When the Chief's not around...

Posted on Sun Jun 12th, 2011 @ 3:00pm by Captain Benjamin Byrne & Lieutenant JG Dylan Tyler

Mission: Kingdom Come
Location: USS Endeavour - Security Offices

Benjamin stepped through the doors into the security office, but stopped just past the door's sensors, looking around for the face of his Betazoid Lieutenant. Not seeing her at the place she would usually be while in the office - behind her desk, he instead turned to the next best thing; Ensign Tyler was the security deputy on the Endeavour - a human male, Ben had thus far spent very little time with him, though he had noticed the man about the ship and on the bridge during the Beta shift, and remembered a few details beyond the face from the personnel report he had read whilst dealing with initial crew assignments.

"Where's Lieutenant Vanders?" Benjamin asked, approaching the Ensign at the desk he was sat behind.

The Ensign had indeed been waiting for Lieutenant Vanders for quite some time but he had been informed by text that she would be delayed in coming to her post with her apologies. Dylan decided to take the time to look over some of the diagnostics report that he had ordered on his previous day's shift. He had grown a bit worried at the science head's response to the captain's request for status by her saying 'everything's good...considering'. 'Considering' was never an adequate answer. Dylan kept a close eye on the repair crews during his shift the previous day and had actually planned on doing yet another check when the captain came in unexpectedly. Dylan stood up immediately at attention.

"Captain Byrne, my apologies, I didn't know Lieutenant Vanders was expecting you. She was delayed," Dylan tried to hide the annoyance on his face. He had sworn that he would not start making accusations about his commanding officer so early on, but she has literally spent less than an hour in this office since Dylan had arrived, "I'm sure she'll be along shortly."

"Well, maybe you can help me then, Ensign," Ben said, resting his hands and upper body weight on the top of the desk as he reached it. "I want to know the security arrangements we have in place for the negotiations and the time we'll be in the Nevarra Cluster."

Ensign Tyler had actually been wanting to talk to Lieutenant Vanders about this very subject, but she seems to either be avoiding him or her duty which has been a constant struggle to not interject on. But Dylan smiled and looked at the Captain with an assuring smile, or as assuring as one could have under the circumstances.

"I had actually wanted to ask you what kind of arrangements you would like to have made. Standard protocol states that the negotiators would have diplomatic quarters for the duration and that the negotiators themselves would actually dictate how they would want the negotiations set up and Security would respond with how their wishes may be best secured. My preliminary thoughts would probably include a skeletal lock on the negotiators as well as any Starfleet personnel on the planet while the negotiations were underway and that any guests without Ensign-level Starfleet security clearance would not be allowed to access any sensitive part of the ship including areas that may be considered easy ways to manufacture a weapon. But these were strictly MY preliminary thoughts on the matter, I am not certain how Lieutenant Vanders had wanted to proceed."

Benjamin nodded. "All sound precautions," he told the security officer. "Mister S'Reln informs me that the exact details of the negotiations are being agreed upon between himself with the Diplomatic Corps, and King Aengus' staff, so I'll make sure he forwards the arrangements to you." He decided to ignore the fact that Vanders wasn't here for the moment, and simply find out where she was at a later time. Her deputy seemed the capable enough sort, so he would deal with him for now. "Now, I understand that after the first stage of negotiations have taken place, as well as the state dinner that the senior staff will be called to, the Nevarrans have agreed to allow a few cultural studies to take place. The Cluster itself is a compact group of systems, so I'll likely be sending out teams to a few of their different systems within the Cluster, as well as numerous teams planetside each day. They've given us a fantastic opportunity to scientific endeavours, and I want to capitalise on that."

"It might be best that Security look over all of the data that the Nevarrans have on these other species as well as our Starfleet Database to determine the type of security teams that may be required. I don't have any first hand knowledge of these species and I would rather not go in blind. May I have your permission to requisition those records from the Nevarrans?" Dylan asked. The captain seemed as if Lt. Vanders' absence was not a big deal. This was a bit disturbing to Dylan as he was pulling his hair out trying to get a hold of the blasted woman.

"Go ahead and send the request," Byrne responded. "Though to my knowledge there are only one or two other species within the Cluster - that's one of the curious things about it; the majority of systems have at least one habitable planet, but the Nevarrans are almost completely dominant, despite evolving on just one world. Regardless, I think it would be a good idea to have a security team with each one of these teams as they go out. How many teams can we manage at once with the security teams we have onboard?"

Dylan pulled out the roster. Fortunately, there had been a lot of transfers that came to tactical while they were undergoing repairs. Apparently a bug infestation made certain people eager for some action that this ship might have. "We are fully staffed, I believe we could manage 4 security details composed of three security officers with each team. Possibly 5 or 6 if you're comfortable with less guards per team. Though, I wouldn't suggest it. That would put 12 security guards off the ship not to mention the minimum of 18 for the ship and the 10 that will be part of the conference on rotating shifts protecting both the delegates and the negotiation sight. I will come up with a list of security constructs for you to look over and have Lieutenant Vanders forward them to you once she has looked them over." Most of the time, Dylan respected and liked protocol. It gave structure, and balance. But frankly, when one of the damn steps in the protocol refuse to even come into their shift on time it gets damn frustrating.

Benjamin nodded. "Sounds good. Forward a copy to Commander Ballard too," he instructed. He didn't know what was going on with Vanders lately, but her recent behaviour was very out of the ordinary for her. He wanted to make sure that the Ensign's security proposals didn't get lost in the chain because she may have other stuff going on. He silently resolved to get her into his office. "We'll have no idea until we get there just how many academic studies we're likely to be able to explore, so I want the security plans to be flexible. I want an easy adaptation to a situation which will likely evolve rather organically."

Dylan nodded to the captain's order. "Will do, sir. I was actually hoping to work with the security personnel that the Nevarrans have as well. They are more familiar with the region and it would give me a better idea as to how many security teams we will need to assign. I'll be sure to finish the proposals before I leave today, sir," Dylan said as he brought out all of the data he did have on the sector and look it over.

"Very good Ensign," the captain said, nodding his satisfaction. "Carry on."

-----------------------
Captain Benjamin J. Byrne
Commanding Officer

&

Ensign Dylan Tyler
Asst. Chief of Security