It takes hundreds of personnel to staff a starship or starbase. For every Chief Engineer and Chief Tactical Officer, hundreds of additional personnel see to the daily operations associated with their departments — Computer Systems Analysts, Botanists and Phaser technicians. Although players will most often portray characters vital to the operation of a starship — glamorous positions like Flight Control, Chief Medical Officer or Security Chief — they might also portray characters assigned to other duties. Below are listed several shipboard positions.
Engineering
Engineering is in charge of maintaining every ship system at optimal efficiency. It requires hard work and dedication for a career below deck, but every time a system runs without a hitch, its a personal affirmation to the technician who last repaired it. An engineering technician often becomes quite attached to his part of a ship, taking it personally anytime it suffers a disparaging comment.
- Sensor Maintenance - Main deflector array, probes
- Shuttlecraft Maintenance - All shuttlecraft (shipboard and visiting) and hangar bays.
- Structural Engineer - Space frame, superstructure, materials.
- Warp Drive Engineer - Dilithium crystals, warp field theory.
- Matter/Energy Engineer - Transporters, replicators
- Environmental Engineer - Inertial dampeners, gravity systems, life support
Operations
A number of tasks ensure the efficiency of starship operations. Without a well trained transporter technician, mishaps during beam-up can go terribly wrong, and a Sensor Specialist is quite handy in reading even the most minute signals received by the deflector dish.
- Computer Technician - Operates computer, maintains computer core.
- Transporter Technician - Beams individuals and teams to and from ship.
- Sensor Specialist - Assures sensors are at optimal efficiency and overseas computer recalibrations for specialty tasks.
- Medical Technician - Assists the Chief Medical Officer in sick bay.
- Duty Officer - Each department has an officer charged with assigning the duty rosters of that department. On smaller ships, this tack is usually performed by one of the officers, such as the Chief Engineer for engineering and the Security Chief for security.
Sciences
Starships and bases often host a wide variety of scientific experiments, and thus usually berth a number of Starfleet scientists in many fields of study. These fields are more unified in 2370 than in our present age; Starfleet members generally have broad knowledge of many endeavors. Nonetheless, it is still often necessary to specialize, considering the vast lore each field contains. Listed here is a mere sampling of the possible science positions a character can assume.
- Life Sciences - Agronomist, Anatomist, Biologist, Botanist, Ecologist, Embryologist, Horticulturist, Marine Biologist, Microbiologist, Zoologist
- Physical Sciences - Chemist, Climatologist, Geochemist, Meteorologist, Mineralogist, Oceanographer, Organic Chemist, Paleontologist, Seismologist, Soil Science, Volcanologist
- Social Sciences - Anthropologist, Archaeologist, Geographer, Political Scientist, Sociologist
- Space Sciences - Astronomer, Astrophysicist, Stellar Cartographer, Particle Physicist
