Character Motivations

[Bry_Sinclair]

Perhaps someone with PTSD, struggling with fear/panic attacks/nightmares. An officer or crew-person who showed exceptional promise and courage, but is struggling with recovering from a traumatic episode. His/her/its superiors see a person worth salvaging and sent this person to a "quiet" billet on a space station to regain confidence and perhaps return to a ship of the line. Maybe it's a good idea. Maybe not.

As well as all the regular craziness that serving in Starfleet brings, this time period is also in the midst of war with the Cardassians and also heightened tensions with the Tzenkethi, so there's plenty of ways for someone to be struck down by serious mental health issues.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

With the help of some of the suggestions here, I think I have my senior staff filled, need to have a think on some of the eccentric civilians who would choose to set up shop on this quite backwater station.

Thanks to everyone who has come in with ideas, but if there are any more (for civvies or Starfleeters (I suspect Gamma Station will have a higher turnover of officers compared to other outposts)) then please feel free to post them--either for myself or anyone else needed ideas for some different sorts of characters.

 

[Shamrock Holmes]

Frankly there should be a much higher turnover of officers in any posting than we're shown in canon.

 

[admiralelm11]

I could see a Bzzit Khaht as a medical officer who faints at the sight of blood. Like an alien Doc Martin...

 

[Bynar0110]

A Harry Mudd or Cyrano Jones type character for one of the civilians?

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

A Harry Mudd or Cyrano Jones type character for one of the civilians?

Definitely am thinking of a "merchant of mysteries" type, whose wears and trinkets might inspire a story or two, as well as some ne'er-do-well up to no good (just so I'm not copying DS9, they won't be running the stations most popular pub, the 'Last Chance Saloon').

 

[Bynar0110]

Definitely am thinking of a "merchant of mysteries" type, whose wears and trinkets might inspire a story or two, as well as some ne'er-do-well up to no good (just so I'm not copying DS9, they won't be running the stations most popular pub, the 'Last Chance Saloon').

I guess that rules out tailors who are ex-spies.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

I guess that rules out tailors who are ex-spies.

It would, but don't go snooping around the resident cobblers shop some of his "customers" haven't been seen since...

 

[Orbing Master]

Definitely am thinking of a "merchant of mysteries" type, whose wears and trinkets might inspire a story or two, as well as some ne'er-do-well up to no good (just so I'm not copying DS9, they won't be running the stations most popular pub, the 'Last Chance Saloon').

Maybe mixed in to be some Vash-like femme fatale..?

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

If folks are interested I can post a brief blurb on the characters here, won't give anything major away about who they are though.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

How about an "everybody's grandma" type character, whose real family is estranged from them for various reasons (not necessarily justified, possibly time and space means the family drifted apart?) and she takes it upon herself to mentor and bake cookies for (that type of thing) the crew, provide a listening ear, knits them useless stuff, tries to matchmake all the time, etc?

How about the consciousness of someone's parent with whom they have a strained relationship, stuck in an animal's body? Imagine getting nagged by a parrot for not having grandchildren... (and they're not just mimicking someone they heard, either?

A crewman who is haunted by the ghost of someone from history (not necessarily realworld history). They bicker with each other, but nobody else can see them...yet.

A librarian who's always spouting odd facts, stories from the past that are sometimes surprisingly relevant....other times, there seems like no point to their ramblings.

 

[Sgt_G]

What is the mission of this base?? You said it's an old base that no-one wants to be stationed at, so it must be far from any front lines and still in the middle of nowhere. First thought that comes to my mind is that it's the gate keeper to the boneyard or mothball fleet, there to maintain inventory and keep watch to make sure nobody tries to steal anything.

 

[Robert Bruce Scott]

Someone's got to deal with the garbage. There's only so many times the replicator can recycle your poop and put it back on your plate. Starship engines have to build up some really toxic crap and someone gets the unglamorous job of mucking that crap out. Medical bays have to generate some really nasty stuff too.

And starships, shuttles - spacecraft in general run into crap and someone has to degunk the exterior and change the windshield wipers... It would give lots of opportunities for just really gross stuff that has to be handled.

The station could serve more Klingon ships than Federation - which means really nasty alien poop. And worse yet, the Klingon hydroponics bays - when you're harvesting gagh, you have to make sure you eat it before it eats you...

Thanks!! rbs

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

What is the mission of this base?? You said it's an old base that no-one wants to be stationed at, so it must be far from any front lines and still in the middle of nowhere. First thought that comes to my mind is that it's the gate keeper to the boneyard or mothball fleet, there to maintain inventory and keep watch to make sure nobody tries to steal anything.

Starbase G-14 was built at a time when the UFP was expanding out in multiple directions and there was a sense of optimism about exploration and taming the frontiers, the station was intended to be a support base for colonisation and mining efforts in the region and a supply outpost for ships pushing out further into the unknown, but alas by the time construction was completed and it came online the cold war with the Klingons was heating up, followed shortly after with the re-emergence of the Romulans, followed by first contact with the Gorn, and numerous other incidents far away from the sector that took up Starfleet's attention and diverted fleet operations.

And so G-14 sat, its great mission on hold indefinitely as only one colony was established (New Christchurch) and only a few small mining companies set up shop in the Kerus System, whilst anything else of note from the initial survey ship reports (including the treacherous Ben-Ari Nebula) were all but forgotten about. Starfleet kept the base operational as it proved a useful trading outpost and could also monitor that neck of the woods and save on having to dispatch ships away from other more critical areas.

