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historyhermann · 10 months

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Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 4 Spoiler-Filled Review

Star Trek: Lower Decks is a mature animation which combines elements of the adventure, comedy, and sci-fi genres. Series creator Mike McMahan is known as a co-creator of Solar Opposites, a producer on Rick and Morty and as a consulting producer on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. This is the ninth series in the Star Trek franchise and second Star Trek animated series after Star Trek: The Animated Series ended in 1974.

Reprinted from Pop Culture Maniacs and Wayback Machine. This was the fifty-sixth article I wrote for Pop Culture Maniacs. This post was originally published on November 30, 2023. PCM editor Jean Henegan she said she added some content "since I'm a massive Trek nerd/fan, I added a bit of context around some of the things you pointed out...and cleaned up a couple of things that weren't quite accurate...Nice piece, overall." I have incorporated those additions here. Most of the text is the same as what I submitted on November 28th.

This animated series, which has aired for three seasons, takes a different tact than previous Star Trek series. It focuses on lower-ranked officers who engage in menial labor, known as lower deckers. Others are supporting characters. Star Trek: Lower Decks focuses on Starfleet, the military and exploration division of the United Federation of Planets, in the 24th century. It is tasked with establishing contact with races across the galaxy using a ship no one cares about: the USS Cerritos.

Four lower deckers are protagonists: Beckett Mariner, Brad Boimler, D’Vana Tendi, and Sam Rutherford. They are voiced by Tawny Newsome, Jack Quaid, Noël Wells, and Eugene Cordero. Four others are recurring characters: captain of the Cerritos (Carol Freeman), first officer Jack Ransom, tactical officer Shaxs, and head medical doctor T’Ana. Dawnn Lewis, Jerry O’Connell, Fred Tatasciore, and Gillian Vigman voice these characters. All are well-known voice actors.

This series stands out because of its animation style, comedy, plot, and characters. Mariner is a big part of this. Her romantic relationships became a big part of the series, especially in the third season, when she is dating Jennifer Sh'reyan (voiced by Lauren Lapkus). Like actual relationships, they don't stay together, partially because Jennifer does not stand by her. She abandons Mariner when many on the Cerritos incorrectly think she is a traitor. Mariner is bisexual or pansexual. Previously, she dated Steve Levy. She tells Tendi, in a season two episode, that she dated "bad boys, bad girls, bad gender non-binary babes, [and] ruthless alien masterminds." She dated Amina Ramsey (voiced by Toks Olagundoye) while at Starfleet Academy. McMahan stated that "every Starfleet officer is probably at the baseline bisexual" and that there was no intention for "anybody to be strictly heteronormative or straight or cis."

Unfortunately, this is rarely explored in Star Trek: Lower Decks season 4. There are some romantic vibes between Mariner and T’Lyn (voiced by Gabrielle Ruiz), a fellow crewmember on the Cerritos (who also happens to be Vulcan), in the fourth episode. They care for each other (as much as a Vulcan can care, with their repressed emotions), especially after knives keep stabbing Mariner during the episode. In the episode after, T’Lyn calms down Mariner’s emotions after her fever causes everyone’s emotions on the Cerritos to go out of control. In another episode, Mariner enjoys being kissed by a guy. Otherwise, her development during the season revolves around her promotion to a higher rank and ramifications of that decision. Although she is still part of “lower decks,” she is now a junior grade lieutenant, which makes her uneasy.

Boimler and Rutherford get closer, especially after the fourth episode. They even solve a disagreement by dressing up as Mark Twain and talking on a simulated steamboat. Both struggle with their promotions, although in different ways than Mariner. For instance, Boimler gets his first mission as commander and attempts to do everything himself. With some prodding from T’Lyn, he ends up sacrificing himself to save everyone and is later brought back to life. Rutherford also tries to find his place on the ship following his promotion. The closeness between Boimler and Rutherford has led some to ship them together. After all, in the eighth episode, Boimler doesn’t mind taking off his pants when Rutherford asks. Presently, there are less than 20 fics shipping them. Comparably, there’s over 120 fics for the Marinler ship (Mariner and Boimler). The latter has a small chance of canonization as compared to the Rutherford/Boimler ship.

