The Trouble with Edward

Former Enterprise science officer Lynne Lucero is promoted to captain of the USS Cabot, which is helping a famine-hit world. At her first briefing, biologist Lt Edward Larkin pitches his plan to breed tribbles as food. Lucero has ethical doubts, which only grow when Larkin suggests damaging the creatures' brains, so she halts the work. Larkin responds by complaining about her to Starfleet, so she arranges his transfer. Defying orders, he splices his own DNA into a tribble to speed up its breeding. The result is a tribble born already pregnant, and before long the creatures are pouring through every corridor. The crew abandon ship, but Larkin refuses to leave his creations and is buried beneath them. At the board of inquiry that follows, an admiral lists the damage, including trouble with the Klingons, and Lucero offers a blunt explanation.