A tactical update

Posted on Sun Aug 2nd, 2026 @ 8:00am by Lieutenant JG Mara Tomason & Lieutenant JG Lars Swenson

2,240 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Silence at Ulysses
Location: Deck 3 - Security Office
Timeline: Mission 1, Day 1, 0730

Mara Tomason sat at the main security console with her boots propped against its lower edge, her uniform jacket hanging half-open and a half-finished mug of coffee cooling untouched beside her elbow.

Lieutenant Swenson had been called away to some staff meeting or other, leaving her in charge of the security office.

Being left in charge meant that Thomason should be monitoring the ship’s security systems, reviewing the duty logs, and remaining available in the unlikely event that anything aboard the Ithaca required an actual security officer.

Instead, Mara was sitting with a PADD in one hand and an expression that clearly warned, Do not disturb me unless something is on fire.

The Ithaca’s security office had been built with the same grim imagination as every other room aboard a small Starfleet science vessel: clean lines, neutral panels, and chairs designed by someone who had either never sat down or considered comfort morally suspicious. Equipment lockers lined one wall, each sealed and inventoried. A tactical display occupied another, cycling through Starfleet security updates, internal sensor reports, and live feeds from the ship’s few brig cells, all of which were empty and powered down.

Mara thumbed through a Ferengi auction site, looking for a new antique to add to her small collection of restoration projects. She had already filtered past replica bat’leths, fake Andorian duelling blades, and enough “authentic pre-Surak Vulcan war relics” to arm a very gullible museum. Most of it was junk. Some of it was expensive junk.

Eventually, Tomason found something worth a second look: a well-preserved Romulan dagger with a narrow blade and a dark, worn grip. She sat up a fraction, reading through the description and cycling through the images. Then she checked the current bids.

Her face fell.

The dagger was already out of her price range.

With visible reluctance, Mara backed out to the main page and resumed scrolling through the listings, searching for anything else interesting enough to save the shift from becoming terminally dull.

Nothing aboard the Ithaca ever seemed to require her full attention, and Tomason had begun slipping back into old habits, taking her duties less seriously than she knew she should.

For weeks, the Ithaca had crept through the Vesper March cataloguing nebulae, measuring particle densities, and treating every frozen lump of metal like it might stand up and deliver a keynote address.

The scientists aboard found all of it fascinating.

Mara found it absolutely tedious.

Swenson was in the command meeting with the captain and other senior officers. The focus of the meeting was the new assignment, discovering what happened to one of our listening posts. The meeting lasted slightly over 35 minutes. Swenson learned what his duties, and those of the security section, were. He told the captain that everything would be ready.

Swenson returned to the security office

Tomason glanced up as Swenson entered the security office and headed toward the main console.

“Lieutenant Swenson,” she said, by way of greeting, before returning her attention to the PADD. “Meeting finished already? Let me guess: more space dust needs scanning, and Security’s been assigned to protect it from hostile observation?”

Swenson sat in a chair opposite Tomason. "No, actually. We have an actual mission to locate and investigate a listening post gone quiet. I'm going to suggest to the captain that we start holding security drills, to keep the crew ready." He was curious about what held her attention on her PADD. He reached over and quickly snatched it from her hand and sat back in his chair. "A Ferengi auction listing?" He scrolled through the listings. "You know you shouldn't trust a Ferengi when it comes to auctions. 9 out of 10 times the items are stolen or replicated." Swenson handed the PADD back to her. Then he imputed something into his PADD and handed it back to her. "If you insist on dealing with auctions, try this one. They're honest and reasonably priced. I've bought some items from them myself."

Tomason studied the site Swenson had loaded onto her PADD. “The Emerald Exchange?” She glanced over at him. “You do realise these people are backed by the Orion Syndicate, right? Most of the items listed here are either stolen or counterfeit, and the profits are funnelled straight back into the Syndicate.”

She shook her head. “At least with the Ferengi, you know who you’re dealing with.”

Swenson smiled. "The people I deal with are not part of the Orions; in fact, my people have sent me information about the Orions that I have passed on to Command. They have helped shut down some Syndicate operations."

Mara set the PADD down on the console and looked at Swenson again. “You mentioned something about a station going silent. What’s that all about?”

Swenson leaned forward. "One of our listening posts, Ulysses Station. It's gone silent. We're the closest ship, so command has sent us orders to investigate. We're on our way now, at maximum speed." He leaned back. "We'll start full drills tomorrow at 0600 hours. Understood?"

Tomason nodded and jerked a thumb toward the storage lockers. “We should probably dust off the weapons and give them a proper service. We haven't used them in a little bit, so it would be good to make sure they work.”

“We should test the ship’s guns as well,” Mara said, following the thought through. “There’s bound to be an asteroid nearby that won’t object to having a few new holes put in it.”

Pulling her attention back to the present, Tomason asked, “What drills are we running tomorrow? I’m guessing we should prepare for the possibility of boarding the station.”

"The captain wants to get to the outpost as soon as possible, so that means no side trips, even to test the phasers, but that was a good idea," Swenson said. "I want to talk about you, namely, your fleet record. I've read your file and my opinion: you should have made lieutenant commander by now, but you seem to have an issue with senior officers." Swenson paused, "What is your story?"

“Might be worth taking a short break. If we keep running at maximum warp, we’ll have to slow down eventually; the Ithaca isn’t designed to maintain high warp speeds for long,” Mara said. While the Ithaca was a capable ship, she wasn’t the newest or fanciest vessel, and she had her limits.

