Making Introductions

Posted on Mon Oct 19th, 2026 @ 4:27pm by Lieutenant Commander Arlen Reacher & Lieutenant JG Deezell Vox

1,987 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Episode 121 - "Where There's A Section, There's A Way"
Location: Starbase 400 — Engineering
Timeline: 1 Hour After Meeting With Deputy Chief

Arlen Reacher stepped out of the turbolift and made his way toward Engineering, carrying a PADD with a handful of questions he had prepared earlier that morning. Since returning from leave and taking up his position as Chief Security and Tactical Officer, he had spent plenty of time reviewing reports. Getting out of his office and speaking with the people behind them was overdue.

Inside Engineering, personnel worked between consoles, their conversations blending with the steady sound of the station’s machinery. Arlen paused near the entrance to avoid interrupting a team moving equipment through the doorway, then approached an available crew member and asked where he might find Lieutenant Vox.

Following the directions, he walked farther into the department. His interest today was the coordination between Engineering and Security during a station emergency. A lockdown could protect personnel from a threat, but it could also complicate matters for engineers trying to reach damaged systems. He wanted to understand the existing arrangements before proposing any changes, especially where emergency access and authorization were concerned.

When he reached Vox’s work area, Arlen stopped a respectful distance away, keeping his PADD at his side rather than immediately presenting her with another task.

“Lieutenant Vox? Lieutenant Commander Arlen Reacher,” he introduced himself with a friendly smile. “I’ve recently taken over as Chief Security and Tactical Officer. I thought I’d come down and introduce myself.”

He glanced briefly toward the surrounding workstations before returning his attention to her.

“Before we get into anything involving work, congratulations on your marriage. Kate and I wish you both every happiness.”

Mentioning his wife brought a little warmth to his expression. Their time on Earth had given him a welcome opportunity to put family first, and he hoped Vox had enjoyed some time away from her responsibilities as well.

“I hope you’ve had a chance to celebrate properly. My wife and I have just returned from Earth with our three children, so we’re still finding things we packed in the wrong bags.”

He gave a quiet chuckle, then lifted his PADD slightly.

“If you have a few minutes, I’d appreciate your perspective on something. I’m reviewing how Security handles restricted access during emergencies, and I want to make sure our procedures work for your repair teams. If we seal off a section, but your people need to get inside to prevent a systems failure, I’d like us to have a clear understanding of how we arrange that.”

Arlen left the PADD’s display facing himself, making no move to hand it over yet.

“How does that coordination usually work from your end?”

"Oh, hello, Sir, welcome to engineering. Congratulations on your appointment. I had heard we had a new Chief Security and Tactical Officer, but I hadn't got a name for the role as yet. Nice to put a name and a face to it. "

She paused.

"Sorry to correct you, but I am not married yet; we are still working out the date. We have the where sorted out, but it's the when that seems to be the sticking point. Anyway, would you like to come to my office so we can go over everything?"

Arlen’s smile turned briefly sheepish at the correction, and he inclined his head. “My apologies, Lieutenant. I seem to have gotten ahead of the news. Congratulations on your engagement, then. I hope finding a date proves easier than coordinating duty rosters.” He gave a quiet chuckle, shifting the PADD in his hand. “And thank you. I’m glad to have the opportunity to meet you properly.”

At her invitation, he gestured for her to lead the way. “Your office would be perfect. I appreciate you making the time.” As they moved through Engineering, Arlen kept pace beside her, taking care to leave room for personnel passing between workstations. “I’ve recently returned from leave with my family. We took the children back to Earth for a while, so I’m still catching up with what’s changed aboard the station. Speaking with the other departments seemed a good place to begin.”

He glanced down at his PADD before returning his attention to Vox. “The main thing I wanted to discuss is emergency access. If Security places a section under lockdown, your people may still need to reach equipment inside it. I’d like to understand how that’s currently handled, including what happens when communications are interrupted and someone can’t reach us for authorization.”

Arlen lowered the PADD again. He had brought questions, but Engineering’s experience would determine which of them deserved the most attention. “Have your teams run into any difficulties with that? Delays getting through secured doors, conflicting instructions—anything you think we ought to address?”

Once inside her office, the two sat.

"We have experienced the occasional issues with secure doors. Mostly due to our emergency override codes not working as intended and not being able to reach anyone if the communications are out. In such instances we had to resort to finding alternative routes or where possible, creating an alternative entrance which we would then have to patch up later."

Dee advised, her right hand resting on her pregnant belly.

Arlen listened from the chair opposite her desk, his expression growing more thoughtful as Vox explained the difficulties her teams had encountered. He brought his PADD onto his lap and made a brief note about the override codes. Having engineers cut their way into a compartment meant time lost reaching the original fault, followed by another repair before their work was finished.

