Phaser Drills

Posted on 06 Apr 2021 @ 7:45pm by Commodore Harvey Geisler & Lieutenant JG Angelica Fairchild

1,685 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Extinction
Timeline: Mission Day 5 at 0930

Harvey sat alone in his office, sitting behind his desk with a lukewarm cup of Wilkins coffee. In front of him, his holographic display was filled with a sector map, along with various icons indicating Starfleet deployments, along with sensor data from other ships. Harvey had spent the last few days reviewing transit patterns, something he never thought he'd enjoy doing. Today, each one of these icons were accompanied by notations, biographical data that helped him to understand not just the ships under his purview, but also the other vessels that seemed to frequent these sectors.

As he was reading the notes on a Ferengi vessel, suddenly his screens went dim. "What?" he muttered, reaching for the controls hoping that it was just a software glitch. A warning message soon appeared over the darkened readouts.

"Access is restricted. Certification updates required."

Harvey hung his head in shame. He had focused on the job for so long that he'd forgotten he'd kept deferring his annual fitness certifications. He was going to have to run the full gamut, ranging from phasers to medical. He hoped that psychological profiling would not be a part of it. Nevertheless, if he wanted to continue, he would have to get these updated, and do so quickly.

The Captain sent a message to Commander Walsh, indicating that he had temporary command of the Black Hawk. He then departed his office and made his way to the Security Complex. He knew Commander Di Pasquale was handling a few issues today of her own, so he would work with whomever security had available.

"Excuse me," he said to the first person he saw within the complex. "Who's the duty officer today?"

The first person he happened to find was Angel, and she gave him a bit of a puzzled look as she turned to face him. "You're looking at her, sir. There something I can help you with?" It was unusual for a ship's commanding officer to seek out the duty officer, and she wondered if there was a problem... but generally problems necessitated a more urgent tone of voice.

"Miss Fairchild," Harvey greeted, matching the brunette's face with a name. "I apologize, I didn't realize that you were assigned to hold down the fort today."

"No need to apologize, sir. Just happens to be my turn on the rotation." Angel flashed him a smile. "So what brings you down here anyway?"

Harvey chuckled. "Just the bane of every command officer's existence. Annual certifications. Today, I'm paying the price for kicking that can down the road."

"Oh, you're one of those command officers. Put the boring stuff off as long as possible." Angel chuckled a little. "Let's see how quick we can get you run through the phaser range. Without either of us having to tell Commander Di Pasquale how we did it so fast."

"That's absolutely fine by me," Harvey said, trying to feign innocence with two raised hands. "I'm completely at your mercy here, Lieutenant."

"Come this way, sir." Angel set down the PADD she'd been looking at and led him through the complex to the phaser range. "Which weapons do you normally qualify with?"

"Usually the hand phaser and rifle." Harvey followed the security officer to the phaser range where a series of weapons were already on display. "I tend to leave the isometric weapons to the professionals, though I've been known to use a few unorthodox weapons from time to time."

"Well we'll stick with the hand phaser and rifle for now. One of us can always run you through a quick session for other stuff later if need be. Go ahead and pick out one of each." Angel unlocked the appropriate arms lockers, then moved over to the controls for the range to start setting it up. "We'll start with the sidearm since it usually goes a bit quicker."

Harvey nodded as he looked at the selection of type-2's in the locker. There didn't seem to be a difference between any of them, save for a few elongated hand grips for those species with larger appendages. The Captain quickly selected a phaser. He slid open the phaser head to take a look at the illuminated power cell. A quick check of the emitters was in order, as well as a few other inspection points. When he was finished, he slid the head back into place and tested the control studs. The weapon appeared to be fully functional. He lowered the weapon to his side, kept the emitter pointed at the floor and his thumb nowhere near the trigger as he approached Fairchild's position.

"All right, you know the drill, sir. Stationary targets first, then we'll switch to moving targets. They start off blue and turn red when you score a hit. You look ready." Looking away from him, Angel entered a code on the control panel, activating the range. Several targets materialized and moved into their first, stationary positions. "Open fire."

