What had initially felt like a punishment for her failures onboard the USS Viking, quickly edged towards delight as Kara Nakuto scanned the Leviathan’s duty roster - and saw a name she had feared lost to her forever, unless delivered on the tongue of a scoundrel like Grimshaw. But after determining the truth of the matter from Captain Cobb himself, the half-Klingon could not wait to surprise her old friend and colleague, John McHarrie.

And as luck would have it, the pair were now stablemates, so to speak, although while Kara herself had pulled back from specialising in the ultimate of dangerous anomalies, McHarrie, it seemed, had embraced the same challenge with open arms. Not that she would have expected anything less from him.

Still, as the Viking’s former captain and now Yellow-level Consultant rang the chime for McHarrie’s lab, her stomach churned with a mixture of excitement, anxiety and a distant sliver of fear that, to bring this pair together once again might also attract others in their wake?

• Kara Nakuto (Consultant Researcher)