Phaser Practice
Posted on Fri Jan 1st, 2021 @ 8:39pm by Chief Petty Officer Sapphire & Lieutenant Bonnie "Bon-Bon" Durnell
Mission:
Healing of Minds
Location: Shooting Range
Sapphire went through the routine checks with her usual efficiency, quickly making sure the phaser’s components were working and that the focusing crystal was correctly aligned and calibrated, before putting it back on the rack and picking the next one. It just wouldn’t do to have improperly aligned phasers when it came to shooting practice, and even less so when they had to be used in anger.
She’d heard about some people spending days calibrating a single weapon for maximum accuracy and efficiency, especially the larger, ship-mounted variety, but Sapphire was aware of the law of diminishing returns, and was happy if a phaser was accurate to a range of about three hundred metres. There was no possible way anybody could use a hand phaser with enough precision to make any more calibration, lost the moment it was first knocked against something, worthwhile.
Humming a cheerful tune as she was working, Sapphire was concentrated fully on her work, and had zoned out her surroundings.
Meanwhile, Bonnie had just finished her duty shift which included reprogramming three terminals, clearing transporter room three’s pattern buffer and dealing with a replicator that was endlessly spewing lemon pudding which she was currently wearing on three fourths of her uniform and in her hair. It had been a long day and it was only 1100 hours.
Arriving home to her quarters she immediately stripped and showered, recycling the uniform back into energy. When she emerged, wrapped in a towel, the computer chirped indicating a message was waiting for her. She eyed the blinking console with disdain. "Computer display message."
"Greetings Lt. Durnell. You have been assigned to phaser training at 1200 hours this afternoon in the firing range due to the mishap in the brig. Do not be late." And then the message ended with a chirp.
Bonnie's heart sank heavily as she looked at the time 1158. "Shit! Shit shit shit." She repeated as a mantra as she rushed around attempting to get dressed. Five minutes later she took a look in the mirror, fully dressed, puffy hair a mile wide. It would take her half an hour to get it under control. "Shit!"
Grabbing a ribbon she threw it around her hair in an attempt to tie it back only to have it look like a bushy tree on the top of her head. "Shit, fire and applebutter I am late." Giving up she placed her badge on, upside down, and left her quarters in a run. Five or so minutes later, only bumping into two people along the way, she entered the target range, out of breath. “I’m here”, she huffed out, “sorry I am late.”
She spotted an Andorian, described to her by Anna. “You must be Ruby.” she held out her hand initially then thought twice and saluted.
Sapphire turned around, looking at the short woman with her antennae bent forward curiously. “I am Sapphire”, she said, a smirk forming on her lips. “But you appear to have quite a few things backwards, or upside down.” She took Bonnie’s hand and shook it, rather than responding to the Terran tradition of saluting. Her other hand reached for Bonnie’s combadge and turned it the right side up, if for no other reason than to make sure Bonnie understood what her remark was about.
The frown was so heavy Bonnie could feel it. It didn’t take a genius to know that Anna had pranked her once again. A fleeting thought told her it was an honest mistake, but Bonnie knew better. Her embarrassment showed in the rosyness of her cheeks. She adjusted her shirt and her pants, “I am sorry Chief Sapphire.” Bonnie looked up into the talk Andorians red eyes and gulped. “I was instructed to report to you for phaser training?”
“Lieutenant Durnell?” Sapphire asked. She had never seen an officer this dishevelled. “Yes, according to the computer’s records, you’re up for having to be re-certified.” She picked one of the recently checked phasers off the rack and handed it to Bonnie. “A simple round of shooting targets will do. I’m sure you know how it’s done.”
“Um.” Bonnie shrugged, “Yeah, I guess. I mean what can go wrong, right?” Her uncertainty was like a fog surrounding a large city as she took the phaser in hand. With her thumb on the trigger she took a stance in the circle and waited for the chief to begin the training.
“Shoot the yellow bits, avoid the blue and red ones”, Sapphire said. She always set her programmes to those colour combinations, just so people would avoid shooting her. She started the programme, and soon differently coloured dots of varying sizes started being projected on the range’s far wall. Sapphire didn’t express her opinion, but by the looks of this woman, this might go very wrong indeed. Thankfully, this training phaser was only set to low power and couldn’t do any harm.
Syncing herself up, Bonnie bounced side to side and then up and down while repeating the mantra, “Yellow bits not red or blue. Yellow bits not red or blue.” She then took aim, found a yellow target and fired, immediately striking a red one. “Shit.” she muttered to herself.
“I recommend that you stand still, ma’am”, Sapphire said. “The more you move, the less likely you’ll be to hit. The targets are moving according to a random number generator, so you cannot predict a pattern and line up a shot before a target becomes available.”
“Right. Stand still but move to avoid being shot.” She smirked. “Glad they don’t shoot back.” She planted her feet in the circle once more, making certain to stand perfectly still. Then she took aim at the first yellow bit. She took a breath, calculated its trajectory and fired in that direction, hitting empty space. The computer gave a negative hit klaxon.
Frustrated but undeterred she targeted the yellow bit again and fired again. And again. And again. Each time she grew more and more frustrated until on the fourth try she hit the target. The computer chirped a successful target strike to which she celebrated by raising her arms and shouting, “Whoo hoo!” before accidentally firing another round from the unaimed phaser, which struck Sapphire in the shoulder.
