Melody Richards

Childhood

Melody was raised in the countryside of France to a loving family. Her father was a Starfleet officer and her mother was a renowned local painter. They lived a comfortable life full of happiness and friends. She never had any lack of love and compassion, and grew up loving fairytales and unicorns. It seemed she’d be untouched by tragedy in her youth, but unfortunately life had other plans.

Younger Life

As she grew, Melody quickly became the ring leader in her group of friends. She had a vivacious nature about her and a drive for adventure and learning that inspired others to follow her, and she loved that. She took her friends in all ages and shapes and was happy to teach her younger friends the ropes while learning from those older than her. She was never arrogant or cocky in her role, and was always gracious and compassionate. It lead her to have a fast gang of friends all through her childhood, which would be important before she knew it.

Death of Her Father

Tragedy shook her idyllic life when Melody was only 10 years old. Her father had been assigned to a space station near the Breen border and was a part of a special task force investigating potential Breen incursions into Federation Space. During a border patrol operation her father’s runabout malfunctions and drifted into Breen space. The crew of the runabout had no idea that a Breen ship had been ghosting them, playing with their positioning to keep them carefully out of the runabouts’ sensors.

As soon as the runabout drifted into Breen space, they were attacked. The runabout had little they could do, their engines were offline and the Breen vessels knocked out their shields and weapons in short order. Her father was killed before a rescue party could be dispatched. The Federation narrowly avoided an all out war with the Breen, but were able to avoid it with some careful negotiation and more than a few concessions.

The the avoidance of a war did little to placate the devastation on Melody. Her relationship with her father was close and loving. He took every chance for leave that he could to see his daughter, even bringing her out to the outpost a few times just to get some quality time with her. To her, he was a superhero. He was infallible and the thing that made everything a little less scary. And then suddenly… he was gone.

Melody struggled through this, her heart aching, and depression nearly eating her alive. Her close friends brought her through it, though, refusing to let her go into hiding, and trying their best to help her see the light of day. The real winner in this effort was her mother.

Musical Prowess

After her father’s death, Melody drifted toward music. She found solace in the melodies and themes of the music she played and found ways to focus her sorrow there. Flute turned out to be her preferred method of music making. Her mother encouraged this, knowing how to handle artistic ventures far more than Melody’s prior dreams of being a Starfleet officer like her father. She was thrilled to finally so a sparkle of herself in her daughter, and amazed at Melody’s skill with the instrument.

Schooling

Melody did well in school, even after her father’s death. She found solace in her classes, and loved learning. She excelled in all of her classes, but once she discovered her love of music that became all consuming in her mind. Her music classes were an outstanding escape. She buried herself in her studies and her mother was all too eager to ensure that she had tutors and as much extra instruction as she could get.

Melody did well with all of her schooling, including through college where she completed a Musical Sciences degree on a Orchestra Scholarship.

Adult Life

Melody already had established herself as a skilled musician by the time she finished her college career and had many offers to join several different orchestras as a flautist. She joined the Parisian Harmonic Orchestra not long after college.

Musical Career

Melody made her way to first chair in record time with the Orchestra and her mother could not have been happier. She’d had fears that Melody would pursue a career in Starfleet like her father and she’d risk losing another beloved member of her family. Melody’s interest in music and successful career gave them both a sense of peace and relief that they hadn’t expected.

Marriage

Before the end of the year, Melody had met the love of her life: Chief Petty Officer Kyle Richards. She was not at all surprised when her mother laughed hysterically upon discovering that Kyle was a security officer in Starfleet, though her mother later confided it was a bitter laugh. She feared her daughter would suffer the same heartbreak that she had.

Their romance was a whirlwind one, quick and passionate yet deeply meaningful. By the end of the year they were happily married, and not long after, Melody was pregnant with their daughter, Samantha.

Their lives were good, though full of distance. Melody and Kyle kept in close contact, and he saw them as often as possible. Melody and her mother worked closely to raise Samantha while Melody continued to pursue her music career. It seemed the sky was the limit once again, but unfortunately that dark times in Melody’s life were not done yet.

