Chief Bong VI was one of Starfleet’s more experienced Command Chiefs.  He had begun his career as a tactical crewman, but by the time he reached the rank of PO3 in 2371 he had transferred to the command branches as a generalist.

After serving as clerk and yeoman, he had upgraded his qualifications and became a skilled pilot, and by the start of the Dominion War, he was Perigrine co-pilot, and later pilot.  Most recently he had served as the Aide to the 3rd Fleet CO, and for the 4 years prior to being assigned to the Culver City he had been at the Academy, serving as a Cadet Division Chief (basically the 2IC of a group of 140 cadets) and later as the Head Instructor of the Bridge Operations courses.

When he arrived aboard the Culver City, no one was there to meet him.  The transporter chief asked if he needed any directions.  Bong simply shook his head and said.

“Nah, thanks chief, I’ve served on a few Cali-class ships over the years.  Who’s in command currently?”

“Our commanding officer is not aboard at the moment; Midshipman Ophelia Lotharys currently has the conn.  If she’s not on the bridge, she’s probably in sensor control.” the transporter operator responded.

“Thanks, chief; I’ll check in with her.”  He said as he made his way out into the hallway.  He pulled out his padd and pulled up his ‘one pager’ list that described the situation of the ship, and what he would probably want to do when he arrived.  Currently there was only 58 souls onboard on the Culver City, and most of them were dock and repair crews, finishing repairs and overhauling of the ship.  Only 19 of them were actually a part of the ships crew, he would be the 20th.  The ships prospective new ‘CO’ was on leave on Khitomer currently, and was scheduled to take the ‘SBO’ course when he arrived back on SB86.

The ship’s new crew would be trickling in and reporting aboard throughout the next few weeks, after which they would officially recommission and join the fleet on active duty.  Bong himself had been specifically assigned to the ship, apparently because someone in personnel HQ had noticed that K’Lev would be one of the greenest COs the fleet had seen in the past few years.  Bong was an experienced Command generalist, and training specialist who was rotating back to ‘the fleet’ after a full 4 year tour at Starfleet Academy.  It had seemed like a natural fit for whoever was filling out the Culver City’s crew roster assignment that day.

As Bong continued reading his info sheet, noting again, that the crew would be at about half strength, including about 20 upperclassmen cadets.  The ship would then be assigned to general support duties in the sectors surrounding SB86, in keeping with the Cali-class mandate.

Bong flicked through the padd to the crew roster, which he had organized by departments.  They had competent staff in each department, but operations and flight control were both low on bridge watchstanders, and the number of officers assigned was strikingly low, only a dozen out of the standard compliment of about 50.  Bong made a note to volunteer to serve a duty shift at the helm or ops in addition to his standard duties as the Command Chief.

That role itself, one that Bong had last served in nearly a decade before, on the Soyuz-B (one of the original 6 Reliant-class vessels from the early 2390s), was a bit of a catch all.  It sat at the top of the career chain for almost all non technical noncommissioned officers in Starfleet.  Most ships, stations, bases and anywhere with a large starfleet presence had one.  It was a mix between a ships clerk, senior enlisted advisor, standards grader, and records officer(smaller stations and ships only).

For Bong this was actually a sidewase promotion, but then again, most of his career moves until he retired would be sidewase moves, it was more about accepting the assignments and transfers to positions that he wanted to serve in nowadays.  And when the career coordinator back on Earth had offered him this posting, it sounded like it could be a challenge, and he liked challenges.

Chief Bong found Midshipman Lotharys on the bridge, overseeing a technician in the midst of installing a new sciences console.  The bridge was fairly active, with a full half-dozen people working on various tasks towards the ship’s repairs.  Lotharys, a female Trill wearing a blue uniform, held up a finger in a “one moment” gesture as the technician powered the console; it flickered on for a moment, then sparks spat out from an open access panel and the console went dark again.  “Sorry, ma’am,” the technician said.  “Thought that had it.”

Lotharys nodded.  She looked a little frazzled, but trying gamely to keep it together.  “Just do what you can,” she replied, sighing softly and pinching the bridge of her nose as the technician returned to working on the console.  “At least it didn’t blow up this time…” she muttered as she walked towards the newcomer.  “Hello there.  Can I help you?”

“Midshipman Lotharys? Chief Bong, the new command chief.  Looks like the yard monkeys left a bit of work for us here.  If you want I’ll go stow my gear and jump right in a start giving you a hand.  Do we have berthing assignments yet, or should I draw some up?  I noticed we got about 20 new crew members who are due to arrive tomorrow,”  Bong said.

Lotharys sighed in relief.  “Help would be wonderful, Chief; Culver City’s coming together, but there’s still a lot to do.  Including berthing assignments; I’d been hoping to do those today, but the new bridge components came early, and I also still need to check the sensor calibration.”

“Well, why don’t I jump in there then.  I’m an old hand at paperwork. If there’s any other ships records or filing work that need to be done forward it to my PADD, sir.”  Bong was a professional; even though he was more then twice the age of the Trill, and had likely made Petty Officer before she was even born, she was the senior officer, and he was a Chief.  And in the age-old fashion, Chiefs always tried to make the officer look and feel special, and in return, when the shit hit the fan, the Chiefs expected the officers to heed their advice.

Lotharys stopped in her tracks; it had taken her a moment, but she remembered the Chief now.  He had been one of the instructors for her basic and intermediate Bridge Operations courses during her 2nd and 3rd year at the Academy.  He wasn’t one of the main instructors but he had always been around, she recalled.  “Wait, Chief, were you one of the Bridge Operations Instructors at the Academy?”

