Normally when new personnel arrive on a ship, some preliminary work had been done. Personnel records sent to Security, medical files transmitted, room assignments made… the standard. What wasn’t standard was the CO and Security Chief receiving a call from Star Fleet Personnel Command informing them that the new CSO had been placed in a shuttle and would be arriving in the next three hours. And he would be carrying all of his files himself. And he was to report immediately to the Commanding Officer with no interaction with anyone else. And he would be escorted to the CO by ship’s security until such time as the Commanding Officer deemed it otherwise. Even more ‘not standard’ was that the only person given his name was the CO… along with a very interesting message from an Admiral Harkness (that no one seemed to know) telling her that her new CSO was one of the best in the fleet… if she could just look past the whole ‘acquitted murderer’ thing; along with a detailed record of his problematic history in Star Fleet.

And so it was that two hours and twenty-three minutes after being notified, a shuttle appeared on the Leviathan’s sensors. Oddly, it wasn’t a runabout or passenger shuttle. It was a high security transport. After being cleared to land in the shuttle bay, the craft settled to the deck and the engines whined down to idle. The rear hatch lowered and down the ramp walked two Fleet Marines on either side of an Orion male wearing the blue uniform of the Star Fleet Science Division. As they stepped onto the deck of the Leviathan, one of the Marines looked at the Orion and said “Remember what the Admiral said. Not a word until you meet the Skipper.” The Orion looked at the speaker and simply glared… but remained silent.

Ahearn, Chief Science Officer