Otherwise, there are wild plotlines, whether about Betazoid “diplomats” (actually undercover intelligence officers) with a hidden agenda who almost bring the Cerritos into the neutral zone where Romulans await battle, a fake marriage between Tendi and Rutherford, or megalomaniacal A.I. – known as Badgey – trying to get revenge. In the case of the latter, the A.I. comes out of the Daystrom Institute on Earth, returning following its initial appearance in season two. In the time between the seasons, it was imprisoned in a penitentiary holding other A.I. of a similar nature. His plans are foiled when he realizes that ultimate power is too much. The plans of two A.I., Peanut Hamper and Aegus, also fail after they realize that killing others isn’t worth it. Both commit to reforming their selves, so they aren’t evil anymore.

The depiction of A.I. in Star Trek: Lower Decks is somewhat similar to the rogue A.I. in Futurama's Season 8 Part One, or near-planet-destroyer Light Hope in She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. It differs from the mixed representation in Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur and Cleopatra in Space, or more positive depictions in My Dad the Bounty Hunter, Kizuna no Allele, and Supa Team 4. This matters considering social media rumblings that some actors will not vote for the recent contract between SAG-AFTRA and the Hollywood studios due to reportedly subpar A.I. provisions [Note: The previous line was removed from the PCM version.]

Throuhgout the season, there are also scenes with spoken poetry, a bar fight (started by Mariner, naturally), and an instance of Boimler getting addicted to a Ferengi television series. There’s even a funny episode where everyone recounts their experiences about being stuck in a cave with different Starfleet officers. However, it’s the journey that Mariner takes over the course of the season that truly hits home as the season comes to a close. Following her promotion Mariner struggles to be a leader, desperate to keep bucking command. How can you be rebellious against the command structure when you are part of it? She asks herself this question, trying to determine what her purpose within Starfleet is. It isn’t until the close of the season that she truly understands who she is and why she is so hesitant to take on more responsibility.

In that episode, Captain Freeman is worried about Mariner. She’s unsure why Mariner is taking risks and trying to get herself killed. She orders Mariner’s friends to distract her. This backfires. Mariner, along with T’Lyn, Tendi, and Boimler, all teleport to a planet surface before their ship is destroyed. When they admit they are worried about her, and reveal the Captain’s order, she is unhappy. She agrees to stay with them until she slips out during the night. In the process, she bonds with a Klingon, who tells her what no one has stated directly: she’s at war with herself.

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This is only part of Mariner’s attempted self-examination. It is akin to Yor Forger asking herself why she is an assassin in episode 33 of Spy x Family, lingering doubts of Teru Momijiyama / Shy in Shy about her reasons for being a hero, or Sora Harewata-ru / Cure Sky wondering why she hesitates to fight the Undergu empire in episode 42 of Soaring Sky! Pretty Cure. Mariner reveals she is partially in Starfleet to honor Sito, a friend from her time at Starfleet Academy who died a senseless death several years earlier, which makes her continue to question Starfleet’s mission. She admits that while she doesn’t hate Starfleet, she tried to get out of a promotion. She believes Starfleet should solve the puzzles of life, not start wars (which could violate the Prime Directive). As she tells the Klingon, she doesn’t want to send her friends off to die. She wants to be an ensign and nothing more.

Ma’ah (voiced by Jon Curry), the Klingon, suggests that she honor her friend, slay her enemies, and study to be better. In response, she hugs him, rather than fighting him, and says they should work together. The episode hints at her future leadership, possibly in Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 5. She rallies everyone together in a rousing speech. Unfortunately, she is kidnapped by “Nicholas” Nick Locarno (who, like Sito, previously appeared in live action in Star Trek: The Next Generation and were once again portrayed – in voice over – by their live action actors Robert Duncan McNeil – who also starred on Star Trek: Voyager – and Shannon Fill), who beams her up into a mysterious ship – a ship that has been “destroying” various species’ ships throughout the season. Thanks to her efforts, Boimler, T’Lyn, and Tendi, along with new allies, destroy a Klingon warbird. They are disappointed that Mariner isn’t aboard.

