wound, one the nanites will know is not supposed to be open, and close it up to avoid bleeding out.  Until they can get to surgery."  She confirmed and added.

Turning towards the bullet ant she told Dylan her story with these species.  "Well, when I was a girl, my mother worked in the Amazon."  She shrugged and turned to Dylan, who she knew was human but that didn't mean he knew a lot about Earth.  Humans were spread out throughout the galaxy and not all of them came from Earth or even visited it more than just for Starfleet training.

Still she gave him the benefit of the doubt and continued, "The temperature was just fine for a Vulcan, but the humidity sucked."  Jamie moved the ant around so that Dylan could see it from all sides.  "Although the natives aren't really stone-aged anymore, many of them still prefer the old ways and they use this ant to stitch themselves up.  Kinda what some cultures used spider web for.  See..."  She pointed to the mandible."  ....once this sucker latches on, it doesn't let go and the bite is said to feel like a bullet.  Nothing some numbing agents or time won't fix.  I think it feels like a bite, what can I say?"

She shrugged and looked at him, "I can offer you a demonstration of the pain, if you'd like?"  Jamie grinned, showing him that she was only joking and continued, "Once the mandibles are attached, the body is torn off and the head will eventually fall off but by then the wound would be healed enough.  This is what I'd like but with the nanites and inside the body where we can't really see.  An outside wound can easily be fixed, but not an inside wound.  What do you think?"

[Dylan Torngate]

He nodded, understanding. "Like a stopgap until more help can arrive." he said, spinning the diagram around and looking at the mandibles. "I mean they could work, probably."

"Amazon....." he said, biting his lip as he tried to place the name. He'd grown up freighterside so he never knew geography that well. "That'd be on the Southwestern hemisphere of Sol III?" He asked, hoping he was right. Instead of calling it Earth like many people did he used the "formal" name for Earth, not the regularly used 'Earth'. It was an odd habit but he felt no devotion to the planet, except where he was commissioned as a member of Starfleet.

"Well sometimes it's the old ways that are best." he said, shrugging. "If it ain't broke don't fix it." He looked around, thinking of how nanotech could reproduce what nature had made. "So this thing bites, hunh?" he asked, not sure how he felt about putting an animal on his arm to stitch himself up. "Well that's fine for them. I'll pass on it though."

He raised an eyebrow at the pain offer. Though it was a joke he responed. He smiled and chucked. "I.. I'm good, no need for biting." He though the problem over. "We can give it a shot at least." he said, nodding. "No harm in trying. And the principle's sound enough."

[Jamie McConnell]

Jamie laughed at the engineer's sense of humor.  "Yeah they bit, but they don't suck."  She chuckled and reached out activating a nanite model she had downloaded.  Jamie held the holographic image by wiggling her fingers then she made it larger by opening her fingers.

"These are borg nanites, which I manage to get information from the Daystrom.  Apparently they're working on similar uses for nanites, but we can only have the information.  We can in no way build a born nanite."  She grinned at Dylan.

Jamie reached out and brought up another image, enlarging it in the same way she did the borg nanite and setting it in the air next to both the borg nanite and the bullet ant.

"These are the nanites as reported by the USS Enterprise."  She was probably just giving Dylan information he already knew, so it was really just stating the obvious.  "They were declared sentient and again we cannot replicate them, its for information purposes only."  Jamie placed her hands on her hips.  "Can you use these as a starting point?  We can talk design, then of course material."

[Dylan Torngate]

Jamie laughed at the engineer's sense of humor.  "Yeah they bit, but they don't suck."  She chuckled and reached out activating a nanite model she had downloaded.  Jamie held the holographic image by wiggling her fingers then she made it larger by opening her fingers.

"These are borg nanites, which I manage to get information from the Daystrom.  Apparently they're working on similar uses for nanites, but we can only have the information.  We can in no way build a born nanite."  She grinned at Dylan.

Jamie reached out and brought up another image, enlarging it in the same way she did the borg nanite and setting it in the air next to both the borg nanite and the bullet ant.

"These are the nanites as reported by the USS Enterprise."  She was probably just giving Dylan information he already knew, so it was really just stating the obvious.  "They were declared sentient and again we cannot replicate them, its for information purposes only."  Jamie placed her hands on her hips.  "Can you use these as a starting point?  We can talk design, then of course material."

Dylan looked as she pulled up the diagram, and stepped back as he recognized the schematic. That design was one he'd seen in the Academy, the bane of everyone's existence. That model was classified as well, and it was hard to get ahold of. The image on the display was that of a Borg nanite.

Dylan sighed and rolled his eyes. "Replicating borg nanites? I can't POSSIBLY see how that could go wrong." he said, sarcasm dripping from his voice. "Daystrom made that mistake once and they had to glass an entire wing to contain it." he said, recalling the event.

