A Day in the Life of a Chief Navigator

Posted on Fri Feb 16th, 2018 @ 7:15pm by

Mission: S01E02 D-8 With the Devil
Location: Various

Ensign Arturo Marquez looked up from the PADD that was being handed to him. He stood there framed by the door portal of his quarters with a charcoal gray towel wrapped around his trim waist. Droplets of water dripped down his bare torso, his bangs were matted to his forehead. When he heard the chime to his quarters, he left the hot shower quickly, grabbing the towel from the rack and wrapping it around him. He thought it was an emergency; instead it was the blue eyed yeoman who was delivering a PADD. He stared daggers into those blue eyes.

“What is this?” Arturo asked, his brown eyes dropped down to the information device and gave it a quick glance. The heading read: Navigation Systems Analysis and Inventory Report. It seemed official, not that reports weren’t supposed to be official. He looked back up at the other man, and remembered he was standing there half naked for all to see. His cheeks colored a soft shade of pink and he clenched the towel tighter around his waist.

Crewman Warren smiled at the younger man. He knew a bit about Arturo Marquez, the lad was shy, introverted and young. Not that he wasn’t young, he was still in his twenties—late twenties—but that was still young. He had gone through the enlistment process with Starfleet; he had no tolerance to do anymore schooling than he had to. He just wanted to be out in space, exploring and yet he was on the Musashi, a vessel built for war and not exploration. That was a bit of a disappointment, but he made the best of it. The one good thing about being a vessel this small is that he was only one of three yeomans. One for each shift really. It worked out nicely especially since he got the day shift. “You have to write the report and get it to the engineering head. Lieutenant McGowan requested it before she left, but obviously she isn’t here to get it.”

“So then Lieutenant Garcia,” Arturo mumbled.

Warren nodded.

“Isn’t the chief navigator supposed to do these things...” The moment the words left his mouth, he knew it was incorrect. The blush deepened.

“You are the chief navigator now, ensign,” Warren explained.

Arturo closed his eyes, his face and neck were flushed and he knew he was starting to break out in hives from embarrassment. “I know, I know,” he said, slowly opening his eyes. “It’s still sinking in I guess.” He just wasn’t thinking, this was going to be his first big project as the new chief navigator. “Thank you, yeoman, I’ll take care of it as soon as possible.” He said his goodbyes to Warren, stepped back into his quarters and then quickly changed into uniform. The one thing that bothered him about the uniform was that the trousers always seemed too long and would need to be hemmed. He was grateful the hem got tucked into his uniform boots.

Within a few minutes he was out the door, he stopped by the mess and grabbed a quick bite to eat. The breakfast selection was a bit limited, but he didn’t mind. He grabbed oatmeal, a banana, and a carton of milk. It would tie him over until lunch, and as he looked at the PADD, he wondered if he would even get time in for lunch. With the addition of the rundown of the navigation systems and the astronavigation labs, his day would be packed. There was bridge time, calculations to perform, and schedules and reports to look at as well. This was what it meant to be a department head. This would become his new normal he had supposed.

He finished his breakfast and headed to the astronavigation lab, it would be the first of many stops today. He had a workstation in the lab that doubled as an office, or something like that. He sat down behind the desk and started to sort and look over the PADDs that were on the desk. They were navigational logs from over night, he read them over, scrutinized them, and of course he double-checked the math—he always double-checked the math. He would fully admit there was a small part of him that didn’t trust the others. The other navigators he knew on board only did the job because they saw it as a stepping-stone to further their career. Sure, they knew how to calculate a course, they knew the equations and numbers that went into it, but he had noticed there were errors. Some of the logs he had looked over prior showed multiple course corrections due to those errors. Yes, he knew they were minor, but yet he didn’t feel that was acceptable.

Maybe that’s why I was chosen as department head, he thought to himself, and at that thought he found himself smiling.

As soon as he had gotten the promotion, and when he had a bit of downtime, he contacted his parents and Antonio to share the good news. They seemed happy for him, yet there was sadness in their eyes. It meant he wasn’t coming home any time soon. The conversation still was a good one, and more important he got to speak in his native tongue—which was a nice break from the english of Federation Standard. He really missed them, and he thought as each day passed he would miss them less but it was the exact opposite. Way of life was him missing his family more and more each day, and he couldn’t wait to get back to earth so he could see them.

After he went over the navigational logs, and filed them, he went to the bridge and spent the rest of his morning implementing his own course and course corrections. He had it all memorized, which helped, though his coordinates were always fed to the station. He would set aside his afternoon to do the big project of going over navigation, picking the system apart and writing the report. The astronavigation lab inventory was tedious, but not too bad. Maybe he would be able to sneak in a bit to eat, at least a PBJ and maybe another cartoon of milk. Before he even had the sandwich in hand, he knew it would hit the spot.

As he expected, the sandwich and the carton of milk definitely hit the spot. He took on the afternoon with enthusiasm. He knew anybody else in his department would have moaned and groaned concerning this undertaking, but not him. To him, it was a privilege to beable to take this on. He also wasn’t so naïve to know his youthful enthusiasm would probably tick a few people off, but the boost of confidence he had gotten from Commander Samuels would help him brush those naysayers off. He went about his work, making sure to take meticulous notes in order to write his report later for Lieutenant Garcia.

After he had finished the laborious tasks, he collected his PADDs and headed for the mess hall for his dinner. He figured he would bring his work simply because he typically ate alone. He got his tray and looked around the compartment, once again tables were full of people talking, laughing, and just having a nice time over dinner. No one even looked up when he passed by, tray in hand. He grabbed a small table in the corner and took a seat. He looked around the room once again and then turned his attention to the PADDs. He had collected a lot of notes and there were diagnostics and inventory lists that would need to be gone over.

He was facing several more hours of work just to write one report. It would make for a very long day, but yet he didn’t mind. Work was important and he certainly didn’t want to let the captain or commander down. They had, after all, placed a lot of faith in him.

And that meant a lot to him, more than most people realized.