The Season 4 finale ends with a bang, as it turns out that ships “destroyed” across the galaxy have joined the renegade Nova Fleet/Squadron. It resembles the rag-tag rebel fleet in Star Wars Rebels. There’s a major difference: Nick is willing to engage in terrorism, i.e., threat or use of violence to cause panic or intimidate, especially as a method to affect political conduct, as defined in the Third Pocket Edition of Black’s Law Dictionary. Mariner easily stops this. She calls out Nick as selfish and brainless, then steals a genesis device, which can destroy planets.

Captain Freeman shows her dedication to her daughter, and to the well-being of her crew. She goes to extreme lengths to rescue Mariner. After a failed contest on her homeworld of Orion, Tendi agrees to work for her pirate sister, D’Erika (voiced by Ariel Winter), so they can get a battleship. They use the decrepit warship to smash through the barrier. It creates a hole big enough for the captain’s yacht to enter. In the process, they save Mariner. Nick is left on her ship after he tries to kill her and activates the genesis device. In a moment of clever dark humor, Nick is destroyed by the device since he can’t pay the money needed to deactivate it (since it is a Ferengi model, of course).

The episode ends with Captain Freeman not court-martialed, T’Lyn refusing to return to her previous ship, and the four protagonists come together for a party in the mess hall. While they party for a short bit, this soon ends, as Tendi feels obligated to fulfill her end of the bargain she made with D’Erika: she must return to a life of piracy alongside D’Erika. Although this depresses Rutherford, neither he, Boimler nor Mariner, stop her from leaving. Tendi prepares herself for what comes next. Undoubtedly, her story will be expanded in Star Trek: Lower Decks fifth season, which was in production as of March.

As noted earlier, queer representation was lacking in this season, as opposed to previous ones. In the past, I’ve written that the ship engineer, Andy Billups (voiced by Paul Scheer), was possibly asexual. A recent post on treksphere makes the same claims. It argues that Tendi is aromantic, Billups is an asexual icon, and points to possible asexual vibes from Spock, Data, and Odo in the Star Trek franchise – although all three characters have relationships with women at various points in their stories. Such claims are only headcanons, similar to those who believed that Page in Tron: Uprising was asexual. There are no asexual characters in the Star Trek universe, to my knowledge. As such, having a canon asexual character in Star Trek: Lower Decks, outward in their identity like Todd Chavez in Bojack Horseman, would be great.

Asexual representation in animation, and in popular culture, is slim. While Alastor in Hazbin Hotel, Lilith Clawthorne in The Owl House, Peridot in Steven Universe, or Perry the Platypus in Phineas and Ferb, are asexual, they were confirmed off-screen. The same is the case for Spongebob Squarepants and Percival "Percy" King in Epithet Erased. Some have stated that Seiji Maki in Bloom Into You and Shōko Tanimoto in The Case Files of Jeweler Richard are asexual. In a previous review, I noted this was the case for Hime Shiraki in Yuri is My Job!. I've seen social media chatter about the manga which comes to a similar conclusion.

Hopefully, Star Trek: Lower Decks fifth season expands on Mariner‘s personal relationships and her identity, and that of the other protagonists. Undoubtedly, it will retain its mature comedy and quirkiness. All the while the characters will be thrown into conflict-prone situations, a breeding ground for trauma. This is not unique. There are multiple series airing this fall featuring characters in tense and stressful situations, sometimes involving murder of human beings. This includes certain The Vexations of a Shut-In Vampire Princess and Spy x Family episodes.

Otherwise, people anonymously described their conditions at Titmouse in a largely-circulated spreadsheet about animation studios. In the spreadsheet, which has 11 entries for the aforementioned animation studio, people praise Titmouse for good pay, flexible and healthy working hours, opportunities for rapid advancement, and good management. Others criticize Titmouse for disorganization, overwork, low pay, and say it is only good for those entering the industry. Clearly, it’s a mixed bag. There are different experiences, depending on each production, if I’m understanding these entries correctly.

