- For other uses, see Alfred.
Alfred C. Bowles was a Starfleet officer and captain of the USS Huxley. He had attended Starfleet Academy with Jean-Luc Picard, and was considered to be a highly capable officer, one of Starfleet’s great explorers.
Biography[]
Circa 2356, during a mission to the planet Rampart, the ship encountered hostile fire and crashed. During the crash, Bowles' face was burned, leading to a scarred appearance. Captain Bowles was the only known survivor of the Huxley.
After the crash, Rampart Cephalic Security captured him. Following a round of brainwashing, Bowles was implanted with a false set of memories and personality, those of a deceased officer named James Crichton. Bowles assumed the identity of Director Crichton, head of Cephalic Security. During his time with on Rampart, Crichton was responsible for creating propaganda for CephCom and the Council of Truth. He was also tasked with quelling dissenters and squashing out "fiction" through various means, including interrogation, brainwashing, selective memory removal, and lethal injections. Crichton carried out his duty for more than ten years.
Bowles brainwashing was incomplete, as the process was prone to flaws. In 2366, contact with the USS Enterprise-D was made, and "Crichton" began to have flashbacks to his life in Starfleet, which he dismissed as "science fiction hallucinations". As the Enterprise continued its contact and operations with the Rampartians, the flashbacks became worse until, moments before an execution, a flock of haguyas appeared, and Bowles overcame his implanted persona.
Moments before the Enterprise was about to engage the warp drive and leave Rampartian space, a signal was received from the planet's surface. Bowles, who CephCom Security was under the impression was still Crichton, was able to retrieve a communicator which had been confiscated from the Enterprise's away team. After identifying himself, he was beamed aboard, where he debriefed Jean-Luc Picard and Deanna Troi. (TNG novel: Gulliver's Fugitives)