From One Captain to Another
Posted on Mon Jul 6th, 2026 @ 6:00pm by Captain Adrian Kellan & Lieutenant Commander Robert Brant & Lieutenant Darla Kennings
1,994 words; about a 10 minute read
Mission:
Episode 2: Mine of Taurus
Location: Darla's Office
Timeline: Immediately After Darla's Sidequest
Location: USS Scharnhorst, Sickbay
Darla and Nicole appeared in the center of Sickbay moments after transport. Nicole looked around approvingly. "Very nice," she said. "Looks inviting." She looked at Darla and smirked. "Of course, mine's bigger."
"You run a hospital ship. Hardly a fair comparison," Darla said, leading the other woman to Darla's office, stopping along the way to retrieve an hypoextractor and large vial. "Kennings to Brant: report to my office, on the double," she said, tapping her combadge.
"Understood," Robert said before closing the channel.
Darla sat Nicole down and got a glass of water from the replicator and took a sip before sitting back against her desk. Granger stood up on his berth and stretched before leaping into Nicole's lap and rubbing his head under her chin, purring.
So," Nicole said, crossing her legs and scratching Granger under his chin, "going to keep me guessing about that ring?" She nodded at Darla's left hand.
Darla glanced down and smiled. "I've gotten so used to it, I hadn't though to mention it." She shrugged. "It's a shame my parents aren't here. We could have the wedding now."
"Your Aunt Camille would never forgive either of us," Nicole said, chuckling. "Not to mention the rest of the extended family."
"I suppose," Darla said with a sigh and a smile.
Robert had rushed down from the bridge once Kalina had taken over the helm again, and speed-walked to Darla's office. "Hey, you called?" he said, then saw Captain Anderson sitting on Darla's couch. "Captain," he said, standing up straighter.
"I love it when he does that," Nicole said, grinning at Darla. Granger gave a kvetch kvetch kvetch of a laugh and left Nicole's lap for his usual perch.
Darla smiled and beckoned Robert to sit down. "Computer, opaque the windows and lock the door to my office." The computer beeped as they were now guaranteed privacy.
"I take it you need a donation?" Robert said, removing his uniform jacket.
"Just a small one," Nicole said. "Enough to get me back on my feet until we can resupply. I appreciate it, Lieutenant...Commander? Someone got promoted."
Robert grinned as he rolled up a sleeve. "No one was more surprised than me," he said.
"Oh, whatever," Darla said, affixing the container to the extractor. "It's been a long time coming," she said proudly. "Soon you'll be the captain of your own ship."
"And then I can choose my own Chief Medical Officer, and we'll never have to worry about being transferred apart," Robert said, looking at her lovingly, then wincing slightly as the sample bottle began filling with blood.
"We'll be another Robert and Sarah April," Darla said, happily, kissing his cheek as she rubbed his shoulder affectionately.
Nicole smiled at the two of them and sighed with relief as Darla finished, disconnected the sample bottle and handed it over. "Thank you," she said sincerely to Robert.
"No problem," he said, putting his sleeve down and his uniform jacket back on. "Better than getting it 'the old fashioned way.'" He tried not to look uncomfortable as the captain drank it quickly, her eyes glowing red. No matter how many times he saw it, it still gave him the willies, but he wasn't about to say that in front of her.
Nicole let out a sigh as the last few drops went down and her skin immediately regained it's light color and softened, wrinkles disappearing. Her hair regained some bounce and even lost some grey, returning to chestnut brown. After a moment, her eyes went back to an ice blue. "That is better," she said.
A yellow light began blinking on Darla's monitor and she quickly took the vial and put it in the recycler, sticking the extractor in her desk. "Company," she said, unlocking her office door just as she heard a knock. "Come in," she said.
Adrian walked in, trying to keep his mind focused on the task at hand. He noticed the sudden reunion between Darla, Robert and their special guest. He had spent most of the rescue on the bridge, dealing with the radiation situation. He was glad they could get both ships away from it.
Adrian's eyes showed a tired and defeated man. But he tried to hide with a warm smile, that did not reach his eyes. He was not familiar with this Captain; Starfleet had a lot of captains. A lot of them were new, but he did not think that was the case with Nicole. Starfleet was just a massive organization. There was several captains he had not met before the Frontiers Day Massacre, as he thought of it. Starfleet called it the Battle of Frontiers Day.
"How is your patient doing, Doctor?" Adrian asked, as he waited for his Chief Medical Officer to give him an update on her patient. As he waited for a response, he simple nodded at Robert, and then smiled and looked to Nicole.
"She's well, I'm relieved to say," Darla said. "And from the reports we're getting, so is the vast majority of her crew."
"Thanks in no small part to my Chief Engineer's brilliant use of forcefields," Nicole said. She stood up and, despite being 5'6", looked right into the eyes of the Scharnhorst's captain. "Captain Nicole Anderson," she said, introducing herself. Her British lilt making the exchange feel like it was over tea. "Thank you again for your assistance." She held out her hand.
Adrian reached out and took her hand. "The Scharnhorst is at your disposal Captain Anderson." He said sincerely. He had a lot of questions, but he wanted her to know that his crew was at her disposal to get her ship to an operational status.