By the early-24th century the future of the station was called into question, with recommendations to either scrap it or tow it to another sector where it could be of more use, but by then the Tzenkethi emerged as a potential new threat followed close behind by the Cardassians and attention was once again focused on the border nearest two more hostile powers. It was about this time that someone among the brass made a joke about using the station as an "out of sight, out of mind" dumping ground for some of the more undesirable elements within the fleet, which soon became its unofficial purpose.

The base stands a lonely vigil, watching over a sector that few could point to on a star map, with a starship sent out on occasion to patrol and a supply ship dispatched to bring out cargo and new personnel every few months. Starbase G-14 has become synonymous with failure and every officer knows what it means to be sent there.

 

[Sgt_G]

Reminds me of an old gas station on a lonely highway that was bypassed by the new interstate. It used to be the only gas stop for a hundred miles in either direction, back when the highway was the main road. There is an off-ramp from the interstate, but there is a big truck stop up the interstate just forty miles away, so this little gas station sees very little business anymore. And yet, it remains open. Why? Because, as the owner says, "Forty miles is a long way to walk for help."

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

^ That sums it up rather nicely.

 

[Bynar0110]

Civilian wise it could be a wretched hive of scum and villainy

 

[Bynar0110]

I like to think the Station is an engineers worse nightmare. The outer hull of station has a bunch of dents, patched holes, and scorch marks from attacks by hostile ships and impacts with asteroids.

On the inside there's Malfunctioning computers, Replicators that creates horrible tasting food, the inside of the station looks dilapidated from neglect, vandalism, and a poorly maintained power reactor that's on the brink of having a meltdown.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

The station will be pushing 90 and underwent a considerable overhaul around 2300, so she'll have a very TUC aesthetic, but since then any upgrades and modifications will have been haphazard or done with less than optimal parts.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

Below are very brief "elevator pitches" of the characters, which I've tried to keep purposefully vague as I don't want to give too much away but at the same time I want to whet some appetites. Though it's already a long list, others may emerge once I get started and suddenly realise I need someone else in the mix.

Station Personnel

• Commander Jynahr-Essu isn’t a Kirk or Sisko type of leader, but he is an accomplished administrator, efficient bureaucrat, and competent negotiator; he is one of the many cogs in the machine that keeps Starfleet running smoothly.
• Lt. Commander Reiko Hara was once a golden child of the fleet, until she served as the adjunct of one of those “crazy admirals” and everything changed after she was caught up in a scheme she tried to believe was for the greater good.
• Lt. Commander T’Ven was raised to control and suppress her emotions, to use her considerable mind to pursue logic instead, but now she is trapped in an unending mental battle after being unable to save dozens of her former shipmates.
• Lieutenant Izhai sought political asylum in the Federation, after trying and failing to put an end to the corrupt far-right government that rules her non-allied world through intimidation and fear.
• Lieutenant Sarix Ra-Havii is the stations Casanova, but after an affair with the wrong person he found himself ending up on Gamma Station with a powerful enemy who’ll make sure he will never serve anywhere else.
• Lieutenant (j.g.) Worad is the resident wheeler-dealer who’s able to get his hands on anything given time, you name it he can get it for you and always knows just what cargo bays are best for storing the items best kept out of public view.
• Lieutenant (j.g.) Hunter McCade is a gifted and talented young officer who, unlike almost all the others on Gamma Station, chose to be there—though just why he’d flush a promising career down the refresher is a mystery.
• Ensign Ryzen Kraagor is the first Nausicaan in Starfleet (need I say more?).
• Master Chief Ankor’Jhol has spent almost his entire career on Gamma Station following an incident with a Klingon official that could’ve started another war (had the Empire learned of it), but his lot in life doesn’t seem to bother him, in fact, little seems to affect him.

Station Residents

• Xaan Sa Yatu was once the CO of Gamma Station, right around the time it fell from grace but stuck with it for longer than most up until she retired, but even then she couldn’t let the place go and set up shop running the Last Chance Saloon.
• Syu Avarro is a self-proclaimed “merchant of mysteries”, whose shop is an Aladdin’s Cave of trinkets and treasures from around the galaxy all with their own stories to tell, and a seller who delights in telling them to prospected buyers.
• Doctor Thravathalys zh’Eleth is a member of the Independent Archaeologists Guild who has come to Gamma Station to follow up on a lost report from the original survey of the sector, one that hinted at some ruins on an uninhabited planet.
• Doctor Mireen came to Gamma Station to offer her services as a therapist and researcher, who always seems to have a plethora of subjects eager to take part in her experiments, not that any of them ever speak about what they are.
• Trace Holden’s hard life growing up has turned him into a jack-of-all-illegal-trades and something of a mercenary, willing to hire out his skills for whoever can pay and he’s not very picky about just what he’s asked to do.
• Kostas Nikolaou was once a Starfleet officer, but after being badly injured he was medically discharge, at which point he bought the Ariel, and old courier ship, and became a freelancer, offering his ship and services to whoever needed them.
• Ginen Zu-Harov served Starfleet when Starbase G-14 was commissioned, but after encountering a temporal rift and emerging 90 years later she found herself no longer fitting in with the fleet, so left and wound up signing on to the Ariel.
• Kainor Jahl is officially the engineer of the Ariel, but he has a vast repository of knowledge that allows his to do pretty much anything onboard, from astrogation to cooking gourmet meals, its no wonder he hasn’t been back to Trill for years.