“That sounds frustrating, especially if there’s something on the other side that needs immediate attention,” he replied.

“Do you know whether those overrides were being rejected by the security system, or whether the doors themselves had lost their connection to the authorization network? That should help us decide where to start looking.”

He glanced up from the PADD. “We ought to test what happens when a section loses both communications and its link to the main computer. It’s easy to assume an emergency procedure will still work because it works under normal conditions.”

Arlen rested the PADD against his knee, considering how they could investigate without adding another disruption to Engineering’s workload. “If you can point me toward one of the affected doors and any maintenance records you have, I’ll review the corresponding security logs. Then, with your department’s agreement, we could arrange a controlled test in an unused compartment. Have an engineer attempt access with the same systems unavailable and see exactly where it fails.”

His gaze returned to Vox. “Would that be practical from your side, or is there another approach you’d recommend?”

"It's been a bit of a mixed bag to be honest. We've had instances of the doors ceiling connection to the authorization network, overrides being rejected and where the doors themselves are just plain stuck. On those situations we were able to free them so they could respond to our authorization."

Dee picked up a PADD and began tapping. Once done she passes him the PADD.

"These are the maintenance records. All the instances of problematic secured doors are marked, along with the actions we had to take to get around it. Also on the instances are the names of the engineers who dealt with those instances. The instances where it's merely a stick door, those are an easy fix which we have sorted out. But those failing to respond to the authorization codes and/or failing to connect to the network are more troublesome. "

Arlen accepted the PADD with a nod of thanks and began reading through the marked entries. He took his time with the first few, following the engineers’ notes from the initial access failure through to the action that had finally allowed them inside. Having their names attached would make it easier to ask questions without expecting Vox to reconstruct every incident herself.

“This is helpful, thank you,” he said, looking up. “With the mechanical faults already addressed, we can concentrate on the authorization failures and lost connections. I’ll compare these timestamps with our security logs and see whether the system recorded why access was refused. That should also tell us whether the rejected codes were reaching the authorization network at all.”

He glanced back at one of the entries, resting his thumb against the edge of the PADD. The distinction mattered. A valid code being refused by the computer would require a different investigation from a door controller that could no longer communicate with it. Until they had checked both sides, he was reluctant to assume they shared a cause.

“Would you be comfortable having one of the engineers listed here work with someone from Security on the review? Someone who encountered the problem firsthand may recognize something in the logs that we’d otherwise overlook. We can arrange it around their existing work.”

Arlen lowered the PADD slightly and returned his attention to her. “Have you noticed these failures clustering in particular sections of the station, or have they been spread throughout?”

"Totally happy with that arrangement. Cooperation is key after all. As for clustering, they do seem more prevalent on the lower decks rather than in the upper section."

Dee advised

Arlen nodded and added the lower-deck concentration to his notes. It gave them somewhere to begin, though he wanted to compare the number of failures against the equipment and maintenance history before drawing any conclusions.

“Then we’ll start there,” he replied. “I’ll check whether those doors share any security controllers or authorization relays. If they do, we may be able to narrow the search considerably. It would also be worth comparing them with a few unaffected doors nearby.”

He looked back up at Vox. “If you send me the name of the engineer you’d like involved, I’ll arrange someone from Security to work with them. They can review the logs together and recommend a suitable compartment for the controlled test we discussed. We’ll coordinate the timing with your people before taking anything offline.”

Satisfied that they had a practical next step, Arlen set his PADD against his knee. He was glad he had come down in person; the maintenance records alone would not have given him the benefit of her experience with the problem.

“Thank you, Lieutenant. I appreciate the help. I’ll make sure you receive whatever we find on our side.” A small smile returned to his face. “And I’ll try to keep my next congratulations closer to the actual wedding date.”

Dee thought for a moment. "The engineer whom you will need to work with is Ensign Jaime Rodriguez. A very good engineer with a promising career ahead of him. As for congratulations nearer to the wedding date, there is always the next event which will come sooner. " She said gently patting her belly.

Arlen smiled, following her gesture. “Then congratulations on that as well, Lieutenant. I hope everything is going smoothly for you both. Kate and I have three children, so I can certainly appreciate having plenty to prepare for.”

He added Ensign Rodriguez’s name to his notes, then rose from his chair. “I’ll contact Ensign Rodriguez and arrange the review with him. Thank you for your time and the maintenance records. I’ll keep you informed as we work through the problem.”

With a friendly nod, Arlen made his way out of her office, leaving her to return to her duties. Once clear of Engineering, he paused to send himself a reminder to assign a security officer to the review. He was pleased to have a practical starting point and someone who knew the affected systems to help investigate them.

He tucked the PADD beneath his arm and headed toward the turbolift, ready to begin checking the security logs.

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