Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Mariner had just been told that she was being transferred off the Cerritos. As she passed through the halls, everyone looked at her with disdain. “You made us look like losers!” a disappointed Shax called out.

“At least you're getting what’s coming for you,” One ensign called out, “Yeah. Starbase 80,” someone else added.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Mariner called back, desperate for someone to listen to her.

But she was just met with people replying, “Yeah, right stop pretending to be the victim here.” The person whose voice hurt the most was her fling, Jennifer.

“Oh, Jennifer,” Mariner called as she rounded the corner, “My mom is acting like I stabbed her in the back and I need…”

She stopped as she heard Jenifer's cold reply. “Because you kinda did Mariner,”

Mariner quickly recovered from the shock, “Wh-what are you talking about?”

The Andorian just rolled her eyes, thinking Mariner was lying again to try and make herself look like the victim here “You went to that reporter and said things about the captain not being able to control her ship and having a meltdown trying to get engineering to destress, and a whole bunch of other things.”

Mariner finally knew why everyone thought she had caused a galactic incident, to them she did, “WHAT!? I would never do something like that, you know that.”

“I really don’t Mariner,” Jennifer turned away from Mariner, “You tell people that this is the way you are.”

“You know me better than that,” Mariner pleaded, “You believe me right?”

Jennifer turned away from her, “I don’t think I can trust you.”

She was about to reply, but that was when the intercom went off, “Attention, all crew. For operational security, please refrain from communicating with former Cerritos officer Mariner.”

“You should go, I have my orders and you have some packing to do,” Jenifer said, still facing away from Mariner. Mariner started to reach out to her… ex, but realized there was no use, so she turned away and made her way to her quarters to pack.

As she was packing, she heard two familiar voices call out to her, “MARINER!!!”

“We heard about what happened,” Rutherford started.

“You're getting transferred?” Tendi finished.

"Apparently I torpedoed the whole California-class,” Mariner confirmed, “And even though I didn’t do anything, I got transferred to Starbase 80.”

“STARBASE 80?!!?!”

“Holy *BEEP*,” Tendi covered her mouth when she realized what she just said.

Rutherford thought of something, “Maybe it’s a good idea to apologize,”

“I DIDN’T DO ANYTHING,” Mariner yelled back.

“Right of course, but-” Rutherford glanced towards Tendi hoping for some backup with his idea.

Tendi realized what Rutherford was hinting at, “It might be a good idea to do so anyways to, you know, save faith.”

Mariner decided she had enough of the conversion and made one of her classic snarky comments, “Where’s Boimler? He’s really making it a habit of not being around to say goodbye when one of us gets transferred."

Rutherford and Tendi shared an awkward look, “Boimler went to the captain, thinking he might be able to talk some sense into your mom.” Surprising Mariner, “Or get her to pull back a little while we figure things out.”

“Idiot! She can’t be reasoned with right now.” Mariner started running back to the Captain’s ready room, but she was blocked by Shax, “Stop right there, can’t have people that aren’t members of the crew on the bridge.”

“I need to go up there and-” She stopped when she saw the turbolift doors open and Boimler walk out, without a Starfleet uniform on, “Boimler, what happened? She kicked you out because you stood up for me?” Shocking everyone around.

“No, Mariner she didn’t,” He reassured, “I resigned.” Well, that was a bombshell.

10 minutes earlier,
Boimler’s 3rd person POV

As soon as Boimler heard the announcement that Mariner wasn’t Cerritos crew anymore, he knew he had to do something about it. He made his way over to the captain, he ran into Rutherford and Tendi.

“Did you hear?”

“Oh of course he did Rutherford!” Tendi smacked him on the back of the head, “There was an announcement about it.”

“Right, there was, wasn’t there.”

“You guys stop her from leaving. I’ve got an idea that might work to get the captain to undo whatever transfer she gave to Mariner.” With that, he left as they told him not to do that. Truthfully, he was sure he could convince the captain to reverse her decision, but he knew he had to do something.

He soon stood face to face with an angry Shax, or was that just his default personality? "Ensign, what exactly are you doing going up to the bridge? Why aren't you at your station?"

Brad was tempted to back down, but he knew he just had to stand up for Mariner as it looked like no one else was looking to do it. So he channeled as much Bold Boimler as possible when he confidently answered, "I have something urgent to talk to the Captain about." As he walked past him and into the turbolift, surprising Shax. The nerves started getting to him realizing what he was about to do, but he knew he couldn't back down now. When he entered the bridge, he was met with people looking at him, asking why he was there, but he ignored them and pressed onward.

