—- Bridge —-

Commander Cruz head the hiss of the hypospray, she now had about ten minutes left of clear thought before the radiation made her back into a desire driven danger to the crew. The entire ship was feeling the effects and these temporary treatments were not enough to go around. Even Doctor Va’Tok looked anxious, and he was the basically the second Captain now.

“We need to get out of this radiation field,” Cruz said, the room slightly swaying around her. She took a long blink. She steadied herself against the Captain’s arm rest as she continued to speak, “If the Borg are still out there, well we have to take that chance. If we stay in the field, someone if going to blow up the warp core of something. Pr’Nor take us out, half impulse speed.”

The Vulcan Chief Flight Control Officer was also one of the few crew members able to function, though she too looked worse for wear. The USS Seattle slowly moved out of the field created by the twin suns, and into the openness of space. Almost immediately Cruz felt better, less “drunk” which was how the effects of the radiation had felt to her. She looked at the Chief Medical Officer, “Long term effects?”

”Unknown for sure, but I do not anticipate any,” Va’Tok said taking his seat.

”Okay, give people about an hour to make their way back to their posts and then we’ll send the Nirvana to the moon, to find the crew we left there,” she said.

Kan Th’kaotross the Andorian Chief Security Officer was still at his post, “We are being hailed. It is Captain Hawthorne.”

”Cruz did you break my ship,” the Captain joked over the comm.

”Almost, but I can explain, just get your crew and come home,” Cruz said sighing with relief.

”Leaving now,” Hawthrone said.

On the screen the image of the Soundgarden grew as it approached the ship. Pr’Nor did some basic maneuvers to make it easier for the shuttle to land but soon it was back on board and the crew was disembarking. 

“Well,” Hawthorne said out of the shuttle, “how is my ship Commander.”

Cruz looked at her feet, “Well sir, we should talk. In private.”

—- Ready Room —-

“Radiation that made the crew act drunk?” the Captain had read about viruses that did that but not radiation, not that it was unbelievable. It was just something that only seemed to happen to ships named Enterprise. Still the ‘person’ of environmental factor that made the crew all act wild, was frequent enough that he had written a report on it back at the Academy. He shook his head, “Well you got the Seattle clear and there’s no damage reports. Everyone gets a scan and we’re good.”

”I made out with Lieutenant Jara, I umm, cheated,” Cruz said.

Their relationship was bound to be complicated, but the Captain had not anticipated involving other members of the crew in it. They both seemed to be doing their jobs well, and thus as long as Starfleet knew of it, then it was all good. Captains had dated their shipmates since inter-gender ships existed. Before then in all honesty.

He smiled, “Okay, calm down. Yes, you probably should not just make out with any Lieutenant you come across in the halls. But it was under the influence of radiation and it’s far better than jettisoning the warp core or something. You’d not married to me, I’m not dating anyone else, but we’re not exclusive.“

”Would you have the same reaction if it had been Hume, or Th’kaotross?” Cruz asked.

”You mean, a man?” Hawthorne said, he thought about it, “I hope so but I don’t know if I’m being honest. Again I hope so, but ultimately all I need to know about your free time is if you want to spend it with me, or breakup with me. Making out with Jara is… I’m not happy about it but I think we can survive.”

Cruz nodded, “I’ll talk to Jara, make sure there’s no lingering expectations.”

”That’s smart,” the Captain said, “And Cruz give yourself a break you did good.”

”And the Borg?” she asked finally sitting down. Hawthrone was already sat behind his desk, so he was glad the Commander joined him.

”Didn’t even approach the shuttle. They beamed down about two hundred of them, scooped up the transponders, scanned the area for more and left. The Cube stayed hovering above the moon for about another day, then left at warp nine back the way we came,“ the Captain said, “About ten hours later you came out and we radioed in. That’s it.”

”So the Borg?” Cruz began.

”Should be done, I’m writing up a report next and sending it to Starfleet. Then Young wants a few days to work on the Engines, so you need to find us a Class M planet to vacation on. I think we all earned it,” Hawthorne said.

”I’m glad you’re alive Nathanial,” Cruz said.

”I’m glad to see you as well,” Hawthorne grinned, “Now when you said you made out with Jara, what are we talking? Tongues, uniforms off?”

”I‘ll go find that planet,” Cruz said not wanting to be drawn into whatever joke the Captain was making. She stood and left the Ready Room, glad that it had it’s rightful occupant back in it. 

—- Bridge —-

”The planet is half a day away at warp five, and is Class M,” Cruz said summarizing that she’d learned about the yet unnamed planet in the past hour, “No intelligent like and we have this land mass here, roughly the size of what used to be New Zealand’s ’North Island’ on Earth, that has no animals, and seems to have the weather patterns similar to Hawaii On Earth.“

Hawthorne smiled, “A tropical paradise?”

”If you say so,” Cruz said, “But for leave it‘s the best place I’ve found nearby.”

Hawthorne nodded to Pr’Nor, “Set a course to Cruz’s Planet. Cruz do you have a name for it?”

”What?” she asked.

”We’re explorers, part of the joy is putting out names on everything we see. Jamestown, for example. Now, we don’t have a King, and it had no population, so we get to name it even if just for star charts and our logs.”

“Nuevo Mundo,” Cruz said.

”New World? Not a greatly original name, but it’ll work for now,” Hawthrone said, “Work on that Cruz we’ll be visiting a lot of new worlds on our way home.“

He smiled, they had survived the Borg and gotten rid of the transponders. Now all they had to do was get home.

The End.