Alex Rodham

Political Information

• Affiliation: Starfleet, United Earth Commonwealth

Family

• Mother: Diane Rodham, BA, JD, President of the United States of America
• Father: Logan Marsh BS, JD, (deceased)
• Stepfather: Walter Lance, BA, JD First Gentleman of the United States of America
• Brother: Ensign Joseph Rodham, Engineer, Enterprise (NX-01)
• Sister: Doctor Nancy Whitty BS, MD, General Practitioner, Alpha Centauri
• Brother-in-law: Doctor Ronnie Whitty, BS, MD, General Practitioner, Alpha Centauri
• Husband: Commander Michael Stanton, First Officer & Chief Engineer, Challenger (NX-03) (deceased)

Biography

Early Life

Alex was born on January 17th, 2123, in New York City to his parents, Diane and Logan, who were both high-flying lawyers. The middle child of three, Alex was known as the social-able one out of his siblings. He was very close to his older sister, Nancy and highly protective of his youngest brother Joseph (Joe).

Working hard at school, Alex knew how to balance out his studies alongside enjoying his sports of soccer, lacrosse and basketball, as well as hockey. He captained his high school’s basketball team for more than one season, leading them to become state champions in his last year. He was also known for his various love interests, from dating the head cheerleader to the class president before he eventually declared his feelings for his best friend, Nick. The two of them dated during their last year, becoming the Prom Kings for their class. During high school, both of his parents decided to divorce because his father was unwilling to be part of his mother’s ambition of a political career. By the time Alex graduated, she was elected the Mayor of New York City.

After graduating from New York City University with a bachelor’s degree in social sciences, Alex applied to join Starfleet. He wanted to put his degree to some use and felt that joining Starfleet seemed like the popular choice to make. This decision ruined his relationship with Nick, who wanted to move to Connecticut to undertake a job there. The two decided to call at a day on their relationship.

Starfleet Career

Early Career

His break-up with Nick affected Alex’s scoring on the Starfleet admission exams. Fortunately, his score for the various physical endurance tests was noticeably higher. In 2141 he entered Starfleet as a cadet. It was the best thing to happen to Alex, especially as his mother’s political career was flying since she was elected to the office of Governor of New York. He maintained firm contact with his brother and sister through letters which include Joe visiting and staying with him in San Francisco several times.

Alex found being in the strict disciplinary environment of Starfleet Training Command incredibly easy to deal with. He loved the physical drills and combat training much more than the average cadet did. It was only in the first few weeks of joining STC that he decided to change his mind about what he wanted to do with his life; no longer was he interested in social sciences but was keen to become a pilot. He was okay with some of the coursework but found the engineering and technical aspects more challenging to comprehend at first. This was somewhat eased by his roommate, Michael Stanton, who was almost the opposite regarding abilities. They worked together to study and train during their first year to get through their various exams. This friendship continued throughout his time in the training program and eventually built into a romantic relationship, which was something he had wanted to explore with Michael for a long time. He didn’t want a repeat of what happened with Nick, so he took it slow with Michael. The two of them became quite the couple on campus.

By the time he came to the end of his second year, his professors had noted how quickly he had adapted to changing fields of study early in his training. He was known as a gifted pilot and started to show a constant interest in flying, more and more so. In group work, he was the natural leader due to everyone constantly feeling at ease around him, especially when he used his charming abilities to convince people to agree with his way of thinking. Eventually, he graduated from STC as a fully qualified pilot with a master’s degree in aeronautical engineering.

Rhine ND-12

Joining the newly built and christened Ganges-class to launch from Earth, Alex thoroughly enjoyed his time on board the Rhine. Being the chief helm officer, Rodham was highly thought of by his commanding officer, Captain Keong Rhee. The Korean skipper was a former pilot himself; as such, he enjoyed sharing tales of his early flight training and involvement in a range of test flights and flying starships. Rhee had grown up on a cargo ship and had learnt how to fly early. This was something that Rodham envied his superior officer for. The Rhine was assigned to mostly patrols between the Sol and Alpha Centauri systems. Rarely did the ship see any action; as a result, Alex found the time to become highly familiar with starship operations and was tutored by the ship’s chief engineer to understand more about the ship’s systems. This was something he loved doing during his spare time.

Along with this, he would write and send messages regularly to Michael. By the end of his second year on the ship, he was informed of his father’s passing from a heart attack. Alex could not return home in time for the funeral but remained in constant contact with his younger brother, who decided he would eventually follow in his brother’s footsteps and join Starfleet. After three years of service, two promotions and being made the second officer of the Rhine, Captain Rhee recommended that Rodham join another ship to spread his wings a bit more to get used to what else Starfleet offered.

Sputnik NV-10

Rodham left the Rhine at Alpha Centauri at the end of 2148 and flew back to Earth to join the newly built Intrepid-class ship: Sputnik. The ship would be the last NV-class to be made as Starfleet was planning to focus on decommissioning older ships and building the newer NX-class ships. Newly promoted Captain Dmitri Ostrov commanded the Sputnik. Ostrov was a younger captain and had accepted Rodham’s application to be his chief helm officer and second officer. The two of them had got on exceptionally well. Ostrov was by nature an engineer and found himself too often tinkering with the ship during his off time. Again, Alex would learn a lot more from Ostrov. He discovered his leadership approach different to Rhee’s more traditional methods. In 2149 the Sputnik was assigned the duty of leading a convoy of colonists to the Altair system, where they would assist in further construction of the colony. Altair was one of Earth’s furthest colonies at that point in time and was closely protected and supported by the Vulcan Confederacy. During mid-flight, the ship received a distress call from a Denobulan vessel that reported they were under attack by unknown assailants. By the time the Sputnik arrived to assist, the attacker was in the process of trying to board the Denobulans. Firing its plasma cannons and spatial torpedoes, the Earth ship was able to drive the unknown attackers away. Alex’s fancy flying meant that the ship was not touched when the attackers tried to defend themselves from the Sputnik’s assault. Rodham would lead one of the recovery teams over to the Denobulan ship.

