A New Banner, the Same Sky
Aboard the U.S.S. Tykera: Captain’s ready room. Currently docked at Deep Space 13
The orders had arrived.
Kyhid Zohl, Captain of the Tucker-class starship U.S.S. Tykera, sat alone in its ready room. One hand held the PADD flat against the desk, the other pressed against his temple, index finger tapping slowly in a controlled, repetitive rhythm. His eyes, pale and alert, skimmed the words once more though they had long since been committed to memory. The PADD read:
=/\= STARFLEET COMMAND – PRIORITY TRANSMISSION =/\=
Authentication: 5-Alpha-Epsilon-Tau-1-9
Encryption level: Sigma-Rho-4
Received: Stardate 101532.1
From: Vice Admiral O. Kane, 16th Fleet Liaison
To: Captain Kyhid Zohl (CO), NCC-98701, U.S.S. Tykera
Cc: Commander Thira Netal (XO), Starfleet Personnel Command, 38th Fleet Command
Attn: Argo Operations - Deployment Orders
Subject: Redeployment and attachment orders – U.S.S. Tykera
Captain Zohl,
Pursuant to your standing request dated Stardate 101498.1 and following strategic consultation conducted at Deep Space 13 on Stardate 101510.6, Starfleet Command has authorised the reassignment of U.S.S. Tykera, NCC-98701, from its current provisional patrol route under 16th Fleet to the Fleet Orientation Program of 38th Fleet Argo, under the authority of Vice Admiral Aluk, Commanding Officer, 38th Fleet Argo.
Effective immediately upon receipt of this transmission, the U.S.S. Tykera will be detached from 16th Fleet jurisdiction and placed under Argo operational command. Your authority as Commanding Officer remains unchanged. Your orders are as follows:
1. Assignment
You are hereby assigned to 38th Fleet Argo, chartered with joint Starfleet and interstellar exploration, colonial stability operations, emergent contact scenarios, and high-risk anomaly response within the Alpha and Beta Quadrants, as determined by sector command.
2. Operational staging
Your initial station is to remain Deep Space 13 pending final clearance, general ship readiness reinspection and signoff, and all due associated Argo integration briefings. Upon completion, you will proceed to staging coordinates per Argo’s designated patrol framework, or as otherwise directed by 38th Fleet Command.
3. Personnel coordination
Command personnel currently assigned to the U.S.S. Tykera will remain in post unless otherwise directed. Note that Commander Thira Netal, Executive Officer, is hereby notified of fleet transition. No personnel changes are pending at this time. However, Argo Personnel Review may initiate additional evaluations at their discretion.
4. Fleet integration requirements
You are to liaise with Argo Operations Liaison for data synchronisation, communications re-routing, and asset tagging protocols. Tactical and Science briefings are to be scheduled aboard DS13 at the earliest.
5. Status reporting
Update logs to Starfleet Command will transition to Argo reporting channels effective immediately. Your first mission brief will be issued via Argo Command following initial processing.
Starfleet Command recognises the unique circumstances surrounding this redeployment and the service of your crew. Your prior field record has been noted with distinction. The strategic need for adaptable, technically capable assets in frontier-lateral assignments is high, and your ship’s capabilities are considered well-matched to ongoing Argo requirements.
Captain, we trust that your experience, discretion, and leadership will continue to serve the Federation in this new deployment.
Stand ready,
Vice Admiral Oliph Kane
Strategic Operations Command – 16th Fleet
Deep Space 6
He read it again.
And he read it one more time, though the words had not changed.
The orders bore the seal of Command; the routing included the expected pathways… and, as he suspected, the copy to Commander Thira Netal sat not as a courtesy, but as a consequence.
Of course it had gone to her.
A low ambient hum throbbed in the bulkhead behind him, the life of the ship, distant but constant. Through the viewport, Deep Space 13’s frame loomed, lit with motion as craft busied about. Beyond that, stars glittered faintly in the void… indifferent, immutable.
Zohl exhaled through his nose, a soft, controlled breath. He could already feel the tremors of unrest trickling through the crew. Senior officers would have read the signal routing header. There would be questions, speculation. No formal announcement had yet been made, but word would travel via glances, hesitations, the subtle gaps in routine that only those aboard a long-serving vessel would recognise.
