Holodeck Based Training

Posted on Wed Jul 24th, 2024 @ 11:49am by Lieutenant Commander Finnley Keating VII & Senior Chief Petty Officer Mason Malone

Mission: Character Development
Location: Engineering & Holodeck 2
Timeline: Post mission
1968 words - 3.9 OF Standard Post Measure

After his debrief with his boss, Mason headed down to engineering but he hesitated at the entrance to the office. The last time he'd been down here to see Finn, it hadn't exactly gone down well. He turned his head left and right first, before peering inside. "Finn?" He called out, carefully so just in case her temporary replacement found himself in the office again. "Finn, you here?"

"Yea, whats..." Finn turned to see her friend. "Oh! Mason," she smiled. "It's been a while, what can I do for you?" They hadn't really had any time to hang out since she had been back, besides the one short meet up at the ships' bar to reconnect. She wondered if that was her fault and kicked herself for not making time for him sooner.

"Well..." Mason hesitated. "I think I want to learn something new, something that might come in handy when on away missions... Can you teach me how to do basic fixed on say...a phaser?"

Finn raised a brow in slight confusion. "You know there's standardized holodeck based training courses for that, right? There's a whole slew of HBTs for field training available. You don't need me to teach you."

"Holodeck instructions are lonely and boring," Mason retorted, giving her his best puppy eyes. "Please?"

"Actually, I have some HBTs I need to renew soon. What do you say we meet at the holodeck and knock them out together? I'm sure I have some sort of field training ones due for refresh. I'll embellish on the program and teach you some tricks along the way. Deal?" She countered.

"That sounds great," Mason beamed at her, "I just don't want to risk malfunctioning equipment out in the field. I've not encountered any so far but better safe than sorry right? Meet you there in ..ten? Or do you need more time?"

"Make it thirty, you know I never leave right when my shift ends," Finn chuckled. "I'll see you there."

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It was forty five minutes later when Finn showed up at the holodeck, slightly out of breath. "Sorry," she said between small gasps for air. "Came as quickly as I could, I got caught up and lost track of time. Ran all the way here once I realized what time it was."

"Oh I'm not surprised," Mason smiled as he gestured her towards the holodeck controls. "As you know what we're looking for, I'll let you key in the parameters."

"Lets see," Finn scrolled through the list before finding the section of standard field repair courses and selected one of the more basic options. "We'll start with this and go from there. After you," she motioned for Mason to enter the holodeck and followed in behind him.

The scene itself was pretty bare. A standard classroom with an instructor and a variety of standard field equipment laid out on a table in front of him with a pair of chairs on the opposite side. "Computer, begin program." Finn absentmindedly gave the command as she took a seat.

Mason just stared for a moment. "Really? A classroom?" It had been quite some time since he'd been inside one of those. He moved towards a seat too. "Surely, these things are more interactive? You're a chief engineer, surely you know how to teach me, instead of needing a teacher?"

Finn rolled her eyes. "You're being impatient, it'll start once you sit. And yes, I could teach you, but you should learn the basics first then I'll embellish, just like I said I would in engineering. Besides, how have you not taken this training? Aren't you required to take some sort of field maintenance basic training every year?"

"I don't know...I guess no one ever told me to?" Mason shrugged as he sat, indeed feeling very impatient. "I did do field maintenance for communication equipment, having been radioman...does that count? But phasers, I've never done, nor tricorders...I'm always up for learning something new though you never know when you need the information."

The teacher started talking over Mason, explaining the basic functionality of each piece of equipment and highlighting the largest vulnerability of each. To many it might have seemed boring, but it was important to understand key deficiencies in each piece of equipment. As the teacher droned on, Finn got up and walked to a nearby panel.

"Computer, pause program," she said a few moments later. "Somehow you were removed from the list for recurrent trainings in general. That's weird, no wonder you've never taken one. A lot of these are standard. Oh well, I guess if you have some sort of loop hole to not have to take them then you get a bunch of extra time back."

"How odd...I did switch from marines to security quite some time ago by now. I can fix a radio, I can do without IT, but a tricorder or a phaser are somewhat essential out there..." He frowned. "I'll take it up with Lieutenant Didrea next shift. Shall we continue?"

Finn nodded and prompted the computer to continue. They both sat in silence watching the program until the professor picked up the phaser and started to make some repairs. Finn paused the program again.

"Ok, now we're getting to the good stuff. The program is about to tell you that in the case of a jam, you're to clear the buffers and then reactive it and ensure proper expulsion of any debris before returning the cover, but that's not actually the best way to do it. You want to clear it, reactive it, then clear it again while it's active." She showed him what she was talking about on the device itself.