He nodded at the second model, not knowing it. He'd heard of the event but didn't know exactly what had transpired. He studied them, recognizing the design from his classes but never having gone indepth with the design.

"Sentient nanites?" he laughed, knowing it was serious. "I know it happened but who would have thought...". He pulled up the diagram closer and looked at them. "And they didn't cause the GGS, did they?" he asked, referring to the grey goo scenario, or a hypothetical end-of-the-world scenario involving molecular nanotechnology in which out-of-control self-replicating robots consume all matter on Earth while building more of themselves.

"I mean we can use them but again, we have a specific need to accomplish so we can't draw too heavily from these, which are mostly multi-purpose bots."

[Jamie McConnell]

"Well true."  Jamie nodded and chuckled at Dylan's joke.  She would definitely get along with him, which was a good thing because friends on a starship were a precious commodity.  "....but, these are just a starting point.  I mean, the design will be different true, but look at the materials used and their...you know."  She pointed at the Borg one, which seemed so simple but it was so powerful.  "....the way they function.  It's like the blood cell, so very simple yet it's able to do so much."

She turned towards Dylan and leaned her rear against one of the terminals then crossed her arms.  "Doesn't it get your mind flowing.  Ah, I see it."  She pointed at his head, "It's already starting isn't it?"  Jamie chuckled, "What are you thinking?  Spill the frijoles, Dylan!"

[Dylan Torngate]

Dylan blew up and began to disassemble the two nanites, seeing exactly how they worked. He modified the scene to give himself a desk and sat down, beginning to take it apart into all of it's pieces and work well on analyzing what each part would do. He went over and got himself a cup of coffee, being unfortunately addicted to the stuff. "Yeah, that's a good point, I guess we can always learn from them."

He had become absorbed in the project in such a short span, and when she finished the rest of her statements. "Hunh?" he said, looking up, eyes wide for a minute before being re-acclimated to his surroundings. "Oh, just thinking of how we'd do this. I've got a few contacts at some private institutions on some of the stations spread around, I can send out some feelers."

[Jamie McConnell]

Jamie stood up and held up a hand, "Hold up now.  Before we start building we need to come up with a design and we can easily run it through Holodeck."  She shook her head, "I just don't want others in on this project until I have a working model."   One of her Vulcan eyebrows shot up, followed shortly by the other one, "It's a dog eat dog world with these science and medical types.  And we can get really jealous.  But anyway, what are you hoping to find with these feelers?"

[Dylan Torngate]

Jamie stood up and held up a hand, "Hold up now.  Before we start building we need to come up with a design and we can easily run it through Holodeck."  She shook her head, "I just don't want others in on this project until I have a working model."   One of her Vulcan eyebrows shot up, followed shortly by the other one, "It's a dog eat dog world with these science and medical types.  And we can get really jealous.  But anyway, what are you hoping to find with these feelers?"

He laughed a little. "Yeah that's true enough." he conceded. "Well then, there's another station here, you know these bugs better than I, if you want to take a shot at designing them.  "And that's quite alright, I was just gonna send a message off to my roommate from the Academy, he was studying nanotech a lot more than I was. I don't know where he ended up."

Dylan eventually got the nanobots apart and figured out for the most part, and so he began a new project, finding the parts he needed and isolating them in the air above him, while seperating the nanite bits- such as Borg assimilation parts- away from the main group.

[Jamie McConnell]

Jamie grinned and once again bounced on the balls of her feet.  She reached over the console, "Glad you asked, I do have a bit of a design I must admit."  Her long fingers flowed across the console and brought up her graphics.  It was of a simple robot design similar to that of the Borg nanite, except it had huge claw mandibles in the front of it and a little fin in the back.  "I know it looks like a sperm with crab legs."  She chuckled, "But this is basically my design."  Jamie pointed at it, "The claws are what are going to clamp the wound shut and the fin in order for it to swim to the area.  I don't think there's a need for legs like on the Borg nanite.  What do you think?"

[Dylan Torngate]

Dylan smiled at her enthusiasm. "And here I thought Vulcans were a little less emotional." he said, making sure with his look she knew he was joking around. "I'm glad you have ideas, I'm only here to help them work, I have no idea how they would look."

Dylan looked over her as she designed it, pointing out a few flaws here and there, such as the lack of a place to put a power supply or forgetting to have space to run data streams. Other than that, designwise she was much better off than he ever could.

"Well on the legs, we're going with the idea that the bloodstream to seal off bleeding wounds, correct?" he asked, looking at it. "Why not just use the blood pressure that exists already, you can halve the size of the fin and spend a lot  less time programming it, as well as use less power."