Khim Samnang

Family & Childhood

The Khim family are a Cambodian rock music dynasty. For generations, they’ve been some of the most well-known performers, producers, and engineers of popular music in Southeast Asia. Their appeal stretched much further than Earth, though, and as a young teen, Samnang had the opportunity to accompany her sister’s band on an interstellar tour.

Although she enjoyed playing music, she hated doing so in front of a crowd. The behind-the-scenes work of sound engineering was more her speed, so she shadowed her cousin on the mixing console during the tour. The work was fine, but the travel enchanted her. A year after they completed the tour, Samnang surprised everybody by announcing her intention to be the first member of the Khim family to join Starfleet. They were a bit confused but ultimately supportive.

Academy & Early Career

Samnang took as many Starfleet preparatory courses as she could during secondary school and managed to pass the Academy entrance exam on her first try. There she took classes that put her on an operations officer track, though she did find time to minor in xenomusicology and join a music appreciation club. Her efforts to keep the club running as a point of morale during the Dominion War were commended by her instructors at the academy.

Upon graduation, her first posting was on the Rigel-class USS Akagi (NCC-62158) where she spent two years as an ops officer. The Akagi spent a lot of its time as support for station Deep Space 5. Though Samnang had not initially envisioned herself serving on a starbase, when an opportunity for promotion and a position on the base opened up, she took it.

Deep Space 5

Deep Space 5 is where Samnang would spend the next ten years of her career, first as an operations officer, and then as the station’s strategic operations officer. It’s also where she would meet her future wife, Bituin Solon. Bituin was a civilian and served as an art instructor aboard the station. She was also the first member of the Solon family in generations to not join Starfleet. She and Samnang find the odd inversion of their family situations to be a thing of great amusement.

Upon her promotion to commander, Samnang was offered the position of executive officer aboard the Nebula-class USS Boadicea. She hesitated to accept the position, afraid it would mean the end of her relationship with Bituin. Bituin surprised her by encouraging her to accept the position and then proposing to her, and the two were married before her ship departed.

Five years later, she was offered command of the Intrepid-class USS Christophe, and after spending so much of her career on the edge of known space, she jumped at the opportunity to lead the charge into the unknown. It wasn’t a classic five-year mission, as the Federation was still holding back on devoting resources to deep space exploration, but they did manage to chart an incredible array of phenomena and conduct two first contact missions.

The Fourth Fleet

In 2401, upon promotion of the Fourth Fleet’s Task Force 17 CO Andreus Kohl to Academy Commandant and subsequent promotion of XO Romaes Anjin, Samnang was tapped to make the transfer over next door (as “next door” as things get in deep space, anyway) to Deep Space 17. There, she could once again utilize her extensive management experience with her newly-gained perspective as a captain on the edge of the frontier. She also helped her wife set up an art studio and teaching space on DS17, and will be the first to tell you to check out “Solon’s Salon” if you’re passing through!

Later that year, upon Romaes’s return to starship command, and after several weeks of guidance from the esteemed Vice Admiral Elizabeth Hayden, Samnang stepped up to take command of the task force.