Executive Material

Posted on Tue Oct 27th, 2026 @ 7:21am by Captain James Phoenix

737 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Frozen Acquisition
Location: Ready Room
Timeline: Three days ago

James sat in his ready room, slouched back in his chair. The Horizon wasn't due to depart for another day or so and as such, the upper half of DS9 was still visible in his window.

He had a mess of personnel files on his desk. Last minute, command had transferred most of his senior staff as soon as they arrived leaving only him, Inara, and a few other officers who were in interim senior positions already. Of course it was right before a vital mission into potential hostile waters.

Crew transfers were always expected, but he loathed it when he lost senior officers to other postings at the last minute, especially when he barely got to know them. Why even bother sending them to the Horizon if they were to be whisked away last minute? On the other hand, he was proud of them. Most of the officers he lost were promoted and he wanted the best for them. It was just a terrible time for it to happen.

His top priority was filling the slot for his new number one. Most of the PADDs on the desk were qualified officers of the Lieutenant Commander and Commander ranks. Some of them had applied for the posting, others hadn't but had caught his and command's eye.

The first file he had picked up was a familiar officer. Commander Kate Kono. They had served together on the Washington under Captain Shran. She carried a bubbly personality, but could get serious when it was called for. He had seen her in combat before and he trusted her with his life. However her current post was quite prestigious, and he was reluctant to pry her from it.

The next officer was another familiar face. Commander Elisa Flores. One of his closest friends. They had bonded at the Academy during Professor Adric's tactical training, one of the hardest courses a cadet could take if they weren't Red Squad. His relationship here was very similar to his and Kate's. The difference was he had offered her the position before and she turned it down for a more combat focused posting. The difference was she was now in Adric's old job at the Academy. However he was reluctant to leave the cadets with an unknown professor.

Perhaps Phoenix was overthinking. He couldn't wait for command to send an officer.

A few hours later...

James still hadn't found an XO. He was nearly at the bottom of the list. He even reached out to Flores yet again, who immediately turned it down. Hell, he even considered asking Ashlynn if she wanted to return to the Horizon. Starfleet wasn't too strict when it came to a couple being the command staff. It'd been done before. The difference was Ash was also in a prestigious interim position. He didn't want to take that away from her and he knew for damn sure she'd return no questions asked. Not that he'd hate that, but he didn't want to be the reason her career stalled. Besides, they could do the long distance thing.

The Captain continued searching the PADDs. Most of them were distinguished, but save for his former comrades, the files were starting to feel cookie cutter. Top of her class this, High command marks that. And then he stopped.

Commander Nith. A Vulcan. He'd nearly overlooked it. Why did he stop? Her profile was largely the same as all of the others. Was it that her career was largely the same as his own? Perhaps. Or perhaps it was because she was the only Vulcan on the list?

As a matter of fact it was both. A Vulcan would prove beneficial as his number one. A being who was well versed in logic would help keep him in check; not that it was a concern to him anyway.

After a while, he made his decision. While having someone who knew him was beneficial, it was not necessary. Commander Nith was, ironically, the logical choice. She didn't know him, nor did he know her. He somehow knew that she was the correct choice at the moment.

Unfortunately, it would be an expedited request. He knew that she could get there in a couple of days, but it was quite literally last minute. He sent the transfer request and cleaned up the remaining files. He knew the other officers would find their way into similar postings soon enough

 

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