Another Tragedy

Her mother and friends both contest that this was the moment that Melody changed. Even after her father had died, Melody never lost her smile. Her melodic laughter never ceased to fill a room. But this time, it seemed something deeper happened. Something changed on a fundamental level.

Kyle was on a training exercise with some new cadets when something went wrong on the shuttle they were using. There was no time to react, no time to fix anything. Before anyone knew what was happening, shuttle had exploded and Kyle was gone.

Melody struggled with finding herself after that, never having the closure of seeing his body or having a funeral. Months passed, and she grew more serious. Her laughter was sparing and rare, her flute sat unplayed. The Orchestra was patient and understanding, but finally after months had no choice but to replace her. Her mother worried that her daughter would never recover; That should would give up on life, but Melody’s mind was firmly planted elsewhere: Starfleet.

Starfleet Career

Her mother was heartbroken when Melody told her that she’d decided to give up her music and pursue a career in Starfleet. She begged her not to, but eventually heard the resolve in her daughter’s voice. She needed to make her father and her husband’s sacrifices mean something and somehow that meant she had to serve.

There was something different that her mother couldn’t put her finger on, but she knew it meant the gentleness of Melody and her music was gone. This woman before her was driven, focused. Her eyes had grown serious and her posture had grown tall. She saw every bit of her father in Melody and knew there was no stopping it. Finally, she gave her daughter her blessing and swallowed her fear.

The Academy

Melody was 26 going into the academy, 8 years older than most of the other cadets there. It was a hard adjustment period, and she struggled to find her place and make friends. She went back to her childhood ways, driving forward and excitement and accuracy, learning and excelling, and not caring who liked her or tagged along. It wasn’t long before she’d earned the respect of her classmates and her professors and once again had a gaggle of followers that followed her every move. The professors called them ‘the pack’ lovingly as they always seemed to arrive everywhere together.

Melody excelled once she found her footing, scoring record breaking numbers in Tactical and Security classes, and extremely high everywhere else. She saw a pattern in the Sec/Tac work that reminded her of music and dancing. Each movement a carefully orchestrated idea, each person a note, each activity a bar, each mission a composition, all working together to accomplish a goal. It just made sense to her.

It didn’t take long for her to make her primary focus Tactical with a secondary focus on Security, and she excelled, graduating top of her class in both fields of study.

Shipboard Assignments

Melody had her pick of assignments at the end of the Academy, but ultimately chose the USS Burbank, her late husband’s last ship. The CO was reluctant to bring her on board, thinking that she was holding a grudge, but was pleased to find that she just wanted to be close to the last place Kyle had been to try and heal.

Melody found herself immediately surrounded by friends who’d been close to her husband, who’d loved him, and who missed him dearly. They brought her gifts and notes and nick knacks that he’d given them throughout the years he served on the Burbank. Melody found her heart ripped open again by all of these gestures, but in the best possible way. The scars were torn away, and she finally processed the pain. It was bittersweet but beautiful.

Finally having found a way to truly mourn her lost love, Mel turned her attention to her new career. She found a love for Starfleet and space that she never knew she had. She loved the work, she loved the crew, and she wanted nothing else than to succeed.

Her CO was thrilled with her, blown away by how quickly she took to the work. With little hesitation he recommended Melody for continued training in the Advanced Tactics and Weapons from the Academy.

Advanced Tactics and Weapons Training

Melody thrived in the Advanced Tactics and Weapons’ program. She picked up the weapons training like an old hand, found more links to the tactical training and music, and blew all of her teachers away in the cover operations challenges. Once she completed the training, she felt even more confident in her ability to serve a starship.

USS Alita

In 2400, the USS Alita was commissioned and Melody knew that’s where she wanted to be. She took the risk and dropped in a transfer request. The response came back almost immediately: Yes. She would serve aboard the Alita.