Changes

Eventually, he grew to love his new home in the small coastal town between San Francisco and Los Angeles. It was during his later school years that he became interested in Star Fleet. Drawn by adventure and a sense of belonging, he made up his mind to apply to the academy and pursue a career in Star Fleet.

Mick was assigned to the USS Dauntless, BC-1553 upon graduating from the academy. On his first and only mission while stationed on the Dauntless, he was witness to the most atrocious scene of his career. A transporter incident on the Dauntless rendered three Romulans into a congealed mass on the platform, accompanied by screams, and randomly placed, protruding body parts. Upon entering the area, he slipped and fell on the bodily fluids running off the platform. He regained his footing and steadied himself before following through with his orders, transporting the screaming mass into open space.

After that first mission he was transferred to the USS Pulsar, BB-100, where he was eventually promoted to Assistant Chief Science Officer. Mental adjustments had to be made as he wasn’t prepared for the intense situations of back-to-back missions on battle cruisers, but he eventually settled into his duties. After much off-duty studying, he was transferred to engineering and promoted to Chief Engineer of the Pulsar, the flagship of the 1st Fleet.

Mick enjoyed his work as Chief Engineer, but missed science. Wanting to get back to his original division, he transferred to the USS Gettysburg, BC-1863 as a science officer. He was disappointed that no Chief Science Officer positions were available at the time of his transfer. He was on board the Gettysburg during the first Krynar attack and the loss of the Bajoran System.

After the mission, he experienced short-term memory loss that seemed to be getting worse. Thinking he was sleep deprived from the previous mission, he tried to sleep it away to no avail. He suspected some kind of event had happened during the Bajoran mission. While doing his research, he was transferred to the USS Sheridan, DD-4086 as their new Chief Science Officer. He was elated to finally get back into a chief officer position.

He gathered all the data he could from the Gettysburg and assigned two of his new science crew members on the Sheridan to investigate to see if indeed some strange occurrence had happened. By chance, the Sheridan had fought along side the Gettysburg, just on the other side of the Bajoran wormhole on their previous mission.

It was some time before the science and medical crews were able to find the cause of the symptoms, which had indeed been affecting the Sheridan crew. Not until the death of a crewman was the crew finally able to trace the origin of the problems to high particle levels, due to a hull breach, while traveling back through the Bajoran wormhole. The rest of the crew was able to be treated and no more deaths occurred.

Mick’s first two missions aboard the Chin’toka felt unfamiliar, more so than usual when transferring to a new ship. The faces of the bridge he acquainted himself with before transferring, were not to be seen. So much so, that he found himself as Acting First Officer during both missions.