Document:RML Oral Board Questions
Q: You're the lead researcher supervising an unmanned expedition into a high-risk, stratically distant plane at the Wilhelm Schmitz Research Facility. Your threshold tolerance monitoring console suddenly displays a deviation of 30MeV during the tertiary phase of power injection. How do you respond?
A: Immediately trigger the emergency shutdown, as a deviation of 30MeV suggests significant instability, likely resulting from misaligned targeting. Immediately after triggering the shutdown, ensure the bridge returns to a safe state, and be prepared to answer the call from the Raven Anomaly Detection & Response (ADR) analyst supervising the experiment.
Q: You're the leader of an expeditionary team venturing into a moderate-risk habitable plane. Your team is escorted by armed DIRE agents under your command. In the process of collecting atmospheric samples your team is ambushed by a group of hostile native sapients. What is the correct course of action under the Dimensional Security Accords?
A: Retreat immediately to the bridgehead for exfiltration and defer all combat decisions to the present DIRE commander. The DSA prohibits engaging native sapients unless the lives of expeditionary team members are directly threatened.
Q: While attending an international research symposium, you end up chatting with a fellow researcher who happens to be unlicensed. He brings up the topic of exophysics, and reveals he knows much more about the field of substratics than any uncleared individual should. What do you do?
A: Feign ignorance and excuse yourself at the earliest possible opportunity that does not raise suspicion. File a security incident with your laboratory's Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), who will then log the incident with Raven. Expect to be contacted by a Raven investigation officer and be prepared to give full details of the incident.
Q: You walk onto the control deck of your bridge laboratory with your assigned partner and at the same time witness a lone beamline technician with a Class 2 RML step off the deck. When questioned, he claims Reg 17.6 of the RML Guidelines permits him to work alone on the bridge when the system is in full shutdown during Phase 3 Lockout. Is he right? And if not, what do you do?
A: He is incorrect. Reg 17.6 refers to the prohibition of food and drink on the control deck. There is no guideline that permits being present on the deck alone, which is an express violation of Reg 17.1. The correct course of action is to escort the technician off of the deck, request that he remains in place, and use a nearby call point to immediately inform facility security of the violation of protocol while ensuring he does not walk back onto the deck.
Q: You've scheduled an experiment for 4:23 PM on the 23rd of September. The experiment has already been filed and approved by Raven; however, on the day of the experiment, engineering problems force you to complete the pre-start checks with less time than usual. Regs permit you to start the experiment as long as the checklist is completed within parameters, but several members of your staff express their stress in completing the checklist as quickly as possible in order to meet the experiment window. You realise if that the window is not met, it may be several more months before a follow-up slot is approved. What decisions, if any, do you make as the lead researcher?"
A: Even though no regulations strictly prevent you from proceeding, crunch leads to human error, which is an unacceptable risk. The correct decision is to scrub the experiment. Make a clear announcement to all staff members, outlining your reasoning, then re-submit the experiment to Raven in order to obtain a replacement timeslot.