Jessia Margo Blackford

Early life (2365 — 2383)

Jessia Blackford was born on Earth in 2365, in an increasingly crowded and sprawling Bloomington, Indiana. Her parents, a professor of xenolinguistics and an embedded systems engineer, led a comfortable life in a penthouse downtown. Expectations were high for her from the start, and living in the most crowded part of a crowded city endeared her to many people, while she grew withdrawn in her personal life.

Jessia, inspired by her mother’s stories about other worlds, and her mother’s fascinating work on the hidden complexities of everyday things, set her sights on becoming a Starfleet Engineer.

Voyager’s disappearance was a shock that spread rapidly through Captain Janeway’s hometown, an event big enough that even six-year-old Jessia understood what was happening. Another major shock would come about three years later, when she was struck with the indescribable wrongness of self that betrays gender dysphoria. That feeling slowly drove a hard wedge between herself and her mothers, in spite of their efforts to understand what was actually happening.

Jessia would try to cope with their differences by laser focusing on her schoolwork and spending hours on end isolated in her room studying and rehashing even her strongest subjects.

At 12, her parents had finally gotten her to explain what she had been going through and her transition could begin. Though they had grown closer and more in tune with each other, the tension persisted and her emotional exile continued.

Resentment towards her parents, brought on by early anger over being “born wrong” continued into her enrollment in Purdue Polytechnic High School in 2379. Outside of her unhealthy dedication to her schoolwork, her confidence in herself grew exponentially. She grew fond of a number of people as well as she developed her idea of herself.

Starfleet Academy (2383 — 2387)

Jessia entered Starfleet Academy on track to graduate in Starship Systems Engineering. Her first year was spent adjusting to the strict heirarchies and discipline at Starfleet and spiraling further into her old habits. She acclimated more functionally in her second year, abruptly cut short by the attack on Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards. Having had just enough training to be pressed into emergency service. As Assistant Weapons System Engineer, she mostly did busywork to keep things in order, but a strong commendation, and getting inadvertantly relocated to Mellstoxx III, made her rethink her intended path.

The next two years would be spent specializing further into Tactical Systems Engineering. Jessia, finally starting to recover from her traumatic childhood, came into her own on the new world.

A confident, understanding, and occasionally firey Ensign Blackford graduated with excellent grades and multiple commendations from her superiors into service with the Fourth Fleet.

Starfleet Service (2387 — Present)

Replacing a newly promoted Engineering Department Head aboard the Norway Class USS North Sea, she served belowdecks until 2391, when she was promoted to Lieutenant, and transferred as acting Tactical Officer to USS Inquiry. After assisting in the completion of the last year of its mission, she was recommended Advanced Tactical Training, and would rejoin as Tactical Officer in an official capacity as a Lieutenant Commander. Her next promotion would come in 2395, for exemplary service and dedication to Starfleet’s mission in the Delta Quadrant. In 2399, she would be hurriedly promoted to Captain and requisitioned a Sovereign Class refitted with nacelles typical of a Majestic Class and an experimental Reman shield array to support missions into Borg territory in place of a now lost starship of similar configuration.

Personality

Always willing to jump to the front to help, Jessia is a commanding, reassuring presence. She puts a lot of effort into staying calm and collected in tense situations, but occasionally a more angry, impulsive side comes out when she’s been stewing over an idea or an issue for days or weeks. Normally, she stays thoughtful and understanding, always looking out for people before they need anything and firmly tongue in cheek about Starfleet and her remarkably fast rise to Captain.