“All set?”, asked Lieutenant Alcyone Brennan her ACMO, a petite Bajoran woman with ample experience as medical officer who would take over sickbay’s coordination while Brennan would assess the situation at the scene of the accident. The woman nodded her assent, and in turn, Brennan nodded at the officers who would accompany her. They really had to get going, and there wasn’t much time for introductory chats, but Brennan wasn’t unimpressed by how rapidly her team had managed to respond to the reported disaster. 

“Transporterroom three is ready for us.”, remarked one of the nurses Brennan couldn’t remember the name of, and knowing that their new CMO was new to the Valkyrie and not entirely at home here just yet, decided to lead the way. Though before they could leave sickbay, the door swished open, revealing a somewhat out-of-breath Andorian. 

“Zion.”, started the Andorian in her addressing of Brennan, and then quickly corrected herself into “Alcyone.” 

Brennan raised a very Vulcan eyebrow. 

“Eshrevi. We were just due to leave.” 

Perhaps the use of first names was deemed unprofessional, but right now nothing was further from her mind than worrying about people’s opinions. 

Brennan had dreamed about the day they would meet again, and prayed for the opportunity to transfer to the Valkyrie. Then the latter had come true, but somehow the mission didn’t come with spare time to reacquaint herself with Eshrevi Sh’shiqil. Both had wanted to wait until after the mission ended, and invite the other for dinner or something similarly romantic. Neither of them had expected their reunion to look like this. 

“That’s why I am here. I’m your security escort.”, explained Sh’shiqil. 

“We need Security?”, Brennan asked, feeling a little dumb because she hadn’t thought of requesting an escort herself. 

“We are fairly sure it was a targeted attack. There might be secondary explosions at the scene, or a follow-up.” She paused. “Or a counter attack. Better to have someone with you.”

“Agreed.”, nodded Brennan and shouldered her AFAK. “Let’s go.”