All Hands on Deck

Posted on Thu May 7th, 2026 @ 3:09am by Lieutenant T'Vei & Commander Saul Whitford

1,264 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Lines in the Vacuum
Location: Executive Officer's Office
Timeline: 12 Hours Before Nausicaan's Arrival

OOC: Bit of a backlog from Echoes on the Deck.

IC:

The numbers were not encouraging.

Forty-three positions on the armory roster were either pending arrival or entirely unfilled, including the majority of their officers. By any reasonable tactical projection, Sentinel Station was not prepared for sustained combat.

Assistance was therefore required.

T'Vei strode into the XO's office and announced to the yeoman, "Sublieutenant T'Vei, acting armory chief, requesting an audience with Commander Whitford regarding station combat preparedness."

Looking up from a report the Engineering section had compiled on the station's power grid, Whitford frowned, a memory of another equally blunt Vulcan crossing his mind. A glass of whisky. An unguarded touch of hands. He pushed the memory away. That was a long time ago. He was a different man during the early years of the War.

His frown passed, his natural predilection to smile rearing it's head. He got to his feet, and nodded. 'Acting Armoury Chief T'Vei. A pleasure to meet you. I'll not shake your hand, I know Vulcans mostly don't enjoy that kind of contact with emotionally unruly species.' He motioned to one of the seats in front of his terminal desk. 'You have an audience, now, how can I help you?'

T'Vei raised an eyebrow at the self-identification as an 'emotionally unruly species' but left the comment unremarked upon. The knowledge of Vulcan preferences was, however, noted. She took the offered seat.

"Thank you, Commander," T'Vei said. "The armory is preparing for a potential engagement with the Nausicaans. However, the department is not fully staffed. We have sufficient personnel to operate the station's weapons and field two security teams simultaneously. I require fifteen additional crew members placed on standby as emergency response teams in the event we are engaged in combat and our defenses are breached."

'Fifteen?' Whitford asked, blinking as he processed the information. 'That's taking a lot of manpower from other departments,' he hedged, sitting himself down behind his desk. 'Other than Security, most of the other departments are small - you're essentially asking to take personnel out of station operations for the duration of this crisis ...'

"Negative. I am requesting fifteen personnel be armed and prepared to respond to a boarding action," T’Vei clarified. "Their current assignments already place them across multiple decks, ensuring rapid response to critical areas while maintaining normal operations. It would therefore be illogical to remove them from those duties before such an event occurs. Having this contingency in place permits me to assign my dedicated security teams to different sectors to ensure full defensive coverage.'

'That's a very good point,' Whitford replied with raised eyebrows. 'That shouldn't be too much of a strain on the other departments then.' He thought a moment, and said, 'the best way about it is to arm only those with exemplary disciplinary records, for now.' He smiled, 'I'm also willing to volunteer my services if needed. And if we find we need more, we can expand the list of personnel. I assume you've considered locking down sections of the station to authorised personnel only as well?'

T'Vei calmly noted Whitford's name as a volunteer on her padd. She had already verified access levels to critical station components such as weapons, sensors, and operations were for Starfleet personnel only. However, her experience was principally aboard Vulcan starships, not Starfleet space stations. Had she missed a necessary task?

What she said was, "Elaborate."

'The station is as much a civilian outpost as much as a military one - we'll be developing into a trading hub for this sector the longer we're here. At the moment it's farily quiet, but as we get busier our civilian establishments and foot traffic will increase. With Nausicaans both being a threat and a commercial opportunity we should look to limiting sensitive areas of the station to Starfleet personnel only.'

"Intriguing," T'Vei said. "I had not considered the the Nausicaans as potential trading partners, only as a diplomatic envoy and potential threat. This introduces additional nuance to their approach."

She tilted her head slightly, considering her options. "Key systems already require access codes. At present, we lack sufficient personnel to guard all sensitive areas of the station. Requiring personnel to manually enter codes for door access would prove inefficient during a crisis."

She continued, looking back to Whitford. "Commander, I recommend we implement security keys: encoded cards that transmit a stored frequency, permitting their bearers to access restricted compartments according to their preprogrammed clearance. They can be generated and distributed to Starfleet personnel prior to the Nausicaans' arrival."

'That sounds like an efficient way to do it,' Whitford replied, liking the cut of T'Varel's jib. Like the other Vulcans he had had the pleasure of working and socialising with during his time in Starfleet, they were quick to the point and solution-based. He found himself smiling at past encounters. 'Do you think you could key it to a person's comm-link? That way they don't have to carry about an extra piece of kit.'

"Yes," T'Vei replied without hesitation and then saw the logic in the request. "In addition, this encourages personnel not to rely exclusively on wall comms. Efficient."

'I hadn't considered that,' Whitford admitted. 'That would help things should it come to an emergency situation.' He leant back in his seat, and smiled, 'you have a good head for this stuff Lieutenant - but that would be typical from my experience of Vulcan personnel. Been with Starfleet long?'

"I have been a part of the Vulcan Exploratory Force for nine years, two months," T'Vei answered. "This is my first time serving aboard a Starfleet installation, although I have been curious about the integration efforts for man years. You were with Starfleet prior to the Federation's founding? Have you much experience serving with Vulcans, Commander?"

'I was - I've been a career Starfleeter since the forties - long before we dreamed of Coalitions or Federations.' His smile widened, 'those were very different days, I can tell you. A lot more chafing around our relationship with Vulcan especially. It's good it's changed. And experiencing serving with several Vulcan officers helped that - I don't think there's been many berths I've taken since the Romulan War where I haven't had a Vulcan officer of some sort aboard.' He shrugged, grinned, 'of course, some proved to be more fun than others.'

He gestured in her direction. 'So. This is your first time serving with human or other species other than Vulcans?'

"That is correct," T'Vei confirmed. "I am accustomed to being rated on efficiency, not 'fun.' I am, however, open to learning the ways of other species."

'As we should all be,' Whitford replied warmly. 'Only way this new Federation and Starfleet of ours works is if we're willing to try and understand each other, and learn from others. I'm sure humans can still learn a lot from Vulcans, despite our close history thus far.' He grinned, 'whether Vulcans have something to learn from humans ... that's another question entirely.'

"And one I look forward to answering together," T'Vei said. "If there is nothing else at the moment, Commander, I need to finish preparing the station for the Nausicaan's arrival."

'Of course, Lieutenant,' Whitford replied, getting to his feet. 'If there's anything further you need, please don't hesitate to ask.'

----------------

Commander Saul Whitford
Executive/Chief Operations Officer
Sentinel Station

Sublieutenant T'Vei
Acting Chief Armory Officer
Sentinel Station

 

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