Tech Demo

Posted on Thu May 1st, 2025 @ 10:06pm by Commander Ichiko Gail & Lieutenant Commander Evelyn Rozia

Mission: Let The Games Begin
Location: Holodeck 1

Evelyn stood at the side of the entrance to the holographic field that she had painstakingly recreated from the shuttlebay and looked out over it in awe, the ball that she had created tucked under her arm as she did so. One foot at a time she stepped onto the terrain, feeling the cleats of the soccer shoes she'd modified with magnetic fields dig into the ground. True, the light body armor she'd outfitted with those same magnetic fields restricted her old uniform's movements slightly, but she knew that it had a purpose, one that could keep her in one piece if the ball came at her fast enough.

She let out the breath she'd been holding for the last thirty seconds and it may have been in relief, or exhilaration or just the sheer newness of what she'd helped create here on Astraea, NOT in Ts'usugi territory (technically) and with technology she herself had helped to create. It was amazing.

The massive holodeck doors shifted open, allowing Captain Wataba and two members of the Nebulae to enter. "I apologize, I don't recognize your rank moons, otherwise I'd address you with the rank you've earned. As you said before you wanted to show me a demonstration of something, something connected to Kinetic?" he inquired, hands behind his back as he strolled in. Cool, casual, in control. Wataba radiated calm, but also an intense pride in the sport he dedicated his life to.

The hair on the back of the engineer's neck raised as she'd missed the doors opening entirely. She turned and looked up a few inches as she smiled, "Please, Captain Wataba, I'm just Evelyn, or Evie for short." She turned back to the field and all it contained, "To be fair, much of the tech used in Kinetic was easy to figure out. A kinetic sump and storage device, attuned forcefields and magnetic repellant fields to keep the ball in play at the attained momentum, but the ball was the hard part." She fully turned towards him and presented him with what at least cosmetically looked like an actual Kinetic ball. "I'm sure what I did isn't the same, but I did the best I could."

Wataba took the ball with gentle hands. Her pride in this facsimile was evident. "I must say, as far as attempts go, this is close." he said, meaning it as a compliment. "And no. You've earned your moons, but at your insistence Evie it is." He gave no such abbreviation, though. He earned his title, and he was going to use it. "Seeing your enthusiasm about the sport I love, it's refreshing. Someone who takes pride in their work and knows the proper way to do things. Unlike some..." he shook his head, refusing to let Neela's presence on this same ship get his mood down.

"Could I request a demonstration? I'd hate to damage your equipment. I'm afraid if I treat it like a true Kinetic orb, I might risk damaging it."

That was where the smile on Evelyn's face turned into a fully-fledged grin, "I was actually hoping you'd put this through a full test, if you're willing to work with what amounts to an experimental model, Captain." She recognized the wording that Wataba had used and was perfectly willing to follow local custom, "I've analyzed everything I could get my hands on regarding the physics and stresses of Kinetic and used those with a 30 percent margin of paranoia as a baseline for this design, so it should be able to handle anything you to do it. And if you do happen to break it?" The Trill shrugged, "I've got the designs still and I can just build a better orb if it comes down to it."

"Anything, you say? Activate it, and we'll see about that." Wataba said. Once the orb was live, he gave it a feel, getting a handle on it, before he dropped it Before it hit the ground, Wataba was already halfway through the motions to give the orb a harsh kick, sending the orb sailing across the arena of the holodeck. "Feels about right, a little extra give, but feels good on the kick." and then their collective ears perked up, listening to the rebound PONG as it hit the far wall and rebounded. "A fine rebound, sounds very close to authentic. You did a fantastic replication, Evie."

"Captain, where's the goal?" one of his teammates inquired...

Evelyn's cheeks flushed with color as she summoned an arch for a moment and told the program to put in the recreations of the pillars and goals on each side of the large field, "Sorry about that, I must have forgotten about one of the most important things on the field."

Time to see if the duplicates were up to the challenge. The orb raced back on the rebound, doing exactly what it was built to do... store momentum and keep moving forward. "Evie, get down!" Wataba called out, now in full Captain mentality. "Shen, blitz one! Xhi, side seven!" and the two moved in accordance with his command. The orb narrowly missed colliding with the three as they moved about, another PONG as it bounced off the next wall. A swift kick from Shen, a rolling redirecting hit from Xhi to pass to Wataba, who gave the orb the final nudge to put it on course for the goal. The orb crossed the threshold, and then came to a complete stop.

All of it's kinetic energy was transferred into the podium, and when the internal capacitor popped it made such a noise, and a shower of sparks. That was the mark of victory.

"Not bad, Miss Evie." Wataba said as he and his teammates caught their breath from the sudden excitement. "And the goal works too." he quipped.