Reed paused with his hand still inside the housing and asked exactly how slow she wanted him to go. "Until I tell you to stop" Jessica said, keeping her attention on the receiver. He glanced across the assembly at her, clearly considering the possibilities in such an open-ended instruction. "That's dangerously vague." Jessica finally looked up from the display. "Reed." Whatever comment he had been about to make died behind a small smile as he turned back to the component. "Moving." He eased it forward a fraction at a time while Jessica followed the changing waveform, and the room fell quiet again as both of them concentrated on the same problem.

The signal narrowed, strengthened briefly, then vanished completely. Jessica widened her scan and checked the surrounding frequencies before allowing herself to relax. Reed was still holding the component exactly where she'd stopped him. "Are we good?" he asked. Jessica checked once more before answering. "We're good. Secure it." Reed finally withdrew his hand and began locking the component into its isolated position. The slight curve at the corner of his mouth suggested he had noticed more than the change in the signal when she'd grabbed his wrist, but he left it alone. Jessica found herself appreciating that more than she expected.

Once the passive subsystem was isolated, they worked backward through what the exercise designers had built into it. Jessica brought up the recorded signal history while Reed compared each burst against the physical changes he had made to the hardware. After several minutes, she enlarged one section of the recording and angled the display toward him. "Look at the timing. It isn't transmitting continuously. Every time you disturbed the housing, it woke up, sent a short burst, then dropped back down." Reed leaned closer and followed the pattern with his eyes. "So somebody finds the equipment, starts taking it apart, and whoever is listening gets told immediately." Jessica nodded. "Exactly." Reed looked back toward the isolated component and admitted that it was a good test, though he had preferred the previous few minutes when he could simply dislike whoever designed it. The comment drew a brief smile from Jessica before they returned to the task.

The next stage was more complicated. They had isolated the passive warning system, but they still needed to separate it completely from the subsystem Blackwatch expected them to activate. By then their rhythm had changed. Jessica no longer had to explain why she wanted him to stop every time the signal moved, and Reed no longer described every physical adjustment before making it. When she called a change, he responded. When he needed to know whether a line was clean, she checked it and gave him the answer.

At one point they both leaned toward the same access panel and nearly collided. Reed pulled back just before their foreheads met, leaving them closer than either had intended. "Close" he said, the amusement returning to his voice. Jessica eased back toward her receiver and looked at him. "Your spatial awareness needs work." Reed accepted the criticism with a quiet "Noted," though neither looked away quite as quickly as the exchange required. Jessica broke the moment first by turning back toward the display and directing him to the next connection.

With the passive architecture finally separated, Jessica repositioned her receivers around the remaining circuitry and ran another sweep. Reed waited with his hand resting over the control interface rather than touching anything. "Ready?" he asked. Jessica checked one last frequency band before looking across the bench. "Ready. Bring up the designated subsystem slowly." Reed nodded and began feeding power into the training rig.

The simulated Romulan indicators awakened one at a time while Jessica monitored the available bands. Neither spoke during initialization. Reed watched the physical system while Jessica watched everything the system might be telling the outside world, both waiting for whatever last surprise the exercise designers had hidden inside the rig. The subsystem reached operating power without producing another signal.

Reed kept his hand near the controls and looked toward her. "Still quiet?" Jessica ran another sweep before answering. "Still quiet." He finally leaned back from the bench. "I'll take it." Jessica lowered the receiver and nodded. "So will I. Don't touch anything else." Reed looked toward the now-stable system. "You really know how to spoil a victory."

A soft tone sounded from the overhead system before either of them could say more. The training computer announced that the evaluation was complete, and the display beside the assembly changed from simulated Romulan information to a simple Blackwatch status screen confirming that the designated subsystem had been activated without triggering the passive alarm architecture. Reed read the result and glanced toward Jessica. "Well, neither of us embarrassed ourselves." Jessica looked at the same result and allowed that they had avoided doing so officially, which Reed decided was close enough to praise for the evening.

They spent several more minutes securing the training rig and documenting what they had found. Reed could have finished closing the housing alone, and Jessica knew it, but she stayed on the opposite side of the bench anyway, passing him the pieces he needed while completing one final sweep of the passive system. The work itself had ended, but neither appeared particularly interested in pointing that out.

Once the final panel was secured, Reed powered down the bench and looked toward her. "I'm getting coffee. You want to come?" Jessica paused while placing the receiver back into its case, then looked at him. "Do you actually want company, or are you concerned you won't make it to the mess without activating something?" Reed smiled but did not hide behind the joke this time. "I was going for company."

Jessica held his gaze for a moment before securing the case and picking it up. "All right." Reed stepped away from the bench with a smile, apparently deciding that whatever remark had almost followed was better left unsaid. Jessica noticed that restraint too as she joined him at the door.

Neither of them called it anything more than coffee. For the moment, that was enough.