Evolution of the Machine

It's been a while since Vanishing Point has adopted a more... defensive security policy. Since then, I've taken to carrying my old impulse revolver and spending some time in the firing range. I'll admit, I've been quite proficient with swords for... several decades, but I was never as skilled with firearms. Thanks to the firing range, that's improving.

I've always been a bit of a tinkerer, much like The Collector. When we devised our impulse revolvers, frankly, they were a bit of a breakthrough, technologically, but mostly due to the reconfiguration of a standard impulse laser into the shell they fit in, essentially, the breakthrough being they didn't explode the first time the trigger was pulled and blow up a city. The design and creation of the two revolvers took us weeks.

I record all that now so what I record next makes the proper impact.

Earlier this morning, I was in the firing range working on improving my aim when Mal came in to discuss some ideas he had for improving the power usage for Vanishing Point. This was not overly unusual, as, when Mal has a technical idea, it's one of the few circumstances in which he will voluntarily speak to someone. When those ideas are of ways to improve something, he gets... almost giddy.

This was, however, the first time he'd been into the firing range. Of course, he'd seen me wearing my impulse revolver before, but it was the first time he'd ever seen it in use. He quickly explained his power system idea to me, which, I'll admit, as brilliant as I am, still seemed to be the verbal equivalent of attempting to catch a slip of paper in a whirlwind. After, he made the curious request of watching me fire a few rounds. I obliged. Four shots later, he excused himself.

Twenty minutes later, I was still practicing when Mal came back in, though I didn't fully notice till he fired a shot into one of the targets.

And obliterated the top half of it.

He was holding what I can best describe as a variation of my impulse revolver, though, well, it was far closer in appearance to the slug-shooter than mine (which was the initial intent of mine).

As he described it to me, he had seen impulse revolver in use for the first time and had been able to determine how it worked and why its design was as it was. That, in turn, triggered the mental process in him to determine was to improve it.

His design, in addition to being visually improved, was capable of altering the frequency of the blasts and well as a standard power output five-fold beyond the maximum of my design.

All of this in twenty minutes.

I asked him if he could duplicate it and, shortly thereafter, he presented me with one of my own.

I believe, given the issues we've faced lately as a people, I may want to present Mal's expertise to the Chancellery Guard. It may be a good idea to have him upgrade their weapons.