Boys and Their Toys

"Try again, Stitch," Tey'un instructed, wearing intense radiation goggles and a lab coat.

He, along with Stitch, Nolan, and the holographic Na'vi form of Kayuli, gazed at a floor-to-ceiling clear cylinder where four phaser pistols floated like bees, sporadically shooting beams within the tube.

"No effect..." Stitch grimaced. "Cerebral control test 203, failure."

"Gahh!!!" Tey'un slammed his hands on the console. "It was so easy to do at home! Why must everything be so...!" He struggled to find words, his composure slipping.

"Brother, chill," Kayuli scolded. "The Reyknap (Flying insects) at home were part of the great bond of Eywa," he explained. "You are trying to mimic Eywa. Something that has never been done before, not even at home." He continued typing away at his console.

"Perhaps we need a neural resequencer," Nolan suggested, "or placing a sensor at the base of the brain stem to link into the control apparatus."

"Doing so would short circuit the brain stem, killing the wearer," Tey'un explained, "So much for creating 'Ronsem tskxe' (Mind Rocks)."

The lab doors opened, and a very annoyed Captain walked in. "Would you four please explain to me!..." His attention was suddenly distracted by the tube of floating and spinning phaser pistols. "What the seven hells are you nerds up to?"

"Ah, Captain!" the four saluted their surprise visitor.

"Yeah. Hi, gentlemen, forget something this evening?" Anzyl smiled.

"The awards ceremony!" Kayuli gasped, "I'm so sorry, Captain! We were… invested in our research… and lost track of time!" Motioning to the cylinder.

Looking back at the curious sight, Anzyl asked, "Yeah, I see that… What exactly am I seeing?"

"I call them 'Ronsem tskxe,'" Tey'un explained, "or Mind Stones in my mother tongue. They are 'Synaptic Resonance Phase Emitters' in technical parlance, intricately designed phaser pistols interfaced with the user's neural nodes. These nodes, resembling stones in function, maintain synchronization through a shared resonating frequency, allowing for mind-controlled weapon manipulation."

Anzyl looked at him, floating pistols and all, confused. "What in the huh now?"

Kayuli clarified, "They're phasers you control with your mind."

"Ok, that's cool…" The captain suddenly became absorbed in their work. "So where are we at with these then? Must be somewhere good if y'all missed the 'Mandatory Awards Ceremony.'"

"Stuck…" Stitch said with a frown. "The phasers are working great, but the issue we have is the link between the user's brain and the four weapons."

Tey'un scowled, "It was so easy at home, bonding with all other life, but here, the bond is synthetic, and I am having trouble mimicking the effect."

"The apparatus we have tried has all failed," Nolan added, "None have had a viable enough link with the user's nueral pathways to emit enough control for the phasers."

A thought suddenly struck Anzyl, "So you need a device that melds with the user's mind?"

"That would be great!" Kayuli agreed his arms crossed staring at the monitor perplexed.

"Be right back…" Anzyl rushed out of the room, still in his formal dress attire.

---

A moment later, he returned in his off-duty casual clothes, holding his broken Mind Meld Device. "I got this from Dr. Stamets and the Discovery Legends Expeditionary team when I helped them with their research into the Mycelial Network." He held up the small, three-pronged headpiece. It had seen better days but was pivotal in the battle with the Fek'ihri. "I have the original plans for the device if you need them to repair it."

"What is it?" Nolan asked, looking at the small contraption.

"It's called the Mind Meld Device, created by three members of the old ship, the USS Discovery," the captain explained. The four were thoroughly entranced by the little device. "It was originally designed for one person to take over another, like complex repairs, for example. This particular device has been fully synced to my personal neural network and biology. It was damaged by the Fek'ihri, but I think you guys could…"

"Reformat the Synaptic Resonance Phase Emitters to align with the patterns emitted by the Mind Meld Device!" Tey'un declared, snatching the device from the captain's hands and striding to an R&D scanner. "That should create a sufficient connection between the two systems to establish… a bond…." Then, noticing the torn wiring, he remarked, "Hm, slight tear, easy fix."

Anzyl stood on the side of the lab as the four delved into their work, fully engrossed with his device and the four phasers in the tube.

In what felt like no time at all, the four erupted in cheers. "I think we've done it, Captain!" Kayuli cheered, motioning the Captain over.

---

Anzyl ascended a platform typically used for testing armor and received his device. Placing it on his head, he connected the nodes to the correct spots and positions on his head. It whirred to life, illuminating in neon blue.

"Ok, now what?" Anzyl asked, eyeing the phasers on the ground in the tube.

"Try thinking about them—reach out for them in your mind," Kayuli suggested. "Feel them as if they are an extension of yourself."

"They don't have a heartbeat or breath, but feel the ground they are on, feel the air around them," Tey'un advised.

Kayuli continued, "This is training all natives to my world go through at some point in their life. It is Tsaheylu, the Bond."

Anzyl was stunned, "I feel them… in the tube…"

The four cheered; this was a good sign.

"Ok, Captain," Kayuli instructed, "Now, in your mind, feel them floating and rising in the air."

Anzyl focused, and the four pistols slowly began to float in the air, all level with each other. Everyone's faces lit up as the four guns started swirling and spiraling around each other, not randomly, but in a circle or an 8 pattern.

Anzyl thought of something in his mind, and all four pistols pointed at the wall and simultaneously fired.

"You all… I think you did it!" Anzyl smiled as the scientists and engineers cheered.

"We need to name them now!" Tey'un declared, "They work successfully, so now we need to name them. I suggest…" he was about to declare when Kayuli interrupted him, "That the Captain should name them!" Tey'un's bubble burst, but he couldn't disagree with the sentiment. "After all, it was his device that finally got the things working." Kayuli added.

"What did you originally call these, Tey'un?" Anzyl asked; the four were now spinning around each other facing vertically.

"'Ronsem tskxe', or Mind Stones,"

The captain didn't care for either of them. "Hmm, Computer, search your language database and provide combinations of the words 'Mind' and 'Stones', and provide the best options that sound like a weapon or can easily be spoken by a humanoid."

"Mandarin: Xīnlíng bǎoshí, Hawaiian: Pōhaku Manaʻo, Samoan: Maa Mafaufau, Klingon: Pegh'av, Ancient Greek: nóos líthos …" the computer listed.

"Stop!" Anzyl halted the computer, pondering, "Noos - lithos. Noosliths." the captain brainstormed, "Nouliths, Ohh I like that! Nouliths! We'll call them Nouliths!"

The team nodded in agreement.

Anzyl had another thought pop into his brain. "Do they all have to be phasers?" Nolan and Stitch smiled, catching his drift.

---

After some tweaking and modifications with the newly named Nouliths per the captain's request, Anzyl stood with the four floating sleek and slender guns. Two on his right, two on his left. Two at his chest, and two above his head.

"Well done, everyone!" Anzyl praised his team. Then remembering why he had summoned them in the first place, "Oh right! I have a medal for you all!"

"Medals, shmedals!" Stitch said, walking out of the lab, "I wanna see you shoot stuff!" The other three quickly followed, leaving the captain alone with his new Nouliths and three shiny Starfleet Meritorious Service Medals.