Bong chuckled as he walked towards the turbolift with his gear.  “Not one of, Midshipman, I was the Head Instructor of that series of courses.  I was disappointed when you didnt sign up for the Bridge Watchstanders course in your 4th year.  You did quite well in the 3rd year intermediate course as I recall.  It’s nice to see you again, Lotharys.”

“It’s good to see you too, Chief,” Lotharys said with a relieved smile.  “I’ll send over the paperwork.”  She paused a moment.  “Oh, Chief?  When you’re done, I could use a hand up here, too.  If you could make sure the bridge gets put back together, I can make sure our sensors are working right.”

“Sure thing, sir, I’ll be back in a bit.”  He entered the turbolift.

((About an hour and half later))

After picking a set of quarters for himself (shared quarters, having assigned one of the Engineering Chiefs as his bunk mate) and finishing the paperwork, Bong was about ready to head back to the bridge.

The paperwork Lotharys had sent him had included the bunk assignments, drafted requisitions for torpedoes and probes that still needed to be submitted as part of the final fitting-out, a requisition for a replacement industrial replicator (the last one had died when its EPS conduit blew), and requisitions for some components to upgrade the cargo transporter’s pattern buffer and signal emitter/receiver to allow them to move more cargo faster.  It was all straightforward, simply overlooked in the chaos of repairs, and quickly finished and submitted.

He had also found a few unacknowledged communiques in the ship’s records from a few months prior.  Apparently they had come in during a battle with the Vaadwaur, and since they were low priority comms, the officer manning the console at the time had simply missed them.  Since all but a few of the ships officers had died during that battle, no one had followed up, and the comms department on the Culver City was empty until tomorrow.

((Back on the Bridge))

Bong re-entered to find Lotharys elbows-deep in the sensor systems of the science console.  A cadet was pulling the Tactical console apart, and another was busy reassembling the Ops console.

Lotharys was a bit suprised to see the Chief back so soon.  She figured he had given up on some of the paperwork like she had and returned to help them on the bridge.  “Welcome back, chief.  Wasn’t expecting you back until after lunch at least.”

‘Ah nah, the paperwork you sent over is all caught up.  I’ve sent messages to all the crew arriving tomorrow notifying them about their billets so they don’t come looking for you or me when they come aboard.  Whats the situation here?” Bong said as he walked over to the midshipman with his hands in his pocket.

Lotharys straightened, wiping her forehead with one forearm.  “Well, the sciences console here actually does stay on now but the data connections to the sensor arrays aren’t staying stable long enough to run a full diagnostic sweep on the sensors, and the tactical console is about to be replaced altogether.  Ops may be ready for final testing, though, and the new helm console does need testing; the helmsman had to go requalify on Work Bees, in case they need to use one, and they’re not back yet.  Would you mind running those tests?”

“I’ll hop right on it sir…a couple things before I do though.  I think you might be having the ‘loose harness’ problem with that console you’re working on…  Check to make sure the harness for the power coupling isn’t coming loose.  That might be why you’re losing power randomly; if the harness looks old, just chop it off, pull some slack on the cables, and put a new harness adapter on the end,”  Bong said.

“I hadn’t got that far yet Chief, but now that you mention it… the harness jacket did seem a bit old and worn,” Lotharys replied as she was about to crouch back down and try his idea.

“Yeah, the original Cali‘s console coupling harnesses are famous for that… one other thing though.  I was checking the ships records, and apparently you’ve been wearing an incomplete uniform for the past 3 months.  This belongs to you, Ensign Lotharys,” he held out his hand and dropped a single full pip into Lotharys hand.

The cadet at the ops console hollered “Hey! Way to go, Ophelia; try to remember us little people when you start getting invited to the Captains mess now, girl.”

Bong chuckled as he made his way over to the Ops console and began helping the cadet reassemble it.

Lotharys smiled at the cadet, then looked at the pip in her hand.  She carefully removed the hollow pip she wore and replaced it with the solid pip, her fingers lingering on the metal for a moment before she sighed and turned back to the sciences console.  “Okay, let’s look at that harness…” she said to herself.

Sure enough, the power conduit harness was worn out, as were a pair of ODN couplers that were hidden behind it; a few minutes later, all were replaced.  Lotharys straightened, then powered the console up.  The sciences console powered smoothly, quickly returning telemetry from the ship’s passive sensors.  “Thanks, Chief!  That did it!”

A brief diagnostic program determined that the sensors were misaligned, by around 25 or 30 microns.  It probably wouldn’t have caused a major problem, but Lotharys recalibrated them all the same, and a follow-up diagnostic confirmed that the sensors were now in fine form.  “Sciences station is ready to go!” She announced with pride.

As Chief Bong seemed to have the Ops console well in hand, Lotharys checked in with the team working on tactical.  The old console had been fully removed, and a pair of maintenance techs were unpacking the components of the new console, so she lended a hand to get it unpacked and started on assembly.

After Bong and the cadet finished on the Ops console, he sent the cadet to help the other 2 while he did a full battery of tests on the helm console.  After another hour, the bridge was mostly reassembled, and as Lotharys was wiping her hands, Bong walked behind and quietly said “Lunch time, sir?”  He wasn’t hungry himself, but he knew the 3 of them had been hard at work since before he arrived, and the cadet and petty officer were looking a bit exhausted.  This was why Bong was sent here, and he was already enjoying the place.

“Oh, definitely lunchtime,” Lotharys responded, then turned to the cadet and petty officer with her and the chief.  “Great work, both of you!  Go get some food and rest for a bit.”  With that, she led the way into the turbolift and down towards the ship’s mess.