Jefe

Maria didn't like what the Rotation said on the Duty Roster.....she had been moved to Engine Room on the Graveyard....well, at least she wouldn't be standing watch with that jerk-ass Bobby-Boy anymore.....but she was trained best for Comm, not Engines....whatever.....

"Hey Kim, how did the Old Man get to be Chief anyway? He's not an officer.....I don't even think he's enlisted....isn't he just a civilian with a Warrant or something?"

Kim gave her a blank look.....Kim is good at blank looks....."The Jefe is Chief because of three things, Maria....K, C, and P.....keys, codes, and passwords. It's true he doesn't have any formal Fleet rank to speak of, but he controls this vehicle, because he controls Systems."

"Five things really" interjects Stacy, ducking through the bulkhead into the station..."Keys, codes, passwords, voice recognition and biometric scan. All that makes him the absolute master on Fleet Auxiliary Vessel Fifth Class Ready.....detached from Command by circumstances....."

That sums it up pretty good, Maria realized.....the circumstances being that the rest of their battle group had been rendered into subatomic particles by the alien heavy weaponry.....the Old Man had jinked and twisted them through the chaos of the action, and they had jumped at emergency power as far away as they could get.....which left them out here god knows where, a dozen lost souls, ten thousand light-years from home.....