| abstract | - Prior to 1908 PD, Randy Steilman had been a member of the RMN for at least fifteen Manticoran years, but never rose higher than the rating of Power Tech Second Class, due to a well-earned reputation as a troublemaker on every ship he served. He served once with Sally MacBride, and was promptly beaten by her during an incident. In 1908 PD, Steilman was assigned to the crew of the armed merchant cruiser HMAMC Wayfarer, as the Navy was so strapped of manpower that it had no choice than complete the crews of Wayfarer and the other ships of Task Group 1037 with either inexperienced recruits or misfits and dregs of the service. Steilman immediately took a dislike for fellow crewman Aubrey Wanderman, and made him the victim of his threats and acts of violence, even to the point of ambushing the younger man and nearly beating him to death had not another crewman scared him away with the false news that an officer was nearby, but not before threatening Wanderman with death if he ever told anyone. In addition to his bullying of Wanderman, Steilman became the unofficial leader of a posse of troublemakers among the crew, which included Elizabeth Showforth, Al Stennis, Ed Illyushin and Jackson Coulter. Together, the five planned to desert the RMN and join a Silesian pirate outfit. Additonally, Steilman planned to sell the Havenites detailed tech manuals covertly taken from Wayfarer's files; this was done without the knowledge of the others. After staging another "accident" for a crewman by the name of Kirk Dempsey, Steilman was reported to Captain Harrington by Acting Senior Chief Petty Officer Ginger Lewis, and suffered a demotion to Third Class. In revenge Steilman concocted a plan with his fellow misfits to kill Lewis, and sabotaged Lewis' EVA suit to malfunction during a repair procedure to the ship's outer hull. This nearly succeeded in killing Lewis, but led to an incident in which Aubrey Wanderman (who by then had taken unarmed combat lessons with Wayfarer's Marines) beat Steilman. Following the incident, Steilman was arrested and brought before Captain Honor Harrington, the ship's commanding officer, with charges of conspiring to commit murder and desert in times of war, for using abusive language and for assaulting a fellow crewman. He was sentenced to confinement in Wayfarer's brig until he could be delivered to a naval station for a formal court-martial. Steilman and his accomplices were still under arrest when the ship was attacked by Havenite warships during the Battle of the Selker Rift, and they all perished when a beam struck the section of the ship where the brig was located. (HH6)
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