Especially her.
He leaned back, fingers steepled in front of his chest.
Thira Netal. His Executive Officer. His wife. No, he couldn’t say that anymore. The two had been married straight out of the Academy. That was 22 years ago. But they’d been divorced for 14. Soon it would be nearly double the time they were married. His former wife… now his Number One.
She had not been consulted. Not in the decision, not in the timing, not even in the tone of it. That had been deliberate. Not out of malice, he felt, but necessity. He had known what she would say. He could already imagine the expression on her face, the sharp turn of her voice when she arrived to confront him.
He tapped the PADD off and leaned back in the chair. The air felt too still. He adjusted slightly, as if that would help. The silence stretched.
He had known it was coming. He had asked for it. The recent conversation with Admiral Bishop had been frank but not unkind. Zohl had presented his case with clarity and without flourish. He had offered the tactical rationale, the strategic detachment, the readiness metrics. The Admiral, to his credit, had not pressed into the personal. He had simply studied Zohl for a long moment, then nodded once and said, “We’ll make the arrangements.”
Now it was real.
His ship, his crew, his command, had been reassigned to 38th Fleet Argo. The Tykera would no longer patrol the familiar border routes of the 16th Fleet. They would be operating in unfamiliar space, among new command structures, new protocols, new eyes.
And new scrutiny.
The orders were professionally worded, as always. Phrases like “joint exploration initiatives” and “strategic redeployment objectives” stood in sharp contrast to the quiet reality of the decision. This was not just a change of banner. It was a relocation of everything: duty, crew, memory. A clean slate by design, or perhaps escape by another name.
… silence.
Then came the chime.
Right on time.
“Enter,” he said, his tone quiet but clipped.
The doors slid open with a muted hiss, and there she was.
Commander Netal stepped into the room with the sure-footed poise that had always marked her: on the bridge, in the field, in argument. Her pale eyes, not so different from his own, locked on him at once. Her arms were folded tightly across her chest, uniform crisp, expression composed. But the tightness in her jaw betrayed the storm beneath.
“You received the orders,” Zohl said, stating the obvious.
“As did you,” she replied, her voice cold. “Though I assume you had the courtesy of seeing them before they arrived.”
He said nothing.
She stepped closer, the door hissing shut behind her. The silence between them expanded, dense with unspoken years. The last few months since her ‘directed’-appointment had done little to close that gap.
“You made this decision unilaterally,” she continued, eyes narrowing. “No command staff briefing. No consult. Not even a mention. Do you have any idea how this looks to the crew?”
Zohl’s antennae shifted slightly, not forward in aggression, nor back in retreat. Just… listening.
“Yes,” he said simply.
“Then explain it,” Netal snapped. “Explain to me why I had to read about the future of this ship, the future of my career, in a copied header tag.”
Zohl looked at her. Not at the rank, not at the uniform. At her. The person who had once stood beside him when he had been commissioned an Ensign. The person who had grown apart from him, then returned under orders, and here now out of duty. Or guilt. Or both.
“Because I couldn’t ask,” he said finally. “Not you. Not them. Not anyone.”
That gave her pause. Just for a moment. Then the anger returned, sharpened now with something more dangerous: understanding.
“So this is about Vos.”
He didn’t answer. He didn’t need to.
Netal stepped closer, her voice softer now, but colder. “You don’t get to run from ghosts by redrawing the map, Kyhid. You take them with you.”
“I know.”
She stared at him, hard.
“We’ll be operating in new space,” she said. “With a crew already uncertain. You need to address them.”
“I will.”
“Today.”
He gave the faintest nod.
She lingered another moment, then turned to go. At the threshold, she paused.
“They’ll follow you,” she said without looking back. “But they’re watching. And they know something’s broken.”
The doors hissed closed.
Zohl sat alone again, both hands now resting flat on the desk.
Outside the viewport, the stars did not move. He preferred it when they did.
He rose, slow and deliberate, as if standing marked some sort of threshold.
In a few hours, the crew would look to him for certainty. For purpose. For the kind of presence they believed still lived beneath the uniform; that still lived in the man wearing it.
He turned to the console, keyed in a command, and began to draft his words.
Words that he would need to steady the crew… and, to convince himself.