LtCmdr Jovenan – You know who’d make you feel calm and easy?
Jovenan
((Sensor pod, USS Artemis))
Lt K’Wara was doing well. They had obviously learnt the controls of the Beholder by now – a feat that had taken some of the scientists among them much longer. There wouldn’t have been any challenge in making them go in loops around the ship or anything of that sort. Testing their ability in piloting would have been pointless anyway, since they were a former pilot and Jovenan could barely get a shuttle out of the bay on her own. She wasn’t teaching them flying; she was making them learn sensor operations… and science, because learning about science was always fun.
Jovenan: Do you happen to remember what would happen if that amount of metreon gas would be suddenly released?
The Lieutenant considered the question for a moment. It was different from the personal this-or-that quizzes they had been throwing to each other for the duration of the exercise, so she wondered if the sudden change had confused them. However, they responded when they were ready.
K’Wara: If released with phasers? Big boom. Might be safer with drills, though I’d like a second opinion on that.
Jovenan chuckled a little. She was already not going to rate this exercise with the same scale as the officers in her own department, so she didn’t feel bad for throwing a few curveballs at them. The Lieutenant was ready to move to the less conventional targets.
Jovenan: Okay. This is a sensor operating exercise, so I won’t be testing your trivia knowledge about unrelated matters further. However, tell me, geology or biology?
K’Wara: ::thoughtful hum:: Geology, I guess? Don’t consider myself an expert, but I know enough to deal with scanning planetary bodies, even if the data itself is better examined by one of our friends in blue.
That would explain their success in the exercise. Jovenan nodded to herself; she found herself quite happy that they had chosen the field that was closer to Jovenan’s.
Jovenan: Really? Have you ever considered a career in science?
K’Wara: Nah, haven’t got the patience for it. Your turn: action or mystery?
Jovenan: Hmm… Depends on if you refer to our missions or fiction. I’ve seen plenty enough action in my years already, so I wouldn’t mind solving mysteries moving ahead. As far as literature and entertainment goes, it’s more mixed, but an orderly, mentally challenging mystery still beats action.
K’Wara: ::smirks:: Never would have guessed. ::frowns:: Hmm... This is-
Jovenan was ready to forgo the remark about her preferences, as the Lieutenant was clearly reacting to the next target. That had been what she had hoped for. After two, rather straightforward planetary bodies, the unpredictable challenges were ready to get onto the stage. The Lieutenant had already avoided the mistake of just barging in, which would have caused the simulated cloaked vessel to “detect” the drone. As fun, erh, character-building it would have been to see the highly confident officer do that, she was pleased to see that their new Chief of Ops wasn’t entirely incompetent.
Jovenan: Yes? What is it?
K’Wara: Response
Jovenan: Just take it easy and imagine the Captain’s here. ::smirk:: She doesn’t really care about the details of what you see, does she? Give her a brief explanation of what you see so that she understands it, and then your expert analysis of the possible explanations.
K’Wara: Response
Jovenan nodded once again. She wasn’t going to be telling if they were right in their guesses. An important part of using almost any kind of sensors or scanners was explaining what it was that they saw. Few people joined Starfleet or any scientific institution to just gather data and never actually use it to test against their hypothesis – Jovenan had great respect to the lab assistants and other people who did just that, but she hadn’t met too many a person who didn’t want to know instead of just see. And in Starfleet’s service, that was even more vital, as people needed to make snapshot decisions based on those analyses.
Jovenan: Proceed with the appropriate actions based on your analysis. Just a reminder, the drone doesn’t have weapons or shields beyond navigational ones.
Assuming the Lieutenant didn’t do something silly like try to fight the implied cloaked vessel even after her reminder, the next target would have been even more of a challenge for sensor usage. They were expected to recognise the pre-warp vessel before revealing their location by using any of the non-subspace active scanners. The Lieutenant had turned out to be an extraordinary careful when it came to professional matters, but who knew, maybe they would grow more reckless now that they had cleared one of her tricks for them?
K’Wara: Response
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Lieutenant Commander Jovenan
Chief Science Officer
USS Artemis-A
E239911J11