“Ow! Hey! Don’t shoot the blue!” Sapphire complained.
Bonnie freaked, her eyes growing large. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Are you okay? I didn’t mean… I mean, ooh at least you’re not bleeding.” Her apologetic nature shined as she placed a hand on the wound where she shot Sapphire and tried to rub the phaser blast away, only to cause more insult to the injury.
Sapphire flexed her shoulder as Bonnie rubbed it. “If you weren’t an officer, I’d spank you for this”, she said. But the rubbing helped, and it soon felt better. “It’s a good thing those are set to the lowest possible setting.” She turned her head to look at Bonnie. “Would you like some instructions on how to handle the phaser correctly? It looks like you’ve forgot how since your last certification.”
Spank me? Bonnie thought to herself unsure of where that idea had come from in the context of a professional working environment, unless this was the way Andorians communicated with one another. She was stubborn though and unwilling to admit the need for instruction and so responded, “Not yet. I think I understand how this works.” She waved the phaser back and forth willy nilly. “I was able to pass my exam, the third time anyway. I mean the instructor had only been admitted to the med bay twice. He said I was a natural and I would shoot em’ dead. Whatever that meant.” She sighed. “No, I want to try again, please.”
“I understand that anyone who doesn’t get regular practice will have to warm up again”, Sapphire said. “But there is one thing you need to keep in mind, and that’s firearm discipline.” She put her hand on Bonnie’s holding the phaser. “Don’t ever wave this about like it’s a magic wand or something. Only ever point it where you want to shoot, or the ground. Always treat a phaser as though it’s set to cause some serious harm.”
“Right. Sorry. Respect the phaser, got it.” She looked at the phaser in her hand which Sapphire was still holding onto, then back into her red eyes. “Can… can I have my hand back please?”
Sapphire nodded and released Bonnie’s hand. “Yes, for now. Despite my temptation of keeping it. But I’ve been told when I joined Starfleet I’m not supposed to keep trophies from victorious engagements.” She grinned.
Well, that helped to make Bonnie feel uncomfortable. She returned to the circle and took a stance. She then placed her finger on the control and took aim. “I’m ready when you are.” She announced with false confidence.
Sapphire could tell Bonnie wasn’t comfortable. “Relax, I’m joking. I’m not going to cut off your hand.” She started the programme again.
Tacking aim at the first yellow bit she saw, Bonnie aimed and pressed the button. Nothing happened. Frustrated, she pressed it several more times, with nothing happening each time. She then looked at the phaser as though it were broken, not realizing her thumb was initially on the increase-power setting instead of the trigger. She shook it off, then placed her thumb again, took aim and fired.
The hole in the bulkhead was small, like her fist. The reaction of the person on the other side was not so small. Bonnie turned and looked at Sapphire with apologetic eyes. She was about to say, “I’m so…” but was quickly interrupted. Even as the computer chirped to recognize that she did, indeed, hit the target.
Sapphire immediately took the phaser away from Bonnie. “How about we get you to sickbay?” she offered. She couldn’t believe this was incompetence. Nobody would make it through Starfleet Academy like that. No, there had to be something else wrong with this woman.
“But, I’m not sick.” She protested. “I can do this, I know I can. I’m just… having a bad day I guess.” She was on the verge of tears. She knew in her heart she could do this. Her papa had told her she could do anything, but right now her confidence was at an all time low. And her luck, well that too was at an all time low as her heart sank.
“No, perhaps not”, Sapphire said. “Maybe you ate something that doesn’t agree with you? You’re certainly not all there. Don’t you want to have this looked at?” Her annoyance with Bonnie had faded, as she was convinced now that this issue wasn’t her fault, at least not fully.
“Anna will just laugh at me. I don’t think there is anything physically wrong with me and I’m pretty sure none of that lemon pudding was toxic, no no, pretty sure.” She shook her head. “No, I just need to get my head in the game, something to irritate me.” She looked around the room for something that might frustrate her into action like when she had taken control of the ship. Political motives aside she tended to work better under pressure, especially when it came to computer repairs and things she was familiar with.
Not finding anything of use she looked at Sapphire and instantly regretted what came out of her mouth next. “I want you to smack me.”
Sapphire shook her head. “No. You should go to sickbay. Have yourself checked out. If all is clear, we can meet in the holodeck and repeat this with safeties on. If you want, come prepared for a sparring. I’m always game.” But she wasn’t going to smack Bonnie, she was too professional for that, and still believed there was something wrong with her. “Besides, I have to get some engineers in here to repair the range.”
Disappointed but understanding Bonnie sighed, "Does that mean I failed?" Her eyes were looking very sad and forlorn even as her lack of professionalism sank in.
“No, it just means your examination has been postponed”, Sapphire responded. “There’s no need to put this on any official record, I think.”
"Thank you. Sorry again for um… shooting you." She looked through the hole in the wall. "Sorry!" As she scooted away she decided maybe going to visit Anna wasn't such a bad idea. "I will um… just go and get my head checked, okay? Okay." She turned on her heel, knocking several phasers to the floor in the process, then without looking back, left the firing range in search of the medbay.
Sapphire shook her head and picked up the phasers, placing them back on the pile of the ones she still had to check and make sure they were aligned. She just hoped this woman would get the help she needed.