The doors to the captain’s ready room opened, “Ensign Boimler, what exactly do you think you are doing?”

Boimler ignored her and regulation, not even asking to be able to speak freely, “Sir, you can’t transfer Mariner off the Cerritos.”

“Ensign Boimler get out of my ready room or you are spending the night in the brig,” Freeman ordered.

“Fine, but you still can’t transfer Mariner off the Cerritos!”

“And why can’t I?” Freman questioned while slamming her desk.

“Because…” He needs to think fast, “Whatever she did-”

“What she did was go to that reporter and bad mouth me, the Cerritos, and the whole California Class,”

“Look, she might act like she doesn’t care, but she really cares about the Cerritos and you, and she would never do something like-”

“ENSIGN BOIMLER, if you don’t want to be sleeping in the brig for next week, you will be quiet and leave.”

"OK, but even if she did say something to the reporter don’t you think it would be worse-"

"THAT IS IT 2 WEEKS IN THE BRIG," Freeman then pushed a button on her desk, “Send a security team, to my ready room. Take Ensign Boimler to the brig.”

Boimler took a deep breath in, “Captain Freeman, Commander Ramson, I am officially requesting a transfer off of the Cerritos.”

That made Ramson speak up, “WHAT? Why?

But Freeman wasn’t having it, “REQUEST DENIED!”

“Sir-” Ramson started, but just got a glare from Freeman which caused him to back down.

Boimler then took another deep breath and stepped forward reaching for his comm badge, "What are you doing now?" A frustrated Freeman asked.

“If you are not letting me transfer, I am resigning.” He placed his comm badge on the table and started taking off his uniform. The captain and commander tried to stop him, but he was already on his way out of the room.

“Boilmler, stop,” Ramson called after him, “Don’t throw away your career over this.” But he didn’t listen and just walked away.

He walked into the turbolift and he started realizing what he had just done, and how much he had sacrificed to get to where he was, how much more he wanted to do. But then one thought came up and it blocked out everything else. “It’s not worth it without Mariner, It’s not worth it without Mariner, It’s not worth it without Mariner,” He repeated to himself. “Wait, what, where did that come from?”

He didn't get too much time to think about that since the doors opened and he was met with Mariner pushing past Shax to get to him, “Boimler, what happened? She kicked you out because you stood up for me?” Shocking everyone around.

“No, Mariner she didn’t,” He reassured and Mariner looked like she was relieved, “I quit.” Well, that might not have been the right thing to say.

Mariner wasn’t sure what to think or feel. So she did what she always did when she didn’t know how to handle her feelings, she punched him in the shoulder, hard. “Why the hell did you do that!?!”

“Ow, that hurt Mariner,” Boimler complained

But Mariner wasn’t having, “YOU IDIOT, YOU DIDN’T-”

“Mariner we’re kinda making a scene here,” Boimler interrupted her grabbing her hand to pull her away to find a less crowded part of the ship. “Let’s find somewhere to talk.” As they were walking, Boimler was trying to figure out, what exactly he was going to say to her to explain what he did without making her think, she wasn’t the main reason he just quit. Eventually, they settled on going to repair bay 5.

Once the doors were closed, Mariner broke Boimler out of his trance, “You gonna let go of my hand?” He quickly let go of her hand and apologized, “So, I’ll ask this again. WHY THE *BEEP* DID YOU QUIT?!! YOU LOVE EVERYTHING ABOUT STARFLEET, ESPECIALLY THE STUPID REGULATIONS THAT JUST GET IN THE WAY HALF THE TIME!”

“I-” Boimler stuttered, stalling a little longer.

“YOU DON’T EVEN HAVE A REASON? You're so, arrah” Mariner made a frustrated cry.

“I DO,” Boimler exploded back, quickly recomposing himself and finally finding the words to say, “I went to her and tried to get her to reverse the transfer because I knew that someone had to do something. But then she wouldn’t listen to anything I had to say and I be on a ship to be on a ship with a captain that didn’t even consider listening to her crew.”

“Ok, but if that was the case, you could have just put in a transfer request,”

“I DID request a transfer, she denied it and so I resigned.”

“But your dream-”

He knew that this wasn’t getting anywhere if he was going to beat around the bush, and needed to come clean, “Wasn’t going to be worth it if my number 1 wasn’t with me.”

Mariner’s face softened, not sure how to respond to that. So she responded in the only way she knew how, she put a smirk on her face, “If anything, your MY number 1 Boims.”

