Jenna Loves Pain

Captain's log.

Stardate 1421.9.

It's not often that losing

a crew member is cause for celebration.

But our young science officer Lynne Lucero has been promoted.

She's taking command of the research vessel Cabot

above Pragine 63.

They're lucky to have her.

You know, this place isn't gonna be the same without you.

Ah, you'll get by. But if you do get into trouble,

I can always come to your rescue in my little research ship.

I can think of easier assignments. Hmm.

A civilization on the brink of starvation

on the edge of Klingon space, and Starfleet wants you

to intervene on their behalf,

without the Klingons ever knowing.

Seems like a fun challenge to me.

I admire your optimism.

Well, it got me this far, sir.

- You ready? - I feel ready.

Any advice from a salty old captain?

Don't show any weakness, or they will eat you alive.

Yeah, I'm-I'm kidding. You're gonna have a great time. Go.

- Thank you, sir. - Just, uh, one tip.

You got this job because you are a brilliant scientist.

But you're gonna find that not everybody's on your level.

- If you know what I mean. - You're right.

Some are gonna be even better than me.

There's that optimism again.

Good luck out there,

Captain.

You, too, Captain.

We've been sharing resources with the soil department.

Together, we're hoping to get the pH levels

in our targeted areas up to 6.0 within a decade.

That sounds promising.

I'm glad you took the initiative on collaboration.

And we're exploring a third option. Edward Larkin?

Huh?

What has your department been up to?

I don't have a department.

It's-it's just me.

- What have you been up to? - I-I also,

I didn't know we were sharing resources, so...

Yeah. Um, okay.

Uh...

I got it.

It's all right, take your time.

Yeah, I was just getting it...

Uh-uh-uh.

I think it's broken. It's broken.

Oh.

Yeah. Thank you for, uh, fixing it.

It wa... it was broken.

Mm-hmm. Uh,

I've been working with sample specimens

from a species native to Iota Geminorum IV.

Tribleustes ventricosus.

People call them, uh, "tribbles" for short.

Aw.

Pretty darn cute. Yeah.

And if you, uh, take all the fur off underneath,

it's-it's all meat.

Like a scallop. Blood red.

You want to eat them?

I-I don't want to eat them.

Uh, I was thinking of introducing them

as a food source for the Calations.

Although I have, uh,

I have eaten one or two,

um...

for research purposes.

I fed one to Noel the other day, and he enjoyed it.

Noel is a foodie.

But I'm no chef.

Um...

The only problem

with this particular species is that they breed very slowly.

But with some genetic manipulation, I could speed up

that process and we could, we could make a ton of these.

Let me ask you: are they intelligent?

It's hard to say. Uh, as you can see,

they-they don't have a face.

But they're very slow-moving, so they would be easy to hunt.

And actually, one fell off my desk the other day,

and it-it just died instantly, so there's that.

So even if they were intelligent,

I feel like they would be very easy to capture

and then eat... No, I was

more concerned with the moral implications.

- For the tribble? - Well, sure.

I could, uh, genetically manipulate the DNA

to make them all brain-damaged.

And that way, that would, um...

uh, solve that. You know,

I think our focus should be on primary food sources,

so why don't we just put a pin in the tribbles work

and move you over to climatology?

Well, I'm a protein specialist, so I-I...

climatology's...

Well, we're all scientists here.

Learning things is kind of in our wheelhouse.

All right, moving on. I'd like to talk oceanography.

I think we have a real opportunity

to boost our overall...

New boss, huh?

Barf.

I think people like her.

Nah.

One extra large salad.

- Enjoy. - No, they don't.

No, they don't.

Well, I look forward to more fascinating work from you.

Thank you, sir.

Edward? May I see you in my office?

Yeah.

My commanding officer at Starfleet received a series

of anonymous messages last night about me.

Oh. W-Wha... uh, what did they say?

They said that I'm bad at my job,

that I should be replaced immediately

and that I'm "dumb."

That's so weird.

I mean, do you think that you're, uh, bad at your job?

Or do you think that you're dumb?

I've talked to a number of scientists on board,

and they all agree, you are an extremely talented biologist.

I mean, I like to think that I'm good at my job.

Yeah, they also agree that this behavior

- is not unexpected from you. - What behavior?

You mean the messages? 'Cause those were anonymous.

You know, "anonymous" means that

I... you don't know who sent them.

Okay.