<Lt. Cmdr. Mortimer, Officer's Lounge>

Mortimer looks at the limp sleeve hanging from his left shoulder.
"The arm - that was just a stupid accident with an airlock at the academy. Our shuttle had just returned to Starbase 1 from a training mission on Jupiter, and we were performing an external dock with a starship. Our pilot was a cadet from Flight Training school, and he forgot to shut the thrusters down. As we were boarding the ship, the shuttle started to tear away from the airlock, and the door started to shut. I had just passed through, and  turned to the door to try to pull another cadet through, and it shut on my arm. That was nearly ten years ago now, and I haven't had it replaced since, so it is a pretty old model. I remember just after I got it I plugged the data output directly into a shuttlecraft flight computer and got repremanded for reckless flying - I managed to skim the main Academy building and knock the UFP flag off the top! Anyway, Captain Decker of the Tintagel promised to get his engineering section to work on a new design for me, which I'm expecting in the next couple of weeks."

Mortimer picks up a couple of pieces of his arm.

"Until then, I'll just have to see what I can do with this"

He puts the pieces together. They seem to fit alright, but then start emitting smoke and sparks. Mortimer drops them on the ground

"Oh well, I suppose It's only a couple of weeks...."

"McCarthy's not really that much of a problem. She's been trying to get me thrown out of the fleet for years now, but hasn't had much success. I just treat it like a game now - trying to keep one step ahead. I can't pretend I enjoyed the news of being assigned to this, though."

A message finally reaches Mortimers consciousness that Rhine has just mentioned Romulans, and he perks up at the mental image of Rhine standing on top of a pile of dead pointy-eared bodies.

"Tell me more about your time in the Marines. Were you ever on any missions in Romulan space?"