Disclaimer: I do not own Star Trek or any of its characters.

As Ellara and Jonesie walked into the shuttle hangar, Ellara realized how real this was, and that she was actually going to be going on a mission with all of her peers, and that some of them might die. At the sudden thought, Ellara clutched Jonesie's hand tighter.

The two finally found where a woman who was calling out their assignments. "Uhura, USS Farragut, Kartrine, USS Farragut, Lat'toy, USS Enterprise, Petroski, USS Antares. Go to your stations and good luck."

Once the woman had finished speaking, Ellara turned to Jonesie and clutched her tightly. She didn't want her friend to go on a different ship, but she didn't have a choice. "Hey," Jonesie chuckled, stumbling back a bit from Ellara's strength, "It'll be ok. We'll get through this mission, and then meet back up here for graduation."

Jonesie lightly rubbed Ellara's back, and then they heard someone shout that the shuttles would be leaving soon, so Ellara reluctantly let go. The Rendorian rubbed a tear from under her eye and nodded, before starting to turn away.

"Hey Ellara!" she heard, and turned around to see Jonesie grinning at her. "Have fun on the newest ship in the fleet."

Ellara smirked before rushing off. When she reached the shuttle, a man was checking people in. "Lat'toy, Ellara. Good luck up there." he said.

She walked into the shuttle and quickly found a seat near the back. Beside her was a woman with dark skin and long, sleek hair pulled back very tightly. She didn't seem very pleasant, so Ellara elected to look out the window instead, shocked at the beauty of space.

She had seen it before, of course, on her trip from Rendoria VI to Earth. But it was so beautiful. Ellara wasn't sure if she'd ever get over the splendour of space.

It was a relatively short trip, only periodically interrupted by the dramatic moaning of a man on the opposite end of the shuttle. Ellara couldn't see him, but she wished he'd stop. If he couldn't handle a short shuttle trip, why did he even enlist?

When the doors opened, however, all thoughts of nauseous crew members were wiped from her mind. The shuttle bay was enormous, and filled to the brim with Cadets and crew members rushing to their stations. Brushing off her skirt, Ellara exited the shuttle and began making her way to the med bay.

The hallways of the ship were crowded, but Ellara did not have time to focus as she rushed to where she was needed. She could admire the scenery when Vulcan was not in immediate danger.

The med bay was filled with people rushing back and forth, and Ellara was amazed by the organized chaos of it all. Everyone was going in a different direction, and they knew where their destination was. Ellara searched for a minute before spotting her destination. There, at the back of the room, was a door with her name on it.

Ellara walked towards it with a purpose. No one ran into her, and no one spared her a second glance. She opened the door and saw a small couch, a desk, and a potted plant. The walls were a light yellow, and there was a thick carpet on the floor.

The concept of a counsellor on a starship was relatively new, so no one really knew where she should go. Ellara expected that she would have very few patients on this trip, but she hoped that people would take advantage of her services and what she was offering. Ever since she was small, she had loved helping people, and this would be a great way to showcase her passion. She had spent four years learning how to help others and solve their problems, how to listen to them and advise them on what to do while letting them come up with the idea themselves. This was what she wanted to do, and even if she only had one patient in her entire career, she would be happy. Well, maybe not just one patient, but she would be happy.

Ellara quickly got settled at the desk, and glanced at the paperwork on it. A list of crew members with fears that could interfere with their work, crew with PTSD, those who had been diagnosed with depression, anxiety, or anything that would affect them seriously in this current situation. She was sure she would be getting a more complete list once she graduated, but for now, this would do. This was the list of people she would check up on as soon as the mission was complete. As Ellara began filling out standard paperwork, there was a knock at her door.

Ellara stood up, straightened her outfit, and walked the short distance to the door. Taking in a deep breath, she opened the door to the confused face of a man not much older then her. She flashed him a bright smile, and stated, "Hello, please come in."

The man glanced in, realized who she was, and rapidly began shaking his head. "I am so sorry, I thought you were the CMO." he clarified.