“So you want to be in the Captain’s seat then?” Boimler smirked back.

“*BEEP* NO gross,” She shuddered, “but even if you were in that Captain’s chair, we both know who’d be in charge.” They both decided to sit down against the Sequoia, “So, you have any plans on what you’re gonna do now?”

“Honestly, no clue, Maybe work on the vineyard and marry Lianne.” He joked earning a laugh from Mariner, “Or at least work there long enough to buy a ship and travel around independently.”

“Well,” Mariner smirked, “I’m still in contact with that archeologist, I was planning on resigning and joining her when I got to Starbase 80. We could explore ruins and stuff that way.”

Biomler smiled, “I’d like that.”

They sat in silence for a bit before they needed to go back to their quarters, “WAIT, which one was Lianne again?”

“The one that ‘needs my help getting naked’,” Boilmer replied in a mocking tone, “In case you were wondering, my dad told them that whoever got in my pants and married me would inherit half the vineyard, so I pretended to not notice they were all being massive sluts wanting a piece of me.”

“WAIT, YOU KNEW!”

Boimler gave an evil smile, “What, I know that I’m dense and a dumb*BEEP* weasel sometimes,” He could’ve sworn she muttered ‘that’s an understatement’, but chose to ignore it, “but I’m not that dense, it’s so boring on that vineyard, and I had to do something to keep myself entertained.”

“Sooooooooo, you chose to pretend to be clueless and not, you know, have sex with a bunch of girls on the regular?”

Boimler just shrugged, “Not really into the whole meaningless one-night stand thing,” They sat there for a few more minutes before he broke the silence again, “Should probably be packing right now, seeing as how we both no longer work on this ship anymore.”

“Probably,” Marnier agreed, but neither made the effort to move just yet.

Boimler realized something, “Wonder how Victoria Nuzé is going to spin this? Two ensigns being kicked off the ship while she’s here.”

Chapter Text

The interview had just been released, and everyone on the Cerritos was glued to their screen horrified about what they had listened to. “But this sole voice of California-class exceptionalism was transferred off the ship just for talking to me. With another leaving Starfleet when they were supposedly punished for standing with their fellow crewmate. At the time of recording the only comment from this former ensign was, ‘I left on my own accord, I wasn’t kicked out’ with another source that chose to stay anonymous at this time saying Freeman threatened to quote ‘lock the former ensign in the brig’ end quote. Is Freeman really the best captain? Or simply a cruel taskmaster?” As bad as everyone felt for how they had treated Mariner while this was happening, no one felt worse about what happened than Captain Freeman.

She was currently in her ready room drinking some synthol and seriously considering looking for one of her daughter’s hidden stashes of the real stuff when Commander Ramson came in looking a little worried. “Are you ok sir?”

“Well,” The Captain took another drink of her synthol, still cursing that it wasn’t the real thing, “I just destroyed my relationship with my daughter because I decided to not even give her or anyone who spoke on her behalf, because I was so stuck in the past about Mariner and what she was like years ago.”

“Have you tried calling her? Tried mending that bridge?” Ramson suggested.

“I’ve tried,” Freeman sighed, “But she resigned as soon as she got to Starbase 80.”

“What about Biomler? Maybe he knows how to contact her.”

She shook her head again, “None of his family have heard from him.”

“Well, I guess he’s probably with her out there,” Ramson reasoned, “Probably a good thing too, he is the only person who can at least kind of keep her in check.”

Freeman smirked, “They do make quite the team,” She agreed, “Like Kirk and Spock.” Thinking back to Kirk’s bar back on Starbase 25.

“Like Kirk and Spock? Those TOS-era guys?” He thought about it for a bit, “Yeah I can see it. At least we know they'll keep each other safe.”

Freeman stood up and turned to the window, "I really hope so."

-POV Mariner and Boimler-

Mariner and Boimler were making their way through an alien jungle, looking for the ancient ruins that their scanners saw from their ship. “Couldn’t Petra beam us close?” Boimler ask as he swatted away at another insect buzzing around his face.

Mariner rolled her eye, “No, the strange energies were making it too risky to beam us down to the planet,” See swung at another branch to get it out of the way, “Besides, we’re here now.”

Boimler walked up next to her to see the ancient structure. “Petra, we’ve made it to the ruins,” He tried to radio in, “Comms are blocked.”

“Of course they are,” She frustratedly replied, “Wouldn’t be a day in- our lives if it weren’t.”