In my previous review of Star Trek: Lower Decks, I noted that LGBTQ+ representation is at the heart of the show. I pointed to myriad examples of such representation (and in the franchise), and note that many fan fictions for Mariner are skewed toward men. As such, I still see the interactions between Mariner and Boimler as platonic rather than romantic. I understand how people see them as the latter, shipping them as Marinler, but I see them as good friends, rather than good lovers.

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In the past, this series had some of best queer representation in mature animation. Other examples include RWBY, Disenchantment, Final Space, Bojack Horseman, and Harley Quinn. In season 4 of Star Trek: Lower Decks, this was less emphasized. Even so, the series is still moving in an inclusive direction. It isn't like Star Wars: The Bad Batch. That series had "four White men and one person of color, in the main cast," as I wrote in January.

This direction is clear from the cast and crew. Tawny Newsome and Dawnn Lewis, who voice Mariner and Captain Freeman, are both Black women, like their characters. Noël Wells (voice of Tendi) is of Tunisian and Mexican descent. Eugene Cordero (voice of Rutherford) is of Filipino descent. Gabrielle Ruiz is of Mexican descent. Carlos Alazraqui is Latine. Black men such as Marcus Henderson, Phil LaMarr, and Carl Tart also voice characters. There are some White male voice actors, such as Jack Quaid, Jack McBrayer, Jerry O'Connell, Fred Tatasciore, Paul Scheer, and Paul F. Tompkins. White women like Gillian Vigman, Lauren Lapkus, Georgia King, and Jessica McKenna voice characters too. Although, they are not the majority of the main cast, they comprise much of the recurring cast.

Many of these names were familiar. For one, Newsome voiced Jessica Williams in Craig of the Creek, Quaid voiced Clark Kent / Superman in My Adventures with Superman, and Cordero voiced Jamie in Steven Universe. Lewis voiced LaBarbara Conrad in Futurama, Professor Klabrax V in Cleopatra in Space, The Chief/Tamara Fraser in Carmen Sandiego, and Fannie Granger in Spirit Riding Free. LaMarr is best known for voicing Hermes Conrad in Futurama, Virgil Hawkins / Static in Static Shock, and John Stewart / Green Lantern in Justice League, along with Sky Gunderson in Disenchantment.

Alazraquiprominently voiced Puff in The Proud Family (in the reboot/revival) and Skylar in Elena of Avalor. Winter voiced Princess Sofia Cordova for the entire Sofia the First series, in the Elena of Avalor series finale, and in Elena and the Secret of Avalor, a backdoor pilot for Elena of Avalor. Wells, O'Connell, Tataiscore, Scheer, McKenna, McBrayer, Lapkus, Tart, and Tompkins, had assorted voice roles, as well. However, this isn't counting anyone in the guest cast.

In terms of the show's music, the opening and closing themes were good, and it fits with the action. I don't recall any tracks there were necessarily memorable (apart from the opening and closing tracks). So, I'm downgrading the music score for this review. Even so, Chris Westlake did an excellent job as the series composer. The music echoes Star Trek scores in other parts of the franchise. Those who directed, wrote, storyboarded, and animated each episode, including some well-known names like Jamie Loftus, McMahan, and Grace Parra Janney, deserve plaudits for their hard work as well.

I look forward to the fifth season of Star Trek: Lower Decks. I hope that the personal identities of the main cast are explored more in the next season. I'm optimistic that Paramount executives realize the series' value. It would be devastating to have the series cancelled unceremoniously like Star Trek: Prodigy. Netflix recently nabbed that series as part of the streaming wars.

Star Trek: Lower Decks is currently streaming on Paramount+ or for purchase on PrimeVideo.

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ashdoesfandomarchieved · 3 years

Note

Prompt, Angst, The titan gets badly damaged and a lot of the crew are dead or injured, mariner goes AWOL from the cerritos to find out if boimler is okay and there's a scene with boimler unconscious on a biobed and Mariner is like "you have to live so I can feed you to an armus for leaving the cerritos!"

