transstructioneer's foxtrot

Luito Calpistaro looked through the box of components and grumbled. "These are all wrong! This is a B to Q converter with hafnium bridging. And that's a swerveristor, not a polyociter! The ganning edges on these inverser valves are stobbed, not ridged! We're going to be stuck here!"

Almey Saihalvge looked at Luito and said "shh, don't tell anyone", to which Luito responded with a questioning look. Almey replied "watch"

Almey picked up the B to Q converter and asked "what sort do we need?" Luito replied "an A to D converter with lutetium bridging" Almey looked at the converter, rotated it around in her hands. The next thing she did set Luito's eyes open and his face agog. She changed it. The condyles and foliances of the converter melted, recrystallized, reformed in a dance that was gnawing on his perceptories. "What's next?" Almey asked. Luito handed her the swerveristor. Almey again manipulated it, drawing it out, and Luito could not believe what he was seeing. The flanging strokes of the swerveristor swung around, and another two leads were produced. Almey set the polyociter down and started fixing the ganning edges on the inverser valves. Afterwards Luito asked her, pointedly "how, how did you do that?"

Almey looked at him gravely. "You can't tell. They're not ready for it. They're too busy destroying or colonizing or monopolizing or ensuring that their genome-mates have access to the best resources for their offspring. Drop something like this in the mix and those barbarian empire builders and maintainers would just spread to places where they don't belong. I've seen it happen before. Just be thankful that we're not going to be stuck here until we run out of oxygen and power"