The pair entered an ancient alien ruin. “Remember Mariner, we’ve got to be careful-”

“Yeah yeah, the scan said something about strange energies so there are going to be traps, but we also have to remember that the scans also showed Ferengi, and if they get their hands on whatever is in these ruins-”

“They’ll sell it to the highest bidder and they might just be someone who will use it to take over half of the universe.” he finished.

Mariner smirks, “So we're on the same page.”

The pair made their way through the ruins for several minutes, “Something is off,” Boimler commented.

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t want to jinx-”

She shoved Boimler into a wall, covering his mouth with her hand. “NO!! Don’t you dare say anything about the lack of traps.”

Boimler pulled her hand away from his mouth, “Uhm, Mariner,” he nervously started, making Mariner realize what she just said, “I think you just dddddddddddddddddddddddiiiiiiiiiiiddddddddddd,” Right then, one of them activated a booby trap which caused the ground to open up the pair to slide down the walls of the trap.

Mariner picked herself up quickly when they got to the bottom, “I blame you for that.”

“Seriously?” Boimler started as if he was going to fight her about this, “But it was pretty fun.”

Mariner’s expression softened into a smile, “Yeah, I kinda want to do it again.” She then started to look around and noticed, “Boims look,” She pointed toward the middle of the room. There was an artifact, on a pedestal, with a ray of light shining on it.

“Okay, that’s way over the top cliche,” Mariner commented.

“And definitely cursed:” Boimler added, “or at the very least very booby-trapped.”

“You should stay back,”

“What, why?”

“Because it’s easier to avoid traps going up a staircase like that if only one of us is going through the gauntlet and sorry to say, I’m more coordinated than you,” Mariner reasoned.

“Oh, yeah, right,” Boimler agreed while motioning for her to go. Mariner started to carefully make her way to the altar and she was about to grab the totem, “Wait, Mariner.”

“UHHH, what?” Mariner groaned as she angrily turned to Boimler.

“Gloves, we don’t know what that thing will do with skin contact,”

“Good thinking Boims,” She pulled out a pair of leather gloves from her pocket and moved to grab the totem again. When she grabbed it… nothing happened. The two just looked at each other confused but did not question it since they didn’t want to jinx it… again.

They both made their way to the exit of the ruin, but as they exited the final chamber there were of Ferengi waiting on the other side, “What the- how did you get here and make it through all the booby traps?!?!” The leader asked. “Four of us died getting here, but it’ll be worth it in the name of profit,” Another added.

“Oh, so clearly we found a shortcut meant for the workers to go through so they didn’t have to navigate the traps every time they needed to come back and work on some things,” Boimler realized, “Because you were already on the planet when we got here 10 minutes ago.”

“WHAT!!!”

“In any case, we gotta bounce,” Mariner charged past the Ferengi with Boimler following close behind.

“DON’T JUST STAND THERE,” The leader shouted, “GET THEM THEY ARE GETTING AWAY WITH OUR PROFITS!!!”

“Comms still blocked?”

Brad checked on his communicator, “Yup, must be the ruins because there is sunlight coming through.”

Mariner rolled her eyes, “Of course they are, you know I thought we’d be done with that when we quit Starfleet.”

“I guess that’s adventuring for you,” Boimler smirked back

Mariner tripped and dropped the totem, “BOIMLER!”

“I’m on it,” He yelled back as he dove to catch the idol with some agility that Mariner did not know he was capable of, “I got it. And I am holding this without any gloves on, uh no, and now it is glowing, do we know what the heck is going to happen?“

“Boimler, calm down, I just need to you hand me the totem,” as soon as Boimler handed the totem over. When he did, it stopped glowing, “See nothing happened, you feel any different?”

“No,” He answered while checking to see if there were any deformities, “I don’t look any different, right?”

Mariner shook her head, “We can scan you back on the ship to be sure tho.”

“Wait weren’t we running from something?”

“HUMAN!!” They heard from behind them.

“Right, the Ferengi,” They took off again, making it to the exit, “Petra come in, do you read?”

“Finally, did you get the totem?”

“Of course we did,” Mariner smirked in reply.

“We just need you to beam us up!” the panicked purple-haired man cried.

“Just give me a minute there is still a little interference,”

“GET THEM!” The Ferengi tackled Boimler bringing him down, “Hand the totem over to Starfleet, and we’ll let your boyfriend live.”

“First not Starfleet anymore, second not my boyfriend.” As Mariner said that, she felt something in her chest. Not sure what exactly it was or why she did.

