Target Practice

Posted on 16 Apr 2015 @ 8:48pm by Chief Petty Officer Pax Inyo & Lieutenant JG Kalos Jang Ph.D.
Edited on on 21 Apr 2015 @ 3:32am

1,375 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Episode 08 - NIMBUS
Location: USS Galileo - Armory
Timeline: MD -03: 0900

[ON]

Pax waited outside of the armory. She was terrible at waiting, even though the officer she was supposed to meet wasn't even late yet. She was tapping her foot to a song in her head, and looking at her chronometer every few seconds.

Even though this deck was only one up from where his lab was kept, Kal still wasn't altogether familiar with it. He knew how to get to Sickbay and the other labs, but beyond that it took a little bit of walking to find the armory. It wasn't exactly his favorite place. Whenever phaser training had to be conducted, Kal was usually the last in line. Shooting phasers had never exactly been his strong suit, barely squeaking by on his usual qualifying runs. This time he didn't expect to be any different.

Although several others had passed by in the hall, she guessed from seeing him around the ship that the man approaching was her appointment. He was somewhat distinctive with his dark skin and an easy smile.

"Lieutenant Jang?" She hazarded.

The question stopped Kal as he approached the armory. He hadn't ever met a Grazerite before, and her appearance took him momentarily by surprise. Tall, lean, with curving horns on either side of her head. The first thing he wondered was how she slept with them. "Yes, that's me."

"CPO Pax-Inyo. Please, call me Chief or Pax. Really glad you got my message. So I reserved the holodeck for some phaser training. If you're ready, Sir?"

"After you, Chief," Kal replied, trying not to sound like he was being marched to a firing squad himself. "I didn't know that it'd been that long since my last qualification," he said, lying through his teeth.

"I'm sure time flies when you're science-ing things."

When they arrived, she stopped inside the holodeck and cleared her throat. "Computer, load standard phaser firing range, skill level... two."

The holodeck lines shimmered into a series of grid lines, as if they were standing inside three glass domes under a starless night sky, each dome etched with their own latitude and longitude lines.

"We'll move it up if you're being modest about your skills." Pax didn't want him to be disappointed about starting so low on the qualifying levels.

"You know, it's fine," Kal said. "This is good. May as well clear out the cobwebs easy, right?"

"So, safety first, set your phaser to the training setting." She was being somewhat facetious. She had noticed right away that he hadn't brought a phaser with him.

Kal looked at Pax for a second, and then down at himself as if a phaser would have suddenly materialized, back up at her once again. "I, uh...I didn't think I had to bring one. Don't you guys provide them or...something?"

"Sir, if we're not armed, we're not prepared to shoot." She took her own type 2 phaser off her hip and handed it to him. "I know you haven't even checked out a personal sidearm from the armory yet. We'll have to fix you up later. Go ahead and set it for training."

That much at least Kal knew how to do. He hadn't fired a type 2 Starfleet phaser on anything that wasn't the training setting. Kal was beginning to wonder if the armorer was screwing with him over the whole phaser thing. He entered the settings and then nodded. "Okay, Chief. Ready." Then, he quickly shifted the phaser to his left hand to wipe the sweat off of his right palm on his pants leg before taking the phaser again in his right hand.

"I just want to see what we have to start with. Seeing as you're a mite bit rusty, I'll give you a warm up round and then one I'll count. We'll set it to just ten targets per round for now. Since we're on level two, none of them will be moving, all stationary marks. Let me know when you're ready, Lieutenant."

"All right." Ten marks? When would he be shooting at ten people? He was pretty sure if he was in a firefight with ten other people, he was a dead man. Nonetheless, he squared off with the phaser at the ready. He started it with the phaser at his side, realized it wasn't a quick-draw competition, and raised it higher, pointing down range. "Ready."

She crossed her arms. "Computer, begin," Pax said.

The surface of the three nested domes began to slowly display one softly pulsating light at a time, each one remaining for ten seconds no matter how many shots were fired, until it was hit or until the time ran out and the next light appeared. All the targets were lighting up in the same quadrant of sky directly ahead of the shooter.

The lights! He'd forgotten all about the lights as the phaser training method. He hated the lights. It was both less intuitive than Starfleet thought, and more difficult. Instead of having a man-sized target to hit anywhere, you had a little spot of light. Kal shot, and missed the first few targets before he reacquainted himself with phaser use and hit a few, roughly evening out his score. Stupid lights.

Pax smiled to try to cover a wince. "Let's... try that again. This time extend your arm, don't bend at the elbow. Sight down your arm like a rifle. Ready?" She waited for his nod. "Computer, restart."

Kal took a deep breath and followed Pax's instructions, sighting down his arm. He hadn't done rifle training in forever, either, but he understood what she was getting at. As the damn lights started again, Kal moved a little more smoothly, hitting more targets as he did.

"We'll take it." That put Kal's accuracy at average for a beginner. She could work with average. "So lets talk about goals here. Are you just wanting to re-certify? Because if you train with me regularly, I think you can expect more than a pass on your proficiency cert."

"Uh...yeah. Thing is, Chief, I never did like these things. I just figure I shouldn't be entirely useless if things go wrong out in the field, you know? Get drummed out for accidentally shooting the captain, or something. I also wanted to see about checking out a phaser sometime soon, for an experiment I'm running. So I figured I'd kill two birds with one stone."

Pax was disappointed she couldn't sell him on lessons. "Well, there are a lot of unconventional phaser applications that can be great in a pinch. We can explore it as a tool if you're not interested in advancing on the firing range. Tell me about the experiment you have in mind, for starters."

Kal shrugged. She was an armorer, after all, so it made sense to consult with her. "I'm developing a nanomachine designed to cover the Starfleet uniform that can provide protection from energy weapons. Ideally, absorption of phaser or disruptor energy. If I can get the math correct, I hope that I can design a suite of machines that'll be able to form a protective network to absorb and dissipate the energy from energy weapons fire, and that's effective at all times, without having to equip personal shields."

"Wow." She had no words for a moment, considering the prospect. She had to have it. It didn't exist yet and she wanted it. "I can get you whatever you need and help you with testing. You probably already have all the most common beam weapon information, but if there's anything I can do to help with that, I'd be glad to."

"I'll take you up on that," Kal said. "It'll be good to have somebody with weapons expertise and input. When I get into the testing phase, I'll send you some of the specs and stuff. Maybe you'll have some thoughts."

"Sure thing, Lieutenant. Let's get a few more rounds in here and then we'll visit the armory."

"A few more rounds," Kal said. "Right, of course." Crap. Kal took his position, rechecked his phaser and sighed. "Ready when you are, Chief."

[OFF]

--

JP by

CPO Pax-Inyo
Master at Arms
USS Galileo

And

Lieutenant JG Kalos Jang Ph.D.
USS Galileo
Nanoengineer

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