Lieutenant-"Commissar" Jenifer Ruby Oxmyx

No one is quite sure what happened with the Ioshans. They seem to have been "infected" by some early human scout ship with this set of wild notions about "right sharing of world resources", "the glorious struggle of the working class", and "the Communist Ideal". By the time the Imperium ran into them again they had already colonized all the other planets in their system and were researching warp capable scout ships of their own.

Well, we couldn't just let them form a rival empire, could we? We established a dialectic and convinced them that the needs of the people would best be served by joining us. They agreed, but there was a condition: (Isn't there always?) each of their members of the navy who reached the rank of Commander would instead be accorded the rank of Commissar which would be a quarter step over Commander in rank and be assigned to ships security. When the intermediate rank of Lieutenant-Commander was instituted in 13089 it was insisted by all existing Commissars that the rank of Lieutenant-Commissar be added along with it.

Now why is this relevant?

Though the rank of Commissar is no longer restricted to Iotians it does carry slightly more weight than that of commander, and for a specific reason. The "Commissars" are the answer to the ancient question "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?" Selected only from the MOST unflinchingly loyal and incorruptible individuals they are ships security for policing ships security itself. Each one, in order to take up the office, submits to being cyberneticly enhanced so that they literally are incapable of turning a blind eye to any breach of security protocol without a direct order from a superior officer.

And standing in the hallway was Alpha Bitch for this deck herself: Lieutenant-Commissar Jenifer Ruby Oxmyx, along with a small unit of ensigns and marines: all female...

"Ruby, we've got two more!" An ensign I didn't know called out leveling her phaser at us.

"Don't shoot! We're both female!" I said putting my hands over my head.

"What? Who cares! Which side of the mutiny are you on?"

I gauged reactions in nanoseconds and said the right thing, then turned the whole issue on it's head. "I'm with the loyalists," they raised their weapons and I continued, "but I don't think this is a mutiny: I think it's an outbreak of an infectious agent."