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After Picard/Discovery I don't have a good read on the Federation any more, but I kind of feel like they absolutely would have shipped her back to her own time, rather than assign her to a science vessel after what must have been like a ten minute orientation.
adjusts nerd hat
Well the time travel thing is extremely high risk, so sending her back wouldn't be easy, nor chosen lightly. Plus her skills as a marine biologist would be invaluable to keep the time traveling whales healthy and alive so they didn't have to go back and get more next time the probe came around.
But yeah, they did seem to just hand her a uniform and throw her at a starship, eh?
With all the shit Starfleet keeps falling in, they need as much personnel as possible. They kinda die a lot.
I don’t think she specified that she would be on a starship. I would guess it’s a seafaring ship, dedicated to following George and Gracie around for study and caretaking. As you say, she’s the only one left with the skills, not to mention the personal connection.
Bringing her forward would have less impact on the timeline than sending her back with knowledge of the future.