In military parlance, an order was a command, direction, or instruction from a superior officer. A variant of the order was the direct order, which was an order given face-to-face from a superior officer to a subordinate, while a counterorder or countermand was an order that was opposite to that of a previous order. A rescinded order was belayed.
The job of a Starfleet officer, according to Fleet Admiral Charles Vance in the 32nd century, was to follow orders. (DIS: "Scavengers") Admiral Alynna Nechayev expressed similar sentiments on multiple occasions, stating at one time that the duty of an officer was "not to wrestle with their conscience." (TNG: "The Descent")
Members of Starfleet were not generally expected to blindly follow orders, however, particularly those that presented an unjust danger to themselves or others. During the Klingon Civil War in 2368, Captain Jean-Luc Picard stated "the claim 'I was only following orders' has been used to justify too many tragedies in our history." (TNG: "Redemption II") There were regulations in place related to the handling of untenable orders, as seen when Commodore Matt Decker took command of the USS Enterprise during Starfleet's second encounter with a doomsday machine. His evident emotional imbalance and his removal from command by Spock served as a formal precedent for relieving incapacitated officers from duty. (TOS: "The Doomsday Machine")
In 2375, Picard and the crew of the Enterprise chose to defy orders related to the forcible removal of the Ba'ku from their homes on moral grounds by Admiral Dougherty and the Son'a. During the initial phase of the crew's insurrection, Data quipped in part, "To hell with our orders." (Star Trek: Insurrection) Captain James Kirk and his crew defied also orders and regulations on several occasions, including the theft of the Enterprise from spacedock in order to rescue a resurrected Spock. (Star Trek III: The Search for Spock)
Other Starfleet personnel made a habit of defying orders they disagreed with, including Beckett Mariner, who was repeatedly demoted and reassigned as a consequence. Only the efforts of her high-ranking parents ensured that she was not drummed out of Starfleet entirely. (LD: Second Contact) Such benefactors notwithstanding, the consequences for defying orders in any military were severe; Kruge executed the gunner of his ship for his intentional destruction of the USS Grissom in 2285. (Star Trek III: The Search for Spock) Then-Cadet Wesley Crusher was forced by circumstance to walk away from Starfleet on account of the Federation's desire to forcibly relocate a group of Native American descendants from Cardassian space in 2370, defying orders that he felt violated his personal principles. Arguing with Picard, Crusher stated that "I know Admiral Necheyev gave you an order, and she was given an order from the Federation council, but it's still wrong." (TNG: "Journey's End")
On occasions of import, orders sometimes rearranged the existing chain of command. Picard was ordered to take command of the USS Enterprise-D by Admiral Norah Satie. (TNG: "All Good Things...") Similarly, as part of Picard's plan to entrap cloaked Romulan ships with a tachyon net in 2368, Lieutenant Commander Data took over the captain's chair of the USS Sutherland, stating that "by order of Starfleet, I hereby take command of this vessel." (TNG: "Redemption II") In 2369, Picard was ordered to relinquish command of the Enterprise to Captain Edward Jellico, as the latter was believed to have greater experience with the ongoing Cardassian threat. His crew clashed with Jellico's "by the book" style of orders and leadership, though they established a measure of respect by the end of the mission. (TNG: "Chain Of Command, Part I")
Starfleet officers were permitted to request that an order be given in writing if they objected to it. (DS9: "In the Pale Moonlight")
Command phrases[]
Many captains adopted a particular way of giving the order to take a starship out. Choosing one's catchphrase was something of an informal tradition among those who had been given the opportunity to take command. (SNW: "The Broken Circle"; PIC: "The Last Generation"; LD: "The New Next Generation")