DUTIES OF OPERATIONS

Most activity on a starship is directed through a command hierarchy leading to the Captain. On the bridge, Conn and Tactical take orders directly from the CO or the CO's surrogate, the designated officer of the deck (OOD) (usually the XO or Second Officer). Department heads also report directly to the CO and supervise tasks which fall under their respective purview.

The Ops (Operations) Department routinely receives direction not from above, but below, supervising assets used by all departments, including computers, transporters, communications and power resources. Ops supplies these needs directly, not disturbing the CO or other senior officers with details of implementation unless absolutely necessary.

Flexibility is key in meeting this goal. Certain interactions are expected with the various departments. A good Ops officer adapts to the style of other department heads and develops a clean exchange of information. To some degree this flexibility is achieved through selective enforcement of regulation. The Ops department seldom controls an operation. It supports activities directed by the Captain, XO, a department head, or one of their surrogates. If one of the individuals in charge operates outside of strict procedures, this should be noted in the Ops log, but it is not Ops' duty to correct the procedures of other departments except in life-threatening situations.

Following is a partial list of interactions between Ops and other departments as it should be done. Ops is to minimize the above and deal from proper procedures; however, some flexibility and spontaneity is permissible.

Away Team Operations

Ops responsibilities regarding Away Teams include:

• Notifying Away Team personnel of the assignment, and providing them with mission-objective information.
• Assigning communications frequencies & Mission Ops personnel to monitor Away Team communications, and notification on communications security policies such as communications silence or encryption.
• Notification of and providing equipment such as tricorders, phasers, environmental and other mission-specific gear.
• Assigning transporter equipment and personnel to support transport, recovery, provision and emergency activities related to the mission. Often Ops provides transport coordinates to the on-duty Transporter Chief and relays instructions to maintain transporter lock or retrieve the Away Team.
• Coordinating other departments with Away Team-related activity. Power might be allocated to transporter systems. Tactical may be notified of a need to drop shields for transport. Security and Medical personnel may be notified of a need to support a hazardous away mission. Security and Medical should put a second Away Team on stand-by to support the primary team should a difficulty arise.
• The Ops or Mission Ops officer acts as liaison between the Away Team leader and the Officer of the Deck. The OOD is often distracted by multiple missions, and cannot always give full attention to Away Team communications. Ops personnel must give full attention to the Away Team, handle routine support requests and bring the OOD's attention to the AT as required.

These are the normal duties of Ops, assuming adequate notification and time. Small crew size and fast-paced operations sometimes prevents full briefings, Away Team backup, or communications security reviews. Ops services the spirit of the regulations as much as possible without enforcing them.

Flight Operations (Shuttles/Runabouts)

Flight support is similar to that for Away Teams. Ops supports and monitors anyone leaving the ship. Services provided to Away Teams are also provided to flight. These include:

• Notifying flight personnel of a mission.
• Coordinating launch and recovery operations. Flight traffic control and navigation support may also be required.
• Communications frequencies and protocols (including encrytion keys) should be provided to the spacecraft, and loaded in Arcadia's comm-system.
• Transporter Room personnel should be on stand-by and ready for emergency retrieval when the flight is operating near the Arc.
• Flight status must be monitored. The Flight Leader is responsibile for putting a second craft or group on stand-by in support of flight operations, but the Ops or Flight Traffic Controller should be aware of the status of any stand-by flight.
• Ops or the designated Traffic Operator is liaison between the Flight Leader and Officer of the Deck. Ops provides routine support to flight operations and is responsible for ensuring non-routine requests are brought to the attention of the OOD.

Transporter Chief

Transporter personnel are routinely assigned to maintain transporter lock on Away Teams and auxiliary craft pilots. However, transporter chiefs are not always on duty. In this case, emergency Security or Medical transports may be initiated at any time by the Ops chief, Tactical, or other bridge personnel.

Transporter personnel must be aware of the security chief's guidelines for transporter use and the policy on disarming weapons during transport. During Red Alert and Intruder Alert, many security chiefs restrict transporter authority, or reserve it to Security, Medical, or Command staff use.

