Ned Hennessey

Political Information

• Affiliation: Starfleet, United Earth Commonwealth

Family

• Mother: Janelle Hennessey
• Father: Martin Hennessey
• Brother(s):
  • Jonah Hennessey
  • William Hennessey
• Former Spouse: Jane Hennessey (née Styles)

Biography

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Early Life

Ned grew up on Vega Colony, one of Earth’s nascent colonial efforts following the advent of reliable faster-than-light travel. The homogeneous nature of the colony (it was nearly exclusively human) bored him though, and he read and studied as much as the colony’s public library system would provide about alien beings and their cultures. His parents ran a farm, which he and his younger brothers helped with in between their studies.

By the time Ned graduated high school, he had determined two things: that he wanted to get as far away from Vega as he could and that he could live the rest of his life without seeing another human face.

He lived up to his first determination, enrolling in the university on Alpha Centauri to study xenopsychology. There, he was treated to a much more colourful tapestry of culture than could be found on Vega. He revelled in meeting aliens, trying their food, absorbing their culture. On a weekend excursion to one of Alpha Centauri’s larger merchant districts, Ned discovered, tossed in an antique bin, what looked to be a Vulcan monograph. He purchased the item and took it back to his dormitory, not knowing what it said. It became his project: translate the monograph using the resources he had available. He dived into Vulcan language, discovering that the monograph was from the collection of a Vulcan physician. Further study revealed that it was a manual on Vulcan sexual dysfunction.

Having solved that minor mystery, Ned decided he was hooked. Upon graduating with a degree in xenopsychology and alien cultures, he enrolled in graduate school. His pursuit: the study of xenolinguistics, alien languages.

While he continued his studies on Alpha Centauri, he was offered a position working in the United Earth embassy there. In addition to interpreting for the Starfleet and civilian staff, he translated low-security documents, activities that helped him in his advanced studies. When he earned his graduate degree, he was taken on full-time by the embassy and soon was traveling with members of United Earth’s diplomatic corps.

Ned cared little about the political implications of his work. The chance to get off Alpha Centauri and go to places that were unknown to him meant learning new cultures, new customs, perhaps a new language. During his travels he met his wife- to-be Jane Styles, a political consultant who worked with a number of officials in the United Earth’s foreign affairs department. The two were quick to marry and lived together for a few years before separating. Neither of them had the time for their marriage to work due to their work commitments and neither of them were prepared to leave their careers. Eventually they filed for divorced and went their own ways.

In the 2150s, Hennessey, who had left his government job to return the university on Alpha Centauri, this time as a professor, was one of several academics tapped to brainstorm what was being called a universal translator. Ned, set in his ways and resistant to any change, was sceptical of the device, suggesting that trusting a machine to handle such a delicate nuance as interspecies communication was the surest way to start an interstellar war. Nonetheless, he offered his input about the proposed device, pessimistic, though, that it would ever see the light of day.

Starfleet Career

Early Career

In 2154, with United Earth Starfleet’s NX project well under way, Starfleet was looking for seasoned professionals to bolster its commissioned officer ranks. Although he was significantly older than most officer candidates, Hennessey was recruited. Ned joined Starfleet’s fast track training programme that was designed and specifically aimed for those with certain skills sets and qualifications. Due to his qualifications in xenopsychology and xenolinguistics he was someone Starfleet was keen to have among their ranks. The entire programme lasted three months and was intense with training. Hennessey did not enjoy some of the more physical training side of his studies but was commended on a number of occasions by his instructors for his perseverance. Eventually he qualified and graduated from Starfleet Training Command. He resisted two offers – desk jobs in San Francisco – finally capitulating when the Starfleet recruiter dangled a deep space assignment in front of him. Following his Starfleet indoctrination training, he was commissioned and assigned to the NX-class Challenger.

Challenger NX-03

Ned was ordered to join the Challenger after its own Chief Communication Officer (Ensign Mattias Hansson) requested a transfer off the ship after the death of Captain Karim. Ned joined the ship in its final days prior to its launch to take up the senior post.

During the ship’s first mission a number of the crew were kidnapped by the Orions. This happened while they were ferrying Earth diplomats to an important conference with the Denobulans. Unfortunately for Ned, his former wife Jane was on the staff for the senior diplomat, Secretary Campbell, who was on board the Challenger during this mission. As the ship’s protocol officer, he was assigned to liaise with the Secretary’s staff and as Jane was the Foreign Secretary’s deputy chief of staff, he had to deal with Jane more than he would have preferred. Ned was present on the bridge throughout the entire mission, providing valuable support to Captain Burton as they attempted to rescue their crewmates. Thankfully they were successful. Even thoughChallenger’s first mission had been a diplomatic one and Ned’s involvement became crucial in liaising with the politicians the crew were dealing with. Alongside the ship’s Chief Medical Officer, Ned worked with her in rallying and supporting a number of the inexperienced junior crew through this critical mission. This was invaluable to Captain Burton in succeeding in his first mission. Ned soon developed a fond friendship with Major Yu and Doctor Ben-Ami, the MACO Commander and Chief Medical Officer – respectively. The three of them were almost the oldest members of the crew (Ned being the second oldest officer on board) and formed a close friendship group. They were often seen sharing a meal in the crew’s mess hall.  Ned took under his wing those assigned to the communications department and used their time to share his knowledge and skills in xenolinguistics.

Once they arrived at Denobula, Ned accompanied Captain Burton on a number of his visits to the various engagements they had been invited to. He acted as a translator as well as diplomatic guide for Burton. While in orbit of the Denobulan homeworld the ship received a distress call from Earth colony ships heading to the Archer system. Ned, with the rest of the crew, would engage the Romulans for the first time. During the battle their pilot, Ensign Alcott, was injured when the helm exploded from an overload. Ned carried the injured pilot to sickbay to receive treatment. Once the Romulan threat had been discouraged (they retreated once Coalition forces arrived to re-enforce the area), Ned was involved in helping the E.C.S Raven with repairs to their subspace communication relays. While over there he encountered their pilot, Jack Conrad. Conrad was a trained Starfleet pilot who had been kicked out of the service for performing inappropriate manoeuvres before he graduated from Starfleet Training Command. Feeling that Challenger needed an experienced pilot to take over from Alcott, whose recovery was deemed long term now, Ned approached Captain Burton with his suggestion. He proposed that Conrad joined the crew and for Burton to make him a provisional officer while they dealt with the current crisis in escorting the colony ships to their destination. Burton took on the idea and eventually agreed to it. Conrad joined the crew on a temporary re-assignment, with permission from the skipper of the Raven. Once they had removed the Romulan threat from the Archer system, Ned was pleased to see that Captain Burton had made Conrad’s assignment a permanent one when he granted him a field commission of ensign. Ensign Alcott was returning to Earth now to receive further treatment and Conrad had impressed Burton and the rest of the senior staff with his skills during their battle with the Romulans.

Ned would go on to prove his worthwhile to Captain Burton and on occasions he would ask Ned to assume command of the bridge when other senior officers were unavailable. When Challenger was invited to Andoria by its new chancellor, Ned used the time to refresh his knowledge on the Andorian language and culture. Ned was instrumental in finding a way to contact with the United Earth embassy on Andoria after their communication channels were jammed. Ambassador Agos praised Hennessey with his ingenuity in allowing their embassy to make external contact. It was soon discovered that an Andorian colony had been attacked and the Andorian Imperial Guard were preparing a relief task force. Chancellor Margerit requested, under the agreement of the Coalition Compact, for Challenger to join the Andorian task force. Before the task force arrived at its destination, Ned intercepted a transmission which was of Malurian origin within Andorian territory. At the time the crew ignored it, deciding it was most likely a Malurian mercenary that had crossed their border but would be dealt with swiftly by the Andorian Imperial Guard.  Unfortunately, the task force was crippled when it entered a minefield laid out by the attackers: a combined armada of private mercenaries of Malurian and Nausicaan origin.  Ned was assigned the work in co-ordinating all fleet matters after Captain Burton was given a field promotion within the Andorian Imperial Guard and made the new fleet commander by Chancellor Margerit. Ned was part of Commander Stanton’s team to disable and take control of a minefield that had been setup by the invaders (which was a combined military force of Malurian and Nausicaan ships). Ned was able to determine that the mines were Romulan in origin. With Commander Stanton and Sub Commander T’Plau, they were able to reprogram the mines and use the, against the Malurian-Nausicaan forces which contributed to the successful liberation of the colonists. However, during the incident their shuttlepod had to crash land on Docana, the planet they were attempting to save, due to being heavily damaged. After leaving their crash site, their team took refuge in caves under a large mountain range with other Andorian survivors. There he was part of Commander Stanton’s efforts in developing a good relationship with the senior officers from the Andorian Imperial Guard including their leader: Commander Anthi. Eventually Challenger rescued them all once the external threat had been dealt with. Ned, along with the others spent some time in the decontamination chamber to remove the low nuclear radiation poisoning they received while they were on the Andorian colony.

During the middle of 2155 the ship was ordered to make official first contact with the Deltan species on behalf of the Earth Commonwealth and its allies in the Coalition of Planets. Initially the first contact went well with both side exchanging ideas peacefully, but the ship was dragged in to an ongoing conflict the Deltans were having with a neighbouring race known as the Carreons. The ship’s chain of command was compromised slightly with the absence of Commander Levesque, as such Captain Burton depended on others to step up. This included Ned who was once again on many occasions asked to take over as bridge duty officer. Eventually the Carreons began a campaign of attacking the ship on a regular basis. As their weapons weren’t as advanced compared to Starfleet’s the ship received little damaged until they persisted and repeated their attacks almost daily. Ned’s support of the senior leaders was crucial in keeping morale up, even with the ship falling apart around them.  In their last battle they engaged a Romulan Bird-of-Prey which he discovered was using a telepresence capturing system to control Carreon vessels. They were able to avoid being captured themselves and disabled the craft; unfortunately, the Romulans were not prepared to be captured and destroyed their ship. The shockwave from the exploding ship severely damaged Challenger further. Burton told Ned, along with the rest of the senior staff, his decision to order the crew to abandon ship when it became heavily damaged and unable to sustain the entire crew. Burton gave Doctor Ben-Ami a battlefield promotion to lieutenant commander and ordered her to take command of the crew and lead them to a safe place. Ned was now elevated to the position of acting second officer under Kefira’s leadership. They led the crew to a Minshara-class world they had detected on long range sensors. The trip took a very long time in escape pods and shuttlepods, eventually they arrived in orbit. When they began their decent, they encountered an alien craft that originated from the world. The vessel opened fire after Kefira attempted to contact them. Their engagement gave the other escape pods time to move out of harm’s way and land on the planet without being hassled, but Kefira’s own escape pod was damaged and was forced to crash land elsewhere. Major Yu took over leading the Starfleet crew once they landed. Ned became her close advisor, especially as many of the other Starfleet crew felt that Lieutenant junior grade Masuko, the second engineer, should be leading them as they were a Starfleet crew and not a MACO detachment. Ned was instrumental in convincing everyone that they needed Yu to lead them due to her expertise in survival training. She would keep them safe and alive, which was an argument he never believed he would be having with others. Nevertheless, his words of wisdom, along with his good relationship with many in the crew helped calm the situation down and allowed for Yu to lead the crew successfully. This act brought his friendship closer with Viktoria.

Eventually they lead a rescue mission and found Ben-Ami’s missing escape pod and returned them to their base camp they had setup. When Kefira returned to the camp she assumed leadership and kept both Viktoria and Ned close. She found their counsel helpful, especially Ned’s. Kefira and her group from their escape pod hadn’t returned alone. While they had been away from the others, they had encountered two inhabitants of the world, a pair of young boys who were brothers. Kefira found herself dealing with a philosophical issue once they had been rescued by their crewmates and returned to their base camp. She had to decide to either keep both Roburn and Edro (the two boys they had rescued from the caves they had hid in) with them or send them back to their village, even though it meant they would be forced to return to a life of mining as part of the planet’s child labour force. Both he and Viktoria argued for keeping the boys with them as they felt it was morally wrong to send them back to such bad conditions, especially as both boys had never attended a school and were ill from their mistreatment. Nevertheless, Kefira didn’t want to stand in between the boys from ever seeing their parents again. She began to debate the issue of forcing Human values on to alien cultures and found the decision hard to make. She decided to leave the issue for the moment but was grateful for both Ned and Viktoria’s input on the dilemma that faced them. As it was clear that their situation could become a permanent one, Ned was made morale officer (not a position he wanted to take on but reluctantly agreed to). He was tasked in keeping the crew going and organised a few events to boost optimism among the survivors. Eventually surveillance carried out by the stranded crew of the local area reported that a Carreon vessel had crash landed and destroyed a settlement that met the characteristics of Roburn and Edro’s settlement. As the threat of being detected by the aliens increased, Kefira decided not to expose their position any further by the crew exploring the local area. She gave the order to fortify their position as best as they could. Ned found himself taking on more training from Viktoria in hand to hand combat. An exercise he started to enjoy.  Soon after other missing crew appeared (Ensign Alcott, Ensign Metaxas, Second Lieutenant Trommler and Corporal Jenkins) and informed the others about the Ardanans, the species that inhabited the world they had crashed on. The species’ government did not wish to engage in any contact with “off-worlders” in fear that it would change their society. As such the knowledge of alien existence was kept a secret from the general public and only a small number of senior government officials were aware of alien lifeforms from other worlds. Placed in a difficult position, Kefira made the choice to remain with her decision of keeping a low profile on the planet and to avoid any communication with the Ardanans. They soon found out that the Ardanans were quite technologically advanced due to their cloud cities that they had constructed. Nonetheless, they also learnt that only the wealthy and privileged could live on these floating palaces. Those that were less fortunate lived in smaller settlements, with many of these being mining communities. This was the case for Roburn and Edro.

Eventually the entire crew were rescued when Captain Burton and the others entered orbit of Ardana. They came with help with the Andorians and with a few days of hard work the entire crew were returned to Challenger.  Kefira placed a commendation in Ned’s file for his support and leadership during their time on Ardana. Ned was happy to return the post of morale officer back to Chef Lawson once they returned to the Challenger, but Lawson did tell him she was more than happy to receive his input on any future social events she planned for the crew.

Prior to the ship returning to the frontlines, Captain Burton made the decision to promote Hennessey to Lieutenant junior grade due to his work while Ardana and that his life experience meant that he deserved to have a higher rank than ensign. When Challenger rescued the crews of the Armstrong NCC-100 and Discovery NX-04, Hennessey was involved in assisting with repairs and being involved in decrypting a Romulan database that Discovery had got their hands after capturing a Romulan drone ship.