“Could’ve fooled me,” Petra smirked.

“Just work on getting us out of here,” Mariner whispered back.

“Woah, what in the world?” one of the Ferengi cried as Boimler started standing up with the four Ferengi on his shoulders. Once he did, he threw them each almost 20 feet away.

That shocked Mariner... and slightly attracted, "What the?"

"I've got your coordinates, ready to beam up whenever," Petra said, making Boimler run over to Mariner.

"Ready." The pair beamed to their ship while the Ferengi were still getting up, "Holy *Beep* that was nerve-wracking."

"Looks like you two had fun," Petra smirked.

"Yeah,” “I’ve got to go to the little space adventurer’s room.”

"Boimler-" But before Mariner could stop him, he was already out of the navigation room.

“Don't worry about him,” “It’s not like he touched the totem… right?”

That just made Mariner worry more “He did,” she replied, “What’s going to happen to him? ”

Petra tried to stay positive and calm Mariner down, “He probably just needs to burn off all that strange energy, now put the totem in the container.”

Before she sealed it up, she decided to give it a scan, hoping it would give a better answer on what it did Boimler. Unfortunately, it did not, in fact, it just came up as a regular ancient totem now, with trace amounts of strange energy. She walked over to the console, “Can you scan the planet again?”

“No strange energies detected on the planet,” Petra confirmed, “You two got the only source of it. Why?”

“That thing doesn't have any on it."

"Well," Petra nervously said, "That might be a little worrying,"

-Boimler POV-

Boimler was standing in the vessel’s cargo bay, just looking around, “Ok,” he muttered to himself, “Let’s see if that strength stayed around… this time.” He went over to one of the heavier-looking boxes. The thing was a little over half the size of him and a normal human shouldn’t be able to pick it up alone. He went to pick it up… and he couldn’t do it.

Boimler let out a breath that he didn’t know he was holding, “Good I’m still a normal human.”

“Any reason why you wouldn’t be?”

“MARINER!” Boimler turned around, trying to recompose himself, “How uh- how long have you been standing there?”

“Long enough to see you try and fail to pick up that box,” Mariner smirked, “Now I answered your question, could you answer mine?”

"This wasn't the first time I've done something like that," He explained, “It was on the Karzill IV and I was trapped under some debris, with the Pakleds at the door.”

Mariner rolled her eyes and interrupted his story, “And they ran through the door they got caught by going through the door all at once yeah yeah I’ve heard the story,” she interrupted, not wanting another reminder of when he was on the titan and they were not talking.

Boimler sighed, “That’s the story I said in my report yes,” He confirmed, “But that’s not what actually happened.”

“Lying on an official Starfleet log, who are you and what have you done to the real Biomler?” Mariner joked.

“I’ve lied about more than you think,” Boimler whispered, “You want to hear the story or not?” Mariner held her hands up in defeat indicating to go on with his story.

-Flashback Karzill IV Just after Boimler got transporter cloned-

Boimler was pinned under some rocks, the Pakleds had just made it into the room. “Get him,” one Pakled said, “He is a snack thief,” another did.

Boimler could only scream, and futilely try and pick up the debris his leg was pinned under. Well, at least he thought it was until he realized that he was moving it, quite easily. “What the?” He questioned himself as he stood up realizing that the debris should have done some real damage to his leg. Instead, his leg was fine, better than usual even.

The Pakleds stood in awe, “He is strong!”

“If we defeat him, we will be strong!”

Boimler ran forward and punched one of the Pakled back 10 feet into all the other Pakleds knocking them off the bridge, “No time to question that right now,” He said to himself as he ran out of the cave, punching out any Pakleds that were in his way. He made his way to the shuttle while making sure to plant the tracker they were there to do in the first place. He got to the Shuttle and as he got back in orbit, he tried to contact the Titan for emergency transport. Learning that he was already there once he did.

-Back to present-

“When I got back, I tested myself to check if I was super strong and I wasn’t so I just wrote it off as some sort of extreme adrenalin.”

“Ok as cool as that story was, even if it was true,” Mariner skeptically said, “That doesn’t explain why you were worried about not being a normal human just now.”

Boimler took a deep breath not looking her in the eye when he said, “Because, I’m an Augment Mariner.”

Chapter Text

Last time: Boimler took a deep breath not looking her in the eye when he said, “Because, I’m an Augment Mariner.”

“What?” She was confused, “But you don’t have any markers of an- of someone who-”

“You can say Augment, it’s ok,” Boimler interrupted.

