Hemmer

"I will not fight for Starfleet. But I will defend its ideals."

– Hemmer to Nyota Uhura, 2259 ("Memento Mori")

Lieutenant Hemmer was a male Aenar Starfleet officer who lived during the mid-23rd century. He served as chief engineer aboard the USS Enterprise in 2259, until he committed suicide to protect his crewmates from Gorn which were about to emerge from him. (SNW: "Children of the Comet", "All Those Who Wander")

Early life[]

Before joining Starfleet, Hemmer had dreams of becoming a botanist, as he had a passion for flora. (SNW: "Memento Mori")

He was a gifted engineer, though, and confident enough to call himself a "genius". (SNW: "Ghosts of Illyria")

It was uncommon for the deeply pacifist Aenar to join Starfleet, although Hemmer once explained that pacifism was not the same as passivity and he would – even if he wasn't willing to fight – defend Starfleet's ideals. For him, pacifism was the active protection of all living things in the natural universe. Like all Aenar, Hemmer believed that death only came after one had fulfilled their life's meaning. He considered it his purpose in life "to fix what is broken". (SNW: "Memento Mori")

Starfleet career[]

Hemmer was in Commander Pelia's Starship Maintenance 307 at Starfleet Academy. Pelia would later recall Hemmer as being an "okay" student. (SNW: "Lost in Translation")

At some point prior to 2259, Hemmer served aboard the USS Angelou. (SNW: "Memento Mori")

USS Enterprise[]

Hemmer arrived aboard the Enterprise in 2259, succeeding Louvier as chief engineer. (SNW: "Strange New Worlds"; DIS: "An Obol for Charon")

Shortly after arriving on the Enterprise, Hemmer formally met Cadet Nyota Uhura during a gathering in Captain Christopher Pike's cabin. He, along with Lieutenant Spock hazed Uhura by thinking she had offended Hemmer when offering to help due to Hemmer being blind.

He later helped retrofit several photon torpedoes to help move the comet C/2260-Quentin. (SNW: "Children of the Comet")

During the Enterprise's mission to Hetemit IX, He assisted Chief Kyle when Kyle was having trouble transporting the landing party from the planet. (SNW: "Ghosts of Illyria")

When the Gorn attacked the Enterprise, he was in the main cargo bay and was injured. Due to injuries, he told Uhura how to replace reactors. (SNW: "Memento Mori")

When an alien consciousness from the Jonisian Nebula brought the fairy tale The Kingdom of Elysian to life on the Enterprise, Hemmer was supposed to be used for the character of Caster. Because of his telepathic abilities, he was able to resist the possession and was able to contact the consciousness and helped resolve the situation. However, Hemmer didn't retain his memories of the events after the ship was returned to normal. (SNW: "The Elysian Kingdom")

Hemmer joined the away mission to Valeo Beta V in 2259, hoping to find and recover the USS Peregrine and its crew. They discovered the ship had picked up three survivors from a Gorn breeding planet – two of them infected with Gorn eggs. Hemmer managed to repair the ship's generators, but was sprayed with venom by one of the newly hatched Gorn. After helping to lure another young Gorn into a trap in the Peregrine's cargo bay, Hemmer sealed off the bay and sacrificed himself to protect the rest of the away team, as he had realized the Gorn's venom had also infected him with eggs. After bidding farewell to his friend Spock and encouraging Uhura to remain in Starfleet, he was content, because he had lived a good life.

Hemmer then stepped out through the cargo bay's force field and fell to his death in a ravine. (SNW: "All Those Who Wander")

Legacy[]

Months later, the Enterprise still hadn't replaced Hemmer as chief engineer until Commander Pelia took on the role during the mission to stop the Broken Circle plot and decided to continue with it afterwards. (SNW: "The Broken Circle")

An illusion of Hemmer's corpse appearing to Uhura

Uhura continued to use videos made by Hemmer to help guide her in tasks. Later that year, extradimensional lifeforms in Bannon's Nebula communicated with Uhura, which her brain interpreted in the form of Hemmer.

Meanwhile, Number One took exception to Pelia, which the Lanthanite correctly determined as being because she was "a reminder that your friend died and I replaced him. And every time you see me, it dredges up all of that sadness." (SNW: "Lost in Translation")

In an anything but canon account, Hemmer was chosen by the captain to emcee the ship's First Contact Day party. Since the purpose of the holiday was to celebrate the first meeting between Humans and Vulcans, he felt that his role as the emcee was somewhat inappropriate, as he was not a member of either species. He instead decided to turn it over to Spock, who was both Human and Vulcan.

And so, turning it over to Spock was exactly what he did. Spock then told them that he compiled a variety of clips as part of a blooper reel. Each clip contained a "blooper," mainly from their crew. but one was from the USS Discovery. One of the clips he showed was a scene from the transporter room in which Hemmer was ordering one of his officers to beam another officer aboard. The female officer protested, telling him it was too dangerous, but he told her it had to be then. She complied, but the result was a transporter malfunction that caused the officer to materalize from the waist up only – his legs however, were gone, and because of this, he fell to the transporter pad, and the impact caused his intestines and blood to spew from him. The transporter officer stared at the suffering man in terror. Hemmer then raised his fists into the air and screamed "Nooooo!!!"

After Spock successfully discovered the proper blooper, he chased Hemmer with a mop handle in an attempt to perform a live recreation of the blooper. (VST: "Holiday Party")

Chief engineers of the starships Enterprise

Enterprise NX-01:

Tucker • Kelby

USS Enterprise:

Louvier • Hemmer • Pelia • Scott

USS Enterprise-A:

Scott

USS Enterprise-D:

MacDougal • Argyle • Logan • Lynch • La Forge

USS Enterprise-E:

La Forge

ISS Enterprise NX-01: