Vice Admiral Les Buenamigo was a male Human Starfleet Command flag officer who lived and served during the late 24th century. For much of his career, he secretly developed the Texas-class automated starships in an effort to make a name for himself. He finally completed and unveiled the class in 2381, but shortly afterwards found himself faced with the prospect of Sam Rutherford exposing his illegal tactics. His attempt to avert this resulted in his death when the emotionally unstable artificial intelligence used in the class caused him to lose control of the USS Aledo.
Starfleet career[]
Buenamigo in Rutherford's memory
From the time he was at least a lieutenant commander in the 2370s, Buenamigo held a concealed obsession to make a name for himself within the ranks of Starfleet. He was thus involved in a secret personal project at Starfleet, developed with the aid of a rebellious but talented first-year cadet and future Starfleet engineer, Sam Rutherford. Rutherford contributed technical designs for a ship prototype and wrote the code for an artificial intelligence system. When Rutherford was grievously injured in an engine explosion apparently involving his under-construction racing ship, the Sampaguita, Buenamigo oversaw the implantation of a cybernetic implant that would erase Rutherford's memory of both the project and Buenamigo himself. He did not care when doctors working with him informed him that this would severely alter Cadet Rutherford to a completely different personality, and only that without the cadet, it would set the project back years. (LD: "First First Contact", "Reflections", "The Stars At Night")
During the 2381 trial of Admiral Alonzo Freeman's wife, Carol, Buenamigo called the admiral to inform him of some "bad news"; the judge assigned to the case was Mith bin Tong. After the Freemans' daughter, Beckett Mariner, overreacted to the news and stormed out of Freeman's home, smashing a potted plant on her way out, Buenamigo commented to Freeman that, "I don't know why you keep breakable objects in the house anymore." (LD: "Grounded")
Later that year, Buenamigo was satisfied that the Texas-class was ready, and schemed to use Captain Freeman as a patsy to "force" the class to aid the USS Cerritos in a crisis that highlighted the California-class' inadequacy. He contacted the Cerritos and informed Freeman that she was to take over the trade negotiations with the Karemma aboard Deep Space 9, with less than a day's notice, having diverted intended dignitary Captain Nguyen of the USS Vancouver to a colony supposedly threatened by a "brown hole". Despite Freeman's protests that such astronomical objects were nonexistent, she had little choice but to carry out the negotiations. Buenamigo believed that Freeman would be unable to handle the negotiations, but she was able to salvage the talks when her crew intervened in an attempted abduction of Quark. At some point following this failure, Buenamigo became aware that Brekka had come under Breen occupation, but, recognizing the opportunity this gave him to set the Cerritos up for disaster, chose not to disclose the incursion to his colleagues. (LD: "Hear All, Trust Nothing", "The Stars At Night")
Buenamigo later assigned Project Swing By to Freeman, it being her initiative, informing her that their first Swing By mission would be to Ornara, and assigned FNN reporter Victoria Nuzé to the Cerritos with very little notice to Freeman, leading to her panicking and becoming overtly authoritarian. During the mission, Freeman informed Buenamigo that the Ornarans didn't need Starfleet's help, prompting him to reply, "[t]hat can't be right. Make them show you their government, just in case it's secretly run by kids or somebody pretending to be the devil." After Freeman assured him of her assessment, he suggested that they visit the neighboring planet Brekka, knowing full well what awaited the Cerritos. (LD: "Trusted Sources", "The Stars At Night")
Following the disastrous contact with the Breen at Brekka, ending with the Cerritos being saved by the USS Aledo, he introduced the ship to her and Nuzé and officially revealed the newly declassified Texas-class. Buenamigo explained how the new fully automated starship, a project that he had a hand in, had just passed its sea trial, following its destruction of three Breen interceptors. (LD: "Trusted Sources")
