Lieutenant Commander James Christie
Name James 'Jock' Christie
Position Chief Engineer
Rank Lieutenant Commander
Character Information
| Gender | Male | |
| Species | Human | |
| Age | 38 |
Physical Appearance
| Height | 6'4" | |
| Weight | 104kg | |
| Hair Color | Ginger | |
| Eye Color | Green | |
| Physical Description | Tall, heavy set, carrying a bit of weight around his middle. Jock can be clumsy in gross movements but is surprisingly dexterous with his hands and can crush his frame into interestingly tight spaces. His shock of ginger hair and large friendly eyes manage to make his imposing frame less threatening. |
Family
| Father | Alistair | |
| Mother | Margaret | |
| Brother(s) | Angus, Sean, David (Deceased), Malcolm (Deceased) | |
| Sister(s) | Fiona, Allie |
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| Other Family | Many Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, Second Cousins and various other kin that Jock would struggle to name all of. |
Personality & Traits
| General Overview | Loud, seemingly disagreeable but actually generally jolly. If Jock's being scrupulously polite then you know he's angry. If he's insulting you to your face while disputing your parentage then he probably likes you. Possesses a short temper, easily lost quickly recovered. |
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| Strengths & Weaknesses | His quick temper and impetuous nature, along with a slightly over inflated sense of his own invulnerability this can quickly get him into trouble. No sense of the appropriate behaviour/dress/volume in a given setting can sometimes lead to embarrassment or worse. | |
| Ambitions | To see all that can be seen, and then retire to Nova Caledonia and tell his grandkids about it while drinking himself slowly to death. | |
| Hobbies & Interests | Jock enjoys cards, drinking songs, knife tricks and making small machines out of junk. He also makes Origami models of starships. Jock has a passion for history, mostly of his own Clan and it's ups and downs. He also likes and plays rugby, boxing and, oddly, admires sculpture. |
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| Languages | Federation standard (ish), Nova Caledonia Patois |
| Personal History | James Christie was born on Nova Caledonia, a planet settled mostly by workers of the massive Hall's Agri Corp several centuries ago. The Christie family business is haulage, they own and operate cargo vessels large and small throughout the Federation moving mostly Agricultural produce. The family is vast and it's members fill most of the important positions in the business. James was taught about machinery from an early age and, at least according to the stories told at gatherings, was able to strip down a cargo-sled before he could walk. Having made it through compulsory education in Edina he refused an apprenticeship within the Christie Line in order to attend Starfleet Academy. It is Clan policy and tradition to send it's younger members out of the general run of business in order to gather experience and improve the Clan's knowledge of other cultures, companies and planets. A few members never return, having joined Starfleet or found other work that interests them more than the family firm. His father Alistair firmly supported James ambitions although it meant that he would have one less son to work beside. The academy was a dramatically different experience for Jock than anything he had seen before. Separated for the first time from his family, in all of it's rough and tumble glory, he could have turned inwards and become withdrawn and solitary. Instead he embraced the new possibilities, freedoms and nightlife of the academic world with gusto. Drunken bar crawls, late attendance to lectures, a spell on academic probation and a string of disastrous relationships followed. Only the fact that he is a gifted engineer kept him in the program at all. His cadet cruise aboard the USS Republic awoke his love of the unknown and the desire to explore, even well within the Federation cruising from world to world on a training mission the vastness of space and the lure of the distant stars pulled at Jock. Graduation near the bottom of his class and assignment to DS3 brought the young engineer down with a bump. As his more studious class mates took the plum postings Jock found himself working a gamma shift repairing broken public replicators and chasing phantoms in the subspace comms arrays. After a year he resigned from active duty. Placed in Starfleet reserve Jock went back to the Christie line, taking a junior engineer's posting aboard the 'Green Rushes' long distance hauler. The Clan welcomed him back without comment, although Jock himself had a nagging feeling of unfinished business. The Dominion War casts a long shadow, with the fleet over stretched reserve officers were recalled to duty. Jock received his call up papers on the same day as the news that the 'Pride O'Lochend' was posted missing with all hands, including two of Jock's brothers. Re-commissioned as a Junior Lieutenant Jock was assigned as Gamma shift commander for the USS Praetorian. The Praetorian was a similarly hurriedly re-commissioned Ambassador class ship, badly out of shape and refit only as far as her weapons systems. Jock set to work with a will and mentored by Lt Cmdr Farang he worked through his grief and molded himself into a more stable and sober officer than the Ensign he had been. Praetorian was two days out of Braxio V leading a small escort group guarding a convoy of ore haulers when the Jem'Hadar attacked. Wildly outgunned the convoy fought a losing battle, only the arrival of a fresh squadron of Klingon vessels drove off the attackers. Praetorian was left little more than a hulk. Jock worked in an EVA suit for three days with the other surviving engineering staff to get her home. Farang and over half of the crew were killed. Jock doesn't like to talk about the days of pulling frozen bodies from compartments or the slow death by radiation sickness of the reactor crews. Spending the rest of the war as a hulk Praetorian was scrapped in 2378. Jock meanwhile was promoted to Lt and reassigned to the USS Ryobi, another hastily rebuilt escort as her ACEO. The rest of his war was spent keeping the struggling vessel functional and sometimes fighting running battles with raiders. It was during these long, often boring, escort missions that Jock found time to wonder at the universe again. After the end of the Dominion War Starfleet began to rebuild and re-purpose back to exploration. Jock having made his peace with the strictures of the fleet - understanding their purposes more now having seen war service - elected to remain in Starfleet rather than return to the reserves. Attached to the USS Essex as a warp drive engineer, a Sovereign Class, for a 3 year long range survey mission, filling in the blanks on the map, Jock found himself enthralled, meeting new people, whole new civilisations and phenomena. He remained with the Essex after her refit and undertook a second 3 year cruise this time as her ACEO. During this second cruise Alistair and Margaret retired back to Nova Caledonia, providing the family with a static home for the first time ever. Accepting reassignment from the Essex and elevation to the CEO of the Nova Class USS Fife didn't come easily, but Jock wanted the extra responsibilities and freedoms that came with a smaller ship and being his own boss. He served aboard the Fife for 5 years, in that time he claims to have practically rebuilt her. Fife ranged far and wide, the small Nova being called upon to fulfil countless survey's and follow ups for her larger cousins. With Fife in drydock for a year Jock has decided to a move back to a larger explorer would suit him and began bombarding the Starfleet personnel office with increasingly irate demands for an Engineering billet on a ship going out into the void. |
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| Service Record | Service Record 2368 - Joined Starfleet Academy - Cadet 4th Class - General Engineering Courses - Placed on the Commanders List for Brawling 2369 - Academy - Cadet 3rd Class - Warp Drive and Propulsion Speciality - Academic Probation 2370 - Academy - Cadet 2nd Class - Cadet Cruise aboard the USS Republic - Warp Drive Cadet Crew 2371 - Academy - Cadet 1st Class - Final Year Project on Warp Field design - Graduation 309th in Class 2371 - DS3 - Ensign - General Maintenance Crew 7 2372 - Starfleet Reserve - 2nd Engineer, Christie Line 2373 - Dominion War - Temporary Rank LTjg - Recalled to duty - Assigned USS Praetorian as Engineering Gamma Shift Commander 2374 - Battle of Braxio - Reassigned USS Ryobi - Promoted LT - ACEO 2375 - End of Dominion War - Rank made Permanent, reassigned to General Officers Pool 2376-79 - USS Essex -LT- Warp Engineering - Long range survey missions and first contacts 2379-82 - USS Essex -LT- ACEO - Long range survey missions and first contacts 2382-87 - USS Fife -LT- CEO - Fire fighting and filling gaps 2387 - USS Iapetus -Lt CMDR - CEO |