Commander Brinks was a 23rd century Human woman who served as an officer in the Federation's Starfleet. Brinks considered herself a capable command officer, with a high degree of confidence that bordered on arrogance in many cases.
Biography
By 2285, Brinks had been assigned as first officer of the starship Surak. When newly-resurrected Captain Spock came aboard the vessel to take command, Brinks greeted him, promising that the Surak would be the finest ship he had ever served aboard. Spock, perhaps recalling the recent loss of his previous assignment of over three decades, the Enterprise, commented that that would be a difficult proposition. Although a simple matter of semantics, this initial disagreement would set the tone for ongoing difficulty between the two officers. (TOS - The Mirror Universe Saga comic: "Homecoming...")
When the Surak approached the planet Proto, Brinks manned a sensor readout station and reported to Spock that the planet appeared to be temperate and habitable, an unexpected development considering the world's extreme distance from its star. Brinks reported the readings and theorized that unexpected energy readouts from the rare green star could account for the anomalous developments. Spock's skepticism led him to order a complete sensor diagnostic and recalibration, and a landing party outfitted with full EV suits.
Brinks made an unfortunate move for her own professional standing in complaining about Spock's attitude towards her and the crew in full view of all on the bridge, and to snap at the captain when given orders. Navigator Kevin McCarthy cautioned her about certain prejudicial remarks about Spock's mixed heritage as a genetic hybrid, and Spock himself made attempts to discuss with her the importance of her own discipline aboard ship.
When the landing party arrived on Proto, Spock found himself out of his suit and involved with a fantastic dream sequence. Despite several attempts to remind himself of the unreality of the situation, Spock continued to experience unrealistic events. It was not until Spock hallucinated himself trapped in a piece of planetary rock, with Doctor Chu-sa operating a crane to dig him out of the ground and Brinks attempting to use an old-fashioned stick of dynamite to blow away the rock, that Spock was able to convince himself he was trapped in a state of unconscious hallucination. Spock was able to mind meld with Chu-sa, freeing the doctor from his own dream, when he turned to save Brinks, who was near death from the intensity of the dream experience. In Brinks' dream, a vulcanoid monster threatened to consume her, as she tried to defend herself with a phaser pistol. Spock was able to convince her that he was there to save her, and commented after they were both awakened about the implications of her dislike for vulcanoids as revealed in the dream states the planet Proto had caused in them. (TOS comic: "Dreamworld")
Brinks again found herself at odds with Spock when she accidentally made some comments against him on the bridge without realizing she was overheard, criticizing his half-breed nature and his choice of Lieutenant Felicia Mello for the landing party to Verdee, leaving Brinks aboard ship. Spock took her into a private conference and overrode her concerns, ordering her to operate the transporter. When the landing party arrived on planet without Lieutenant Mello, some aboard ship, including Lieutenant McCarthy, began to suspect that Brinks had used the transporter to dismember Mello out of spite.
Brinks began seeing the apparition of Mello, and, thinking it was a hallucination perhaps brought on by guilt, prepared to resign her position aboard the ship. When the landing party discovered Romulans were disrupting transportation on the planet from a secret outpost, Brinks reversed her decision, and beamed a supply of Atalskes phaser IVs down to help them protect themselves. Since Brinks suspected the Romulans had caused Mello's disappearance, she allowed herself to be dematerialized out of phase as Mello had been, in order to guide the rest of the crew to the Romulan operation. Spock thanked her at the end of the mission, despite her disobedience in his order not to leave the ship. (TOS comic: "The Trouble with Transporters!")
When the Surak encountered a derelict Aakenn-class freighter crippled by the doomsday bug virus, she reported to Captain Spock that no life forms were read aboard. Brinks joined the landing party to the ship, and her report was proven wrong when a hysterical Andorian was found aboard. It would be her last action as a Starfleet officer, as the entire crew succumbed to the virus after the team returned to Surak. Brinks died on the bridge, asking Spock what was happening. As she fell, he placed her body in the Surak command chair. (TOS - The Doomsday Bug! comic: "Death Ship!")
Appendices
Connections
| USS Surak personnel | ||
|---|---|---|
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Brinks • R. Chapman • Chu-sa • Corwin • Garace • J. Kousaki • K. McCarthy • F. Mello • Singer • Spock | 
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