A/N: you sent this prompt ages ago, but the words just wouldn't happen lmao. So six months late and a few thousand words short, here you go:

ao3

Okay, so here’s the thing.

Beckett keeps files on everyone. Not physical files of course--too insecure and hackable (she should know). But a mental file. Still hackable if she runs into a telepath, but still slightly more secure from the rest of her coworkers.

It’s not as if they’re particularly like. Creepy files. She isn’t snooping into anyone’s actual physical file onboard or obtaining any info illegally. She just observes things and passively marks them for later. Tendi likes peanut-butter sandwiches. Janice gets her neck tattoos re-inked every few months. Captain Mom has a stick up her ass. That kind of thing.

It’s a fine tuned compartmentalization that’s useful in a variety of situations, whether it’s knowing what to say in a social situation or who to trust during a red alert (tip: always go with Rutherford, he’s anxious but the least likely to betray you and throw you out of an airlock. Bonus: he’s the most likely crew member on this trashcan to actually have a working idea).

Some mental files are incredibly detailed. For instance, the one on her mom is about as thick as a handbound copy of War & Peace and just as boring. Everything from her favorite flavor of ice cream to her first response to an emergency situation is in there-incredibly accurate and incredibly detailed. She’s sure her mom has a similar mental file on her as well, but resolutely does Not think about it.

Some mental files are almost empty. Ensign Gent’s toothbrush is pink. First Officer Ransom has nice abs I guess. That dude who’s name I can’t remember opened his third eye and ascended into the afterlife or something I wasn’t actually there Tendi told me and I was on my fourth drink.

And then some are medium sized but entirely unremarkable.

Like Bradward Boimler’s, for instance.

Loves classic rock. Dyes his hair purple. Stickler for rules. Needs to loosen up a bit. A lot. Probably needs to get laid. Definitely needs to get laid.

That’s it, that’s the entire file. Beckett doesn’t really concern herself with whatever’s going on with Boimler beyond the occasional ribbing or co-assignment. It’s not because she doesn’t like the dork. She would tentatively (but never to his face) call him her friend if cornered. And she enjoyed riling him up.

She updates the file about a year (almost two) into her acquaintance with him. FUCKING BACKSTABBING TRAITOR. (That’s it now, that's the entire file.) She doesn’t revisit it again, not for almost eight months, despite Tendi’s cheerful updates on how he’s doing--they’re still in constant contact, despite his ghosting Beckett--and Rutherford’s worried comments on his well-being.

“It’s not our job to babysit him,” she snapped one day. “Hell, it wasn’t our job when he was here. Just let it go.”

And that was the end of that.

______

Okay, that was very much not the end of that.

It starts like this:

“Something’s going on, on the Titan,” Tendi hisses, dropping down into Beckett’s bunk at like 2am. Time doesn’t work the same out here as it does on Beckett’s home planet, but it feels like 2am so she’s calling it 2am. Everyone who’d been on the Alpha shift were pretty much dead to the world anyway, so it might as well have been. The point was, Beckett was sleeping, Tendi should have been sleeping, but instead the two of them are having an anxious stare off in the dark.

And Beckett’s currently having cardiac arrest from being startled so soundly. After her heart starts working again like a human heart is supposed to, the words begin to register. Sort of. “What?”

Tendi flips her padd around. Beckett blinks at the bright light from the screen, squinting to see what’s there.

“Is that morse code? Why the fuck is the Titian using morse code.”

Tendi stares at her unblinkingly, face flat.

Then,

“Oh. Oh shit. Shit!” Beckett sits straight up, throwing the covers off. There’s a few protesting noises and shushes that ensue around the room, but Beckett is already making a blind grab for her pants and shoes. “The fuck didn’t you lead with that?”

“Because people are sleeping,” Tendi whispers. Loudly. She rolls off the bunk and onto the floor, shoes already on. “So we’re going, right?”

“Of course we’re fucking going,” Beckett hisses. “Why wouldn’t-”

“Because you’ve been all hung up over him for the past eight months.”

