Logistics is not a dirty word.
Lt Cdr Alex Ward sighed and looked at the tower of pads on his desk. He had been logistics officer of the fleet flag ship for six months now and hated the job. It wasn't the 18hr days, the endless vip visits, the persistent issues with pay or the infestation of glaxxon mice in 10 deck stores that upset him, it was the total lack of respect he and his department received from command. As he sat there 8 decks above him the Captain was having his daily command brief, a brief he was not invited to. Alex had never worked out how the Doctor went to this brief but not him.
In the century of the replicator many people though the logistics of the ship was a mute point. On HMS INVINCIBLE, the British 20th century aircraft carrier which had 1000 people onboard when fully crewed up, 5 officers ran the Logistics department. Today there was just him. No one seemed to realise that his department kept the ship running.
Whilst the majority of equipment and food was replicated there was still a requirement to keep 2 weeks of food and stores onboard just in case the replicators couldn't be used. There was also the fresh fruit and veg which had to be brought on and stored everytime they went planet side, no matter how good the replicators were they just weren't real enough (this also meant there had to be chefs to be able to cook it). Stores that couldn't be replicated had to be kept on board to keep the ship running and the rate they went through phases and triple manifold coils kept the stores office busy enough. For some reason people thought LaForge ordered all the engine parts himself but he didn't know a Sierra 567 bravo from his elbow.
Then there were the stewards. The Enterprise was at times just a glorified taxi shuttling ambassadors across the cosmos – next week they had 500 Royal Marines embarking into the EMF (embarked military force) cabins on 8 deck. It took quite a large team of stewards to keep all the extra cabins clean and ready to be used – some of the ambassadors left their cabins as if they had a week partying in vegas. Cocktail parties and official functions did not organise themselves – Guinan helped but she had 10 fwd to run. There was the housekeeping on the officer's cabins - for every Data who kept their cabin spotless you then had a Worf who seemed to think bloodwine was a better colour than the normal carpets.
Capt Picard was also the most difficult captain he had worked with. Ward was a trained barrister yet Picard still insisted on conducting all trials of the officers on board himself. Alex had watched in pain the numerous cases Picard botched his way through. The 'tin man case' should of taken 10 mins but somehow he turned it into 3 weeks of deliberations. When Riker was accused of murder the case had more holes than a holy colander. Picard was no Perry Mason – in fact he was captain of the fleet flagship he didn't have time to act the lawyer! The Captain hated PR and VIPs but as flag ship for the fleet these were essential tasks to be done. This dislike also explained why he was still captain rather than Commodore or admiral.
Alex sighed again. On his desk he had 3 VIP visit memorandum do be published for the next week ranging from the president of Regius 3 to Brigadier Kane who was coming on to celebrate the corps' birthday with the Royal Marines. There was the 2 articles to finish to go to Fleet news about the ship's latest visit to Veridian 4 and how the ship had won the annual Fleet field gun competition. He hadn't even started the ship's memorandum about the change in travel allowances – he didn't even want to think about the rawkus that would cause in the lower decks – last year when the federation decided to change holiday entitlement the ship's office had deal with 1000 people moping and griping that they had 1 day less a year. And then there was the visit to Primus 6 to organise for next month- Stores had to be ordered, diplomatic clearance obtained, currency to get and routines to be set.
Alex opened a draw in his desk and pulled out a bottle of 20-yr-old Macallum Scottish whiskey and poured himself a glass. He smiled. Most people on board would have given their back teeth for a wee dram of the real stuff but whilst people ignored his department they also ignored the fact there was crates and crates of the stuff in the hold along with Romulan ale and Sumarian brandy – if only they asked. Oh well it could have been worse he could be EA of Admiral Nechayev...