Ves did not et with Master Laila Rebecca Devos too often, but the few tis they ca together always sparked an insightful conversation.
Both of them were ch designers who belonged to vastly different generations. Ves was in his forties while Master Laila had already begun her third century of life.
The Master ch Designer was also born and raised in the Devos Ancient Clan, which was one of the best places for a human to start out in the old galaxy. While she may have spent the vast majority of her life in Terran space, she had witnessed much over the course of her lifeti.
Then there were her professional qualifications. Master Laila Rebecca Devos dedicated herself to a design philosophy that could only exist in a prosperous society.
She possessed a Class I design philosophy in chanical Miniaturization.
"What the hell is chanical Miniaturization, exactly?" Ves asked in his first professional exchange with Master Laila.
"I am one of the reasons why chs continue to grow more powerful while maintaining their relatively compact sizes and dinsions." Master Laila responded with a patronizing smile. "The ch industry constantly seeks to develop better parts that make chs stronger, but that often tends to make them larger, heavier and more expensive. Oftentis, the detrints outweigh the benefits. This puts a hard limit on how extensively you can improve a ch on a decennial basis. Many ch designers and developers are actually capable of developing many techs that can make their chs 10 or even 20 percent stronger, but doing so without regard for size limitations will make their machines substantially larger. This is an outco that they must avoid because larger chs are not accepted by a market that has built all of its infrastructure around machines that fit within a specific range of dinsions."
It was as if the entire ch community had been working with cubes for centuries.
If a crazy enough ch designer insisted on introducing spheres as a superior replacent for cubes, the attempt would definitely fail even if the new products were truly better than the older ones!
Of course, this was a very simplified analogy that only scratched the surface of the ch industry's rejection of larger chs.
Ves sort of understood what Master Laila Devos was trying to convey.
"I see. Your focus as a ch designer is completely different. Most ch designers including myself are constantly thinking of making chs more powerful. You on the other hand are one of the few who think about making them more efficient. Your preferred ans of doing so is to take relatively large components and make them
smaller."
"That is a good description, but it is not complete." The Master ch Designer said. "I specialize in making components smaller with the least amount of tradeoffs, I rely on my vast comprehension of multiple disciplines of science to shrink the size of components as diverse as energy cells, artificial musculature, ch engines, power reactors, energy cells and integrated weapon systems. Over the centuries, I have kept abreast of every developnt and learned how most forms of tech related to chs worked. I have amassed more knowledge and experience than you can imagine when working on shrinking one component or another."
"Damn..." Ves genuinely looked impressed at the old woman, though she clearly did not look that old due to her excellent life-prolonging treatnts. "Your knowledge base must be a lot closer to that of the Polymath if that is the case."
Master Laila Devos smiled in amusent. She did not outright laugh, but she would have done so if she did not maintain impeccable control over her body.
"My body of knowledge cannot co close to that of the Polymath or any Star Designer for that matter. I do not dare to call myself the Junior Polymath. I am known as the Precision Ruler in the Terran ch community."
"That sounds... pretty la, to be honest."
"It is not my preferred choice, but I do not care for it too much. I have already grown old enough to beco indifferent to fa. This is why I prefer to go by my mortal na rather than the title imposed by others. I am still far from becoming a Star Designer. I think it is pure conceit for other Master ch Designers to insist on being called by their titles when they have not yet earned their breakthroughs."
Master Laila Devos sounded like an old ch designer who did not care for subjective opinions and purely focused on objective results.
Ves kind of liked that because the Master ch Designer did not co across as a Terran who relied on scheming, deception and trickery to work her way to the top. He was far more willing to hang around with Master Laila than any of the god pilots and Star Designers of red humanity.
"I don't have a clear understanding of your progress as a ch designer, Master. How far away are you from becoming a Star Designer?"
"Too far." Master Devos shook her head. "Until recently, I was unable to find any research direction that could lead to beco a Star Designer. In my 300 years of working with chs, that is an abysmal situation. ch designers who are a century younger than have succeeded in breaking through, while I am still lingering as a Master ch Designer, Much of that is due to my own choice, but that does not make feel better about my lack of vertical progress."
"I don't quite understand."
"My situation resembles that of yours, but at a more advanced stage." The older woman clarified. "Just as you are a ch designer who dabbles in many different fields, I have spent a disproportionate amount of ti in broadening my knowledge base so that I can miniaturize every component I co across. I have mastered all of the basic sciences and much of the more standard forms of high technology known to the Terran ch community. I have also delved into dozens of alien and more exotic techs. While I am satisfied with what I have learned, much of this falls under lateral progress."