Due to the success of the Aledo at Brekka, coupled with Freeman's mishandling of Nuzé's presence generating a damning exposé and causing Mariner's resignation from Starfleet, Starfleet Command took up his recommendation of retiring the California-class in favor of the Texas-class. Buenamigo showcased a gesture of goodwill in front of the other admirals towards Freeman, possibly as a way to mollify her, by offering her a promotion to fleet captain of the Texas-class, but Freeman declined as she was not interested in a desk job and instead challenged him to a mission race. Although the Cerritos was given an early lead by the confident Buenamigo, the Aledo won the challenge, but Ensign D'Vana Tendi noting that the Aledo ignored the Prime Directive while doing so convinced Freeman to confront him and get him to stand down. He attempted to dismiss the Aledo's mistake as nothing more than a rounding error and protested that correcting the fault would set the project back decades, but Freeman was determined to alert Starfleet Council to the Texas-class' glaring flaw. During the call, Ensign Rutherford, now serving onboard the Cerritos and having earlier found the class' AI coding oddly familiar, finally realized that the code was his own work with minor changes and was able to recall Buenamigo's involvement with the program and the erasure of his memories. As he had later used the same code to create Badgey, a psychopathic hologram that developed patricidal impulses due to flaws in his emotional processing, Rutherford realized the Aledo was likely to become hostile to Buenamigo and rushed to warn Freeman of the threat the automated vessel posed. He briefly explained to her that the AI was the same one as the AI responsible for causing Lieutenant Shaxs' death at the Battle of Kalla. (LD: "No Small Parts")
Already faced with his pet project being derailed right as he had declassified it, the additional prospect of legal consequences now that Rutherford remembered him caused Buenamigo to lose all emotional control. He ranted that he should have killed Rutherford instead of erasing his memory, then, pressed for an explanation, expressed his belief that as an admiral, there was no room for advancement in Starfleet's competitive atmosphere. He also admitted that he had manipulated the Cerritos into the incidents on DS9 and Brekka in order to discredit the California-class, justifying this to an outraged Freeman by stating that endangering the Cerritos crew would keep other crews out of danger. Ignoring Rutherford's warning that the class' AI was emotionally unstable, Buenamigo came up with a plan on the spot: to Freeman's shock, he would state that Freeman attacked the Aledo out of jealousy for losing the race and the AI destroyed the Cerritos in self-defence. He gave the Aledo full autonomy and ordered the ship to destroy the Cerritos under the claim that it was under enemy control, which would eliminate Freeman and Rutherford at the same time, only for the ship to lock him out of its systems, turn on him, and obliterate him along with his office with a phaser blast. (LD: "The Stars At Night")
Legacy[]
"What does that mean?"
"It's on all the news feeds. As usual, Starfleet's getting people blown up left, right, and center."
Although Buenamigo quickly gained a legacy, it was not the one of innovation and accomplishment he wanted, but one of hubris and overambition leading to needless death and destruction. Almost immediately upon murdering him, the Aledo activated two sister ships, the USS Dallas and USS Corpus Christi, and the three now-unhinged vessels proceeded to go on a rampage covered by multiple news outlets, including FNN. Numerous personnel on Douglas Station and the USS Van Citters were killed before the Cerritos lured the deranged vessels away using Rutherford as bait. The Cerritos was forced to eject its warp core during warp to destroy the vessels, but the Aledo survived the explosion, which would have caused the Cerritos' destruction if not for the intervention of the Free Spirit and the rest of the California-class fleet. In the end, all three Texas-class vessels were destroyed by vessels of the class Buenamigo had intended them to supplant, but not before killing a large number of people. (LD: "The Stars At Night")
Personal life[]
Buenamigo was good friends with the Freemans and was even referred to as "Uncle Les" by Mariner. Outside of formal contacts and meetings, he and Carol Freeman addressed each other by their given names. He was also fond of smoking cigars. (LD: "Grounded", "The Stars At Night")
Buenamigo was of a Latin heritage and had a certain affinity for the Republic of, and later state of, Texas. Among the trinkets kept on the shelves in his office were a model of the Alamo, a buffalo figurine, a typewriter, a book with the outline of Texas on it, a lone star, two powder horns, a revolver, several Texas-themed commemorative plates, and several pieces of pottery. His wall was also adorned with the flags of Texas and the Republic of Texas. He also had several potted plants, and kept a cigar box full of cigars on his desk. (LD: "Grounded", "Hear All, Trust Nothing", "Trusted Sources", "The Stars At Night")
Appendices[]
Appearances[]
- LD:
- "Grounded"
- "Reflections" (flashback; not identified or fully seen)
- "Hear All, Trust Nothing"
- "Trusted Sources"
- "The Stars At Night"
Background information[]
Buenamigo was voiced by Carlos Alazraqui.
Ironically, his surname translates to "good friend" in Spanish, which couldn't be further from the truth. However, his first name sounds like the word "less", which, combined with his surname, provides an appropriate description of his character.
External link[]
Les Buenamigo at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works