During his tenure on the Sputnik, he and Michael decided to break up formally. They could no longer keep their long-distance relationship working. Trying to move on from the person he thought was the love of his life, Alex got extremely drunk with Captain Ostrov and ended up in bed with his commanding officer. The following day Alex regretted the entire ordeal, as did Ostrov, and Rodham placed a request for a transfer. By mid-2151, he left the Sputnik and took on a teaching position at Starfleet Training Command.

Starfleet Training Command

With a promotion to Lieutenant Commander and assistant professor position, Alex was given the opportunity to train and prepare the next generation of Starfleet pilots. His assignment on Earth became even better when he discovered that Michael had also taken up a similar role, in engineering, at STC. The two decided to keep their relationship light and, over the next four years, would have an on/off relationship. While home, Alex had to deal with the fact his mother had re-married and was now the Vice President of the United States of America. Due to her high-profile job, Alex had been given a protection detail eventually though he requested for Starfleet to oversee his security which they gladly agreed to do so he could get on with his job. Rodham excelled in his position as a teacher and, on many occasions, was asked to assist in flying high officials too. On one occasion, he flew President Littlejohn to view the Warp Five Complex in orbit of Earth before the launch of Columbia NX-02. 

By the end of 2154, Alex applied to join the NX Program as he wanted to fly one of the fastest ships in the fleet. His mother had just won her election to become President of the United States, and he wanted to avoid any complications that may bring him. Being off on a starship had its positives!

Discovery NX-04

Offered the chance to fly the fourth NX-class ship came to Rodham in early 2155 when Captain Frank Müller was looking for a pilot. Rodham was successful and initially was offered the dual role of chief helm officer and second officer. Discovery was eventually launched in early May with Alex at the helm. When the Coalition of Planets declared war with the Romulan Star Empire in mid-July, Commander Lianne Porter (the ship’s first officer and chief science officer) was promoted to captain and given command of the Atlas NP-10. Müller promoted Rodham to his first officer with the rank of commander soon after.

Rodham’s relationship with Michael improved as they could remain in more contact with one another due to Stanton’s assignment to the Challenger NX-03. At the start of October 2155, Michael eventually proposed to Alex, who said yes. They got married in a small ceremony on board Discovery. Shortly after they had finished telling their vowels, Starfleet Command ordered the ship to save the farming colony on Gault. During this mission, Rodham would command Discovery while his newly married husband would help Captain Müller find the colonists who had gone into hiding. After saving the colonists, the ship returned to Earth. At the end of the month, Starfleet sent the ship to defend the colony on Deneva. Rodham’s flying gave the ship a chance it needed to distract the Romulan force, long enough for other Earth ships to make it to the colony. Taking the ship into the Barrens, an area within a subspace node, Rodham’s impressive flying abilities allowed the crew the chance to overwhelm the Romulan drone ships. As a result, they were able to capture one of the ships. The Romulans had sent two more drone ships to chase down Discovery. Both attacking vessels could damage the Earth ship, but the sudden arrival of Challenger saved the crew from destruction. During the battle, Rodham was injured, and his crewmates took him to safety when the captain ordered them to abandon the ship. The crew were never able to follow the order since the arrival of their sister ship saved them. Rodham spent some time recovering in Challenger’s sickbay.

Eventually, he went on to support Captain Müller’s plan to attack a Romulan base located deep in their space. Its destruction would give them a significant blow as it would remove their ability to control drone ships and deploy their telepresence capturing system from a long range. Rodham would command Discovery further in Müller’s absence while he commanded the team that led the attack on the captured drone ship. Together Challenger and Discovery worked; nonetheless, Rodham was not happy when his husband volunteered to join Müller’s team on the captured ship.

After both crews had successfully carried out the mission, Rodham was informed of the devastating news that his husband had sacrificed himself to save the rest of the team by remaining behind on the captured drone ship to detonate its warp core. The tragic loss of Michael forced Alex to reconsider his career choices. As Müller was able to return to his post, but Michael wasn’t, Rodham felt he could no longer remain as Müller’s first officer. As Challenger had not only lost its first officer with Michael’s sacrifice, but its pilot (Lieutenant Conrad) had also died in the line of duty. As such, he requested to honour Michael by transferring to Challenger and succeeding him as the ship’s first officer and chief pilot. Burton and Müller both agreed to the transfer.

Challenger NX-03

Alex joined Challenger after it returned to Earth. Initially, he found it hard to leave Discovery, but after requesting to have Michael’s former quarters, he eventually found himself developing a good working relationship with Fleet Captain Burton. Rodham’s relationship with Burton developed well in their first two missions, to the point that the two of them could show a strong trust in one another in speaking their minds in private. Rodham also became good friends with the ship’s chief science officer, Commander Cooper Walker. The two took it upon themselves to informally mentor those of the crew that had to step up to more senior positions after the ship had suffered casualties.

Furthermore, when Burton was presented with the opportunity to turn the Kriosian and Klingons against the Romulans, though Rodham privately disagreed with the captain’s plan and how he would do it, he did help and support his captain with his mission.