LtJG Jovenan – Please no food or beverages in the sensor area
Jovenan
((Commercial Sector, Cait Spacedock))
The viewport in the small lounge area opened to the vastness of space, sprinkled with tiny dots. To Jovenan, some of them seemed to be moving. Those were likely satellites, or maybe ships travelling wherever. The warp effect made ship-spotting an interesting leisure pursuit, creating a bit of discrepancy between the observed location and the actual location. Relatively to the space immediately around them, the ships never went beyond the speed of light, that seemed to be impossible for mere mortals, yet relative to the outside universe, they could hundreds, even thousands of times the speed of light. All that, and they still wouldn’t make it there as fast as she wanted them to.
Jones: Not too bad for a Thursday.
That was an unexpected but not an unwelcome thing to hear. Jovenan turned her head around. Somehow, without either of them noticing, Hiro had found his way all across the Promenade into the same small lounge area Jovenan had and was now siting by a near-by chair. Jovenan smiled at him and waved as she walked over to him.
Jovenan: Oh hi, Hiro! Exploring the promenade?
Jones: More like reveling in the luxury. This place is wild! I like it, but it's nothing like I expected.
Jovenan: I agree. ::pause:: Actually, I’ve been here before, once. When I got accepted to the Academy. The route from my homeworld and Earth runs through this area, so this was a stop for my transport ship.
She turned again to face the dark space outside. Sometimes it was difficult to open up face-to-face.
Jovenan: ::melancholic laughter:: It took me almost two month to get from there to here. The longest time I had been in space. ::turns to Jones, smiles again:: So, how’re you doing?
Jones: I am ... well, to be honest, I'm full to bursting.
She looked at what Hiro was holding on his hands. It was food of some kind, attached to a wooden stick. She wasn’t entirely sure what it was, but it looked like this wasn’t his first one.
Jovenan: Bursting? From the food? Hiro, you know you shouldn’t eat so much it makes you sick!
Jones: Well the food, yes (I've had THREE of these), ::waving the now-bare stick:: but I meant more metaphysically.
Jovenan looked at him confused. Food would have been easier to digest, but metaphysics?
Jovenan: Oh… Uh, I don’t think I follow. Philosophy has never been my strong subject.
Jones: This last mission. It taught me some things about myself. I realized that the oath doctors take is more than just "Do no harm." The spirit of it is, "Take care of people." sometimes that takes on different, unexpected forms.
Hiro telling something so personal hadn’t been something she had expected, and still, she wasn’t entirely sure what he meant by that. She had heard that Hiro and the others of Team Dakora & Silveira had ended up engaging the Suliban boarders in a fistfight. Was it something about that? Had he been forced to make major ethical decisions, or to do something against his will? Or was it something else?
She wanted to ask him further, but just before she did, she became very aware that they were in a public place. There were people constantly passing them on the Promenade, and a few other people in the lounge, chatting, reading or just enjoying the day. All and any of them could hear them. This sounded like a very private and personal matter, so she decided there must be a better place to talk about it.
Jovenan: ::briefly touches his arm:: You can always talk to me about it if you want, Hiro.
She turned yet again to the stars. Had she been a good friend to him? Hiro had started talking about an issue that obviously concerned him much, and all she could say was she would be willing to listen to him at a later time. There must have been better things to say, she just didn’t know what it was and how to say it. It even made her a little sad, not being able to connect even to one’s good friends.
Jones: Hey, do you remember the first time I visited you in Astrometrics? You showed me the low-gravity display. I've never forgotten that.
As soon as he had begun to speak, Jovenan had turned to face him again. She smiled hearing him say that.
Jovenan: ::happy giggle:: Of course I remember! And I’m happy that you do too!
Jones: I've heard the sensor pod on the Artemis has some pretty impressive capabilities. Care to show me around some time?
Jovenan thought about it. The sensor pod was a great tool to the ship’s operations and to the science team, but as something to show to one’s friends, it was nowhere near as impressive as the Astrometrics. From within, it was actually a bit cramped and boring with little but different interfaces and conduits not entirely concealed behind hatches. She was a bit worried she might bore him in there. But maybe she’d come up with something.
Jovenan: Yes, yes I can! ::pause:: Actually, I don’t have any plans right now, so if you want, we could go there right now.
Jones: Great! We can grab another one of these sticks on the way!
Jovenan: ::giggle:: I’ll have to try them out as well!
((Sensor Pod, USS Artemis))
The doors whooshed open. It hadn’t taken them long to get back onto the Artemis, and after that, it had only been a turbolift ride up. Jovenan and Hiro stepped out and into the sensor pod, as she kept explaining its function.
Jovenan: … and did you know that the entire pod is replaceable?
Jones: Response
Jovenan: Yes! We could go to any spacedock and they could remove the thing and replace it. Not just with a new sensor pod either, but with other configurations as well. There’s the tactical pod for war time with multiple torpedo tubes and such, and, uh, other models. It’s like the Nebula class, if you’re familiar with those.
Jones: Response
Although there wasn’t much to see in the small entrance room they had just landed into, Jovenan spread her arms and turned around to Hiro, showing off what was to see of the sensor pod.
Jovenan: So, welcome to the sensor pod! It’s a bit crampy, but that’s so there’s more room for the actual equipment. This is the control room, where all parts of the pod can be operated from. The other rooms are for technical stuff and storages for probes and torpedoes.
Jones: Response
She points at ladders near the corner of the room.
Jovenan: This is officially all just one deck, despite being on multiple levels. There are no corridors running across the entirety of the pod, so if you want to go to the other parts, you need to use ladders and Jefferies tubes.
Jones: Response
She turned. The interfaces on the walls weren’t any different from those in the other parts of the ship, but there was one unusual piece of equipment visible. Jovenan smiled a bit as she walked closer to the apparatus consisting of a chair, an attached helmet with a visor, and various cables.
Jovenan: This is the TOV suit.
Jones: Response?
Jovenan: It’s used for controlling probes! The probes visual telemetric data is fed into the visor, so one can see what the probe does. It can visualise other data as well. The operator can also control the probe’s trajectory manually.
Jones: Response
TAG/TBC
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Lieutenant JG Jovenan
Science officer
USS Artemis-A
E239911J11