Star Trek: This Mortal Coil – Episode 1: Of Arms and the Man
New Characters[]
Adrija Garanath, Charles Alderman, Keith Bowe, Kari Sandler, Rizo Boyik, Timothy Garcia, Rajiv Rami, Martin Grunwald
Starbase 214[]
Adrija Garanath packs up her personal belongings and brings them to the shuttlebay on Starbase 214. She is being reassigned to the chief science officer post aboard the U.S.S. Tesla after serving as the Starbase's chief science officer for two years. Garanath is excited about the prospect of traveling again, rather than being cooped up on a small, remote starbase. The Tesla arrived some days ago and, Garanath was told, offloaded its entire crew onto the U.S.S. Cochise.
Upon arriving in the shuttlebay, she meets another officer bound for the Tesla, Lt. Cmdr. Charles Alderman (who asks that she call him "Chuck"). An amiable, outspoken middle-aged man, Alderman knows a little more about the Tesla, on which he will serve as alpha shift helmsman. He tells her that the ship's commanding officer will be Cmdr. Hyn Do'harra, an Andorian. He is arriving the following day, along with the new chief engineer, Cal Phillips (who had served aboard the same ship as Do'harra previously). While mentioning a few other crew members he learned about from analyzing the crew roster, Alderman reveals that only one crewer under the Tesla's previous captain (Denton Greenbriar) has remained aboard: the ship's doctor, a Vulcan named Tirak. All Alderman knows about Tirak is that he is old enough to be considered a senior citizen among Vulcans.
Alderman is also reasonably certain Garanath will be the only Betazoid on the ship, and he asks her a few not-too-probing questions about her species (which only joined the Federation within the past twenty years). Garanath is reminded of the apprehension with which she was greeted by some crew when she first came to Starbase 214, and hopes history does not repeat itself.
Welcome to the Tesla[]
The shuttle takes them from the starbase to the nearby Tesla. It docks not with the shuttlebay (situated on the ship's aft secondary hull) but to the port on the aft end of the bridge deck, which opens into a small lounge/reception room. Waiting inside is Cmdr. Keith Bowe, the Tesla's first officer. He escorts Alderman and Garanath to their quarters; Garanath's roommate is the ship's chief security officer, Lt. Angela Bentham, who is not present at the time.
Garanath checks the ship's computer and reviews the roster and ship's schematics. The only other female who will regularly be on the bridge, she learns, is Kari Sandler, the half-Human half-Vulcan tactical officer, who answers to Bentham. Garanath expects Sandler to be an interesting individual indeed. She also learns that, in addition to an almost entirely new crew, the Tesla will be taking on supplies for Viliara II, a planet with which she is unfamiliar. Bentham briefly visits the room and meets Garanath; they seem to not be badly matched roommates.
Garanath reports to Science Ops, the main laboratory section, and meets her staff. Among them are Lt. Rizo Boyik and Lt. Timothy Garcia, both of whom respond well to her. Garanath checks on their progress in readying the facilities.
Not long after, Garanath heads to the bridge to configure her station and run diagnostic tests. There, Alderman introduces her to Rajiv Rami, the navigator; Martin Grunwald, the communications officer (a brusque fellow who, her empathy tells her, is deeply suspicious of her); and Sandler, who seems more personable than a full Vulcan might have been—but is concealing a profound panic at learning Garanath is a Betazoid.
The Supply Incident[]
Once Garanath's tests are running on the bridge, she heads back down to Science to help her staff bring up supplies from the cargo deck. During one visit to the cargo deck, she is joined by some personnel from Starfleet Materials and Supply Division. One of them seems nervous and fidgety, so Garanath uses empathy to sense his emotions. He is even more panicked than Sandler was, not because Garanath is Betazoid—he hasn't noticed, it seems—but because of something he is doing at that moment. Realizing the potential danger to the ship and crew, Garanath probes his thoughts and learns he has brought something aboard the ship, concealed among the sixty supply crates, that doesn't belong and that could get him thrown in prison if it were discovered.
Garanath plays it cool and leaves the cargo deck, contacting Bentham once out of earshot. Bentham brings some of her troops to the cargo deck and apprehends the two Supply personnel present; their third confederate, who was on the starbase at the time, is apprehended by their security. Garanath scans the crates, but five of them are somehow blocking her sensors; she then opens those crates. They are lined with a dark foamy substance (presumably for sensor-baffling) and loaded with Starfleet hand phasers and phaser rifles. Garanath reports this to Bowe, and is congratulated for her efforts.