Entropy's Compass

Chapter One.

Sub Ensign Genevieve Delacroix found herself alone on the Bridge. 

Even given it was the middle of the Night Duty watch this was a surprise and, she was forced to admit, more than a little bit of a thrill. Other than the barely audible hum of the bank of electrical consoles and duty stations, the quiet of the bridge was as complete as it could be.   The dull metal of the control stations all gleamed - well, as much as dull metal could gleam - all required duties had been completed for the shift and the AI was monitoring for incoming hypercom traffic, of which none was expected.   She was not some starry-eyed kid on her first space voyage; she had spent eight years rising through the ranks as an ordinary crew person and, in her time, had manned many a bridge console in Fleet vessels ranging from resupply freighters to Battleships. This was new territory for her though.

The exploration vessel Kepler  lay at high stationkeeping orbit on full autopilot whilst the dark watch was manned, as per regulations, by three Ships' Officers. Most usually in cases such as this the three most junior available officers would be tapped for these shifts unless the Captain was an absolute stickler for every dotted 'i' of said regulations, in which case a full Lieutenant at the very least would be the ranking officer.  Captain Ramesh Jamai, a competent and much respected Captain whose avuncular exterior belied the duranium hardness he could bring forth at need, had found a way to satisfy both regulations AND officer morale though.  He had rostered Lt Mirannon, the newest member of the Flight Surgeon's Department who was receiving what amounted to on the job training of the things books couldn't prepare you for, as the ranking Bridge member but also issued instructions that her Duty station would be Medical Bay, where there was a small but comfortable duty crew member berth that she was instructed to use. It was far more likely her medical skills would be needed before her Command skills and this left her available to supply either on virtually no notice; a very suitable outcome in the mind of the Captain, whom years of experience had shown that it was the possibility unplanned for which was most likely to occur. Indeed, it was typical of the care Captain Jamai took of his crew that he would take this approach but his rostering of the junior Medic to the Dark Watch also a very practical one;  as Medical staff were considered on call; at all times at least one of her Department was needed, even if the most serious condition needing treatment was probably a skinned knuckle in Engineering, or a scald from a spilled cup of coffee. Most probably, her rostering would see her get a full night's sleep, fulfil Ships Regulations and be fully rested in the morning, smiling, fresh and ready to learn during the day from the more experienced Medical staff - a definite Win/Win.

In turn, the other two officers would be one of the Sub Lieutenants and an Ensign, thus ensuring that those more recent graduates of the Officer Cadet Corps could gain valuable hands on experience as a command rank officer without the natural relaxation of focus that having a more senior Officer on deck during the watch would inevitably bring about. When your job was simply to follow orders it could still be tense but you always had that mental safety blanket available to you. Being the one on whom the Ship and its complement was relying to assess the situation in an instant without warning; now that guaranteed focus.

Whilst it was not graven in Fleet granite then that a graduate Ensign must fill the third berth, it was usually the case. With rank came some small privileges and being able to sleep through the uncalled uneventful Dark Watch was certainly one of those. There were instances, of course, where this would and did change. A Captain could choose to fill the berth and many did - the better Captains were noted for this proclivity - even though it ensured them at least a double shift for the day in question; rare indeed was a Captain willing to sleep through the working heart of the Ship's day no matter how little sleep they might have had. The departure from standard - rarely given advance notice - were popular and unobvious ruses which allowed the senior officer to be seen by and interact with crew members from all watches by simply going for a walk through of the ship. In this way the Commanding Officer was free to visit and observe every area of his domain, make note of practices which could be recommended to other departments, amend performances and procedures and generally stay abreast of the often unseen happenings on board all without the need for a Formal and reportable Ships Review. Time and again, these sudden and unannounced appearances had a positive, even salutary affect on crew morale and performance, not to mention bringing more than a few below deck card games to a quiet but categoric closure.