Mason listened attentively, genuinely wanting to do this right. "Why does he tell us differently then, if there's a better way? Can't we update the program, if what you just showed me is better, and probably safer?" He frowned as he glanced at the currently frozen holographic instructor. "What happens if I do it his way? He won't mark is down for not doing it as shown?"

"Well, that's the problem, it's not necessarily safer," Finn replied. "What the program tells you to do is technically safer, but my dad always taught me that when you're in the middle of a battle gaining five percent in safety isn't as helpful as having a working phaser. So for practice missions for example, yea, you probably want to do what the program states. If you're in the middle of a firefight and its life or death, do it the other way. Might not be as safe but you're much more likely to not have to repeat the process and seconds count in those situations."

"That's nuts," Mason stated, shaking his head, "out there lives depend on fast. We won't have time for safe, this instructor should show both ways at the very least." He looked down at the weapon on his desk, then up at the frozen instructor. "Out there, we don't have time for by the book. That's proven time and again by now, right? How many times have you had to Jerry-rig something because you had no time to go through an extensive protocol?"

"Interesting take," Finn replied, "but the majority that see this program probably aren't even going to be in combat right? So isn't it best to teach the safest way?"

"Yeah but in case if emergency, people should be taught the quick way too. With the suggestion not to use it unless it's crunch time. Instructors shouldn't just go by the book because that's the first thing that goes out the window out there in the field." Mason shrugged. "That's my experience anyway, though of course there's exceptions where all should go by the book. Which obviously I learned the hard way when I was younger."

"Tell me about it," Finn was suddenly intrigued. "What happened where you had to abandon 'the book'"?

"Not so much abandon, more like ignore it," Mason mumbled, "haven't I told you about the time I botched a training exercise because I got too eager and got too close listening in on conversations? It was a holodeck training thankfully so no-one good killed, but I didn't come away unscathed. Another training incident, my own eagerness again got me in trouble and I got shot. So yeah. I learned the hard way it's better to take a little longer to do things right and there's a reason to follow the book. I just.." Mason stared down at the disassembled phaser. "All I wanted was to improve my linguistic skill and prove I could do it despite my age and lack of experience in the field. I was 18 or so, 20 at best when this happened. I'm still eager, and I still want to learn but I got better at being careful."

Finn just stared at him for a second before she responded. "Soooo, your story sounds exactly why the holodeck training shows you by the book and not the alternative options that are less safe." She laughed and nudged Mason playfully. "Ignoring the book ends up in exactly what you said, botched training exercises and people can get hurt."

"Eagerness can get people killed," Mason agreed, "but fast can save lives. So this training really should show both." He finished putting his phaser back together -the instructed way- and offered it up to the hologram for inspection.

Finn sighed. "Ok, if thats what you think then. How about we make this more interesting? You wanna learn the more dangerous way for all the weapons field repairs? I can show you. I know them all. We can go to the weapons locker and get into the nitty gritty, but it doesn't come without risk."

Mason felt excited about the offer, but he didn't miss the sigh, nor the way she said it. He hesitated as he did feel both ways should be taught as a last resort, but this wasn't the way. He reached out and touched Finn's arm. "We're on the holodeck," he reminded her, "a safe environment to practice. Why go down there and endanger ourselves, when we can safely do it here, without risk of injuries? I mean, the safeties are on, right?"

"The reason they don't teach the short cut is because people get lazy and the short cut becomes standard practice, which isn't the right way to do it in standard scenarios. I guess it's more a game of trust. You can't trust everyone will do the right thing all the time when the right thing is harder or takes longer. People like to take short cuts," she replied. "We can do it here, but doing it with the real risk means there are actual consequences to actions which can be useful too."

"Then we lower the safeties to apply some risk. Just enough to require caution but not enough to cause permanent damage to ourselves. I need to know in case of emergency, lives may depend on it." Mason paused, looking at her in earned. "I promise I will use the safe option at all times, with the exception of being pressed for time. Like I said, I'm not that teenager that wants to prove himself anymore. You know me Finn, probably better than anyone else on this ship."

Well, it was a change to her original plans, but she could work with it. "Deal, but first I need to run to the restroom. I'll be back in just a few minutes, hang tight." Finn left the holodeck without waiting for a response. As soon as the doors closed behind her she tapped her commbadge. "Change of plans. Holodeck 2. I told him I was running to the restroom so move. Quickly."