She had deliberately sought out a terminal on a lower deck, not so deep into the bowels of the ship that power was restricted, but distant enough to shield her conversation from unwanted attention.

It had been well over a year since Nakuto had spoken to her former CMO. The amiable Welshman’s own tenure on the Viking had been marked by tragedy from the moment he stepped onboard - a dear friend and colleague being murdered by a rogue transporter; and also chaos with the arrival of his uncle…no, father, in a plot orchestrated by Section 31, the intentions for which still unknown to the ship’s former Captain.

Her stomach knotted with apprehension at the task ahead of her, his reaction to seeing again that once-familiar, half-Klingon face impossible to predict. Would he welcome such a stark reminder of that bleak chapter in his life? Or run from it in turmoil at the memories she roused within him?

There was only one way to find out and so, as Kara waited to be joined by Peter Sigmundsson, she occupied her trembling hands with the firing up of the terminal, its green, aurora-like glow the room’s only illumination.

Kara Nakuto