Rising Through the Ranks – Lieutenant Vitor Silveira, USS Artemis

[StarBase 118 Staff]

Somewhere in between lower decks and high ranks lies a mysterious land, full of Lieutenants and Lieutenant Commanders. They make up the backbone of the Fleet, leading departments, joining task forces, and giving Lower Deckers a hard time. However, they have been overlooked by interviews recently and don’t often get the credit they deserve. This new series Rising Through the Ranks aims to change that! 

These interviews will focus on the journey, growth and character development that happens as Lower Decks is left behind but Command is not quite in sight yet. We will also be taking this opportunity to find out what it’s like to write for particular duty posts, lead a department, write without the training wheels of mentorship, and make plans for career advancement.

Today we’ve asked Lieutenant Vitor Silveira, a human male and the Chief Tactical Officer on the USS Artemis to share his experience.

S. Richards: First, enlighten us. What are the biggest differences between being a Lower Decker and being higher in the rank structure? How does it change things both in and out of character? Do you miss anything about being a lower decker?

Silveira: Thank you for having me. My first instinct is to say nothing changes, and anyone who wrote or writes with me knows I am a troublemaker, no matter the rank. Now seriously there’s naturally a change. The biggest is the responsibility. When you’re an Ensign or a JG you are more at ease in terms of writing and telling your story, when you progress in rank you have to be more attentive, to the mission, to the other writers. For example keep the team your leading in the right direction, but still keeping a good pace and giving them freedom to write.

OOC, in terms of dealing with others there isn’t much change, but if you become part of the ship’s staff you can count on an increase of work. 

I don’t really miss much from being a Lower Decker, because as I was teasing at start Sil can mess things up at any rank.

Now that you’ve got some experience under your belt, how would you say that your writing style and your approach to simming has changed? Do you still rely on your mentor or have you moved into being a mentor yourself?

Silveira: A lot. I try to write taking more on consideration those I write with. I believe my cooperation skills in writing have improved over the years. Let me see if I can clarify that a little. I used to tell my characters stories alongside the other writers and their characters. I always wrote first for my own enjoyment, now I try to balance and try to write a good story, not just for my characters but for all around them. 

I likely should bother my mentor more than I do, and if you permit me to offer advice to everyone, please go to your mentor if you have a crazy idea, or plan on doing something that might be ill advised. That’s what mentors are for. I had several mentors over the years and I thank each one, and their insights are crucial to good writing. 

RL sadly prevents me from being a mentor, although I was some years back. I plan on eventually returning to mentoring and OOC activities. But for now my only contribution is my writing, hopefully it’s good enough for people to enjoy it.

Vitor is a Tactical Officer. Tell us what it’s like writing for that position. What do you do to help your writing feel genuine and lore accurate? Do you have any specific advice you can share with other members who may be writing a Tactical Officer?

Silveira: It’s amazing. There’s a reason Tactical is the best position to write. Even better than Command. Well now that I have everyone’s attention (you all know I am joking, right?) it can be a challenging position to write for. And truly there aren’t any “easy” or “best” postings to write. That all depends on our characters and us as writers.

Since we don’t see space combat in every mission, anyone writing a Tactical Officer has to be flexible enough to get into any other tasks.

I always have an open tab on our wiki, Memory Alpha and Memory Beta, when I have to write accurately something for Tactical. If I need to, it’s usual to go and search for a certain scene in the show or the movies. I try and keep it as genuine and accurate as possible, but I have to admit I incline myself a little more on Beta cannon. After all what got me choosing the Tactical position were starship simulators, like Starfleet Academy, Klingon Academy and Bridge Commander (yes, I also have Bridge Crew, but for the moment I still suck at that one).

I already mentioned one piece of advice, have your character be as versatile as possible. Not every time or every mission you can count on just writing Tactical stuff, so the more instruments you can play, the better. Just make sure you’re not that good at them, after all you’re a Tactical officer not a Science Officer (or whatever your duty post is).

I also have to bring back what I mentioned in my previous interview about Tactical.

When in battle, never forget your crewmates. 

We might be the ones shooting and having fun, but Tactical needs everyone else

We rely on Helm to get us on target, on Ops to get us power, on Engineers to repair damage, on Science to get a better picture as we are target blind. Even on Medical and Counseling.

And the CO and XO to give the orders. Remember it’s always their call to start a battle, or not.

How have you found the transition of becoming a department Chief? What sort of added responsibility does that come with? How has it impacted Vitor in character?

Silveira: Well, this is a bit difficult to reply. The first time I made it to department head was years ago and Sil was much more immature than. The storyline and my writing from those years was pretty different. The recent transition came a bit more naturally I think, but also after one huge story arc, to which I have to thank (and likely apologise) almost to everybody involved in it.

I made it a rather easy transition, after all that’s something Sil had already done, but I always try to keep him more responsible and more attentive to the needs of the ship and his department.

That allowed me to have Sil grow up a bit more, he’s still the ship’s joker, he’s still a bit of a wild card, but I am having him think of his options. Mellow down on the phew phew in simpler terms.

A good example was this last mission, where he had the chance to go for the phaser and chose not to. 

Finally, what steps did you take to achieve the rank you’re at now and what are your career plans for Vitor moving forward?

Silveira: I would be lying if I said I was eagerly following all the steps for promotion. But I had the achievements for rank progression, and I was eventually offered the questionnaire to reply.

And I tried my best to help the crew with both IC and OOC. It looked like it was enough.

I fully intend on having Sil moving forward in rank, maybe taking a shot at an XO position and the center seat. But that will only be when I can fully commit to OOC work. 

At the moment RL, and particularly work, prevents me from doing that. I hope in the near future I can. I mean, who wouldn’t want to see Sil commanding a ship? Actually…

Thanks for your time, Lieutenant Silveira!

You can read more about Lieutenant Vitor Silveira on the wiki.

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