LtCmdr Jovenan – You name one thing after an expression and now everyone keeps saying it to you
Jovenan
((Sensor pod, USS Artemis))
The turbolift door slid open, revealing the cramped control room. Covered in machinery and computer screen, the room was bare of any luxuries most other parts of the ship had. Few people ever bothered to come up here, even fewer remained longer than a moment. The pod was relatively small and needed to be sufficiently self-contained so that it could be swapped out if Starfleet’s needs ever demanded, so everything was designed with efficiency in mind. The various devices and systems bleeped occasionally or made other sounds to indicate their status, but to Jovenan, the pod had always felt oddly silent, as if one had become deaf to their own heartbeat. They were so far removed from the engines that their constant hum was but a whisper.
Jovenan: Welcome to the pod, one of the most advanced ship-bourne sensor system in Starfleet’s service, and also the reason the ship looks like it has a hunchback.
K’Wara: ::sly smirk:: Some would say it makes her look more distinguished. ::focuses on the TOV unit:: I’m guessing this is the source of all the fuss?
Lt K’Wara was heading towards the Beholder. Jovenan couldn’t blame them. Although the multitude of highly advanced sensor systems would have astonished most natural scientists, engineer and operations officers – and intelligence officers, she supposed – on paper, there wasn’t actually all that much to see. They were marvels of current design, but it was the TOV system with its suit and dangling wires what grasped the attention of anyone coming there. People could see a series of scary buttons and mysterious components they didn’t understand anywhere on the ship, it was the coolness factor that drove people to the suit.
Jovenan: In part, yes. This is the TOV unit, also known as the Beholder. It allows a single operator to control and process information in real time from one or more drones and the ship’s sensors – to see everything through their eyes.
K’Wara: ‘Beauty’s in the eye of the Beholder’. I like it.
Jovenan chuckled. It was a good nickname; memorable, symbolic, explanatory, maybe even dramatic. She thought of the time Hiro had come up with it. It must have been… over two years ago, if she was correct. Back then, she had felt homesick, even cried about it to him. Couldn’t really say that any more.
Jovenan: I wish I had come up with the name myself. ::pause:: The Ferengi have slowly started to trust Starfleet as an organisation, but they find individuals still as corruptible as ever. A part of their problem with the project is the fear that someone might use it to influence their commercial interest, or something along those lines. Having a single operator at any point of the process enhances the risk in their eyes.
K’Wara: So, how does it work then? ::mirthful jest:: Or would giving it a test-drive ruin the potential profit gains of the sector irrevocably and land us on some Liquidator’s naughty list?
Jovenan: Oh, for certain! I’m not brave enough for Ferengi bureaucracy. Imagine how much it would cost us if we tried it out on an asteroid and happened to find something valuable!
The Federation and Starfleet PADDwork were sometimes exhausting, but she couldn’t imagine what it was like for the Ferengi. Assuming she didn’t go around bribing officials, she imagined they’d needed to acquire a spatial traffic permit, closures, mining survey rights, not to mention the property rights to whichever body they studied, and that’s even before they started scanning. The system wasn’t designed with mere curiosity in mind, and non-profit rationales were not a reason for exception. At least, that’s by her understanding of the local laws, and she didn’t want to try and test them.
K’Wara: Response
Jovenan took the headpiece of the suit in her hands. The unit was kept in good shape, even if it was used rarely. She turned the helmet in her hands towards the Lieutenant, presenting the visor that relayed most of the information to the operator visually.
Jovenan: Alternatively, we could test it out just around the ship. I could launch test dummies that emit radiation or signal that can only be detected by the right choice of scanners. It would be your task as the operator of the Beholder to find them. You’re the Chief of Ops now, would you approve such a training exercise?
K’Wara: Response
Jovenan: Want to give it a go? Oh, by the way, you don’t happen to have any medical ailments that make you faint easily, nauseated or something similar? Operating the Beholder can get a bit… trippy.
K’Wara: Response
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Lieutenant Commander Jovenan
Chief Science Officer
USS Artemis-A
E239911J11