The original Chief Engineer of the Chekov, Flannery meets an untimely end early in the series. Flannery is over-the-hill, hard drinking, and ornery as they come. He loves every inch of the ship, but his baby is Natasha, an old, salvaged Russian space craft that he has spent years tinkering back together. Much of the original equipment has been stripped out, leaving only the most critical elements, and most of them are questionable.