“Ok, you don’t have any markers of an Augment,” She looked a little uncomfortable when she called her friend something that most would use as an insult, “But you don’t have accelerated regenerate, you’re not super durable and you don’t have super strength…” She stopped herself as she realized that he could do everything she had just listed according to his story.

“I don’t usually,” He explained, “I only count as an Augment because my grandparents on my dad’s side were both Augments and so technically I am too. Even if the only things I got from my genes were not useful”

“But, then you shouldn’t be able to serve in Starfleet,” She tried to wrap her head around what he was saying.

He nodded, "I go by my mother's maiden name to hide my family history, but I didn't always,” He continued to explain, “I was stupid and thought that I could use my birth name on my application for the academy, but I got blocked almost immediately the first time I tried." He leaned against the wall and sat down, with Mariner soon joining him.

“First time?”

“Yeah,” Boimler bit his lip, “I tried signing up with my dad’s last name, and they just sent my application and put a big red X on it with ‘AUGMENT’ in big letters.”

“I’m sorry Brad.”

He noticed that she called him Brad for the first time, not Boimler, or Boims, it made him feel a little better, “I decided I’d try again a year later. I used my mom's last name, brought my first and middle names together to get Bradward, and let them know I got a perfect score on my mock exam. It was a long shot, but it worked and I got into the academy. I realized that they might have missed something in my application or something, so I decided to make sure no one would look further into my past before Starfleet. Made sure I followed every protocol, every form I filled was filled out perfectly, heck I even made sure I dotted my i’s and crossed my t’s.”

“You became the brown-nosing kissass you are today,” She teased automatically, not knowing how to process what she was hearing exactly, but she was internally kicking herself for that.

“Not the words I’d want to use but yes,” Brad sassed back, causing Mariner to flinch while Boimler pressed on, “I learned about Dr. Bashir during my later years in the academy, and how he was allowed to serve while being an Augment. He was a hero and… I thought.”

“That if you could prove yourself like him, they’d let you stay in Starfleet.” She finished getting a nod from Brad as a reply.

“The reason I was so-” He paused trying to recompose himself, “So adamant about becoming a Captain was so that I had more chances to prove myself along the way there.”

“Being the perfect officer and a hero so they can’t kick you out,” Mariner pieced together.

He nodded, “I just wanted to see to travel amongst the stars and discover new species. You know, boldly going?” Boimler said, “And I didn’t think that getting a long list of medical issues, and some pink hair was stopping me from doing that.”

She nodded as they sat in silence for about a minute or so. Until she couldn’t help but giggle, “Pink hair?”

“Of course, you question that part,” He sighed, running his hand through his hair, “I had to dye it to make myself look different from the picture on my old application.”

“Okay but why purple?”

“It was the only color that stuck for some reason.” Brad lied, but Mariner was not buying it,

“Okay fine, I only signed up a second time because I got drunk and covered my hair in grape juice and just had to go with it.”

Mariner laughed, “Oh man, I knew it was something ridiculous, but that.”

“Ha ha,” Brad mocked, “That’s one reason why I don’t drink real alcohol anymore.”

“Oh no,” She denied, “We are getting some Romulan Ale in you the first chance we get if you’re fun when you’re drunk”

He rolled his eyes, “Sorry Mariner, but my days of waking up in a field with next to one friend stuck to a wall and another dressed up as a scarecrow.”

“WHAT!?!” She burst out laughing, “OH NO, you are telling me what the hell happened there mister! Where has THAT Brad been the whole time I’ve known you?”

“Eh, he grew up,” He shrugged.

As they sat there a bit longer, Brad stared at her while they did, making her feel a little uncomfortable, “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Sorry,” He replied, “I didn’t expect you to be so… accepting of me.”.

Mariner’s expression softened, “Brad, I’ve served with Dr. Bashir on DS9. He’s saved my life and proved to me that not all Augments aren’t like the stories we’d hear when we were younger,” she reassured, “Plus you’re my best friend, I know you and you aren’t the type of person to start a war over your superiority.”

Brad smiled, “Thanks, Beckett,” She smiled when she heard him finally call her by her first name, “Even if I was, it’s not like I was strong enough to lift things like this.” To emphasize his point he smacked the same box he had just tried to lift, but only this time, it moved quite a bit.

The duo froze, looking at each other, then at the box then back at each other, “Try that again,”

He tried to lift it again but failed. When he tried pushing it again, it slide across the floor once again with relative ease.

