After leaving the USS Venturer in 2373, Lieutenant Brandon Arbarra signed up on board NCC-61910 USS Monarch. The Monarch was a Saber Class ship, which was small and lightly armoured. The captain of the ship was a Vulcan, Commander Tanok. He was an efficient and capable man, and had taken command of the Monarch, after his Captain was killed on an away mission.
The Lieutenant relished the challenge of moving away from his usual Transporter duties, and looked forward to becoming a useful engineer under the Chief, Lieutenant Commander Borask. Borask was a Russian, who had taught at the Academy, shortly before Brandon had attended. His popularity with his staff preceded him, and this was another reason Brandon had applied to join the Monarch. The Engineering Department was, itself, a very small one, only featuring five staff. Nevertheless, morale was high.
Everything was fine for Brandon for a few months. The missions were repetitive though. The crew manifesto was made up of mainly medical and science staff, and the Monarch was used as a medical supply vessel. The ship travelled from planet to Starbase to ship to planet, delivering urgent medical supplies to Federation member races in the Alpha and Beta quadrants. As new medicines and vaccines were developed around the quadrants, Monarch would fly over, pick them up, and distribute them to the people who would need them most. Therefore, the Engineering crew became a very close knit community.
One occasion, the Monarch was sent to aid a Ferengii vessel in distress. The ship was adrift, and the Daimon on board stated they had become contaminated by a virulent disease picked up on Wylar II. An away team of five medical staff were beamed over in vacc suits to help. However, it was a trap. The Ferengii kidnapped the Monarch's officers, and refused to pass them back unless the Monarch agreed to be boarded and its cargo of vaccines passed over to the Ferengii.
Commander Tarok tried to reason with the Daimon, but it was no use. He agreed to the Ferengii's terms, and a large contingent were beamed over to the Monarch, together with the returned hostages. The Ferengii turned out to be smugglers, acting outside the normal chaotic Ferengii laws, and began shooting at anybody in sight.
Tarok quickly realised his huge error in judgement, and ordered a shipwide surrender, to preserve lives. However, the Engineering Department, and a science officer who had been working in Engineering at the time the incident had begun, refused to surrender. They carried on defending their section.
Although the Vulcan Commander was incapable of showing fury, he repeated his order to stand down, and again it was ignored. For a long time, the firing around the Engineering section continued, long after the rest of the ship had ceased fire. The engineers closed down all commands to just one panel in Engineering, so that the Ferengii had no control over systems. Then, they set up an ingenious shipwide transporter beam which recognised only Ferengii DNA. The Ferengii were transported back to their ship, and the Monarch sped away at warp speed.
Tarok was far from grateful that his ship had been spared. He contacted Starfleet Command, and reported the engineers and science officer had mutinied. After a short trial back on Earth, the crew members were all court martialled. Indeed, the court martial was too much for Borask, and he was found dead in his cell before the trial finished. He had hung himself.
So, Lieutenant Junior Grade Arbarra needed a new ship again. Actually, he was frustrated with his luck on board starships, and decided to join a Starbase. He transferred to Deep Space 4, and began a new job as a General Engineer.
More thanks to SevTrek.
