Post by Alexa Eden on May 5, 2008 15:15:20 GMT
NAME : Alexa Eden
GENDER : Female
SPECIES : Human
ORIGIN : Sarasota, Florida, Earth.
DATE OF BIRTH : 2348
HEIGHT : 5’5”
WEIGHT : 125 Lbs
HAIR COLOUR : Black
EYE COLOUR : Brown
EDUCATION/EXPERIENCE :
2366 – Cadet – Starfleet Academy, Earth.
2370 – Navigation Officer – USS Philadelphia, New Orleans Class.
2373 – Engineering Officer – USS Philadelphia, New Orleans Class.
2378 – Chief Engineering Officer – USS Faraday, Challenger Class.
2381 – First Officer – USS Faraday, Challenger Class.
2384 – Commanding Officer - USS Finland, Norway Class.
FAMILY :
Damien Eden - Father
Lucinda Eden - Mother
Jerome Eden – Younger Brother
BIOGRAPHY :
Alexa was born in Florida on Earth. Her parents both worked at a seafood restaurant, which they owned. The restaurant had been in the Eden family for several generations.
When Alexa was five, she gained a little brother. Although this was not without problems. Jerome was born with a genetic abnormality which rendered him deaf. As a result, Alexa always felt very protective of her little brother.
Damien was considered one of the finest chefs in Florida and despite growing up in the environment, Alexa was never more than an average cook. Jerome on the other hand was very much like their father, he had a wonderful feel for dishes and at times Alexa was quite jealous of his imagination with foods.
Alexa entered the academy in 2366, the same year the Federation and the Cardassian Union finally ended their long conflict by signing a peace treaty. She was excited to move to San Francisco and a chance to begin her dream.
While in the academy, Alexa did relatively well in her courses and became an outstanding student in her engineering and piloting classes. She had a very natural ability with the mechanics of starships and in their flight. Alexa was no slouch in her other classes either, she did well in her scientific and tactical classes as well.
In 2370, Alexa graduated and was given her first assignment as a junior officer. At first she was excited because so many new vessels were being commissioned that year and deep down she hoped to be assigned to one of those. The Sovereign and Intrepid classes were both newly commissioned classes and even recent commissions like the Akira and Nova classes were exciting prospects. In the end however Alexa was assigned to an older vessel, the USS Philadelphia, a New Orleans class.
When she arrived on the Philadelphia, Alexa had a lot of preconceptions about her new assignment. The New Orleans class had never distinguished itself within the fleet. Relatively small and considered a precursor to the Galaxy class, the New Orleans class was generally employed for inter-Federation or patrol missions rather than deep space exploration.
The Philadelphia’s assignment at that time was as a diplomatic courier vessel. This meant the vessel did a lot of back and forth runs from destinations carrying ambassadors, representatives or even messages which were too sensitive to send over sub-space. In fact the Philadelphia had been heavily involved in the Federation/Cardassian treaty.
Alexa joined the crew as a navigation officer, as many cadets do to train them in starship operations before they move on to more specialised fields. However she would get more interesting first mission than she expected.
A science vessel on a survey mission was overdue to contact Starfleet, and the Philadelphia was on of the vessels assigned to the search. The star system was well off the beaten track of trade routes and it took the search vessel several weeks to arrive and begin the search.
After a thorough search of the entire sector, the overdue vessel was considered lost. It would not be until seven years later that the fate of the USS Equinox would be discovered. During the mission she did a lot of research on the Nova class in an effort to impress her senior officers. The research gave her a deep respect for the Nova class and a desire to maybe serve aboard a scientific vessel at some point.
Starfleet, concerned about its first encounter with the Jem’Hadar assigned more vessels to the sectors near to Bajor. It was an effort to reinforce Deep Space Nine without actually stationing large groups of vessels at the station as this action would most probably irritate the Cardassians with their border so close by. The Philadelphia was assigned to regular patrols of the border and of the demilitarised zone commonly called the Badlands.
In 2373, Alexa took on a mid-level position in the engineering department. She had always been a skilled engineer and she had gone about as far as she could in the Navigation department without becoming a department head. The engineering department offered her a lot more scope and in truth, she was a lot more interested in the engineering side of vessels.
Alexa really enjoyed her new assignment and began learning a lot she was never taught in the academy about starship engineering. Although she had always wanted to be posted to a new class of vessel, working in engineering of the New Orleans class gave her a great opportunity to learn about the problems which newer vessels rarely face. Learning about the natural degradation problems of older engines and the innovative solutions to making the engines operate at peak efficiency and keep them inline with the newest vessels in the fleet.
As the Dominion war flared up, the Philadelphia found itself in a combat role. Although not a combat orientated ship, Starfleet began experiencing heavy losses and many of its lighter vessels found their way to frontline combat. This also mean Alexa had on the job training in combat engineering. Almost constant battle damage repairs and keeping systems which were patched together, running while the ship was taxed to its limits.
Despite its size and age, the Philadelphia came through the war in good shape. Although Alexa and the other engineers would disagree, they had to replace, refit or recondition practically the entire ship over the war. Alexa was quite the engineering expert now and was the assistant Chief of engineering.
After the war, the Philadelphia was assigned to the border with the Gorn. With the losses suffered to the Dominion, Starfleet was concerned that some of the other powers may see an opportunity to take their own chunk out of the Federation while it was still weakened. The mission turned out to be ultimately a quiet one.
In 2378, Alexa was offered a new opportunity and one that captured her interest. She had always wanted to be one of the deep space explorers and the Philadelphia had never really been that kind of assignment for her. Now the position of Chief Engineer has opened up on the USS Faraday. Alexa was one of the prime applicants for the position. The Faraday was a Challenger class vessel and specially outfitted for exploration.
After the Faraday’s re-supply and taking on new crew, the ship then went out to its five year exploration route near the edge of the galaxy just outside Federation space.
In 2381 during an archaeological mission to an unexplored world, an accident put Alexa in line for a new position. During the mission, several of the crew were injured and two killed in a structural collapse within some ruins. The First Officer and one of the Science Officers were the ones killed in the accident. After the services and due to the fact that the Faraday was so far away from the nearest Starbase, the Captain asked Alexa to take over as the First Officer of the ship.
As the mission concluded in 2383, the Faraday had gathered a massive amount of information. The Faraday returned to Federation space and was due to have general repairs and upgrades. However being on the outskirts of the Federation, several scientific assignments were given to the Faraday which would bring it back to the inner systems and the shipyards for its upgrades.
After her exemplary service aboard the Faraday, Alexa was put forward by the Captain for promotion. The recommendation and examination of her service record by Starfleet led to an unexpected outcome. In 2384 instead of simply promoting her, Alexa was offered a new posting as the Commanding Officer of the USS Finland. The Finland was a Norway class vessel. The Norway are light diplomatic and scientific vessels. It was felt that Alexa’s experience of serving on both scientific and diplomatic vessels, coupled with her record and skills made her a good choice for the vessels new CO.