Bravo Fleet
Summary
Rosaline “Marvel” Wu Ling, a native of Singapore. She has been in Starfleet a very long time and refuses to retire. She is enigmatic but revered. Rumor has it her illustrious career involved reading ship’s logs and performance data to suggest improvements, as such she is extremely knowledgeable and more than capable of any post she has. She does not suffer fools gladly, including the captain. Her opinion will usually come out only if you ask her for it, or, if you’re going to do something she knows is incredibly bone headed. Her Achilles’ heel is her age (sometimes its hard to tell if she is cat-napping at her post, and she occasionally brings tea or smelly steamed cabbage to work with her), and her maternal instincts (sometimes she comes across as the burly army first sergeant but she is really a mother hen).
Appearance
Liong has a bearing that demands reverence. As she approaches her 100th birthday, it seems written on her face that she has been places, yet she is now precisely where she chooses to be.
Her skin, free of blemishes and lines for most of her life has begun to yield to time. Even her ears have grown longer with age, like the sages of old Chinese statues.
Standing at nearly 5’9, she can look more diminutive if she does not consciously correct her posture. As a young woman she always sat ramrod straight and walked swiftly. Now, she embraces a slower stride.
Her features are a product of her Chinese and Malay genetics. She has small eyes, small flat features, and high cheekbones. Her irises are shades of jade, her lids taper heavily into epicanthic folds at the corners. And when she smiles the crow’s feet add a maternal flourish to her face.
Her hair is a thin crown of glossy black hair with distinguished swathes of silver that began to appear during the Dominion War.
History
Rosaline Wu Liong was born September 14, 2302 to Starfleet officers who lived in and worked their entire careers on Earth. The family never ventured very far or for very long from the native Singapore. However, they lived an extremely fulfilling and happy existence.
As a young woman, Liong enjoyed reading. She consumed all the information she could coming in from mankind’s exploration of the final frontier. She found work in a library, and then the national archives before being accepted to Starfleet Academy.
Entered Starfleet Academy 2322
Graduated Starfleet Academy 2327
Her career, prior to 2365, was a succession of assignments including stints aboard the USS Endurance NCC-5265 (2327), USS Wasp NCC-9701 (2330), USS Belknap NCC-2501 (2335), USS Constance NCC-10367 (2346), USS Hood NCC-42296 (2350), USS Venture NCC-71854 (2362), and Starbase 74, among others. Each assignment added to “arrows to her quiver,” as she would describe it upon taking a senior operations position at Singapore ASDB.
In 2365, Liong returned to her home city, Singapore, and began working for the ASDB. Her purview was nothing less than taking all the records transmitted from the fleet and condensing them into actionable improvements to the fleet. It would take her time, but this daunting task became easier as she learned new management techniques.
Liong considered the 35 years she spent in the Singapore office were the pinnacle of her career. It was also a chance for her to be surrounded by family, to pursue more leisure activities and to travel.
Although she remained in her role in the Singapore office of the ASDB for more than 35 years, she would occasionally find herself on assignment among the fleet.
In 2373, during the height of the war with the Dominion, Liong was deployed to the Lya Station Alpha on the front lines. The enormous facility, overwhelmed by the influx of casualty ships, had all but ground to a halt. At first, she was designated as a Senior Operations Analyst with the assignment to help clear the backlog of vessels in the need of deferred repairs, however, this was too easy an assignment for her. Within three weeks of arrival, it was noted that staffing shortages had been eliminated as she reorganized and rehabilitated the starbase’s workforce. A dozen starships rejoined the frontlines during these initial weeks, the first to do so in nearly three months. The normally conservative Fleet Admiral Shanthi called her work “a marvel” and instated her as dockmaster with due authority to cut through supply chain bottlenecks and bureaucratic red tape. With keen skills, Liong did just that. As the war drew to an end, more than a thousand vessels had passed through repair facilities in the Lyra system, under Liong’s slogan “To preserve the fighting fleet.”
In 2374, the Dominion increasingly targeted the station. A changeling plot was discovered to replace or assassinate key personnel, including Liong. The changeling was unable to fake Liong’s duties and unique behaviors and was quickly discovered.
By 2375 the starbase had ramped up in every capacity and Dominian and Cardassian forces conducted an all-out assault of the Lyra system. This would prove to be a final, fatally flawed attempt. Shanthi and Liong had had nearly a year to strategize a defense and were well prepared. After the war it came to light what Cardassian war planners thought of the station: “Lyra III and appertaining starbase facilities are become formidable and practically unassailable. Cardassia has no current advantage over her and the fleets that swarm out of her. The system is off limits to our commanders effective, immediately.”
After the armistice, Fleet Admiral Shanthi credited Liong for her contribution to the war by permanently affixing a letter to Liong’s file. Excerpt as follows: “After conferring with my colleagues in Starfleet Command, I offered Liong a promotion and any position of her choice. In the end it appears she prefers to return to Singapore and her previous assignment there. I wish to make the record crystal clear about the marvelous work and a wonder she accomplished with us here. I cannot imagine these war years without her. She became so integral in setting our house in order, setting its foundation on a rock.” –Fleet Admiral Shanthi
As the year 2400 approached, Liong began to feel the effects of age. She was slowing down, body and mind. Rather than retire, she decided to return to space one more time. After her usual thoughtfulness, she chose and assignment and made the appropriate calls to make the reservation. She was after a slower pace than what she was used to, and, a little breathing room away from her ever present family.