“He ghosted me!”

“Okay yeah-”

“After accepting a promotion that he promised he wouldn’t-”

“Mariner-”

“He’s a backstabbing, little weasel who climbs over his friends-”

“Is this about that or the fact that you miss him?”

Beckett finishes pulling her shoes on and stands up, scowling. “I don’t miss him. Why are you defending him?”

“I’m pissed too. Don’t get me wrong, when we see him I’m gonna kill him. But I think this is more than that.”

“Whatever.” Beckett turns on her heel. “Are we stealing a shuttle or what?”

“Rutherford’s already on it.” Tendi taps rapidly on her data padd, keeping pace with Beckett’s light job easily. “We were hoping you could like. Let your mom know-”

“Oh for fuck’s sake.” Beckett pulls out her comm, quickly typing out a quick message to her mother. “This is gonna be a shitshow.” The two of them enter the shuttle bay, which is pretty much deserted due to it being beta-shift.

“I have no idea how we’re even going to sneak onto the planet. It’s been on lockdown since the Titian crashed there.” Tendi’s shoulders slump.

“Leave it to me, I know a guy.”

“Of course you do,” Rutherford says, popping head out the shuttle door. “Good to go?”

Tendi gives him a thumbs up.

Beckett straps herself into a chair, stomach churning. “He’s fine though, right? Like, we would have gotten a call. Who’s his emergency contact anyway?”

Tendi worries her lip between her teeth. “His mom? I don’t know, it never came up and I don’t have access to his file.”

“He wasn’t on the list of deceased. Just the missing persons list,” Rutherford offers helpfully, punching in some coordinates.

“Well that’s reassuring,” Beckett mutters under her breath. She stares down at her comm, stomach churning.

_______

“Seriously, what are the odds of this even happening?” Tendi asks, dragging Rutherford by the arm behind them. A severely concussed, disgruntled Rutherford makes a grunt of what Beckett assumes is agreement.

“Do you really want to be arguing about the odds right now?” Boimler shrieks, sliding to an uncoordinated stop as the four of them run directly into the maze wall.

“Fuck,” Beckett says, eloquently.

“I thought you said you knew which way we were going!” Boimler runs a hand through his wet hair, face going through a series of complicated expressions before settling on frustration.

Beckett crosses her arms. “I did know where we were going. When I had the fucking map!”

“Why are you yelling at me about that? I didn’t even have it!”

“I don’t see anyone else here dumb enough to have lost it.”

“Guys-”

“You were the last person with the map, Mariner.”

“Unless some idiot took it out of my pack when I wasn’t looking.”

“Guys.”

“I didn’t touch your stupid map! Why are you so fixated on this!”

“Because if we had the map, maybe we wouldn’t be about to die via giant space spider!”

“Guys!” Rutherford shouts.

Beckett jumps at the unexpected shout from the usually quiet ensign. She turns on her heel, meeting Tendi and Rutherford’s unimpressed stares.

“Lookie, secret passage.” Rutherford waves a hand to a hole in the wall that hadn’t been there like two seconds ago. “You two good? Can we go?”

Beckett pushes past Boimler, lightly shoulder checking him and jumps through the doorway after her two annoyed friends. She doesn’t listen worriedly to see if Boimler follows her (she doesn’t) and she doesn’t resist the urge to turn around and make sure he’s close.

She balls her hands into tight fists and stomps past Tendi and Rutherford, ignoring the exchanged glances. “Please tell me this is a way out.” Her flat voice has the barest hint of a tremble in it.

You’re losing your touch, Mariner, get it together, she tells herself.

Tendi pulls a lighter out of her back pocket. (Because of course D’Vana Tendi has an old timey lighter on hand. There was a reason Beckett liked her after all.) It takes a couple of flicks, but she manages to get it to catch. The small source of light barely lights up their passageway, but it’s enough to see that it leads deeper into the planet.

“Well, here goes nothing,” Tendi sighs. “I’ll take the lead, I guess. You good, Sam?”

Rutherford grimaces, but nods. “Nothing I can’t handle. Let’s just get out of here.”