Brad turned to Beckett, “Maybe, strange energies again?” He suggested. "I mean, that totem was the only source on the planet, right?”

“And now there are only trace amounts so it has to be doing something to you." Mariner agreed,

“You probably just need to get rid of some of that energy.”
Boimler winced, “Please, don’t kick me in the balls.”

“As long as you don’t become a giant flying space head,” his snarky best friend replied, as they exited the cargo bay.

-A few hours later-

“We’re here, I’m going to get this totem to the museum. Do either of you want any food when I’m out?” Petra asked.

“Naw, I’m good,” Beckett replied.

“Oh, get me a slushy?” Brad asked.

As soon as she stepped out, Beckett went to the computer, “Uh, what are you doing?”

“Something’s up,” Beckett said, “I don’t know much about money, but this guild needs some to operate and-”

Boimler turned around in his chair, “It’s funded by Admiral Pichard.”

“What?”

“It’s funded by Admiral Picard,” He repeated, “You can check if you want, but I already did when I heard we were doing this for free and got suspicious.”

“Oh,” She let out some of her disappointment, “Sort of thought it might be…”

“The Romulans or Cardassians or something?”

“Yeah, how’d you?”

“I kinda wanted an excuse to… I don’t know,”

“Leave for Starfleet again.”

The pair stared at each other for a little bit, “Wanna see if you can call your mom and dad to get our jobs back?”

"Yeah, let's see what's going on over there now," Beckett opened her pad still on the FNN from when she checked the report Victoria Nunez wrote, only to find that the Cerritos was engaged in battle with 3 Texas-class ships, "Brad, start the engines, the Cerritos needs help."

He looked at her to see what was going on and instantly went to help her start the engines, "Wait, even if we get to them in time, we're one ship, barely bigger than a shuttle."

"That's why we won't go alone," “We’re bringing the entire Californa-class with us.”
Outside, Petra was making her way back to her ship, to see it being hijacked away, “And I left my communicator on the ship,” She sighed.

-On the Cerritos-

“We’re at Warp 9 Sir!” Bilup’s voice came through the comms system, “But I don’t know how much longer we can hold it!”

“That’ll buy us time,” Freeman noted, “Give me options people!”

“Say we eject the warp core!” Shax called out his default suggestion automatically with others adding their suggestions.

“Sir…” The communications ensign interrupted, “We’re getting communications from an unknown source?”

“What?” Freeman questioned, “How? We’re in warp!”

Boimler’s face with glowing eyes appeared on the viewscreen, “Captain Freeman!”

“Mr. Boimler? How?”

“Strange energies, no time to explain. You need to drop out of warp. We have the entirety of the California Class ready to help take down those ships.”
“We can’t, our systems are critical and they’ll destroy us as soon as we drop out of warp.”

Boimler suddenly looked like he was gut-punched, “Listen… to Shax!” He groaned before his image disappeared from the screen with a scream.

Captain Freeman turned towards the Bajoran security commander, “What did you suggest Shax?”

“Uhm I sort of suggested to eject the warp core,”
“That’s what you always say,” The captain brushed off the suggestion for a second before realizing what Boimler meant, “And it’s brilliant! We can use it as a mine!”

“And they’ll fly right into it either destroying them or buying us time to regroup with the other ships!” Shax pieced together.

“But won’t that knock us out of warp?” Migleemo questioned

“We’ll get a couple of bruises out of it and it’s better than *BEEPING* dying from the Texas Class,” T’ana replied.

“SHAX,” Freeman smirked, “Make it so!”

“Really sir,” Shax looked like he was about to cry from the joy. The captain nodded, “Thank you sir!” with that Shax made his way to the warp core with every available crewmate cheering him on. Bilups handed Shax a key card and the two members of the bridge crew quickly ejected the warp core, causing the ship to drop out of warp and experience something as close to turbulence as possible. After they did the Texas-clas ship

“We took them down-” Ensign Barnes read the reading on the display, “Wait no the Aledo survived the blast!”

The Texas-Class ship dropped out of warp and was charging its weapons. They fired, but the shot was intercepted by the USS Oakland, “We’re here to support you Cerritos.” Captain Ramsey said over the communicators, “We all are.”

When she said that all the other Cali-Class ships dropped out of warp sounding off to protect the Cerritos, with Mariner and Boimler leading the charge, “Attack pattern delta!” The battle was quick since the Aledo didn’t know how to handle so many ships at once as just one. After the battle, all the California class ships returned to Douglas Station for repairs and a celebration in the Cerrtios’s onboard bar.

