[snip[

There seemed to be a number of Department Heads on the Bridge given that he had expressly told them to return and sort out their various branches. “Are you ready now for a private little chat about human resources now?” Glen asked Kord. “I’ll be in my Ready Room when you’re ready.”

Glen went to his Ready Room, but before Kord had a chance to join him, Noelle Ghassan came to see him first.

There was no need for Cross to stay longer than necessary ,satisfied that she had spoken to Kord the female doctor made her way to sickbay.

Once Kord left, Lt Grey and Lt Nkosenye were the senior officers left on the Bridge. With the Ark Angel gone and the planet disintegrated, the Merrimack drifted in space and Lt Pokorski was left only to wonder about a possible heading or holding position.

“Sirs,” Dariusz asked, “Orders?”

William looked at the Navigator then at the Security chief and shrugged “What do ye say Leftenant, want to go home?” He said looking up at the uncomfortably tall Security Chief.

Nkosenye looked down at the CSO. His voice was like two boulders grinding together in a deep cavern, but the volume was such that only Grey would hear him. “Lieutenant, if you do not mind. The other term carries colonial connotations my people still find… problematic.” the big Zulu said. It was hard to tell if he was offended, as the scowl on his face was seemingly a permanent fixture. He then spoke in a normal volume. “I would recommend one last sensor sweep of the area, Lieutenant. Any remnants of the Serpent vessels should either be contained for study or destroyed. I very much doubt that such technology falling into the hands of the Federation’s enemies would be a good thing. Additionally, I suggest that we place monitoring buoys in the area to alert us to any… returning guests. Your thoughts, Lieutenant?”

Will nodded and looked at the Ops “Ye heard him, let’s start a sensor sweep of the system and prep some monitoring buoys.”

“Aye, Sir!” replied Dariusz. He plotted and laid in the standard Starfleet expanding cubic sector search pattern.

He put his hand behind his back and was quiet for all of three seconds before looking back at the Security Chief and speaking in hushed tones meant for his ears only “How do you mean Colonial connotations. I’m no expert on British Imperial expansion history nor linguistics but pronouncing Lieutenant, as the yanks say, as Leftenant has no specific connections to the Colonizations of Africa that I was aware of, ‘tis simply how I learned to say it” He spoke in the curious tone of a scientist, eager to expand his knowledge.

CSO

Dariusz, Nav