"What does that an?" Ves asked.
"It ans that I have beco a better Master ch Designer, but have also co no closer to advancing to the rank of Star Designer"
"Ah. That sounds familiar."
"It should. Is it truly the case that all of this lateral progress is of little help to progressing your design philosophy?"
"That is a complicated question to answer, Ves. I have my own answer on this matter, but it is deeply personal to . You should form your own ideas about this subject."
That was quite thoughtful of Master Laila. Ves realized that it was indeed for the best if he ford his own opinion about this sensitive topic.
"Wait." A thought ca to his mind. "Your knowledge base is really broad. You even claid that you understand a lot of universal and Terran high technologies. Does this an you possess a mastery of Destroyer Technology?"
"I do possess a decent mastery in Destroyer Technology" Master Laila Devos confird. "This used to be classified information, but it is not that relevant anymore since the only source of Destroyer particles is in the old galaxy. The unveiling of the Oblivion Gates has given us hope of reestablishing a channel for Destroyer weapons, but it is impossible for the Terrans in the old galaxy to agree to transferring raw Destroyer particles to us. It is much more profitable for them to use their finished Destroyer arms as bargaining chips."
The Master ch Designer made a good point. Knowing how to develop a Destroyer weapon wasn't as valuable as before in this dwarf galaxy.
The Terrans of the Red Ocean needed to establish a hogrown supply of Destroyer particles in order to make use of their exclusive expertise, but that did not appear to
be happening anyti soon.
Ves diverted to another topic.
"Earlier, you said you saw no prospect of becoming a ch designer until recently.
What changed? Is it hyper technology?"
"No." The woman shook her head. "Hyper technology opens up many new possibilities, but all it has done for my work is to introduce another source of volatility.
Miniaturization has beco considerably less safe when trying to bring different hyper materials into close proximity to each other."
"Then what else has caused you to find an opportunity to make a lot of progress in your design philosophy?"
"It is best to start with my desired end goal. Every good ch designer is working towards an ambitious result that can only be turned into reality when you have gained command over a fundantal rule or law. This is what Star Designers rely upon to design works that are impossible to replicate by lesser individuals. They can aptly be described as human gods who can impart a touch of their divinity into their works. Different from god pilots, the divine touch of Star Designers continues to linger in their products, thereby allowing them to retain their reality-defying properties at greater distances."
Ves already knew most of this information, but Master Laila provided additional context due to how she frad the subject.
"I see." He said with dawning comprehension. "The rule that you are trying to achieve a breakthrough with is miniaturization or sothing related to it. From your perspective, the ultimate work should be a successful instance of miniaturization that cos with no negative tradeoffs. It is kind of like designing a ch that is as powerful as a juggernaut, but continues to maintain the size of a standard ch." Master Laila nodded. "That is an accurate guess. I have been working for centuries to
realize this sort of outco. You cannot imagine how many different scientific fields I have studied in order to make concrete steps in designing such an idealized ch. However, much of what I have learned over the years has not brought much closer. There is moderate overlap and synergies between the fields that I have comprehended, but none of them can produce the result that I truly desire. That is why my progress has remained stagnant for so many years."
When Ves thought about how the Terran Master could possibly realize her dream of designing a ch with 'perfect' miniaturization, he suddenly connected the dots to a very recent event!
"Wait. I think I figured it out! You... the reason why you have found a new pathway towards becoming a Star Designer is because of our introduction to superdinsional matter! Its strange dinsional properties make it so that you can fit a lot more stuff in the sa amount of space. A lot of matter is actually pushed into other dinsions, which is what makes them so special."
Master Devos finally began to look enthusiastic. "I have closely followed the publication of research articles on superdinsional matter. Much of the information in these academic articles has made it clear that while it is extrely difficult to shape superdinsional matter in the dinsions outside of the material realm, it is still possible to produce results when you work with transphasic or superdinsional tools. Do you understand the significance of this discovery? It ans that it is
theoretically possible to develop a laser pistol that fits in the palm of my hand but can actually fire an energy beam that is as powerful as one that is launched by a ch
rifle!" She was right. Ves had not put too much thought in what people could do with superdinsional matter because he did not specialize in this kind of stuff. However, Master Laila Rebecca Devos happened to possess the right combination of expertise and passion to be able to develop highly advanced and useful applications of superdinsional matter!
The notion that superdinsional matter may be the key to developing her perfectly miniaturized ch ant that she must be extrely desperate to obtain samples!
User Comments
0 comments from readers