Mariner walked over to her mom talking to Ramsey, “Mind if I interrupt?” Ramsey gave her the go-ahead and went over to talk to someone else, “Hey mom.”

“Mariner I just wanted to say I’m sorry,” She started, “I didn’t handle what happened right. Sorry, that’s an understatement”

“No one handled it worse than me. Well, maybe Boimler did,” Mariner joked, Both of them chuckled at that, “But, this was a good thing for me and I think I’m ready to get back on the right path.”

“Well, I’d like to welcome you back and I’ll try to be more trusting of you from now on.”

“I don’t blame you for not trusting me,” Mariner smirked, “I spend half my life making sure you didn’t trust me.”

“So you want to be a Captain now?”

“No, well maybe not yet. Gotta make sure I keep a promise I made,” She smirked as she saw

Shax bear-hugging Brad, “Oh right, can you reinstate Brad too?”

“So, he’s Brad now?” The Captain teased.

“I mean yeah, we weren’t in Starfleet, so there wasn’t a reason to not call him Brad, it doesn’t mean anything, don’t make things weird,” Beckett fumbled as she tried to make an excuse.

“Sure,” She smirked, “So how exactly did he end up on our viewscreen earlier?”

“Oh, we were tracking a totem that apparently had some strange energy in it. Br-" She stopped herself, sensing that her mom was ready to tease again, "Boimler touched it and took in all of it.”

Freeman got a communication from the transporter team. “Sir, we have an admiral who has beamed on board with their team requesting to meet you and Commander Ramson. Oh- they are on their way to your location.” The voice came from her Comm Badge.

“Uh oh,”

“What?”

“Remember the last time we had admirals come on board during a celebration they arrested someone,” she joked.

“Mariner!” Freeman glared.

“You’re right might be good news,” Mariner gave up, “We have Admirals coming here people, best behaviors here!” Mariner announced half-jokingly as the Admirals entered the bar.

AN: I have no idea how to write this next Admiral salute thing. So don’t mind how bad it might be, please.

“Captain Freeman, Commander Ramson,” The Admirals acknowledged.

“SIR!” Both of the bridge crew members stood to attention.

“At ease,” The Admiral said, with the two becoming more casual but still respectful nonetheless, “We are here to speak about a former ensign Boimler.”

“Oh, he’s right over here,” Shax patted Boimler on the back particularly hard, but Boimler didn’t budge, “An excellent officer, hope he back to serving on this ship again soon.”

“Yeah, efficient in his work, always listen to order, and makes sure everyone is following the rules,” Ramson added his praise.

“Well, that isn’t quite true,” The admiral nodded to the two officers behind them, “Former Ensign Bradward Boimler or I should say, Bradley Edward Samson, you are under arrest.”

“WHAT?” Ramson shouted.

“ON WHAT CHARGE?” Shax protectively blocked the officers from grabbing Brad.

“Under Starfleet code of conduct 587.63,” The admiral replied stoically, “He is charged for violating our anti-genetic modifications directive.”

The shock quickly faded from Boimler and he nodded giving himself up quickly. Everyone was murmuring, “Wait what?” one ensign asked, "I thought he was a tiny cube robot," another said. “The anti-genetic modifications directive? He’s an Augment?” The last one echoed through the bar.

Beckett was in denial, “No. NO! NO!!” She cried in denial, “This can’t be happening!”

“Beckett, no,” Her mother tried to stop her from doing something violent, but she failed. Mariner grabbed Boimler pulling him away from arresting officers. When she did, she basically dragged him to the loading bay where their ship was with the officers on their tail.

Brad finally processed what Beckett was doing, "Beckett, STOP!”  He grabbed her hand stopping her from typing anything else on the console, “I’m not going to be the reason you become a fugitive to the Federations!”

“This is only happening because I talked to the press!” She countered.

“We don’t know that,” He tried to reason, “For all we know they were already looking into me from signing up for promotions or temporary assignments on larger ships or something. Even if they looked into me when I resigned, you didn’t make me quit.”

“You’re not making ME do this either,” She argued.

Boimler glanced behind himself at the shuttle door, “I know,” He slowly backed away from Beckett, “But I am at least able to stop you from doing it.” With that, he opened the door and the officers burst in to arrest him.

“Brad, what are you doing?” She asked while trying to stop them but a security detail was stopping her.

"The same thing you'd do for me," He replied while quickly giving himself up.

 “BRAD!! NO!!” but it was too late, Brad had already been taken away by the troops.