((Shipyard Central))

It had been a slow few weeks in the shipyard. A rare occurence at the main Fleet Repair Facility of the 4th/’Bravo’ Fleet to be sure. The current priority mission for the majority of the operational vessels of the Fleet had almost all of the otherwise uncommitted ships in the far off Shackleton Expanse. The reprieve was welcome from the breakneck, onslaught of repairs, refits, and new construction quota’s that usually kept the SBB shipyard at a high tempo 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

The Director and his ‘Acting’ Deputy Director Traan had even been able to file status and progress reports that did not include a singld addendum or note explaining why some ship or another was behind schedule or still unfit for redeployment for a remarkable 8 days in a row, and counting.

“Nice thinking on that fix for that field modification to the engineered scaffolding design for the ‘Shran Bay’ Horvath.” Traan said as he walked past the ‘Shipyard Ops’ well.

“It was nothing sir, just had to make room for a few crane tie-downs and a set of hull bracing the drafting monkeys wouldn’t have ever known was there…any chance I can get next Friday off for my ingenuity?” The newly promoted Lt JG Horvath responded from the well.

“Why, you got a hot date or something?”  Traan halted and looked down at his fresh faced, dark haired subordinate. Horvath’s head, though he was standing, was at the level of Traans shin since he was in one of the 3 sunken wells in Shipyard Central.

“Nah, I just figured I’d try and push my luck and get an extra day off since we’re basically caught up now.” Horvath shrugged.

“In that case, sure, I’ll authorize it. It’ll only cost you a day of all that leave you got banked.” Traan smiled and chuckled, before nodding at the young man and carrying on.

“What about me sir? I got a date tomorrow night, can I get Thursday off?” The newly transferred Grazerite Lt. Sardin chimed in from the Repair Dock well which was next to Horvaths pit.

“Sure Sardin, as long as the Fresno is ready to launch by the end of your shift tomorrow.” Traan retorted snidely.

“Oh, low blow sir, you know she’s waiting on that new EPS Trunk Regulator assembly to arrive.”

“Oh is she? Guess that’s a no then,” Traan stopped next to Sardins well and croutched next to it and spoke barely above a whisper “but, tell you what, if you can find someone to cover for you, you can have Thursday morning off. And I better hear stories about successful second and third dates.” Traan was in a good mood, and was more then willing to cut his people some slack while things were slow. They had all been busting their butts keeping the ships of the 4th Fleet and all the civilian vessels that put in for repairs at SB Bravo fit for duty.

“Roger that boss! Janetti wanna do me a soli…” Sardin immediately began to get to work getting his shift covered.

“No way sir, I’m sleeping in on Thursday, don’t even try it.” The Chief running the comms console in the Repair well spat out incredulously.

As he made his way over to his office in the back corner of Shipyard Central, the Director emerged from his own office on the upper level, directly above Traans.

“Got a sec Traan?” The director asked.

“A’course sir.” Traan replied amd made his way up the stairs to the upper deck of offices.

“Great work the past couple weeks, how’s Sardin fitting in so far?” The Director said as he went and rummaged through a stack of padds in his desk and soon found the one he was looking for.

“He’s doing fine, a good foreman, seems like he’s fitting in well with the other senior Repair Dock staff.”

“Good, you can pass off the lead of the Repair section to him whenever you see fit.” The Director walked over and showed the padd into his hand. “If you want it, just gimme this back with your thumbprint on it and you’ll be the permanent Deputy Director of Shipyard Operations. Make sure to read through the while package, there’s a few parts where you have make a selection or authorize some things….Oh, and I’m heading out 1500h today, I got a meeting up in Ops, might be a long one too, so you got this here while I’m gone.”

“Sure thing sure. I’ll give this a readthrough today and get it back to you ASAP.” Traan replied.

“All good, no rush on that, you’re already doing the job.”

“Roger that boss.” Traan said as he turned and headed back down to his own office.

Later that day as he read through the official ‘permanent change of billet’ notification. It was all pretty standard stuff, but one section that required him to make a choice did stand out to him. The section in question was basically asking if he would like remain wearing the yellow of the Operations/Engineering/Tactical departments, or switch to the red uniform of the command branch. If he didn’t wish to transfer over to the command track, his time in his new position would count as and he would be credited for ‘field command duty’ time.

Below the portion where he had to make his choice a note mention all the required courses, training, and certifications he would need to complete, all but one was greyed out, signifying he had already completed them. The one remaining requirements was ‘succesful completion of the Senior Bridge Officers qualification’. Traan thought to himself for minutes and eventually decided to switch to the command Branch, it would leave the door open to him being an XO, or CO somewhere in the future. He was always a qualified bridge watchstander, how hard could the senior course be, he figured.