Elon Markham-Vale

Born on December 29^th, 2355, Elon Markham-Vale was born on the USS Kibera whilst it was on a routine scientific exploration. His father was Captain Christopher Markham-Vale, commanding officer of the Kibera and his mother Elaine Markham-Vale, a Lt Commander who was also a renowned Stellar Cartographer and at the time served on the Kibera as Astrometric Officer. Elon would be brought up with the values and traditions of Starfleet and what it means to be a Starfleet officer at the centre of his development into adulthood. But, with all the best intentions from the start, Christopher and Elaine had little inclination of what was to happen, or that having a son would eventually cost them their marriage.

Christopher remained in command of the Kibera for the first 4 years of his young sons life before he and his wife realised that there was very little for Elon to do on the ship. They wanted to ensure that Elon got the best education, had plenty of friends and an abundance of opportunities. There was always an expectation that one day he would enter Starfleet like his family. Christopher was soon reassigned from command of the Kibera and offered the command of a small station. The station had lots of children, the opportunity for Elon to have a good education and was in close proximity to earth for them to be able to visit friends and family back home.

Despite his parents’ beliefs that constantly travelling would hamper his ability to have a normal childhood, Christopher for some reason always resented the idea of being stuck on a station, unable to travel the stars anymore. In his new school he met Scott Elham and Riley Corr. The three boys would soon become best friends and mayhem would follow wherever they went. The boys often found themselves in sticky situations, in trouble with the Chief of Security or causing disruptions on the main promenade. Although the station, a small Regula class, it served as a central business hub for the system. When Elon was 12, Scott’s parents were reassigned and so the friends where split up. Elon and Riley however ensured they continued to build on their fun childhood memories.

In his early teen years, Elon and his father had daily arguments about how a young Starfleet captain’s son should conduct himself. Elon at the time has little understanding of the complications he caused for his father and the mess his father had to wrangle him out of from time to time. It was fair to say the views of both the men were completely different ends of the spectrum. Whilst Christopher didn’t believe in the idea that ‘children should be seen and not heard’ he did however believe that his son should be more cautious of his actions because of who his father was. Elon soon became known as the ‘tyrant son of the captain’, well known to everyone on the station. His father saw it as a huge embarrassment, it put strains on his and Elaine’s marriage and eventually they split up and divorced. Christopher refused to have anything to do with his son so when Elaine got reassigned to a small science vessel exploring new lands on the far regions of the Alpha Quadrant, he demanded his son left with his mother. Elon and Christopher have not spoken to each other since; Elon was 14 at the time. Elon did keep in contact with his good friend Riley; who at this point had kind of mellowed out in his antics.

Elon seemed to change once back amongst the stars, he matured quicker and because of the separation between Riley and himself, he had to make new friends and almost start from scratch. He soon found himself getting more and more involved in different aspects of the vessels life and enjoyed being an explorer once more. He finally started to realise what being a Starfleet officer actually meant. Despite this, he still often found himself in sticky situations and was put in the brig on several occasions; he was just a sucker for getting involved in wrongdoings amongst his peers. He found it too hard to stay away from mischief and trouble, he said to his counsellor in one session ‘it almost feels like something is drawing me to it, I know it’s wrong, but I just can’t stop myself, it’s like its calling me, it feels like destiny when I see an opportunity for trouble.’

Much to the surprise of his mother (who had given up all hope of him following in the family footsteps), Elon enrolled into Starfleet academy and so when he turned 18, he left for Earth. It would have appeared that Elon was becoming more mature. He had enjoyed his time back in the stars and had gained the opportunity and support of some of the engineering staff. Elon enrolled into the Starfleet Corps of Engineers.

After the dominion war, Elon’ father had taken up a post at the academy as a Senior Instructor. Sat in the arena on his first day, where all cadets come together for a speech by the head of the academy, a deep sinking feeling came over him as he was casting his eyes through the rows of the instructors, trying to see if he could recognise any that would be his teachers.  Elon was far too close to his father for his own liking – luckily however he was not teaching him nor did he specialise in any engineering subjects. Elon managed to ensure he did not come across his father at any point during his life at the academy. His resentment of his father was too strong for him to be able to face him. Elon decided in light of his recent discovery it would be best for him to keep a low profile during the academy years.

