LT Tamio K'Wara - You don't need an Instruction Manual until you NEED it

[LT Tamio K'Wara]

(( Sensor pod - USS Artemis-A ))

It felt like the Chief of Science was mildly out to get them, as she decided that they were having too much fun with the exercise she’d prepared for them and decided to up the ante. The change in HUD displays momentarily disoriented Tamio as they quickly ran over the interface, but all-in-all, it didn’t look too dissimilar to the displays for the recon shuttles, and they soon had a general idea of what kind of scanning equipment the TOV suit accounted for.

Which was, all of them.

Jovenan: All types of scanners are go, you can choose which to use. Just note that some of them are obviously wrong choices. ::pause:: Which one do you prefer, sports or music?

That question surprised them, but they resaddled quickly.

K’Wara: We have scanners for those? ::chuckles:: Depends on what you consider sports. I was on the Performative Shuttle Piloting team in the Academy. Your turn: Hiking or sailing?

They started flying the drone to a suitable location to engage in their first scans.

Jovenan: Hiking. Love hiking. I’m a pretty decent long-distance cross country runner. Never controlled a watercraft. How’s that first target?

They went through the sensors in the order they’d been taught in the Academy - one of the benefits of being a teacher for so long was that protocol and textbook procedure was very fresh in their mind - and the textbooks were written for a reason. As much as Tamio liked going off on wild fancies, there was no reason to fix what wasn’t broken.

K’Wara: Hmm... ::silent focus:: small S-type asteroid, 68% magnesium-silicate, 0.58 μm wavelength.

Jovenan: Very good. You can move on and tell me, overnight stay in city or out there in the wild?

The drone rolled up to the second target as Tamio responded, an immediate one that didn’t even warrant consideration.

K’Wara: Oh, metropolitan, definitely. Nature is beautiful, but not for sleeping in. Planet or Spacestation?

Jovenan: Most of the time, a planet. I’m a planetary scientist, after all. Space station only if the planet is like Risa… um, as in, lost most of its natural value for artificial environmental work. What are you reading?

Tamio had to contain a chuckle at Jovenan’s response. They didn’t doubt that she would feel like an odd duck on Risa, though it definitely wasn’t because of their environmental politics. Meanwhile, they went through the same order of scans for the second target, once again finding what would be considered a normal asteroid - this one an M-class with more metallics inside - but also something else.

K’Wara: Medium M-class asteroid, mostly nickel-iron, with a modest pocket of metreon gas inside.

Jovenan: Do you happen to remember what would happen if that amount of metreon gas would be suddenly released?

A trivia contest now? Tamio knew that nebulae containing copious amounts of metreon gas were to be avoided at all costs - much too explosive, and they’d heard plenty of stories about daredevils igniting the material - but simply releasing it from the asteroid?

K’Wara: If released with phasers? Big boom. Might be safer with drills, though I’d like a second opinion on that.

Jovenan chuckled, and they smirked in response. She was more of a jester than they’d given her credit for. Not all workaholics needed to lack a sense of humor, they supposed.

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?

That question stumped Tamio for a bit as they maneuvered the drone around the target to head out for the third one.

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.

They resisted the very strong instinct to gesture towards Jovenan, knowing that errant movements with their fingers was as likely to send them careening off into space as it was to make the drone do somersaults.. 

Jovenan: Response

K’Wara: Nah, haven’t got the patience for it. Your turn: action or mystery?

Jovenan: Response

K’Wara: ::smirks:: Never would have guessed. ::frowns:: Hmm... This is-

Approaching the third target, they’d started with determining the presence of dangerous radiation again - as for the first two - and had found nothing. Then, they’d moved on to the presence of warp-adjacent particles, and that’s where they paused, physically halting the drone’s forward momentum. There was something there, the TOV suit made that abundantly clear, but Tamio didn’t yet have a clear view of what it was.

oO Sensitivity issue? Subspace interference? Or do I have the settings wrong? Oo

An entirely likable scenario - cycling through sensors was easy, but they didn’t have any console to adjust the sensor configurations in front of them - and whatever this ‘something’ was, was a very faint reading to begin with.

Jovenan: Response

TAG/TBC

LT Tamio K’Wara

Chief of Operations

USS Artemis-A

A240006GS1