"Thank you, Captain," Nicole said, "however one of the perks of being a hospital ship is our extensive medical facilities. Now that we've got power back online, we should be able to handle our own. And you have a much more pressing issue."
Adrian just looked at her, he had a feeling when she was going to say. And if their situations were reverse he would be saying the same thing.
"Finding the bastards who did this," Nicole said, her tone hardening. "They're laying mines all around the area. We think..." she paused and turned to also include Darla. "We think they're coming from the Taurus system."
Darla blinked and shook her head as if she had water in her ears. "I'm sorry...the Taurus system? It thought Starfleet patrolled it since it was abandoned?"
"They had a ship there. The USS Becquerel," Nicole said, sitting back down and crossing her legs. "We were responding to their distress call when we encountered the ship. We didn't have time to identify it. It wasn't anything we recognized off the bat. But, if they're sniffing around Taurus, it can't be for good reasons."
"Commander Brant, I want you to check in with the bridge. See if we still have any information in regards to the Becquerel; also, pull whatever data you can from the Herophilos, on the mystery ship. I don't want to be caught off guard. Please coordinate with Commander Rogers."
"Aye, Sir," Robert said. He stood up and squeezed Darla's hand, giving her a brief kiss on the cheek, then gave Nicole a nod. "Good seeing you again, Captain," he said.
"You too, Robert," Nicole said, smiling at him.
Robert nodded to Captain Kellan and left quickly, heading for the bridge.
Adrian and shifted his focus back to Nicole. "We're going to find them, we're going to get to the bottom of this." He calmly said to her. Damaging two Federation ships, merited a full investigation. Adrian wanted answers and he had no doubt that Nicole wanted more answers too. "What do we know about the Taurus system?"
"The Taurus system is where my great-grandmother's people were found by the USS Enterprise," Darla said, looking at the Captain. "At the time, they were life-force feeders, but they only did it to survive on the planet they were trapped on. Once they left, they became healers, midwives, pediatricians. Our entire culture, if one can even call it that, is ensuring life."
"So are these radical extremists? Because hearing you talk about them being healers and midwives it doesn't seem like appropriate provocation to be hostile towards other races. I feel like we're missing a key element here." Adrian said not wanted to really press her but also needing to understand more of the dynamics of the Taurus system.
"Captain, there were only twelve original Taureans rescued from the planet," Darla said. "Each one had a daughter who had a daughter, who had a daughter. Including me, there are only forty-eight of us in the galaxy, forty of whom are in the Sol system. My mother and I are the only ones in Starfleet, and, to my knowledge, I'm the only one on a ship. There's not enough of us to have a 'faction of extremists' and if there were, word travels fast; we'd all know about it."
"When the original women left, they destroyed all their technology. They kept these," she said, gesturing to her headband," as a reminder, a vow to repay their debt for the damage they did. We all wear one to remind ourselves of where we come from. These headbands are literally the only remnant of the old technology left, and they're largely cosmetic now."
Nicole tapped her fingers on the knee of her crossed leg. "Whatever they're after, it's either something new, or it's something very old. Something Starfleet missed when it cleared the planet initially."
"Our investigation needs to discover what it is that they're looking for, and then we need to assess if it should fall into their hands or if it should be quarantined. Right now there's too many what-if factors to make a proper assessment. Let's see what the investigation does," Adrian look to Nicole.
Nicole raised an eyebrow. "Indeed. Well, jolly good." She stood up and let out a tired sigh, then held her hand out again. "Thank you again for your assistance, Captain," she said. "I should return to my ship and oversee things, not to mention right now we'll need every extra doctor we can get. Perhaps we can arrange a joint senior staff briefing in a few hours once my ship is stable?"
"Sounds perfect Captain, feel free to coordinate with Doctor Kennings. Just make sure at the end of this mission I get her back. We like having her on the Scharnhorst." Adrian said trying to be humorous. He was still disconnected from his feelings. A defense mechanism to hide his doubts. His doubts on his own importance.
Nicole gave a very small, wry smile. "No promises," she said. "I do so miss my Little Rainbow." She turned her back on the captain and leaned up to kiss Darla on her cheek, resting her hand on the other. "Paluntunau ish-veh, t'nash-veh pi'kur-kesek. Ish-zherka se tehvar-bosh," she said. Her voice was warm, but her eyes were hard as ice.
Darla blinked a moment, then nodded and smiled. "Yes, Ma'am," she said.
Nicole smiled and patted her cheek, then turned back to Captain Kellan. "I'll be back with my relevant senior staff in three hours, Captain. Until then, keep your sensors open in case they return."
"Already planning on it, Doctor." Adrian said, Titan he thought Sunday the doctor would make a good Captain. He just hope that she would someday go for the command track. But it was not uncommon for doctors to stay chief medical officers for years.
Nicole nodded to him and left Darla's office, heading back to her ship.
Adrian left sick bay, feeling good about their meeting and hoping for the best of their current situation. In 3 hours hopefully the good doctor will have some answers for them.
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