_______

It would be Beckett’s luck that she and Bomlier get separated from the other two. And it would just be their luck that there’s a cave in just before they reach the end of the catacombs. And of course, of fucking course, the Cerritos’ ETA on getting them out is anywhere from 2-6 hours, depending on how fast they can get the ship up and running again.

If anyone is using buffer time, Beckett is going to put spiders in their pillowcase.

“This is bullshit,” she mutters, dropping into a seated lotus position. She plays with Tendi’s lighter, flickering it on and off again.

Boimler grimaces from across her. “Can you stop that? It’s giving me a headache.”

Beckett makes steady eye contact again and flicks it off again.

“Fuck you.”

“Fuck yourself. Or whatever,” Beckett mutters. She flicks the lighter back on.

Boimler makes a face like he’s swallowing back a retort. Instead of snapping back, he jams his hands into his pockets. “Can we- can we just talk about it? Like actually talk about it, not passive aggressively pretend like-”

“Like passive aggressively avoiding your best friend’s calls is okay?” Lighter flicks off again. “Yeah, that seems like bitch move, for sure. Glad I don’t know anyone who does that.”

“I’m sorry,” Boimler says into the dark, voice cracking.

“Fuck you.” Beckett flicks the lighter back on. Boimler’s eyes follow it, eyes dilating slightly as the light hits them. She flicks it off again, plunging the cave into darkness again. She flicks it back on. Boimler leans heavily against the cave wall, not looking at her or the light. He starting to look very pale. Paler than usual.

Beckett wonders about that headache.

“How long were you out here before we got your distress signal?” she asks, keeping her eyes glued to the lighter. She sees him shrug in her peripheral.

“Dunno. A while.”

Her stomach tightens. “You didn’t like. See anything weird?”

“You mean besides you and Tendi hauling ass? Not really.” He pinches the bridge of his nose. “Why?”

“What about strange smells-”

“Mariner.”

“You look pale,” she snaps. “And like super clammy. And I’m not talking about your stressed out will Mariner stop talking clammy, I’m talking like I think you inhaled a deadly neurotoxin kind of clammy.”

“I feel fine! Just the headache. Aaand maybe a slight stomach ache,” he adds at her flat expression. “I always have a stomach ache though-”

“-yeah, yeah, it’s the ulcer you’ve had since you were, like, two, you’re a goddamn medical marvel Boims. Budge over.” She shoves the lighter into his hands and grabs his face. “Are you dizzy,” she asks, peering in closely at his pupils.

Boimler tries to shove her away, but she’s stronger and more stubborn. “A little. Look, it’s just the headache and str-”

“Yeah, do you usually get pink eye from stress?” she asks dryly, pulling back to giving him some breathing room.

“I-what.”

“Your white are like. Super inflamed or whatever. Boimler, I think something’s wrong.”

“Shit.” He rubs his temples. “What’s that ETA again?”

“Six hours. Give or take some buffer time.” Mariner stands up. She’s not worried, she’s not. “Maybe you should lie down.”

Boimler glowers at her in the dim light, hands tightly wrapped around her lighter. “I’m fine.”

______

“Good thing you pulled him out when you did,” Dr T’Ana tells Ransom. “Any longer-” she pauses, seeing Beckett’s expression. “Do you want to know what it was?” she asks her.

Beckett, who’s currently white knuckling the back of the plastic chair by the biobed, shakes her head. “Not really,” she replies, stiffly. “Long-term effects?”

“None,” T’Ana replies, scratchy voice almost gentle. Almost. “So feel free to be as hard on him as you want when he wakes up.”

Ransom barks a laugh, clapping Beckett’s shoulder. “Oh, Mariner knows how to be-”

“If you make a single hard joke in my presence, I’m tossing you back onto that planet,” Beckett replies flatly.

Ransom removes his hand. “Right! Right, I’ll just be on my-”

“Out,” T’Ana and Beckett snap.

There’s a pause after the turbolift doors close after Ransom. Dr. T’Ana eyes Beckett warily for a moment. Then, “Call me if he wakes up with any symptoms.”

