Serious question here: isn’t the Warp core not the best place to do this? They probably have the right equipment and sensors in the engineering section to do that test and I would also image that the warp core would be much safer because of its added protection systems than anywhere else on the ship, right? So if the weapon blows up, they shut that section off, wait for it to blow and dust off the consoles.
It also looks like they are firing away from the warp core and not at it.
As for data standing right behind it, I mean, he is an android who doesn’t fear death or injury…
Counterpoint: doing anything at all with an unknown weapon next to a supply of antimatter is really bad idea. Sure, nothing might go wrong. However, the worst case scenario involves antimatter.
Serious question here: isn’t the Warp core not the best place to do this? They probably have the right equipment and sensors in the engineering section to do that test and I would also image that the warp core would be much safer because of its added protection systems than anywhere else on the ship, right? So if the weapon blows up, they shut that section off, wait for it to blow and dust off the consoles.
It also looks like they are firing away from the warp core and not at it.
As for data standing right behind it, I mean, he is an android who doesn’t fear death or injury…
They have a literal firing range on the ship.
Counterpoint: doing anything at all with an unknown weapon next to a supply of antimatter is really bad idea. Sure, nothing might go wrong. However, the worst case scenario involves antimatter.