A quick movement with his thumb instantly disabled the phaser's safety. It hummed to life as he raised the weapon. Two quick taps set the weapon for setting two in a narrow beam. Harvey fired three shots, striking the first two targets, but barely missing the third. He was already moving on to the fourth target when he saw the miss, so Harvey quickly turned back and fired a fourth shot. This time, it struck the target.

Having been keeping track of Harvey's "score" as he fired, Angel quickly changed the previous "miss" to a "hit" on her PaDD. Spotting a mistake and then fixing it was vital in phaser combat, and she appreciated a command level officer who seemed to understand that! "Nice, with that recovery shot that's just about perfect! Ready for the next phase?"

Harvey relaxed his stance for a moment to quickly inspect his pistol should any abnormalities have appeared since he started using it. Not seeing any, he confirmed, "Ready to go."

"All right. Sidearm, moving targets. Remember, they start slow and move faster as you progress. You need to hit seventy-five percent of the targets to pass." That was the minimum, but Angel suspected that Harvey would attempt another perfect score. He just seemed the type. She quickly reset the range for the new parameters, and the targets again popped into view. This time, a countdown timer also appeared in front of them.

3.

2.

1.

"Fire at will," the computer announced as the targets began their programmed movements.

Three targets appeared instantly, starting in the center of the room before fanning out across different directions. Harvey knew this part wouldn't be easy, but he hadn't expected the targets to behave like this. He fired first at the target that was barreling toward him, striking that one instantly. The other two targets disappeared behind cover, each on opposite side of the room.

Harvey glanced to his left, then to his right. Suddenly, the target that had disappeared to the left flew out of its cover and shot towards a different structure for cover. Harvey fired a shot at this new target, only to barely miss it. A second shot took down the target. Two new targets appeared in the center of the room. As Harvey's gaze was already moving back to the right, he managed to take down one of the new targets in a single shot. The other target zipped to the right.

He fired at this target. Though the beam missed the target, it miraculously struck the last original target as it shot out from behind its cover. Harvey had to wait two seconds for the final target to emerge, which he managed to take down with a shot that almost grazed the target.

Harvey sighed. "That one was a little more difficult than I thought it'd be."

"Um..." The difficulty level had been higher than Angel had expected too, and she checked the settings on the range. "Oh... uh... oops. That was a security-specific program... but you passed! I should have double checked, sir. I'm sorry about that." Of course, she had no idea how she'd managed to pull that program up instead of the standard drill, but she wasn't going to tell Harvey that! "The rifle program is moving targets only, but it'll be the right one this time."

"Well, it's good to know I can keep up with the best of you then," Harvey replied with a chuckle. He deactivated the phaser and returned it to its storage area, being sure to reactivate the safety as he did. He then looked over the rifle selection. He passed over the bulky compression rifle and the simple rifle that was common issue during the onset of the Dominion War. He selected a difference rifle which featured a single hand grip, classic trigger, with a shoulder butt and lightscope. Harvey confirmed the safety was operational before rejoining Lieutenant Fairchild at the range. "Moving targets," he confirmed. "Should be simple enough."

"All right, here we go." Checking the settings again. Angel started the program and a similar countdown flashed above the range, and the computer again announced to fire at will.

The targets materialized and started to move around. They were definitely slower than before, giving Harvey ample time to pick his target and fire. Yet, Harvey found himself tracking faster than he should have, causing him to miss his first two shots. Harvey muttered a curse under his breath and reasserted his scope on the closest orb. A quick press of the trigger fired a compressed burst from the barrel, striking the target immediately.

"That's better," Harvey remarked, driving himself into a small trance, restricting his vision on just the targets ahead. He fired five more shots, hitting the last four targets. A tone from the computer signaled the end of the round. Harvey reactivated the safety and lowered the rifle. "I definitely wasn't ready for how slow that was," he remarked.

A few more taps of the padd later, and Harvey's certification had officially been renewed. He replaced the weapon and he departed the phaser range, heading for sickbay.

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