SD 04/19/03 "Captain M'Rander" - Talk about the crud hitting the fan, or in this case the dungheap hitting the windtunnel.
To start with, I'm now technically the XO, at least for the moment. While I had heard Lynx's mother M'Rander was headed here, I was expecting her to simply rest and recooperate from her time in the "Sick Puppy" psych ward after being forgotten for so many years. I had hardly expected this. Upon my greeting her, she promptly gave me a PADD stating her commision had been reactivated and she had been given command of the Freedom!
Courtesy of Starbase 13 - Admiral Ironbottom.
I don't know why he did this. From what I've heard of him he seems to have a dislike of nonhumans. He certainly took an instant dislike to the Freedom with so many as bridge officers. So why did he send her to us? While her memory seemed intact, the years had taken a toll on her, needing a cane to walk, and she could barely see, using her sense of smell to recognize things. Although she more-or-less still has her wits, she showed signs that she still hadn't recovered from all that time in the ward. Considering Lera's quirk, I can't really fault her for her choice of uniform when off-duty, in this case something out of a swashbuckling holodeck movie. But she seemed pretty rigid about military protocol otherwise, grumbling about no one saluting her much like some Kilngons complain about the lack of disclipine on science vessels such as this one.
I chose not to raise hackles with M'Rander about the Captiancy, as since the paperwork was in order it wouldn't do any good. Best thing was to keep her at ease while a message to Starfleet should take care of this fairly quickly. Instead the subject turned to Lynx, and she was more than happy to hear about how she had been doing on board, looking forward to meeting her again. We went to her quarters, and found Brundle there babbling about something. Lynx didn't respond to either the door chime or my voice. I suggested she might be asleep, but M'Rander was determined to at least see her and used a command override to open the door and go in ...
Her voice turned sour and into a growl at the same time Brundle finally told it to me straight, Dammers was in there as well. I went in as she bellowed out, and indeed their close friendship had taken the wrong night to go the next step. Dammers turned white and fainted. Lynx was so shocked she was babbling in what sounded like a Kzin trying to speak Caitian before returning to English. Taking that she didn't attack him on the spot as a good sign, I was about to leave, but discovered Brundle had followed me in, with Lynx's assistant Cosmo, who seemed amused by the situation. Well, I for one was not, and tried to get them to follow me out. But they wouldn't, Brundle in particular insistant he talk to Dammers. Sheesh, talk about a few cards short of a deck! But them my comm went off, and I had to leave there and then. I was needed on the Bridge to talk to the Captain of the Orenmara to clear up some questions about the supplies, so I left, feeling more sorry than ever for poor Dammers. Talk about between an rock and a hard place, again. I couldn't help but think of the motel room incident when I was 17.
The cargo questions didn't take long, and I emailed the Bridge officers about the change in command and the meeting tomorrow at 08:00, as well as notifying Security about the new skipper, but my conscious was still nagging me about other business. When the man at Tactical cut his finger shuffling papers, I told him to go see about it in Medical, saying there was some bug going around and that was all it needed. The comm officer notified Dammers and Cosmos. Dammers quickly got here and knowing it was me behind it thanked me.
But the night's troubles didn't end there. As I was getting a comm from M'Rander about Brundle, I heard sounds of commotion and a sickening snap. I propmtly called Security, and they told me Brundle had taken the two redshirts by surprise and threw them onto M'Rander, breaking her arm. He then fled.
Brundle ... you are SO toast.
.....
Addition: Just woke up on the floor in my quarters still a few hours from when I'm supposed to awaken. I had just gotten to bed when first Brundle called saying he had gotten out of the sensory deprivation tank, and five minutes I passed out after that I was commed about the Orenmara and it's passengers. Besides M'Rander, there was some Orion girl looking for Demian Tempres who promptly greeted me with a full kiss on the lips! I'm afraid to ask what that was all about.
Lera came to see me as I was calming down about the Brundle situation. We talked about M'Rander for a while, she wondering about that time she went insaine and tried to eat Dammers. The conversation somehow got turned to Lt. Droolin and that website he did of Lynx and his punishment. Why did she stick up for him? The conversation was cut short by by fatigue, and I stumbled to my quarters. Maybe it's just me, but she seemed to have the same twinkle in her eye after I saw her and Flare Strife ... no, it couldn't be.
After getting up, I checked my e-mail and found a message from Brundle. He had holed up in some hiding place and claimed to have gotten the plans over the space radio for some kind of flying spacesuit and was making it. He stated that M'Rander was a clear and present danger to this ship, and was going to bust out and confront Ironbottom! Has he completely flipped?! I sent him a reply in some vain hope to appeal to his reason, but I fear it will do little. The maniac's going to wind up either dead or in M'Rander's old cell at this rate, and irronically enough complicate my own efforts to send her back into retirement.