“You said-”

“Yeah, well. He has a lot of surprises in him, doesn’t he?” She gives Beckett a pointed look before leaving, grumbling down at her clipboard.

Beckett glares down at the unconscious Boimler. “The shit I go through for your dumb ass.” She flops into the uncomfortable chair. “Wake up already. It’s no fun yelling at you like this.”

____

Surprisingly, Beckett does not yell at Boimler when he wakes up. It’s a near thing, though.

“Well, thanks for not letting me die, I guess,” he says, watching her warily after she’s done ranting. Not yelling, ranting.

“I wouldn’t have let you die,” she scoffs. “You’re still my friend, dumbass.”

Boimler perks up in surprise. “What?”

“Look, just because you pulled the ultimate shitty move, doesn’t stop us from being friends. You’re still on notice, though.”

“Right! Right.” He pauses, blinking up at her. “Does it help that I submitted a transfer back to the Cerritos before any of this went down?”

Beckett freezes. “Wait, what?”

“Yeah. I mean, don’t get me wrong that was my actual dream job, buuuut-”

“Riker is crazy?” Beckett dryly supplies.

“I thought you were crazy,” Boimler lets out a whooshing breath. “Like I seriously thought you were the most batshit, insane person I’d ever met, hands down. But Riker is certifiable.”

Beckett grins. She can’t suppress it and she’s too tired to try. “So you’re saying I’m preferable.”

“I will take you any day of the week over that.”

“Sounds like a compliment.”

“It is.”

“Hmm.” She eyes him critically.

“Soooo,” he draws out the word. “Am I forgiven?”

Beckett picks his shirt up off the end of the biobed and throws it at his face. “Maybe.”

“Maybe?” He pulls it over his head, causing his hair to stick up in the back. Beckett suppresses the urge to smooth it down.

“I like watching you squirm,” she replies. “It soothes my massively inflated ego.”

Boimler barks out a laugh, easing himself out of the biobed carefully. Beckett turns to go--he still has to talk with Dr. T’Ana and possibly her mom over the transfer, and give his full report to Riker--but stops as he catches her wrist in one hand.

“Hey. Thanks.”

Beckett’s heartbeat rackets up a few notches. Stop that, she thinks at it and then stops because thinking at your own organs is weird. “Don’t worry about it,” she says, voice even. “You would have done the same for me.”

It’s true. Boimler may be a bit of a bastard and sometimes a shitty friend, but she has no doubt he’d have come running if it’d been the Cerritos accosted.

“Yeah,” he replies. “Sometimes I feel like that’s all I do with you.”

“What?”

He drops his gentle grip on her wrist. “Nothing. Just.” He shrugs, looking cagey. “I know I’ve been a bit of a-”

“Bitch?”

“--yeah, that lately. But. There’s not much I wouldn’t do for you. And that’s why I’m coming back. Because-because you deserve to know that. That you're my best friend, too.”

Her face heats up. “Yeah, well,” she mumbles. “Whatever.” Jams her hands into her pockets. “Don’t think I’m just gonna forget everything because you-”

“Yeah, I know. It’s fine.” He gives her a lopsided smile. “I just thought you should know.”

____

Beckett can feel the blush on her cheekbones until she reaches her bunk. Fuck, she thinks. Fuuuuuck.

She opens up her mental file on Boimler, crossing out whatever she had in there before. Best friend, she replaces it with. Stares at it for a long moment. Erases it. Puts it back.

Bradward “Brad” Boimler. Best friend. Loves classic rock. Dyes his hair purple. Has made some improvements, but still needs to loosen up a bit. Probably needs to get laid. Definitely needs to get laid.

You could help with that.

Best friend. She underlines in the file. You don’t have feelings like that for your friends.

Beckett throws herself into her bunk. She had the horrible, sneaking suspicion that Brad Boimler’s file was about to get a lot longer.

_______

#beckett mariner #brad boimler #marinler #boimler x mariner #d'vana tendi #sam rutherford #star trek lower decks #star trek lower decks fic #star trek lower decks fanfic

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