This is what I sorta call “Playing on the Fringe of Branded Content.” The idea is to write a story on the “side” or “parallel” to the story(ies) everyone already knows. The challenge is to imply the connection – no direct link of “when X was happening here is my story Y.”

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So here I am again, contemplating; why I hate my job, why I hate my life.

I was in the academy for four and a half years. The extra half was because I had a hard time with the personal training aspects of the course-work. So I couldn’t swim 5 kilometers immediately after fighting hand-to-hand with a giant hologram, whatever, I’m an engineer not a soldier, or so I thought.

I double majored to get an advanced degree in Magnetohydrodynamic Theory and Transwarp Subspace Phenomena with a minor in Exoarchaeology Studies. The minor is the study of alien cultures through the recovery, documentation and analysis of material remains and environmental data; just in case you were curious, which I’m sure you weren’t.

I’m a Chief Warrant Officer on the Galaxy-class Starship Burgundy. Sounds exciting and all official doesn’t it? Yeah not so much. For anyone counting that means I have a half of one pip.

I’ve been on the Starship Burgundy for three years already and still haven’t made Ensign. Why is this ship named after a color anyway? I mean all the other Galaxy-class ships have cool names like the Odyssey, Excalibur or Trident, and here I am on the freakin’ Burgundy…

There are 1,106 people on this ship and I swear it is run by a small club of 6 or 7 people that we never see or have any access to. Most of us never have any idea what is going on from day to day. One minute I’m having a snack and the next minute I wake up on the floor to find out that all of us had a space fungus that turned us into non-sentient vapors; for three days! I found this out from an interdepartmental memo. A memo, really?!?

We’re supposedly not the military but it seems that every other day we see the bridge crew running around yelling in the corridors with phasers or bat-leths or whatever. It is complete guess-work on whether we’re on a diplomatic mission or screaming across space attempting to flee something that wants to implode the universe. I have compiled a list of memos that try to explain how many times we have been thrown through time. I think I’ve figured out because of my proximity to the warp core that I’m around 11 months younger than I should be…

Plus my career path is all screwed up at this point. My degree specialties also don’t seem to effect at all on what I’m assigned to. There are so many bureaucratic levels between my crew chief and the bridge crew that I feel like I have to do something for her – I mean she looks so stressed all the time – her hair never looks right and she always seems twitchy. I figure she may know we’re going to get vaporized by some foreign force any day now or something but can’t tell us – I usually bring cookies to the staff meetings.

My duties consist of replicating console panels, that’s it. It used to be a tertiary task but we have so many of them blow up in a flash of sparks that now I have to do this every day. This has been my primary assigned task for over a year now. The Engineering department and the bridge are the worst areas hit. I think I have replaced the tactical console on the bridge more than two dozen times. I don’t normally get to physically install them myself but I did once six or seven months ago. I remember standing over the console sneaking a glance at the big chair daydreaming about my own command when I swear I heard our Chief Medical Officer actually report that the Captain had been turned into a bug. A freaking bug…

I need a career move, and fast. Maybe at our next layover I’ll ask to be transferred to one of those deep space stations. I bet those are more relaxed.

I heard in the break-room that some kid actually got a field commission to Ensign and is flying our flagship… Once again proof that this is one big popularity club.

[[End Personal Log, Stardate 4637 uh 7 I think… what is today? Something point two or actually who cares…]]