Ellara's smiled decreased slightly, and she gritted her teeth before leaning out the door and pointing to the room right beside hers. "It's the one with all of the windows. I'm just the counsellor. If you need any help though, don't hesitate to come-" she was cut off by the man muttering a thanks and rushing off. "-knock." she finished, deflated.

Ellara sighed and returned to her desk, leaving her door open. If anyone needed anything, they would see her door was open and would know she was available, and not busy.

There was suddenly a series of chimes, and a young Russian accent flitted across the ship. "May I have your attention, please. At twenty-two hundred hours, telemetry detected an anomaly in the neutral zone. What appeared to be a lightning storm in space." At that, Ellara frowned, wondering how that was possible. The Russian man continued. "Soon after, Starfleet received a distress signal from Wulcan High Command that their planet was experiencing seismic activity. Our mission is to assess the condition of Wulcan, and to assist in the ewacuations if necessary. We should be arriving at Wulcan within three minutes. Thank you for your time." Ellara nodded, albeit to herself, and returned to her work.

In the span of five minutes, the ship had arrived at Vulcan, and the ship was attacked. The explosions that rocked the ship killed the Chief Medical Officer, and placed a man called Leonard McCoy in the position, although he seemed reluctant to accept. Ellara understood that with the attack, many people would be coming in shaken up, but she wasn't sure if she was supposed to go out to meet them, or wait for them to come to her. Once the excitement died down a little bit, she would approach the new CMO and ask if he wanted her to help calm the patients, and request that he direct anyone that seemed particularly shaken up to her.

For now, though, she was content just watching and waiting. She wanted to go out and help, but she knew that her lack of education as a medical officer would render her useless, and she would only help if asked.

After a few hours of waiting for everything to calm, a cadet she recognized from one of her classes tentatively knocked on the door. Ellara's head shot up, and she shot the young woman a bright smile. "Hello, how may I help you?" she asked, standing and walking around her desk.

The cadet appeared nervous, so Ellara gestured to the couch and said, "Please, take a seat."

The woman appeared apprehensive, but slowly sat down. Ellara took the time to pull her chair around, and sat in front of the blue clad woman. She patiently waited for the cadet to speak, when she finally seemed to muster up the courage. "I… I didn't think it would be this terrifying, seeing the people I know… hurt."

Ellara nodded, and signalled for the cadet to continue, showing she was paying attention. "I've always been really social, so I knew a lot of people in my class. All of the people coming in to the med bay… I know them. I have to watch as my friends get patched up for everything from bruises to a punctured lung. I just didn't think it would be so… horrific." she provided, struggling to stay calm.

There was a small silence as Ellara tried to figure out what to say, but the words soon came to her. "It makes sense that you feel scared, seeing the people you love spread out on a cot in front of you. You're in the middle of space, and the lives of your peers depend on how you act. It's terrifying. But the less scared you are, the more confident you'll be, and the faster you'll be able to help your friends get better. There is always going to be a patient that makes you want to cry, because what you have to fix is just so horrifying, and that they have to experience that is even worse. However, if you swallow that fear, and remember that they want you, they need you to help them, it gets less and less scary, and more and more like a good deed being done. It's another life saved, because you weren't afraid to help. When you enlisted to be a medical officer, it was because you wanted to help people, right?" The young woman nodded. "Your friends are going to come in here with horrible injuries, that's inevitable. They will be hurting, and they will be scared. But even just seeing you looking confident will pacify them, and keep them calm as you go ahead and fix them. And the faster you fix them, the faster you can go back to smiling a laughing with them. Don't be afraid of your friends' pain. Accept that it's there, and embrace that you can help them."

The cadet looked pensive for a moment, before slowly nodding, and said, "Thank you. I'm definitely still afraid, but I understand that…" she swallowed, licked her lips, then looked up into Ellara's eyes. "I understand that my friends need me, and if I am afraid, I won't work properly, and I won't be able to help them."

Ellara smiled, and the two stood. "Thank you for stopping by, Ensign…?" she inquired, searching for the cadets name.

"Ensign Hurst, ma'am. Ensign Jane Hurst." she flashed a small grin.

"Ah," Ellara nodded, "Thank you for stopping by, Ensign Hurst. I hope you save many lives today, and I wish you well."

