June 1st, 8254
You rest your hands on your desk and rub your eyes. From the reports filtering your way and the star charts and databases being made available to you it looks like the Surveyor's Corps plans to have you and the Ahywa Sofia on mostly first wave work, with possible second or third wave work on anything super interesting that you might turn up. But with the handover date and shakedown trials scheduled only two weeks away most of your crew has yet to be assigned. Aside form Navigation none of the department heads are present and you only just received word that your Executive Officer was in transit. You pull up his dossier to begin reading but are interrupted by the buzz of the admittance chime.
“Come on in.”
A hulking beast of a man ducks through the doorway with one hand raised to the top of the door frame to keep track of where it is and avoid bashing his head. He come to attention with his hair brushing up against the ceiling and clears his throat.
“Commander Hawkins Mac Tire, Executive Officer Designate, to the Ahywa Sofia reporting Sir.”
You look your XO to be up and down. With his brown hair brushing the ceiling he must be a shade under eight feet tall and is build like a main battle tank to boot. Lean muscle fairly ripples over Hawkins' frame but he moves with the agility of a predator. His skin, where it is visible, is albino pale. The tinted visor over his eyes, even indoors, indicates an ill tolerance for bright lights. The faint lines of subtle cybernetics mark his face and jaw. You suspect that it has had to be rebuilt at least once over his career.
“At ease Commander Hawkins. I just recieved your dossier and word that you had been assigned. I didn't know we had many ex-Army tanks in the ranks of the Surveyor's Corps.”
“Armored mobile infantry actually Sir. First company of the four hundred and fifth highlanders regiment. Got a bit tired of being hauled around between worlds and decided to sail the stars instead.”
“High grav birth world?”
“Volance Sir, nightsider born and bred.”
If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.
“A deathworlder? Damn. Right I can read the rest later. Grab a seat and let's get stuck in on the state of our ship-to-be and figure out how we can run a shakedown cruise with a bit over a tenth of our designed human crew.”
“I knew we would be short handed sir, but I didn't know it was that bad. Mind If I sync my tablet?”
“Go right on ahead. We have a department head for Navigation, a quartermaster who may well end up running Supply, and a few midshipmen scattered about. Gunnery, engineering, repair, medical, and communications all need more, and more senior, bodies.”
“With Navigation covered and with a dockyard plus tugs close to hand I think we can weather the shakedown cruise Sir. Past that? I'm not so sure. We've got first wave work scheduled?”
“Aye. For now we are rimward bound. What department do you think we should pressure the Office of Ship Manning to fill up first?”
“Tough call sir. I'd lean towards the 'logistics' departments first. Communications, medical, engineering, and repair. But with a human crew of only thirty five... Communications might well be irrelevant and medical can get away with a doc and a couple assistants.”
“Interesting call. Defend it.”
“Guns don't matter if there is no ship to mount them on, and no ship sails far or well without a crew. So Gunnery can wait until late and it's the Captain's call on which of the other four have the highest priority. Communications and Medical can run small with a small crew, so I'd go for Engineering and Repair first.”
“Even with the heavy automaton support?”
“There is that Sir. May I hear your decision?”
“I'm tempted by all five. Right off the back of our shakedown cruise we'll probably get tossed right out into the wilds. Engineering would keep the automation and automation features up. Repair in case we hit issues, golrak, or pirates. Medical to keep everyone healthy without an Autodoc aboard. Communications to manage the flow of message traffic, forms, and so on.”
“And yet there is an argument against each department as well Sir. Automation will handle the vast bulk of the communications department's duties outside of sensors and mitigate a lot of work even there. One doctor for every ten and change other crew people is quite generous, so we can get away understaffed in Medical baring catastrophe. And In that case we'd have even worse issues to worry about. The vast bulk of routine Engineering work can be handled by Automaton, and the same for the Repair department. Gunnery is the least relevant, needed only if we encounter hostiles, and how like is that to happen on the first jump?”
“Now that you've asked that question...”
“In which case we turn and burn. Not much out there that can keep up with a Timber Snake and even less that can match a Draco. At least in a straight line.”