The Final Test

Posted on Tue Aug 29, 2017 @ 4:07pm by Lieutenant Martha Cusack

Mission: Strange Matter
Location: Holodeck
Timeline: Mission Day 27; 16:00

With the second test over Martha looked at the next name on her list. Lieutenant Gilah was new to the crew and Martha hadn't yet met the Klingon medic - so now was the perfect opportunity to do so. With the holodeck once again prepared for the phaser recertification Martha called Gilah down for her test.

=/\="Cusack to Gilah. If you're free I'm ready for you to do your phaser recertification"=/\= Martha said.

=/\= "Are you indeed, how wonderful." =/\=

The sarcastic tones of the ship's CMO floated across the holodeck in response.

=/\= "I'm seldom free Ms. Cusack but as Commander Weisz has deemed this re-test necessary I shall see you shortly. Gilah out." =/\=

Martha normally found it hard to understand sarcasm but in this case she could tell the Klingon Doctor was not looking forward to the recertification test. Preparing the program for Gilah's recertification test Martha waited patiently for her to arrive. She did so after a couple of minutes.

"I will warn you now..." Gilah started speaking as the doors to the holodeck hissed open. "...I'm a Doctor, not a target shooter." She strode up to Martha and gave her a courteous nod, her dark and dangerous eyes running the familiar neck-flick searching for rank pips.

"I have made the necessary adjustments to the test to reflect that Doctor. I appreciate in your circumstances a phaser isn't something you will hold as much as myself or an Operations officer. I have prepared a Type 2 phaser for you already - so when you are ready please step up to the blue line. The first round will be thirty seconds - the target will make a noise and change colour when it is hit" Martha responded.

The Doctor nodded again and moved up to the line, picking up the phaser and adopting a well planted ready stance. As the test began it was clear she had some experience, probably going back a long time and most likely taught while she was still affiliated with the Klingon Empire. What she lacked though was practice, recent practice and familiarity with the weapon. She made plenty of hits, but a few misses too, generally aiming slightly too high.

Martha watched the doctor's efforts in between monitoring the hits to misses ration on her PADD. The test had been slowed down - with the sphere staying still for a bit longer than the test those who were more experienced - but she was still quietly impressed with how well Gilah was doing in the circumstances.

As the round ended Martha counted down from the last five seconds until the sphere stopped and disappeared.

"Alright...I think it would be fair in your circumstances that we do this twice to give you a bit more practice. The second round will be the same but there are two targets instead of one. When you're ready we will proceed again" Martha said.

Gilah nodded to her again, this time with a slight smile. Lieutenant Cusack obviously saw her as a Doctor first and a Klingon second. In Gilah's book this was a good thing. She made herself ready again.

Her aim had improved by the second test. She had managed to counter her latent familiarity with Disruptors and tended to hit closer to the centre of the target, when she did hit which was quite a lot. A vague pattern emerged of hit one miss one, normally as the second drone moved, but again she improved towards the end of the round.

At the end of the second round Martha prepared the third round but paused before activating it. To start with there was a Jem'Hadar, a Breen, a generic human Starfleet officer and a Vulcan scientist.

"Alright you're doing well up to now Doctor. This round will present you with a number of targets - it is up to you to determine which ones are hostile and which ones are friendly. They'll be fairly easy to start with and get gradually harder. You have 90 seconds to eliminate as many as you can. When you are ready we will start this round" Martha instructed.

"I am ready" Gilah huffed, adopting her ready stance again.

"Alright. Counting down..4...3...2...1" Martha replied.

Martha pressed the button on her PADD which activated the final round.
The four targets slowly moved towards the pair whilst moving across the floor on a horizontally to make hitting the correct targets that little bit more difficult. Up to now at least there had been no more holograms of people on the Triumphant. Any more of those and Martha would be finding the Ensign responsible before any more tests were carried out.

With the first round of targets over the next four appeared. This time it was a human civilian, a Klingon officer, a Cardassian and a Borg drone. The drone gave Martha the creeps but at least it wasn't real. Fortunately she had never encountered the Borg and Martha hoped that wasn't going to change.

With the test concluded Martha decided it was time for a break from the recertification tests and to deal with the errant Ensign. At least then she'd find out if there were any more unwanted surprises in tomorrow's tests.