Wandering the Immeasurable

Posted on Tue Aug 14th, 2018 @ 12:15am by Lieutenant Naryi Avonavi & Captain Cynthia Jackson

1,265 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Mission 0 - Christening of Legacy and Crew Arrival
Location: Chief Engineer's Office, Level P
Timeline: 2261.182 1045

Naryi was feeling a lot more comfortable now that she was back in the bowels of a starship. Before leaving her quarters, she had sent a text to her new commanding officer that she was onboard and was ready to report in person at the Captain's earliest convenience. With that done, Naryi headed to the lower levels that would be her domain.

Naryi had spent a half an hour meeting the engineering staff who had reported to the ship already, as well as the contractors finishing up the preparations for the Legacy's launch. She had planned to only duck into her new office for only a minute, to place a foot high statue on her desk. From there, she planned to get back on the deck and start familiarizing herself with her department.

The statue in question, a steel ribbon whose entire surface was covered with inscriptions and diagrams, was completely forgotten as Naryi lost herself in one of the manuals in her office, looking up something to confirm a random remark of one of the contractors.

There was a knock on the door and without much warning, long duty boots stepped in followed by a statuesque woman wearing a gold sleeveless miniskirt duty uniform. Her platinum blonde hair waved as she walked and her smile brightened the room. "Lieutenant Avonavi!" the woman exclaimed. "How is my ship's miracle worker?"

"Captain Jackson," Naryi responded, coming hurriedly to her feet as she set the manual down. "A pleasure to be onboard, ma'am. I don't think I received a return text for an appointment with you yet."

"Appointments are so formal," she informed Naryi with slight disdain, wrinkling her nose, almost as if emphasizing the point. "So is Captain Jackson. No reason for that. Cindy is fine, or Captain Cindy if you insist on an honorific." The bright smile returned. "Besides, I have learned that you get to know much more about a person by speaking to them where they are most comfortable. So, tell me about yourself. And don't repeat your dossier. I can read that," she said throwing back her platinum blonde hair and laughing.

"With respect, Captain Jackson," Naryi replied, "I grew up in a society where formality was a requirement. And as a philosopher from your planet once said, 'it is easier to prevent bad habits than to break them.'"

Naryi brushed an errant lock of hair from out of her face as she thought of how to answer her new commanding officer's question. "Are you familiar with the 'Wandering the Immeasurable,' Captain? Not this miniaturized reproduction, of course, but the full sized one in Switzerland."

"Of course I am," Cindy replied excitedly. "What self respecting scientist does not? It is an artistic rendition of how scientific knowledge progresses and the spreading of knowledge." Cindy's eyes were turning lighter and lighter green as she spoke, nearing the blue spectrum as she wondered what Naryi was trying to tell her.

"There are two principles that it represents for me," Naryi answered, gesturing toward the steel ribbon on her desk. "Connession and Sfumato. That's Italian for Interconnectedness and Embracing Uncertainty. It's what I try to do. I look for and attempt to understand how things are connected. But we don't live in a universe where everything is understandable. So I'm willing to embrace ambiguity, paradox, and uncertainty. Or at least understand that it's part of what we're going to encounter."

"I had Spanish.... I nearly got there before you explained it," Cindy replied laughing and throwing her hair behind her shoulders. "Personally, I do not believe that everything is not understandable. We may not yet have the means to understand it but study it long enough, test it long enough, and we will find answers. And I intend to find them, Ms. Avonavi. Or may I call you Naryi?"

"Captain's prerogative," Naryi answered with a shrug. "And there might be some things that are inherently unknowable. On my world, it's called Garnon's Tenet of Unpredictability. On Earth, it's known as Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle. And both of our worlds have their own form of Chaos Theory, which predicts that there are limitations on how much we can predict what a complex system will do." Naryi allowed a hint of smile to play on her lips as she added, "But as an engineer, I happily butt heads with Chaos every day."

That caused Cindy to laugh. It was a pretty laugh that was filled with sunshine. When she laughed, she threw her head back a little when she did so. She genuinely appreciated the humor. "Spoken like a true scientist, even if you're engineering, Naryi. So, what do you do when you're not working?" Cindy asked curiously.

"I try to emulate a man from your world, Captain," Naryi answered. "Leonardo da Vinci. We have a man like him on our world as well. A man called Soske Busk. But Leonardo was different. A man born out of wedlock. From the wrong caste, you might say," Naryi said with a wan smile. "But still his achievements in some many varied fields and disciplines, even inventing a few of them. An incredible individual."

Cindy nodded understanding. "That he was. Way ahead of his time and not fully appreciated until long after his death. I am curious, though, why do you emphasize his birth? Does it matter what his start in life was?"

"No, no it doesn't," Naryi answered. "Was there anything else you'd like to know, Captain?"

Cindy shook her head, her hair remarkably not mussing or moving out of place as she did so. "Nope," she replied happily. "As long as you keep this beautiful ship operating and out of trouble, I'll be as pleased as punch. I'd be even more pleased if you played racquetball. I'm considering starting a league."

"With respect, Captain," Naryi replied, the smile on her face becoming impish, "Keeping the ship operating is my job, but keeping her out of trouble is yours. And I'm afraid I don't play racquetball, but I wouldn't mind learning. As da Vinci himself said, learning never exhausts the mind."

"But it might exhaust your body," Cindy replied with a chuckle. "Once we're on our way, call it a date. Just let me know when you have a spare hour or so."

"What spare time I have is yours to call upon, Captain," Naryi said with a smile. "But if you'll forgive me, one of the construction crew said something about the space matrix restoration coils that didn't set right with me, and I needed to dig through a few appendixes until I found the specification tolerances I was looking for. Unless you needed something else?"

Cindy threw her hair back and gave a musical laugh. "Don't give me all of your spare time. I'm sure there are others that would want to share it. And, I'm sure that da Vinci would encourage you to share with others, as well." She smiled and before turning to leave she added, "It has been a pleasure Naryi. I look forward to working with you. I don't think I need to tell you to take care of her. I can see Legacy's in great hands."

"Thank you, Captain," Naryi said with a slightly embarrassed nod as her new Commanding officer left the office. For a moment, Naryi enjoyed the feeling of optimism that had left her since her forced exodus from the McCalla. Things were definitely looking up on the Legacy.

With that thought in mind, and the relevant technical manual in hand, Naryi returned back to Main Engineering.

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