The CoB's First Day

Posted on 22 Jul 2018 @ 5:54pm by Master Chief Petty Officer Kai Mazen

534 words; about a 3 minute read

I had my interview with Captain Saalm and Commander Ban today. It went well, I think. I mean, the assignment is mine and I’ve taken it, so yeah, I think I did damn well. They see alright to work for. The CO asked why I wanted to join the crew of the Galileo-A, and I thought I’d given her a satisfactory answer, but the XO felt he wanted a more personal answer I guess. I don’t like personal questions in professional situations, at least I didn’t like that question in that situation, but I answered it. Hearing it out loud when I said it gave me just a moment of pause. I’m not a kid anymore. I don’t have that kind of wanderlust I did when I was younger, and besides, when I was younger all I wanted to do was become a badass, and I did. If I am asked why I want a particular assignment, is it wrong to say that I want the assignment to advance my career? I’ve only got about forty years left to work with. A Human who enlists in Starfleet at 18 is expected to retire at 100. That’s only 82 years. Two or three hundred years ago, that would have been unheard of. Now…now it seems like a lot less when you’ve already served for 41 of those years. So, I have a right now to start looking to the future. If this assignment works out, there’ll be another command NCO assignment waiting when it’s done, and another after that, and so on. Why shouldn’t I dream big dreams? Why shouldn’t I have lofty goals? Goals that extend beyond my time here on the Galileo-A? I’m not a kid. I’m not going to lose my focus here in the present because I have dreams for tomorrow! The answer is that there’s no reason I shouldn’t dream big, especially if I’m willing to put the work into the process of getting there.

I’m going to take a walk through of the ship tomorrow, talk to some of the Yard Birds working on the ship. That’ll be a joy, because those asshats can be pretty cliquish when they want to be. On the other hand, I’m a Gods-Be-Damned Master Chief Hospital Corpsman and Chief of the Boat, and I know how to be both friendly and, when I have to be, a mean and scary SOB. I’ll stick with friendly as much as possible, though, so the Yard Birds don’t skimp on their work to spite me or drag the work out so we miss our launch date.

I’m looking forward to this assignment. In my entire career, I served on only one starship, for six years, and that was fifteen years ago. I’m looking forward to jumping in with both feet and learning how to be a Command NCO at this level, on this ship. To being out there exploring for exploration’s sake. This is a side of Starfleet I don’t much experience with and I’m looking forward to remedying that situation.

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