The Return

Posted on Saturday 24 November 2018 @ 20:49 by Captain John "Apollo" Barstow, M.D. & Commander Caroline Miller

Mission: The New Collective
Location: Bridge
Timeline: Before Attack post
704 words - 1.4 OF Standard Post Measure

ON:

It was all very sudden. One minute she had been a junior counselor gaining experience in her new field on the Agamemnon, the next she was informed she was being reassigned to her old ship from a while back. In honestly Caroline had considered could she get in touch with some of her old crew, but the situation hadn't been favourable with what was happening. Now it seemed it was out of her hands.

"You have matched the transporter frequency to the shield harmonics properly right?" she asked the transporter chief. "Otherwise this is going to be a short trip."

Then she wondered how she had picked that language up and actually understood what she just said. Of course Melody Jones!

"You will be fine doc,"

Beaming still made her nervous in any situation but as she said she seemed to be fine, reappearing on a familar bridge. Right in front of Captain Bairstow. Who evidently wasn't expecting her.

John had just walked out of the ready room only to run head long into the transporter beam. He jumped back and reached for his phaser just as the beam faded to reveal a familiar face, "what the hell, Miller?" he asked in shock as his hand dropped away from his side arm.

As the Captain got over his shock the security officers raised their phasers. Caroline raised her hands up, "Easy boys. There are orders. Captain if you wouldn't mind just reading them," she indicated the still trained on her phasers slightly nervously.

Barstow grinned, "I dunno, I think this' the first time I've seen you nervous, I kind of like it," he joked and waived security off, "we'll need to make this quick, we're about to head into hell," he said and moved over to the command chair.

"Wasn't that usually the case?" she quipped.

"Liking making one of your senior crew nervous, really?" she asked. "Do we need to explore that in a counselling session?" Caroline shot back her own grin before formally standing to attention. "Captain Bairstow, Starfleet just made me your Chief counselor. Reporting for duty."

John chuckled then motioned for her to sit, ''at ease, Commander.''

Caroline took the seat next to him. "So why are we heading into hell?" she asked.

''It was a little cold where we found Merlin, so I decided to go some place warmer,'' the CO replied with a smirk before his face went serious, ''long story short we encountered a group of Borg on a mission to kill rather than assimilate and they've already hit at least one colony. They are now headed to an R and D facility and we're trying to head them off.''

"I knew something big was up. There were rumours of the Borg onboard the Agamemnon. Crew were nervous but I was not privy to much of the current mission. The command crew there are I see attempting to limit panic I guess," she commented. She wondered if she would have a queue of nervous crew immediately starting work. "Do all the Merlin crew know what's going on sir?"

"Aye, they do," John replied with a nod as the stars on the screen went back to pinpoints of light, "I made sure they all did, and I'm sure that you will have a few lined up....I'm also going to have you do a behavioral analysis on these Borg after we get the information today, we need to know what happened."

"Well that would be a first Captain," Caroline smiled. "The amount of research and speculation on Borg behaviour and how their collective works from the Hansons recovered journals via Voyager to the multiple encounters with the collective from various Starfleet, not to mention what our allies have shared over the years has yet to come up with a solid insight into the hive mind, or breaks in behaviour from it. But I will do my best."

"I know you will, I just wanted your first day to be easy,'' Barstow replied with a smirk, "alright, get ready, Counselor, here we go...."


Captain John "Apollo" Barstow
Commanding Officer
USS Merlin
Task Group Commanding Officer
Task Group 47-A

Caroline Miller
Chief Counselor
USS Merlin