Course Correction
Posted on Wed Mar 11th, 2026 @ 7:31pm by Commander Steven Greco & Lieutenant Evelyn Stewart
1,055 words; about a 5 minute read
Mission:
Year One: The Point of No Return
Location: USS Moore - Commander Greco’s Office
Timeline: MD: 008 – 18:53 hrs
The message appeared on her console without ceremony.
Lieutenant Stewart, report to my office.
— Greco
Evelyn stared at it.
A slow breath slipped out through her nose as she leaned back in her chair. Her eyes closed briefly and rolled before she could stop them.
“Fantastic.”
She pushed herself upright, straightening the front of her uniform jacket. The walk to the command deck didn’t give her any better answers than the console had. As far as she knew, the issue with the brig had already run its course. Davaris had confronted her. Words had been exchanged. Lines drawn.
Handled.
At least that had been her understanding.
She reached Greco’s office and pressed the chime.
“Enter.”
The doors slid open.
Greco was behind his desk, leaning slightly forward over a PADD. Another rested beside it. He scrolled through something with his thumb without looking up as she stepped inside.
“Close the door.”
The doors slid shut behind her with a quiet seal.
Evelyn stepped forward a pace and stopped.
“You wanted to see me, Commander.”
The words were formal, but the faint edge beneath them wasn’t subtle.
Greco didn’t look up right away.
He finished the line he was reading, set the PADD down, and finally lifted his eyes to her.
“You left the brig unattended two nights ago.”
The statement landed flat.
Direct.
Evelyn blinked once.
“Anjar was behind a forcefield. The brig was secure.”
Greco lifted one hand, stopping the explanation before it could gather momentum.
“That wasn’t a question.”
He pushed back from the desk and stood. The chair slid quietly behind him as he came around the desk, posture straightening as he closed the distance between them.
“You dismissed a posted security officer after they told you protocol,” he said, voice controlled but already carrying irritation. “Then you walked away from a holding cell containing a former Commodore in the middle of a volatile transfer.”
Evelyn folded her arms loosely.
“It was three minutes. Nothing happened.”
Greco stopped a few feet in front of her and stared at her like he couldn’t quite believe that was the argument she’d chosen.
“Nothing happened,” he repeated as he shook his head once.
“That’s what you’re going with.”
“The brig was secure,” she replied evenly. “She wasn’t going anywhere.”
Greco’s patience thinned visibly.
“No, Stewart. You don’t get to make that call. You don’t get to pull a security officer off their post so you can have a private conversation with a prisoner.”
“I made a judgment call.”
Greco cut that down immediately.
“No. You ignored protocol because it was inconvenient.”
“With respect—”
“No.”
The interruption came sharp and immediate, the irritation no longer hidden.
“You don’t get to ‘with respect’ your way around this one.”
Evelyn shifted her weight slightly, jaw tightening.
“I don’t know what Keishara told you—”
“Commander Davaris.”
The correction snapped out instantly, his temper flashing in the emphasis.
“And she didn’t tell me anything—she didn’t file a report and she doesn’t have to. I’m the executive officer of this ship, Lieutenant. I don’t need paperwork to recognize when one of my officers thinks the rules don’t apply to them.”
Evelyn held his gaze, arms still crossed.
Greco studied her for a second, frustration settling into something colder.
“You’re a senior officer,” he said, voice tightening as he pressed forward. “That’s supposed to mean something. It means you set the example. You don’t walk into another department and start issuing orders to their people like protocol suddenly became optional because you were impatient.”
“She confronted me in the corridor like I was a cadet,” Evelyn shot back, the frustration breaking through now as she started to push forward. “And—”
“Yes,” Greco cut in immediately. “Because you were acting like one.”
The words landed hard between them.
“She corrected a breach of protocol the moment she found it. That’s her job,” he continued, anger now fully present under the surface. “And instead of acknowledging that you decided to turn it into a power play. You challenged her authority and then dragged ship gossip into the middle of a professional correction like that somehow changed the fact that you were wrong.”
Evelyn’s jaw flexed, but she didn’t interrupt.
Greco didn’t slow down.
“And let’s clear something else up while we’re here,” he said, voice sharpening as he stepped just a fraction closer. “Your history with Maraj doesn’t give you an exception to protocol. I don’t care how long you’ve served together or how much trust he puts in you. That doesn’t put you above the chain of command, and it doesn’t give you the right to lean on your rank to push an ensign off their post when they were doing exactly what they were supposed to do just because you wanted a few minutes alone with Anjar.”
The office was quiet except for the low hum of the ship. The implication hanging clear between them.
“You know the rules,” Greco continued, anger now tempered into something firm and final. “You know how the chain of command works. And you absolutely know better than to pull something like this.”
He let that sit for a moment.
“This isn’t a reprimand.”
Evelyn’s eyes narrowed slightly.
“Oh, good,” she said dryly. “Then what is this? A friendly counseling session?”
Greco didn’t blink.
“No.”
His gaze stayed locked on hers.
“It’s the conversation that happens before one.”
The silence that followed was tight.
Greco stepped back toward the desk but didn’t sit.
“You will not override Security protocol again. You will not dismiss a security officer outside your chain of command. And the next time a department head corrects you…”
His expression hardened slightly.
“…you take the correction.”
Evelyn stood there for a moment, anger simmering just beneath the surface. Her jaw tightened and her shoulders stiffened as she forced the response out.
“Yes, sir.”
Greco didn’t hesitate.
“Dismissed.”
The word cracked across the room like a whip.
Evelyn turned immediately and strode for the exit, the doors sliding open just in time for her to storm out into the corridor beyond.
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