Jane nodded, and then walked out of the office. As soon as she was out of sight, Ellara let out a huge breath, wondering how she was going to do this.

She shook her head, and returned to her desk to fill out the papers for Ensign Hurst.

Over the course of a few hours, three more cadets walked through her door. Two were med students, and one was someone from engineering who had almost fell off a railing to their death and was traumatized.

Ellara handled each one with her calm, cool personality, and hoped that she had helped each of the crew members that had come in, at least in some small way.

Finally, after many, many more explosions that rocked the ship, a large flood of Vulcans entered the med bay. The worst injury she saw was a large scrape on someone's cheek, but they seemed relatively unharmed. She was sure that with the recent loss of their planet, they would be seeking someone to speak to, but she watched every one of them enter, and every one of them leave without walking into her office. Ellara was slightly disappointed that they were keeping their grief to themselves, but she respected that they had their own way of handling it.

She began to think of Jonesie, and how the Farragut was doing, but was quickly interrupted by a message from the bridge. "Mister Spock has resigned commission and advanced me to Acting Captain," the suave voice of James Kirk said over the comm, "I know you were all expecting to regroup with the fleet, but I'm ordering a pursuit course of the enemy ship to Earth. I want all departments at battle station and ready in ten minutes. Either we're going down, or they are. Kirk out."

Ellara furrowed her brows, wondering what exactly had happened on the bridge for Commander Spock to become Acting Captain, and then pass on the position to James Kirk, a man whom he'd been visibly displeased with not six hours later. This was going to be a strange experience, Ellara thought. No doubt about it.

Ellara spent one more hour staring at random notes on her PADD before the Enterprise finally docked. Everyone was ordered off the ship, and told to return to their quarters.

As she was walking through the shuttle hangar, Ellara could have sworn she saw Commander Spock speaking to a man who looked almost identical to the young Vulcan. She brushed it off, though, as she wanted to get back to her room and see Jonesie as soon as possible.

—

When she entered her shared quarters, Ellara was shocked. Sitting on her roommates bed were her parents, crying over a picture of Jonesie. They looked up as Ellara walked in, but went back to the picture just as quickly.

Ellara dropped her bag and rushed over to them. She rubbed a hand on Mrs. Kartrine's back, and watched as the woman began to hold back her sobs. "What is it…" Ellara trailed off, fearing the worst.

"She's… she's not…" Jonesie's mother began crying again, but managed to hiccup, "She's not coming back."

As soon as her fears were confirmed, Ellara's heart stopped. This could not be happening. Jonesie was not dead, she wouldn't believe it. The Bolian had been alive twenty four hours before, she couldn't be dead. How was this possible. Ellara was frozen in shock, wondering why this always happened, why the people closest to her always died. She had lost her mother, she'd lost her… her Lywa, and now Jonesie was gone. She was a Cadet, she wasn't even supposed to be out in space, and now she would never come home.

At the final acceptance that Jonesie would not be coming back, Ellara began to sob. She was crying so hard, her friend's bed was shaking. Mr. Kartrine came around the other side, having gotten himself together, and began to rub her back soothingly as Ellara clutched his wife in sadness. Her neighbours could hear them, could hear the desperate cries for a lost daughter, a lost friend, and tried their best to drown it out. The mother and the girl sounded so pained, so hurt, it was heart wrenching.

Jonesie was dead. Ellara was graduating. And an entire species had just lost their home. Ellara was sure that this was the second saddest day of her life. There was no question.

So, longer chapter. Ellara is beginning to understand her position on the ship, and she's wondering just what she got herself into. There's very minimal contact with the rest of the characters, but I felt as though the timespan of the movie wouldn't really allow for a lot of interaction between Ellara and the others. The main part of the movie takes place in the span of about a day, a very, very hectic day, so there wouldn't be much time for the other characters to come see her, and not much reason for her to visit the bridge and see them. The rest of the movie will probably take place in the next chapter, and then I'll start improvising to make up the time between the first and second movie, and Ellara will finally meet our favourite people. Please leave a review, I am open to constructive criticism(very open), and I hope you all enjoyed!

Updated July 28th.