Marcus found himself alone on the ship a weirdly excruciating experience. Marcus had never been alone. Not like this.

On Betazed Marcus had his family and their more open society always meant there was always  a friendly mind nearby.

At the Academy so many

On the Merced before the Vaadwaur, there was always at least a friendly mind someplace on the ship.

Marcus with the computers help installed some holo emitters. While he couldn’t read their minds it was at least a comfort to have a friendly presence.

With them Marcus could also successfully get the Merced moving.

This was considered an emergency protocol and it wasn’t advised to use warp while doing it. It would take a month to get back to DS 17 at impulse.

On the 5th day, Marcus made his way to the bridge as holograms busily did the work a normal crew would do. Marcus took the Conn position. Being trained as a pilot at least gave him something to do. Holograms don’t need Doctor’s after all.

“Doctor, ” the Captain hologram said “I have a distress signal from the USS Callus its a Sydney Class Freight ship. ”

Marcus had been hoping for a quiet trip home, but he had a duty “Set and intercept course and open a channel.”

Static “US… Call… att..ked ad… basic.. li… su…port.” The message said.

As the Merced approached Marcus could see the ship tilted both nacelles out

Marcus stood and looked back to the hologram in the Captains chair “Get them beamed over that ship doesn’t have much longer. ”

Within a few minutes the full 30 person crew was aboard the Merced and the ship turned away from the frigate just in time before the Callus exploded.

Soon he was in the ready room with the command staff.

“First thank you for the rescue.” the Captain said “I am Captain Jonas Grumby , My First Officer Lieutenant Kerry Thrace, our Chief Engineer Lieutentant JG Beckett Szalinski, our Chief Security officer Dan Ger, my Conn officer Ensign Paris Thomson. They all nodded to Marcus.

“Well it seems you are without a ship and you without a crew. We are happy to take up the helm of the Merced and continue on together.” Captain Grumby said “We can deal with the transfer paperwork later.”

Marcus laughed at that and nodded “I am happy to oblige Captain. Be nice to work with people again.” Marcus said “Computer please add Captain Grumby and his crew to our ship manifest and assign them quarters.”

“Yes Doctor, Captain Grumby, your authorization please.” The computer said

Grumby nodded and shook Marcus’s hand then addressed the computer “Captain Jonas Grumby USS Callus authorization Grumby alpha 56565 taking command of the USS Merced

The computer said “Captain Jonas Grumby is now in Command of the USS Merced

Grumby said to Marcus “We did have a Medic, new from the academy, Ensign Abe Holt, he will serve under you Doctor.”

Marcus nodded “I understand sir, feel free to take down any of the holograms you find extra.”

Grumby nodded “We will be operating as a small crew but at least not bare bones. We won’t have a science officer or a counselor for a bit. But we should be able to operate at near full capacity otherwise. We can keep the holograms doing those jobs if needed.”

Marcus nodded “Understood sir.”

Grumby smiled “Then let’s get to work Doctor.”