43 The Proposal (2/2)
Carmel worked with Dernel in the research halls and had many white spines around his head and arms similar to a puffer fish. His pod mate, Tyre, had red spines similar to a lionfish. Such similarities happened in a pod. Within Dernel's pod, his sister resembled him the most. She too had tentacles that could be compressed into two humanoid limbs, and her scales were a dark blue, almost black, color.Their brother had a transparent, iridescent baby bluefin on his head and attributes similar to a remora. Like the sucker-like organ along his back that allowed him to remain attached to Dernel's Escort for long periods of time. He was an oddity.
The rest of the Underling were red and green scaled with average scaly appearances, excluding Dernel's old lab partner who clearly had blobfish qualities.
When everyone saw Dernel exit the orange fog, they gathered in the middle of the cavern and settled on the smoothest portions of the floor. Dernel sprinted over to them in excitement and gushed the details of his latest plans.
”I'm bringing a proposal to the council. It will be a complete change from the usual way things have been done. I've planned a system for all levels.”
”All levels?” Carmel asked while he leaned an arm on a smooth shelf of rock.
”Well, my first device is for mankind,” Dernel revealed.
”...”
Everyone looked at Dernel with surprise etched on their face.
”The council won't allow you to breach the confidentiality clause in our Neutrality contract,” Waller commented.
”This could remove so many conflicts that we've had between our people and within their own societies. The device can be temporarily attached to a subject during a tribunal and record memories straight from the subjects minds. It can read their physical signals and can ascertain mental health. It would be invaluable to mankind. With less time focused on their judicial strifes, imagine the breakthroughs they could help us engineer.” Dernel argued.
”Ascertain mental health? We have connections for that, so it would definitely be of no help here.” Tyre remarked.
Waller laughed at that.
”Do you really think the council would reconvene with the United Human Initiative for that? How well has it performed in your experiments?” his sister, Lenn, questioned.
”It was the easiest part of my plan. It has passed all the checks without fail. Once I have a human subject to test it on I can recalibrate it to their specific biology. All the tests have been practiced on orphaned ones in the Health Sector who have no bonds. They responded wonderfully. This could help all Removed ones with orphaned pod bonds from passing on. But that isn't my secret weapon...” Dernel said with a twinkle in his eyes.
His compassion for all forms of life had always made him tear up when thinking of the ways he planned to fix the world. No more helpless Underlings. No more helpless humans. They all shared the same planet, the quality of life shouldn't be so drastic, but it was. Underlings had a small limited amount of hardships in their lives, mostly centered around the rare death or two that would occur in pods. Besides that, the famine, pestilence, and death that occur in human societies were unheard of in their world. He couldn't pull his mind from that as a child. Why do they allow that cycle to continue? Why doesn't anyone fix it? What purpose is their suffering fulfilling?
”Secret weapon?” my brother, Z, muttered and leaned forward.
”What do you mean secret weapon? You are making destructive materials? I thought you were focused on earthly peace?” Jenga asked.
”Yes, it is a human term. I have an unknown project that will definitely peak the elders interest and push forward the talking to reconvene the UHI summits.” Dernel said with pride.
”So....what is it? Is it to be withheld from us as well?!” Stace exclaimed.
”Yeah, this is...what is it?” Mackie asked her round bulbous nose nudged at his head.
She leaned on Dernel's arm and squeezed his shoulder, ”Did you bring it along with you?”
Everyone looked at Dernel's bare form. He doesn't seem to have a new device with him. Dernel looked back at them while suppressing a smile.
”I have made a successful time jumper,” he announced.
”What?!” everyone shouted back at him.
His friends rushed forward and yelled questions at Dernel. He couldn't suppress his grin any longer and sharp teeth were revealed. His pod smiled right back at him. Z and Lenn sat back from the excited group and projected feelings of awe and joy.
Z's habit of clinging to something while excited or nervous activated and he grasped Lenn's hand in his.
”What sort of time jumper? How far can you travel with it?” Z asked while brimming with delight.
”It can go several weeks into the future or the past if enough hydrone is processed into the device,” Dernel replied.
”Hydrone? Isn't that a volatile substance? Highly corrosive and in some instances, it can poison the organism handling it.” Mackie commented.
”Yes, which is why I use it along with a dimensional space converter to utilize a subspace that the subject's physical and spiritual beings inhabit while lively on this plane,” Dernel said.
”Is that a play off of Velia's subspace theory?” Jenga asked.
”Didn't Cornel dispute that anything packed into subspace with a converter would be obsolete because the loss of consciousness would result in the loss of product?” Tyre interjected.
”Not the loss of consciousness, death you dweeb.” Carmel corrected.
Mackie and Dernel nodded at the correction.
”Actually, I've fixed that problem by including a ....” Dernel explained the basic structure of his hydrone processor and its dimensional converter.
”Always the amount of false convictions is blamed on the technology of the time, lack of resources, and urgings for the defendant to plead guilty on both sides. With my invention, their alibi could be shown before a judge or jury and verified. False witness statements can be thrown away. Of course, there might be some exceptions, but overall I really think this could resolve a lot of cases and free up a lot of time in many of their civilizations.” Dernel said in his lecturing voice.
Mackie listened with her eyes closed. Her head leaned on Dernel's shoulder as she contemplated what he had said.
”Judge, defendants....witness statements....haha, you've really gone all out with researching their judicial system,” Jenga said with a confused look on his face.
”Well, if it helps I didn't know even a quarter of what I know now before I researched about it,” Dernel reassured the confused male.
”When did you find time to do both projects?....'Ling, a converter for hydrone processing takes intense engineering sessions, and the research for the rest of that,” Carmel asked while waving his arms around his head.
”When you're passionate about something, you find the time,” Mackie muttered.
”You're a nut,” Carmel said pointing at Dernel.
Dernel laughed.
The conversation shifted to everyone else's news and progress on their own endeavors until they were interrupted by a Depths Depot employee.
”Thaya and Essic are quarreling again,” a male Underling wearing an orange ribbon around his neck, and long black pectoral fins, shouted into the compartment.
The employee was half submerged in the thick halocline. He circled within the orange haze, waiting for Dernel to follow behind him.
”Sigh, Thaya shouldn't even be allowed in the Depth Depot,” Dernel grumbled and looked back at his companions. ”I'll let you all know the outcome of the meeting. The date should be announced soon.”
He rose from his seat on the floor and prepared to dive and follow his guide.
”It'll be a breakthrough for Underling and Mankind. You'll be famous outside the tide, brother!”
Dernel's brother exclaimed as Dernel swam toward the exit.
Lenn yelled out to Dernel's disappearing form.
”Connect us when it's over!” Dernel's sister shouted.
”No sneak peaks!” Dernel shouted back over his shoulder, then disappeared.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
”This one will suffice. Show this to her while she sleeps. Don't force the meld if she rejects our connection. I don't want to further damage relations while making amends.”
AFFIRMATIVE
CONFIGURING MELD PARAMETERS