Malruse was a businessman on Alpha Proxima II in the 23rd century who was reluctantly pressed into distributing food in New Punjab, Rivershore, and Arafel counties by Commodore Matthew Decker while martial law was in effect throughout the colony. Decker privately considered Malruse to a "tiresome bureaucrat" and a "private-sector nincompoop". (TOS - The Brave and the Bold, Book One novella: The First Artifact)