How come dr. Bashir can order Major Kira off-duty ?

Just watching Defiant.

In the beginning of the ep., dr. Bashir orders an overworked major Kira off-duty, 'and not even Sisko can overrule my judgement as chief medical officer'.

I can understand that this would work this way within Starfleet. I can also understand that on DS9, Starfleet has the day-to-day authority to run the station as they see fit (but not the final authority, which would lie with the Bajoran goverment in some form). I don't quite understand, however, how such an internal Starfleet rule would apply to Major Kira, who is in the end, an Bajoran liason officer.

So, how does this work?

 

Kira may be Bajoran, but she is part of the command structure of DS9 - which is a single, unified Starfleet/Bajoran system. She is as subject to Bashir's medical authority as is anyone else on the station.

 

^Dat.

 

Kira is a Bajoran officer, but her assignment is first officer of DS9, so she's officially part of its chain of command and obligated to follow its rules for as long as she holds that posting. Just as Mendon in "A Matter of Honor" was supposed to follow Starfleet regulations while serving as an exchange officer on the Enterprise and screwed up because he assumed he was still operating under Benzite rules. And in the same episode, Riker vowed to follow Klingon regulations and orders while serving on the Pagh, as long as they didn't conflict with his oaths to Starfleet. If Kira had been ordered to violate her oaths as a Bajoran officer, she could've objected or resigned or something, but "go get some rest, I mean it" doesn't seem to violate any Bajoran oath.

 

^I would understand this if Kira was serving on a Starfleet ship or on some other genuine Starfleet property. Then, her situation would be analogous to the examples referred to. But she isn't, she is on Bajoran territory, and starfleet only runs the day-to-day administration, but has no ultimate authority. So, while I understand that she belongs to the "official" chain of command, at the same time it makes me wonder just to what extent these kind of starfleet-specific regulations apply to Kira.

 

Yes, Bajor owns the station, but we're not talking about a regulation that applies to the station, we're talking about a regulation that applies to the health of an officer. Kira is the first officer of DS9. Bashir is the chief medical officer of DS9. Therefore, as long as they hold those positions, Bashir is the officer responsible for Kira's health. If the Bajorans weren't okay with giving him that authority, they wouldn't have agreed to the arrangement in the first place.

After all, if a command officer has medically impaired performance, that can endanger the entire station and possibly civilians as well. It's not a situation that can be allowed to stand due to some technicality. It just stands to reason that the CMO should have authority in such matters.

 

Conversely, the same unified command structure that makes Kira subject to Bashir's medical orders, also allows Kira to pilot a runabout or command the Defiant (because these ships are "attached" to the station, and therefore both Starfleet and Bajoran crew can man them, just like on DS9 itself).

 

Besides, it's not too hard to believe the Bajoran Militia would have a similar practice in place allowing their medical personnel authority over officers of any rank on medical matters, and therefore Kira, as an officer on the station would be required to obey Bashir, the station's medical officer regardless which service he belonged to.

Or hell, look at Enterprise. Dr. Phlox was a Denobulan civilian on an Earth Starfleet ship, but his word was still law regarding medical matters on the ship, and even Archer couldn't contradict him

 

I can't remember, were the rest of the Bajoran crew on DS9 all enlisted, or were any of them officers?

 

Good question. I don't remember the show ever saying specifically there were any other Bajoran officers, but there were some times when one Bajoran Militia member spoke for a group, implying superior rank. Whether it was commissioned or not (or even if that concept exists in the Bajoran Militia) was left ambiguous.
I tend to think there probably were other commissioned officers, just because we see other Bajoran Militia members quite frequently and it would be weird for Major Kira to be the only commissioned officer.

 

Because its a tv show. Ever notice how the captains are always at the beck and call of their subordinates? "Captain, I need to see you in sickbay." etc

 

There were a couple of commissioned Bajoran officers theoretically explicated by their rank pins (say, both of those lovely assistants to O'Brien, Neela and Anara, were supposed to be Ensigns/2nd Lieutenants, thereby outranking their boss), but OTOH those rank pins were never given an actual dialogue explanation (say, the assistants did not get addressed by their rank, either Navy or Army style).

In fact, the only pin we ever got a totally unambiguous fix for was Major, as in Major Kira. Even Colonel was ambiguous, as the pin on Colonel Kira's collar could have been the more logical Lieutenant Colonel or the less logical full Colonel; we saw a different pin on the collar of Colonel Day in "The Siege", and that would no doubt be "the other Colonel" inherent in Army-style rank systems.

Where does that leave us? Beyond Kira, with a single explicit dialogue mention of "Lieutenant Brilgar" in "The Darkness and the Light" (and that thrice-cursed fellah had left his rank pin on his desk drawer that morning!). All other Bajorans identified by commissioned rank in dialogue were people not actually serving aboard DS9, as far as I can tell. But we did see collar pins on various background Bajorans, supposedly indicating commissioned rank every time.

Timo Saloniemi

 

"Captain Janeway, report to Astrometrics immediately!

 

If they're good subordinates, they'll know when the captain really needs to see something, and the captain won't mind.

If the captain disagrees, the subordinate can be demoted to ensign, transfered to security and assigned to landing party duty.

 

Put them in the TOS-era security uniforms for added effect.

 

That's what I was thinking
Rofl

 

She knows that if she tried to appeal to her Bajoran superiors, one of the militia's doctors would concur. Kira knows when she's licked, basically.

 

They make allowances for Seven, because she's Borg.

 

They make allowances for Seven because she's Seven.

 

One thing I did notice... Kira is the ONLY Bajoran officer who ever worked on the Defiant. Now, she can be explained because she is high in the command structure of the station. I wonder if, since the Defiant is basically a classified design, Bajoran Militia were not allowed to serve on her...