Ullyses Black

Ulysses K. Black
Species: Human-Romulan (0.75/0.25, identifies as human)
DOB: 6/6/2350
Homeworld: Varchenaar IV
Height: 191 cm Weight: 113 kg

Childhood (2350-2366)
Born to a widowed mother on a backwater frontier world near Cardassian space, Ulysses was a lonely child prone to introspection and bouts of depression, exacerbated by schoolhouse taunts over his mixed-race heritage. The resulting social isolation caused him to spend inordinate amounts of time outdoors, learning how to fend for himself while exploring the forests and mountains surrounding the farm valley in which they lived. Childhood name-calling became racial epithets and schoolyard fights as he got older, deepening his loneliness and causing him to resent his mixed heritage and his mother for her part in it.

On the day of his 15th birthday Ulysses was goaded into a fight by one of his tormentors and he lost control, sending the other boy to the hospital with a fractured skull. Ulysses ran off, escaping to the comfort of the woods and waters he knew so well and crying himself to sleep that night beneath the canopy of stars through the trees. After a few days he gathered enough courage to go home and apologize for the things he’d said, but returned to smoking ruins where the settlement had been; many colonists had been brutally killed and the rest, including his mother, were missing, presumably taken as slaves by the unknown raiders.

As the sole survivor, he did what he could to bury the dead over the next week before setting out for an old abandoned mining camp from the colony’s early days and the emergency subspace beacon he’d found there in an old decrepit shuttlecraft as a kid. The transponder still worked and the distress call was received by a Federation starship nearby which changed course to rescue the youth and investigate the massacre. He spent almost two months aboard the ship before reaching the next starbase, and in that time he saw the bonds of friendship and loyalty that surpassed barriers of rank, culture, and species. As the crew went out of their way to include him in their daily lives, he felt for the very first time in his life that he was part of a family, and he finally knew exactly what he wanted to do with his life.

Starfleet Enlistment and Dominion War (2367-2375)
Sent to live with his maternal grandparents on Earth, Ulysses tried to adapt and finish his schooling, but ran away less than a year later after denied admittance to Starfleet Academy due to poor academics and a questionable psychological evaluation. On turning 17 he managed to get emancipated and promptly enlisted in Starfleet as a security specialist. After the completion of training in 2368 he was posted to the USS Berlin (NCC-14232), an Excelsior-class ship patrolling the Romulan border. Promoted to PO3 in 2370, he was reassigned to the USGS Powell, a science vessel performing detailed follow-up planetary surveys on recently discovered worlds. Here he found an interest in planetary science and began taking correspondence courses in geology and hydrology, assisting the scientists and science techs with their away team work when security needs were light. He was promoted to PO2 and had almost finished the coursework needed to classify for a secondary specialty in planetary science when the Federation-Klingon War of 2372 broke out. He was transferred to 7^th Fleet for Advanced Combat and Squad Tactics training and finished the course as armistice with the Klingons came but war with the Dominion began. Reposted to the USS Kennedy (NCC-73609) as a Boarding Action specialist, he was given a battlefield promotion to Petty officer first class after his squad leader was killed during the boarding and subsequent destruction of a Jem’Hadar battlecruiser at the disastrous Battle of Tyra (2374), a battle in which the Kennedy was also destroyed. His commandeered escape pod crashed on the planet below, where he and the wounded remainder of his squad succeeded in evading the enemy until rescued by the USS Argus. He saw action as a breaching crew squad leader at the Battle of Sybaron later that year and assumed the role of surface action section chief during the Kalandar campaign of 2375 after his section chief was vaporized by a Jem’Hadar plasma burst. Promoted to Chief Petty Officer, Ulysses was attached to the USS Dauntless (NCC-71879) as a surface action platoon sergeant at the Battle of Cardassia where he was again wounded in action prior to cessation of hostilities.

OCS and Commission (2376-2388)
The end of the war found Ulysses restless and anxious; the heavy combat he’d seen and the deaths of so many of his comrades had taken its toll, vivid nightmares were affecting his sleep and his chain of command was starting to notice. After a heart to heart with the ship’s counselor, he decided to separate from Starfleet and experience the wonders that the planets of the Federation had to offer, to see the worlds he’d fought for, and so many had died to protect. Almost two years later on a starliner touring Saturn’s rings, a chance encounter with the XO of the first ship he’d served on led Ulysses to apply for Officer Candidate School armed with 9/10 of a planetary science degree and a glowing letter of commendation from an officer who’d seen great potential in him. In 2378, LTJG Ulysses K. Black graduated OCS and was posted to the USS Selune (NCC-29111) as a security junior officer. There he became good friends with LT D’amara Tur, a Deltan science officer, among others.

Ulysses was with D’amara performing EVA repairs on an external sensor array when a temporal anomaly struck their ship as it passed through the Elysia Incendae system; in the blink of an eye the Selune was gone and they were stranded adrift. It was only after a passing merchant ship had received their distress calls and picked them up that they discovered that while the anomaly occurred only a few hours before to them, it had occurred 5 years ago to the rest of the galaxy and that they had been thrown forward in time from when the USS Selune had disappeared, presumably lost with all hands. The timing could not have been worse, the attack on Mars had occurred less than a month before and they were held in Starfleet Intelligence custody for nearly twice that long while interrogated, intimidated, and cajoled for information they did not have before finally being cleared and released back into the fleet. They were both reassigned in late 2385 to the California-class USS Pasadena (NCC-75666), providing science support for detailed surveys near the Mutara Nebula remnant.

It was on the Pasadena that Ulysses began to cross-train in command bridge duties; by 2388 he’d been promoted to LT and was pulling the third watch shifts at the helm.

…to be continued…