Been listening to “My Goodbye” from Epic and I’m having such brainrot about the fallout between Rutherford and Buenamigo.
Like I’m picturing a backstory where Buenamigo's been mentoring Ruthie and they have a genuinely friendly if slightly strained relationship. But he’s also pushing Sam harder and harder to design the code until eventually Sam recognizes that no, he’s actually not skilled enough as a young cadet, no matter how talented, to design an entire fucking AI Starship.
And Buenamigo’s like “no, Samanthan, I believe in you! Believe in yourself!” and Sam’s like, “No man, listen to me, I can’t, I am literally not capable of doing this and if we try it’s going to get people killed.” And Buenamigo’s like, “People die in Starfleet all the time, this AI will save lives in the long run” and Sam’s like, “No, I’m an engineer, we have ethics about these things, if it doesn’t pass quality control I’m not letting you use it!” And Buenamigo’s like “Uh I wasn’t asking your permission,” so Sam says he’s going to quit and take his code with him. And since this has all been an off-the-books partnership between an admiral and a cadet (definitely no opportunities for financial and professional abuse there, amirite?) Buenamigo can’t exactly stop him.
And it devolves into this huge, ugly argument where Buenamigo tries to emotionally blackmail Rutherford into staying on the project (perhaps mockingly pointing out that Ruthie has been using him as a replacement father-figure or something? idk) and Rutherford says that Buenamigo’s been chasing advancement so long that he’s basically alone with only a cadet thirty years his junior for a friend.
Buenamigo’s shocked for a moment, and then is like “Yeah okay, go then. You’ll figure out someday that I was right all along.”
But wait, it’s a trap! Because he tricks Rutherford into going back into the lab and locks the door on him after launching the program, basically telling him that it’s sink or swim time and truly believing, right until the moment the engine explodes and blows half of Rutherford’s face off, that his genius prodigy cadet will somehow magically fix the problem in time.
And in order to cover his own ass and save himself from whatever the Federation version of a hefty lawsuit is, he has to put Rutherford under the implant. And then obviously he steals the imperfect code because, hey, Ruthie can’t remember it anyway. And that’s how their mentorship ends, with a bitter admiral taking a buggy stolen code as a consolation prize and a young cadet with forged graduation documents and a hazy memory he somehow can’t get himself to care about being assigned to a Cali-class ship.
