Starfleet Auxiliary

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Starfleet Auxiliary is a component of Starfleet that operates passenger liners, tankers, freighters, transports, and some research vessels in support of the starships and capital starships in mainline Starfleet service, equivalent to a Merchant Marine. The personnel in this service are subject to Starfleet's regulations (including the Prime Directive) but have more limited training and significantly different career paths than their counterparts in the main fleet.

Organization

Somewhat ironically, the Commander, Starfleet Auxiliary is not actually a member of the Starfleet Auxiliary, but is a commissioned Starfleet officer reporting to the Chief of Starfleet Operations and holding the rank of admiral. Indeed, there are no members of the Starfleet Auxiliary with ranks higher than captain; officers wishing to advance beyond this stage must go through additional training such as Command School and then be commissioned in Starfleet, instead.

Each type of vessel has its own commander under this level. For example, the Commander, Passenger Liners and the Commander, Surveyors are each Rear or Vice Admirals overseeing all of the vessels of those two designations. These type commanders assign vessels either to specific sectors, where they fall under the jurisdiction of that sector's commander, or to various Starfleet offices and bureaus, where they fall under the jurisdiction of that office's director.

For example, a Sydney-class passenger liner might be assigned to regular service between Starbase 4 and a smaller station in the same sector, thus falling under the jurisdiction of Starbase 4's commanding officer, the flag officer in command of Sector 4. As another example, an Aerie-class surveyor might be specially equipped to transport botanical samples, and so would be assigned to the Bureau of Xenobotany under Starfleet Science, and would be under the jurisdiction of the Director of the Bureau of Xenobotany.

The effect of this allows the Starfleet Auxiliary to operate without a parallel chain of command to Starfleet itself.

Personnel

One of the original branches of Starfleet, the Starfleet Auxiliary has been in operation since the founding of the Federation in 2161. The personnel in this branch are highly trained in starship navigation and operations, engineering, and/or other related duties, but don't have the exploratory and tactical training that is given to members of Starfleet itself. These personnel are commissioned through a number of different means, including several academies, training centers, and direct commissioning programs that take into account life experience and aptitude tests.

Two members of the Starfleet Auxiliary in the 2260s, wearing the distinctive Spacecraft Duty Insignia and an older uniform than their Starfleet counterparts of that time period.

Officers and other personnel of the Starfleet Auxiliary wear variants of the standard Starfleet uniforms with different insignia; generally speaking the day-to-day uniform of a member of this service varies greatly based on their assignments. The crews of freighters and tankers will spend a lot of time in coveralls, while the crews of passenger liners will often wear white uniforms to set themselves apart from their passengers, who are often Starfleet officers themselves.

The rank structure in the Starfleet Auxiliary is simplified from Starfleet itself, based on merchant traditions that informed such services as the Earth Cargo Service, which itself is derived from Merchant Marine Traditions on Earth, combined with structures used by the Imperial Andorian Logistics Corps, the Tellarite Merchant Navy, and the Vulcan National Merchant Fleet. The line between officers and enlisted is much blurrier in an auxiliary context, and it is possible for someone to work their way up directly from Crewman to Captain over an extended period of time through on-the-job training in a way that's much easier than it would be in Starfleet itself. On the flip-side, the licensing and time in-grade requirements for each level are inflexible.

Starfleet Auxiliary Rank Structure
Insignia	Deck Department	Engineering Department	Steward's Department	Surveyor's Department	Time in Previous Grade
⚫⚫⚫⚫	Captain				10 Years
⚫⚫⚫	Master	Chief Engineer	Chief Steward	Chief Surveyor	5 Years
⚫⚫	Lieutenant	Lieutenant	Lieutenant	Lieutenant	4 Years
⚫	Ensign	Ensign	Ensign	Ensign	1 Year
○○	Acting Ensign	Acting Ensign	Acting Ensign	Acting Ensign	4 Years
○	Petty Officer	Petty Officer	Petty Officer	Petty Officer	1 Year
N/A	Crewman	Crewman	Crewman	Crewman	N/A

Direct enlistment as a crewman includes six weeks of training, before spending the remainder of the first year learning on the job on a ship, becoming a petty officer upon the satisfactory completion of several training programs at the end of that probationary period. After five total years of enlistment, members can apply to become acting ensigns, taking additional training and apprenticing under more challenging jobs. Alternatively, if an individual goes through a service academy (usually a three-year program), they would start in service as an acting ensign. After one year continuing to learn on the job, the member is then promoted to ensign or discharged.

After four years as an ensign, a member is eligible for promotion to lieutenant, which is the requisite rank for most department head roles on smaller ships. After five more years, they are eligible to become the senior rank in their particular department, where the titles very. Finally, members of the deck department who have been masters for at least 10 years are eligible promotion to the rank of Captain, and are therefore eligible to command the largest ships in auxiliary service.

Vessels

Starfleet Auxiliary operates a wide variety of vessels, including some classes that either currently or formerly see service in Starfleet itself. A good example of this is the Olympic-class utility cruiser, which is operated exclusively by Starfleet in its science configuration, exclusively by the Starfleet Auxiliary in its passenger liner configuration, and by both services in the hospital ship configuration.

Aerie-class surveyor & transport
Olympic-class liner and hospital ship
Sydney-class liner
Antares-class freighter
Miranda-class surveyor & transport
Constellation-class transport