Computers are programmed to detect empty beds in Sickbay and empty cells in the brig, but protocol recommends that the Transporter Chief, Ops, Medical and Security coordinate on when and where emergency transports are allowed, who must authorize it, and who is to be notified after the fact.

Current guidelines for Medical transporter use: Any personnel may request emergency medical transport. It is not the Transporter Chief's duty to validate the need, though it must be confirmed that the com-badge being used to make the call is worn by the proper individuale. (Starfleet communicators contain bio-identification sensors, and usually disable themselves when not worn by their assigned individual. However, the ship's biomonitoring computers routinely scan each identification signature, and if trouble occurs requiring a com-badge switch, immediately notifies the appropriate personnel--Security as a default--or if a com-badge indicates unauthorized user or an attempt to bypass communications security.) On any transport directly to Sickbay, the transporter disables or removes unauthorized weapons.

Using the transporter to beam intruders to the brig follows a set of protocols maintained by the Security Department.

Operations should keep at least one evacuation transport-sustaining Cargo Bay open for emergency use.

Probes

While normally the Ops Manager is responsible for programming, launching and tracking probes, these functions are frequently shared with Sciences and Tactical. This duty is shifted at the discretion of the Command staff, depending on the purpose of the probe, and how busy bridge personnel are.

One consideration in probe launch often neglected by other departments is selecting a probe with minimum capability necessary to do the job. Ops should suggest use of one of the more numerous, less complex, smaller probes, so long as it is sufficient for the mission.

Routine Departmental Interactions

Conn and Tactical are the two largest users of ship's energy. Both receive extensive sensor, power, and computer resources. While these could be allocated elsewhere, in practice and by regulation they are seldom interrupted. Both Conn and Tactical report directly to the Officer of the Deck. If these departments call for resources, they do so under direct supervision of the Command staff. Fortunately, the Ops Manager is also on the bridge and generally aware of the OOD's orders and the rationale for them. While sometimes problems with conflicting projects require the same resources, Conn, Tactical, Ops and the OOD are at least aware of each other's problems, and the chain of command is clear.

Engineering is unique in that it provides services to Operations rather than requesting services. There are sometimes difficulties in establishing the borders between Ops and Engineering responsibilities. Those in Engineering sometimes purport that Ops abuses the equipment, while Engineering fixes it. Engineering produces power which Ops distributes. Ops manages systems such as the transporters, life support, structural integrity fields, inertial compensators, computers and data networks. Engineering is generally called when a physical problem develops, when something is actually broken rather than misconfigured.

Sciences (the various science sub-departments) is a large user of computer and sensor resources. In general, sufficient resources are available, but some science personnel tend to desire extra allocation priority. A long-running science experiment requiring sensors or computer-time may be flushed by careless over-allocation. Ops should be aware of the Science Department's more exotic experiments and attempt to guard any allocations deemed important by the Science Officer.

Security is relatively isolated from Ops. Their equipment is primarily mobile, and fully under their own control. Exceptions are in the areas of computer security, communications security, transporter use during alerts, and compartmentalization during alerts. Security officers have individual ideas on how various ship's systems should behave during a crisis. Some want control of critical systems assigned to them; others wish assistance in programming. Yet others desire experienced Ops personnel to handle equipment such as transporters, but only under Security's guidelines and orders.

Medical, with the exception of coordinating emergency medical transport, interacts least with Ops. They are light to moderate power users, maintain their own equipment, and seldom require exotic resources. They do have occasional unusual computation and replication needs. While their requests are few and widespread, when the requests do come they are in earnest. Rapid response at high priority should be a goal. Ops may also be aware of medical emergencies before Sickbay. Calling in medical help is an Ops duty.

Command Staff. Again, Ops deals with communications, coordination, allocation, and conservation. It rarely deals with Command, in order to avoid vexing the CO & XO with implementation details. However, they must have sufficient knowledge of operations in progress to make command decisions. This is a judgement call, and different commanders have different preferences.