At the academy, Elon had some understanding of the idea that this was going to be his future and he needed to make the most of it. Like all of his plans though, they mostly go wrong. During the four years at the academy, Elon came close to being excluded 6 times for mixing with the wrong crowd. Despite all this however, he managed to graduate 2nd in his class and moved on to further study at the Daystrom Institute of Technology. Here he spent two years studying Damage Control systems and improved his overall general engineering skills.

Elon finally received his first placement on an intrepid class USS Regent. This was much to his annoyance, a very strict and serious department he had been placed into – for this reasons, Elon found his personality and attitude got him into hot water, a lot! Elon had always had a relaxed playful and humour personality that on more than one occasion brought him very close to getting into trouble and reprimanded. Elon was well known amongst the crew of the Regent, and not for any of the right reasons. As well as having an over active personality, he was also a ‘ladies’ man;’ throughout his Starfleet career he had constantly been pulled up for his behaviour around women. After 4 years on the Regent, Elon found it was time to move onto another assignment and so put in a request to Starfleet to be reassigned.

Starfleet decided that Elon was ready to take on additional responsibilities and so was promoted to the position of Assistant Chief Engineering Officer on the USS Enigma. Here he flourished as a leader and was able to use his expertise to specially train a group of engineers to be rapid deployment specialists in the event of an emergency. This training served well as when the Enigma was attacked by cloaked mine, the team of specialists were able to contain the situation in record time. Despite the position of responsibility, Elon still was easily led astray or more to the point, led others astray. Reprimanded several times on this mission, he came close to be demoted back to a specialist.

With reprimands and formal warnings on his record, Elon was surprised to hear that when the Chief Engineer of the Enigma retired, he was considered a candidate for his replacement. Elon was no doubt good for the job, he was one of the sharpest thinking officers some had ever met and his engineering skills and knowledge were top rate. Elon was soon after this placed into the position of Chief Engineer and welcomes to the command staff of the vessel. During his early days as Chief Engineer he also took the Bridge Officers test and passed with a remarkable score; especially considering he had done little preparation for this assessment. Elon’ defining moments as Chief Engineer were his abilities to work progressively as part of a team; he inspired loyalty and knowledge and accepted no excuses for complacency. He put his engineering team through challenging and gruelling holodeck simulations and changed the pecking order of who led these, his department senior staff, often were led by underlings and newbies to put everyone through their paces and foster a spirit of cooperation and collaboration.

At the start of 2386, Elon was seconded to the USS California temporarily as its Chief Engineer and Executive Officer. Although small in size, the California was able to pack a punch into the war effort against the rising Romulan Star Empire. The Defiant class was new and modern and Elon celebrated at the opportunity to be its Chief Engineering, a real opportunity to try and make a difference. Elon had developed a intuition for knowing when and how to get things done before the order was given. His expert damage control knowledge was part of many successes to the missions he engaged with but ultimately, this assignment was short lived and the vessel was ambushed by 8 Valdore class ships and destroyed. 3 people survived…

After a 3-month sabbatical, Elon was transferred to Starbase 249 as the Salvage lead. His responsibility was to assess the condition of the base and refit it after a 3-year period of inactivity. He led of a team of over 1800 engineering during this process as well as making contact with the planetary delegation and began the process of fostering and forging new relationships when the previous command crew had unceremoniously been dismissed for misconduct. Elon had a command team behind him that made huge successes very rapidly – his determination to finish before Starfleet’s deadline was paramount in the success of the salvage mission, the work finished 3 months early. Having missed the opportunities of space exploration, Elon turned down the opportunity to command the base full-time, instead opting to either move onto another repair job or his own command.

2373 – 2374: Cadet I Year – Starfleet Corps of Engineering

2374 – 2375: Cadet II Year – Starfleet Corps of Engineering

2375 – 2376: Cadet III Year – Starfleet Corps of Engineering

2376 – 2377: Cadet IV Year – Starfleet Corps of Engineering

2377 – 2377: Graduated Starfleet Academy. Re-enlists for Postgraduate Study

2377 – 2379: Daystrome Institute of Technology (Damage Control Systems Specialist)

2379 – 2383: USS Regent – Engineering Officer and Damage Control Specialist

2383 – 2385: USS Enigma – Asst. Chief Engineering Officer

2385 – 2385: USS Enigma – Chief Engineering Officer

2385 – 2385 – Bridge Officers Exams

2385 – 2386 – USS Illustrious – Chief Engineering Officer / Second Officer

2386 – 2389: USS California – Executive Officer / Chief Engineering Officer

2389 – PRES: SB249 – Salvage Operation Lead