Shira reacted to Kaz's emotionless responses with silent amusement. He certainly had a high opinion of himself, and frankly, that attitude didn't give her much confidence. He'd follow orders just fine, she assumed, but would he be comfortable taking direction from her? It was a bit too late to worry about that now, as he was already in his mech and deploying. Shira was always rather impressed with how efficient everyone was when it came to launching. She wasn't involved in that process, so she made sure to stay out of everyone's way and head to her post. She nodded at Chief Royce as she entered the command room.<br/><br/>"Chief, looks like pilot and mech should be ready to go. 5 minutes out." Shira walked over to her desk. Most of the monitors showed readouts of the mech's system status, and of the drive's readings. A few others were hooked up to cameras on the outside of the ship, both hard mounted and attached to drones, and another one of a cockpit view, and a final one on the back of the mech itself, looking right at the drive. She had to applaud the engineering on it. When de-activated, it looked like a standard booster, save for the hollow core. Activated, it spread out a bit, the glowing blue core now at the center of a circular apparatus that slid into place right on the mech's back. It was small enough to not get in the way of the craft's movements. Of course, any amount of engineering done on it was useless unless it<i>worked</i>.<br/><br/>"Dr. Brigandy," Royce cut in through her thoughts, "It looks like the team is ready to go. You're in charge here."<br/><br/>Shira smiled back in response. "Acknowledged." She cleared her throat and spoke through the comms to the hangar team.<br/><br/>"Attention. Testing of the Miniaturized Hermes Arrow Drive will begin shortly. Please be advised that all launches should be grounded, and any interference with the testing will be met with a harsh reprimand and a censure to Lyceum administration." She then switched over to a direct line for Kaz's cockpit. "Pilot Markin, are you ready? You should be seeing a new readout in your cockpit monitors showing the status of the new drive. For this test, you will be firing the drive manually, as well as adjusting the distance of the jump. You maximum is 1 km, and the longer the jump, the greater the charge it will consume. Once the drive is depleted, then you'll have to wait for a recharge. We've set up a few drones that will recharge the drive automatically upon depletion for the sake of this exercise. In addition, we've restricted the field of movement to be just around the ship as a precaution. The first round will consist of full, 1 km jumps made approximately every 30 seconds until depleted. After that, we'll try 1 km jumps made as fast as you are able to fire. Then we'll take a short break before the second round, which I will explain upon starting. If there are<i>any</i>problems, whether they be with the mech or the drive, you will report them immediately. If you feel any discomfort during the process, you will report that immediately. This is experimental technology, and I expect full communication on every point. Is that clear?"<br/><br/>Shira took a drink of water and studied all the monitors again. She was nervous, though it didn't quite show oh her face or in her voice. She plugged herself into the console in front of her, allowing the dataport on her neck to better communicate the immense amount of information. There weren't that many things that could go wrong, but it was best to be safe. Once again, she checked the monitors, made sure the team was ready, and that the space was clear.<br/><br/>"Pilot Markin, the controls are yours. We are ready to begin on your initiative."