Somewhere in Romulan space, a ship runs into the same unknown ship which destroyed a Klingon Bird-of-Prey resulting in the same result: all systems shut down, and the Romulan ship is reduced to tiny pieces…
Back in Federation space onboard the Cerritos, Mariner overhears Ransom say — during an exercise session with Shaxs — that she won’t be his problem for long. Believing that he’s planning to mess with her head and then demote her, she decides to go out in a blaze of insubordination. Mariner, Boimler, and Tendi are packing up their stuff to move to new quarters, while Rutherford determines to get himself a promotion that day so he can join them.
Mariner meets with Ransom and new guy Gary to take a shuttlecraft to a menagerie to recover two humans who have become exhibits there. She stays in her gym gear and refers to Ransom as “Jack”. Boimler meanwhile is shocked to discover that his new room is filled with blinding red light. It’s from a nearby Bussard collector. Mariner deliberately crash-lands the shuttlecraft into the menagerie’s docking bay. There, they meet Narj, a tree-based lifeform who has a habit of referring to himself in the third person and is the owner of the zoo. Strange and familiar creatures fill the zoo. Most important, however, is a cute and rounded kittenish Moopsy — which Mariner seems immediately drawn to.
Back on the Cerritos, Rutherford suggests a way to marginally improve warp efficiency. However, he’s already beaten to it by Ensign Livik, a new engineer. Rutherford’s obsession with doing a promotion-worthy bit of engineering continues, repeatedly defeated by Livik.
On the menagerie station, the moopsy gets loose almost immediately. A bone-eater, it attacks another creature, draining it to a shriveled husk. The Starfleet trio and Narj fearfully flee.
Boimler tries changing quarters to a room between two holodecks. Frustratingly, the room has such thin walls that he can clearly hear Shaxs and T’Ana’s Robin Hood sadistic fantasies on one side and Captain Freeman giving imaginary Starfleet Presidential speeches on the other.
The moopsy, meanwhile, pursues Narj, Mariner, Ransom, and Gary into a dark room on the station, where Ransom accuses Mariner of letting the creature loose as part of her insubordination, which she denies. He then explains that his conversation with Shaxs was about being determined to not let her attempts at insubordination get into his head and make him fall for her ploys to get demoted, like her other commanders have.
[ Screencap Index ]
The moopsy then gets in and dissolves the ossified wood — bones — of Narj. The Starfleeters escape the room, locking it in, but the area turns out to be the station’s main control room. Taking command of the station’s thrusters, the moopsy sends the facility plummeting towards a nearby planet.
While Boimler has set up home in a crawlspace aboard the Cerritos, Mariner plans to lead the moopsy away so the others can escape. Ransom realizes they can lure it with teeth, if she punches his out…
Still obsessing over his engineering, Rutherford’s latest innovation attempt is improving replicator speed by nine femtoseconds (that’s a quadrillionth of a second, in case you’re wondering). He finds Billups about to promote Livik and wails to Tendi that he has failed her, but she gives him her first order as a superior: to be himself. He admits he turned promotions down before because he didn’t want to leave her and his friends, so she asks Billups if he can still have one of those — which he can, much to Livik’s frustration!
Using Ransom’s teeth, Mariner lures the moopsy back into its exhibit while Ransom and Gary manage to stabilize the station. It turns out the humans in the zoo released the moopsy to kill Narj so they could take over the station. Later, back on the Cerritos, Dr. T’Ana gives Ransom a new set of teeth.
Finally, Rutherford and Boimler become room-mates. Rutherford knows how to darken the viewports to keep the Bussard light out. Boimler is relieved, and not bothered by Rutherford tinkering with electronics all night…
This page has been viewed 739 times since July 24th, 2023