“Ah, yes. The old service history gem,” Mara said with a small smile.

“I grew up on a freighter. We were a working ship, a family ship,” she continued, her eyes growing distant as childhood memories resurfaced. “There wasn’t much room for rules or regulations. When something went wrong, you fixed it before it ruined the cargo or killed someone. We did what we had to do to survive on the frontier.”

“You didn’t file a formal complaint or write a report. You dealt with the issue there and then: usually with a lot of shouting and, occasionally, a few fistfights.” Mara chuckled as she remembered some of the more heated family arguments.

After a moment, Tomason returned her attention to Swenson. “Apparently, Starfleet doesn’t like that approach.” She sighed softly. “An officer I used to know took offence when I corrected his sloppy work. I chose to voice my opinion, and he didn’t like it,” she added with a shrug, knowing that was an oversimplification of what happened.

“Besides, I do my best work in the heat of the moment or the middle of a battle. Somehow, though, I keep getting assigned to small, quiet vessels like this one.” Tomason gestured around the room, indicating the Ithaca

Swenson had listened to her history. He already knew it, but it seemed correct to let her tell it. "I'll just say this. Here," indicating the ship , "we follow rules, we show respect to senior officers, and we do exactly what the Captain says to do. You think you can do that here?"

Tomason paused, weighing a dozen possible responses before settling on one.
“Respect goes both ways, Swenson,” Mara said, with a soft tone in her voice. “If you respect me, then I will respect you as well.”

A chuckle escaped her. "As for the rules…” Tomason gave Swenson a quick wink. “We’ll have to see about that one. Some of them are just made to be broken.”

Swenson shook his head. "We have to be a team. We have to operate as a team. If we don't do our job, people die. Can you understand that!" He was starting to get tired of this person's disregard of the rules.

“I understand it better than you think,” Mara said quietly, the words tightening in her throat.

The scar along her left cheek began to sting. For an instant, she was seventeen again, braced inside the S.S. Henrik’s Folly as pirate raiders stormed the freighter. Scorched power conduits sparked above. Boots hammered against the deck plates. The smell of charred flesh lingered in the air, making it hard to breathe.

Two crew members had died that day. Mara had carried a reminder of that day on her face ever since.

She held Swenson’s gaze. “A good officer knows the regulations. A good person knows when hiding behind them will get someone hurt, or worse.” Her voice hardened. “We’re expected to use our judgement, not surrender it. We’re not machines, Swenson. We don’t follow blindly. We think, and we answer to our conscience.”

“And before you point to my record, I know it isn’t perfect; I've screwed up in the past”, Tomason said. “Sometimes I ignore regulations because they waste time. Sometimes I put off paperwork because I hate doing it. And sometimes,” one corner of her mouth lifted “, I follow a rule in the most inconvenient way possible because the officer enforcing it has annoyed me.”

The faint smile disappeared from Mara's face.

“But when there’s a real threat, I don’t play games. I don’t abandon my post, I don’t leave someone behind, and I don’t take chances with another person’s life.” She paused, collecting her thoughts and reining in her emotions. “Give me an objective, and I’ll do everything I can to bring our people home. Give me an order I think will get them killed, and I’ll tell you so. Clearly. Probably loudly.”

“If you hear me out and still give the order, then unless it crosses a line I can’t live with, I’ll carry it out. If I ever do refuse, I won’t hide behind excuses afterwards. I’ll accept whatever comes with it.”

Mara leaned back, allowing a little space to open between them.

“You don’t have to find me easy to manage, Swenson. I’m not. But don’t mistake difficult for disloyal, or inconvenient for untrustworthy.” She nodded toward the security displays. “Give me my part in tomorrow’s drill. Then judge me by what I do with it.”

Swenson had listened very intently to her; he guessed the best way to describe her 'rules' as 'when it's convenient to her'. Despite that, he was willing to let her take a major part in the upcoming drills. "Fine. I've spoken with the Captain and the Chief Engineer. We will have to drop out of warp to recharge the engines. During those periods, you," he pointed his finger at her, "will be in charge of the target practice. I will judge you in many ways. Do a good job, and I think we will be able to get along. Do we have a deal?"

“Fine. I’ll take your test. If it means you’ll stop questioning and judging me every five minutes.” Mara let out a small sigh. It was clear that Swenson wasn't going to be swayed easily, and the endless back-and-forth had begun to wear thin. She gave her head a small shake, as though she could dislodge the frustration.

“You never know,” she added, the edge in her voice softening as a smile tugged at her lips. “We might actually make a decent team. Your knowledge of the rules, and my more creative approach.”

Swenson had a small smile on his face. He felt as if he had just won a round with her. He could only answer with a small reply. "We'll see."

"Indeed we shall", Mara said with a false smile, trying to hide her irritation. "Now, if you'll excuse me, Sir", she said as she stood and grabbed her P.A.D.D "I have a weapons test to plan"

Swenson watched her stand up and leave. He hoped that she would realize that he just wanted them to work together, peacefully.

Tomason left the security office and went to find somewhere she could work, somewhere away from Swenson. They hadn't started on the best of terms, but Mara hoped that this mission would give her a chance to prove herself and show Swenson that she was more than just a series of reprimands and conflicts.

END

Mission Post By:

Lieutenant JG Lars Swenson
Chief Security & Tactical Officer
USS Ithaca

Lieutenant JG Mara Tomason
Asst. Chief Security & Tactical Officer
USS Ithaca

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