The Shuttle Yosemite, carrying the new crew members, was still en route when Commodore Cromwell received a notification that Captain Anderson needed to speak with him again. He sat down at his desk in his ready room and opened the channel with a smile, “I haven’t even gotten this crew aboard, Keith. You can’t take them yet,” He joked. 

Captain Anderson chuckled at that, “Of course not. I have to wait for you to like them before I do that.”

“To what do I owe the pleasure?” Cromwell asked with a grin. 

“Orders,” Keith replied, simply. “You’ve heard about the Borg tech that’s been activating some sort of beacon recently?” 

“Yeah, I’ve heard some scuttlebutt going around about it,” Cromwell said, nodding. 

“It’s worse than it sounds,” Keith replied, his voice turning away from their usual easy-going tone to a more serious one. “The amount of tech that’s activating is … disturbing. And it’s everywhere. Some of it in deep space, some in the hands of scrap dealers, some in our colonies and research facilities. But the worst part is,” Keith trailed off and took a deep breath, “The worst part is, we’ve started getting reports of Borg sightings. It could be nothing, and we don’t have any concrete evidence, but…” 

“It’s enough to make Starfleet Command nervous,” Cromwell offered. 

“Exactly. One of the pieces is at Devol Outpost. If I remember right, you know the administrator there, correct?”

“Doctor Pavel, yes. I was serving as the Chief Engineer on the Valley Forge when they were establishing that Outpost. I helped his crew setup most of their systems,” Cromwell replied. “I’d heard he’d picked up some Borg technology a few years back. From what I understood they’ve made a lot of incredible advances from that little hunk of tech.” 

“Incredible may be an understatement,” Anderson replied with a nod. “So I’m sure you can understand the frustration when I informed Doctor Pavel that we’re coming to dismantle and destroy it,” He said. 

“Ah,” Pete replied, simply. “Yes.”

Keith nodded with an understanding smile, “Command was originally going to send Captain Riley aboard the Wisconsin, I asked them to let me see if you were willing. I thought maybe a friendly face might make things go much more easily,” Keith explained. 

Cromwell sat back in his chair and stared at the ceiling for a moment, then sighed, and finally spoke, “I don’t love it, Keith. He’s my friend, I hate to be the one that has to go make him give up his toy.” 

“At the end of the day, Pete, you’d be keeping him safe,” Anderson offered. “He might actually listen to you better than he’d listen to just any other CO.”

He sat and pondered that for a moment, then looked over at Keith, “How serious is this threat?” 

Keith sighed, “I’d be lying if I told you I knew for sure. Like I said, we’ve had some sightings. We’ve had some telemetry that looks like Borg probes, there’s been some rumors of drone sightings. Nothing major, and some of it could be people jumping at shadows after what happened at Frontier Day, but… I’m sure you know, after that we have to take it seriously.” 

Cromwell chuckled, “Son, I’ve been taking the Borg seriously since Wolf 359. You forget the Baleford was there and I barely made it out in one piece, and a lot of the rest of the crew didn’t,” He said. 

Keith nodded slowly at that, “I always forget you were there.”

“I don’t,” Cromwell replied, smiling kindly. “I’ll talk to Pavel. He’s not going to be any happier with me telling him, but I think I can at least help him understand and lighten the blow. I’ll keep you appraised of any potential Borg activity we encounter.” 

“Thanks, Pete. I appreciate that,” Keith replied. 

“Of course. Anything else?” 

“No, just stay safe out there, okay? Anything gets too green, you get out.” 

“Count on it.” 

Anderson nodded with a smile and closed the channel, leaving Cromwell alone with his thoughts. The events of Frontier Day alone had already stirred up old memories for Pete, and now this had a steel ball settling into his gut. He’d railed against milk run missions from Starfleet and being left to work just like the other COs, but this wasn’t what he had in mind. Especially after Wolf 359… 

He shuddered remembering it. Only two escape pods had managed to launch from the Baleford before the ship had been utterly destroyed killing all three-hundred plus souls on board. He and the Chief Engineer had managed to rig up a scrambler to keep the Borg from discovering them… but the other pod hadn’t been so lucky. He could remember the flashes of orange phaser fire and green Borg shields in the viewports of the shuttle before it all went still. A few moments later, the slow flash of a transporter told him what he needed to know: Whatever friends he had on that shuttle were gone, lost to the Collective forever. 

It wasn’t long before the Cube had jumped back en route to Earth and they’d been able to reactivate life support. A passing salvage operation had found them and brought them to the nearest Starbase. He’d had nightmares for months, and the survivor’s guilt was devastating some days, but he’d pressed on. He’d lived for the people who couldn’t, and that was what mattered. 

Pete stood and walked over to the viewport in his ready room, looking out at the ships coming and going from Starbase 86 where the Lafayette was docked. He knew the crew compliments for most of them, even the civilian ships, and mentally calculated the number of souls that would be lost if a Borg cube showed up right now. 

It was a morbid distraction, but one he did often after the events he lived through. He knew the souls at risk, so anything less than that was a victory. There’d been a long time he’d broken the habit, but after Frontier Day, and now this… it kept him sane. More than four-thousand lives were at stake, just within his field of view. He would do everything he could to keep them all safe. 

“Bridge to Cromwell,” His communications officer’s voice chimed through. 

“Go ahead, Galloway,” He replied. 

“Sir, the Yosemite is on an approach vector. They’ll be landing in Shuttle Bay 2 soon,” She answered. 

“Copy that. I’ll head down to the shuttle bay to meet them.” 

“Yessir!” She replied, and the channel chirped off. 

Cromwell sighed. Now to go tell the new crew what they were going to have nightmares about that night. Oh, the joys of still being a Commanding Officer.