Speaking of sextants

Posted on Wed Nov 16th, 2022 @ 5:14am by Captain Taliserra Tigran & Lieutenant Anthony Edwards Ph. D & Ensign Brendon Watanabe

Mission: The devil wears tripolymer
Location: Stellar cartography
Timeline: 23rd June 2395

On:

It was department observation day, and Anthony had been moving through the labs and other science department areas, talking to his crew and observing their work. The next location he was approaching was an area he had studied during this time in San Francisco Stellar Cartography. He knew Brendon Watanabe would be there as one of the expert Stellar Cartographers on the ship. The automatic doors opened with a whoosh as he approached them. "Good Afternoon Brendon, anything unusual come in recently?

"Oh hey boss," Brendon called from a seat at a work station that had the best view of the large display screen that was currently filled by a map of the alpha quadrant. "Nothing unusual by the looks of it, some very interesting things though."

"Oh Interesting you say, what are we speaking of that is interesting but not unusual?" Anthony asked Brendon. There was so much it could be even though the Alpha quadrant was the most explored thanks to previous neutral zones carving up the Beta which separated much of it away from Starfleet until only recently.

"The Jefferson-B finally left drydock," Brendon said as he manipulated the screen to show the Jefferson's location. "looks like she's off towards Drylax then probably Vega for her shakedown."

"Oh she's the new Pathfinder that they have been working on at Utopia for years now. It's about time she went on a shakedown, much longer and they would have had to update all the ships systems." Anthony was joking but it had been in the construction yards for almost four years.

"It takes time to build a ship properly, this isn't the dominion war anymore, we have time to complete ships fully before we throw them into the field." Brendon remarked.

"True. We don't need the sort of ships or the number of them we did during the war. Do you know anyone on the new ship?" Anthony asked with a smile as he opened a file on the Jefferson. "It is an interesting class. I still think I prefer the Luna like ours."

"Had an academy buddy send me a message a while back that he was assigned to a ship coming off the production line." Brendon replied. "He could be on the Jefferson he's a lucky bugger if he is."

"That depends on whether you like working bugs out of a system. New ships straight off the line all have them. Not that older ships like ours are completely bug-free, which is why we run tests all the time but I think I would prefer a ship that has been in the line of fire for a while. I guess your friend might like it for the first few months but it grows old quickly forever fixing the smallest thing before you get to your actual job." Anthony said with a smile. Brendon was still young as an Ensign and there was nothing wrong with being interested in bigger and better.

"Oh he'll love that kinda thing," Brendon said. "he decided to branch off into a computer specialism after academy, he'll like nothing better than spending a month working out bugs."

Sounds like the quintessential operations officer to me, not that they are any better or worse than any of the rest of us, just called to different jobs is all. Let's hope he has the time for a long healthy career." Anthony said.

"He's a bookworm, doubt he's ever going to find himself in harm's way." Brendon added. "He'll have a long healthy enough career."

Anthony coughed at bookworm, anyone that had a doctorate in philosophy had to be. Especially when you have studied twelve languages through school and university. "Nothing wrong with being a bookworm Ensign, it helps you get through academic study."

Brendon laughed slightly at his boss' reaction. "Oh I'm not saying anything is wrong with it, I certainly read my fair share of books before I got this job."

"Yeah outside of bum I expect there is a certain amount of reading to every job. If not then life would become very boring." Anthony said with a chuckle.

"Indeed," Brendon remarked before a beep from the stellar cartography station caught his attention. "oooh, the Andrade just sent in a report from its exploration around the pleadies cluster. Not much other than a huge dark matter nebula."

The stellar map flickered for a moment as it updated to show a rough outline of the dark matter nebula, it covered a vast section of space.

Anthony shivered with the memory of their time inside whatever their maze had been and said "At least they didn't get pulled into theirs." He gasped at the size of it as the map shimmered with the update. "Biggest one I have seen come up personally that I wasn't dragged into."

Brendon took a minute to take in the sheer size of the nebula. "Never encountered one that size firsthand, I may be a stellar cartographer but I haven't had many stellar discoveries on my record.... yet I hope."

"There is one on mine that I wish I could forget! I think that goes for most of the crew for that matter. I am very glad to be out amongst the stars again. Everything feels right with the universe. You are our best Cartographer Brendon, discoveries and fame, maybe not a fortune but fame at least will come your way eventually. Probably before me because I am mainly a language and linguistic expert." Anthony said.

"You're on the bridge more than me though, so you'll get to see all the fancy new things before I do.

"There is nothing stopping you from doing more bridge shifts, Brendon. Though your right being down here will give you more quadrant-wide information, without you down here the library takes too long to search." Anthony said with a smile.

"I wouldn't mind doing a few more bridge shifts if you'll let me," Brendon said. "I have to venture out from my little hidey hole from time to time."

"I'll adjust your roster and inform the captain of the changes so you can get up there more often, That may mean changing your shift though in the short term." Anthony said with a smile, having a happy crew was ultimately what made for a well-functioning crew, which is exactly what all commanding officers are interested in.

"Thanks boss," Brendon said with a small smile, was nice to have a boss that would work with his subordinates.

"You're welcome Brandon! I know exactly what it's like to almost be ignored by the entire science team cause you're just one of those 'useless' ones that aren't necessary for starships because we have the universal translator and it can work out a language before a human ever could." Anthony was a mature-age entry Cadet at the Academy and still a junior Ensign when his first ship came across a new language and the UT wasn't picking up the accent inflexions which he was called on to fix. "No member of my team is any better, or more important, than the next, I will bring up your wishes with the captain next time I am speaking to her."

"Thanks again." Brendon turned back to the screen as more update notifications pinged the console.

"You're welcome Brendon." Anthony said with a smile as he got up preparing to leave, "Is there anything else you would like help with?"

Brendon shook his head slightly but didn't take his eyes off the computer screen as he worked through the updates that had just arrived. "No, I think we're good now."

"Keep up the good work Brandon, science is sometimes the overlooked department in Starfleet because we don't fire the weapons or keep the power to the ship or engines but without us neither those that fire the weapons and those that keep us going wouldn't know where to go. You are my star down here, much better at it that I am at least, and your section keeps us knowing of new discoveries out there." Anthony said with a smile before he departed Stellar Cartography to continue his rounds of the science department.



OFF:

Lieutenant Anthony Edwards Ph. D
Chief Science Officer.

Taliserra Tigran
Writing as Ens Brendon Watanabe
Stellar cartographer