Actually, her participation in ST III and ST IV were personal invitations from the director, a very close relative of Mr Spock.
I was planning on using fallout from the transporter accident in my fan story. Rand will have a nightmare where it's her dead daughter, Annie (established in the novels the Captain's Daughter and affirmed in Ex Machina), that dies on the transporter pad on her watch. I thought exploring her guilt could add a bit of drama while building on some of the 'fanon'.