Merrick R'Ven
| Crew of USS Apollo-A | ||
|
| ||
| Ensign Merrick R'Ven | ||
|
Ensign Merrick R'Ven is currently serving as a science officer aboard the USS Apollo-A.
Stats
- Full Name: Merrick R'Ven
- Race: Rodulan (Idanii)
- Place of Birth: Bosul Rodul
- Gender: Male
- Telepathic status: T4/NR (Minimum Rodulan) - See Telepathic/Empathic Scale
Appearance
- Height: 6’
- Weight: 160 lbs.
- Hair: Black
- Eyes: Black / Black
- Skin Tone: Dark Brown
- Build: Medium frame with slender build
- Handedness: Ambidextrous
- Birthmarks: None
- Scars/Tatoos: None
- Voice: Quiet, Soft spoken yet very articulate
- Presence: Quiet, observant, standoffish
- Poses: Hands folded behind back or folded across chest when standing. When sitting tends to sit with hands steepled .
Relationships
Whom does your character get on with or not get on with? For now, pick one member of your current crew and enter their name below, then describe the nature of your character's relationship with them.
- Mother: Arlisa - Astrophysicist
- Father: Vanik - Nueroscientist
- Siblings: Dorn (Adopted older brother)
- Spouse: None
- Children: None
Personality
Observant. Curious. Reflective. Aloof.
Merrick was born with a brilliant, observant and inquisitive mind, one that seemed almost designed to absorb, examine and disseminate information. For Merrick nothing is as important as intellect and it is the aspect the he focuses on the most. He sees himself as a scientific investigator, but instead of examining blood, tissue and fingerprints in the effort to capture criminals, he examines technology, life signs, and energy signatures in an attempt to understand his environment or solve problems. While he has taken a double major in Science and Engineering, and even on Vulcan his courses tended to cover both sides, he sees himself as a scientist, testing hypothesis and pushing the boundaries. He is sharp, inquisitive and seems to have an almost instinctive ability to come to accurate conclusions on limited or desperate data, a skill that was honed by Vulcan training.
Weaknesses
Merrick has focused primarily on learning and mental training, so he has put little to no effort into physical training or prowess and as a result courses that focused on combat, strength, and/or marksmanship and the like he floundered in and he was only barely able to pass. In fact he would have passed Starfleet training earlier than he did, except he had to go back and take the unarmed combat test more than once to pass.
Also Merrick’s telepathy is something that embarrasses. While a T4 may be strong among other races, but with the Rodulan it is bare minimum. He feels that superior intellect should mean superior telepathic talent, but so far it has eluded him. He practices at it with his Basotile as well as with many different Vulcan meditation techniques in the hopes of strengthening and focusing his talent, but so far it has eluded him. The main problem is that when attempting to make contact with others, he may get as much of a headache as others do, so he very rarely uses it as a means of communication. But he does continue to work at it.
Lastly Merrick is aloof, standoffish, or even self isolating. On Vulcan he was an off-worlder, on Rodul he was still something of an alien, he was usually smarter than his peers, this combined to make him a person who didn’t look to make friends or felt he needed them. It is not that he doesn’t like people, but that he doesn’t always see anything in common with them. When they are doing frivolous things like shore leave and drinking at the bar he is meditating, studying, writing a paper, playing chess or kal-toh or working with his Bosatile. However he is finding that as he gets into his late 30’s and is looking at his 40’s in a few years he is changing internally . . . despite his best efforts. At many points in his youth and well into his 20’ his parents urged him to find ways to bond with others, something he always had trouble with. At that time he disregarded it, but now he is noticing a feeling of loss at times. He is not sure how to deal with that.
Personal History
Both of Merrick’s parents were survivors of the occupation of Bosul Rodul, yet rather than becoming isolationists they felt that the best thing for Rodul was to become part of the galactic community. Once the occupation was over they adopted one son Dorn, a young child, orphaned by the occupation. Once Dorn graduated they chose to travel off world, to see the larger galaxy. They did this by volunteering to be part a group that would travel in search of of Basotile artifacts, but what they did was establish contacts all over the place: Earth, Vulcan and many other worlds and traveling back to Rodul.
It was during these trips that they discovered they were pregnant with Merrick. Although they returned to Rodul to have him they soon began to travel taking again taking their young son with them, either home schooling him or allowed him to attend other schools.
Merrick had a thirst for learning, one that was fostered not only by his parents but by Skarok and T’Mara a bonded Vulcan couple that often traveled with them, who acted as diplomats and scientists, but also doubled as tutors for young Merrick. It was they who saw his intellect more clearly and noticed that his telepathic training was for the most part nonexistent and was seriously impacting his ability to use it. So they recommended that he go to Vulcan schools, not only for training that would challenge him intellectually, but one that could help him telepathically. His parent agreed. So at 16 he was at a point where he could have graduated from standard schools, he was instead he was enrolled at the Vulcan Academy.
Merrick stayed on Vulcan, enjoying the classes and even immersing himself in a culture that seemed to fit his own temperament so well. For him it was not the mysticism that he enjoyed but the Vulcan’s desire to set aside emotion in the pursuit of logic and their focus on intellect. For Merrick he was like a kid in a candy shop, focusing on varied things like Chemistry, Astrophysics, ExoBiology, Xenology, Mathematics, Mechanical engineering, Logic & Advanced Problem solving, and even the Vulcan meditation techniques that helped focus his mind and attempt to learn to use his Telepathy. While he excelled in a scholastic way, his telepathy was lagging far behind.
At 22 the Rodulan government contacted him asking him to do as his parents had done, help them track down Basotile artifacts, a request that Merrick agreed to primarily out of duty to his parents and home world. Like his parents Merrick had spent years off world and he seemed to be a good candidate for such a job. So for the next 4 years he was a student part of the time and a Basotile collector the rest. However Merrick lacked his parent’s social skills and most importantly interest and so by 26 he left that and found a new love: The Borg.
It was not the Borg per se, but he was fascinated by their ability to merge biology and technology seamlessly on the macro and microscopic levels. And so finally after years of being a career student was focused.
At 26 his course load shifted: to AI, Exobiology, Electrical Engineering, Nanotechnology, biotechnology, Programming and anything else that lent itself to his new desire.
By 32, when he finished his training at the academy Skarok approached Merrick and encouraged him to continue his education and broaden his horizons and he joined Starfleet under Skarok’s sponsorship.
Double Major: Science & Engineering Graduating Starfleet at 38.
Education and Certifications
Merrick spent 16 years on Vulcan, attending the academy in one fashion or another. Even when contacted by the Rodulan government to assist in recovering Basotile artifacts, this was still only part time, his focus on learning and personal education. Starfleet has only added to that as he has taken a double major in science and engineering.
- General areas of expertise:
- SCIENCE: Astronomy, Biology/Exobiology, Chemistry, Mathematics, Physics
- ENGINEERING: Materials Engineering & Programming
- Vulcanian Meditation and Logic & Problem solving
Service History
- Below you'll see a table which contains images for rank pips - you can change the word 'Gold' for 'Red' or 'Teal' or one of the other colors listed earlier to match your duty post. Again, not all ranks are available in all colors and/or pipstyles. You can change pips from the default to a different style such as DS9, STO, or Slanted by adding DS9, STO, or Slanted after the color.
| Service History | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Insignia | Rank | Dates | Posting | Assignment |
 |
Cadet First Class | 239210.11 | Graduated Starfleet Academy | (Duty Post you Graduated as) |
 |
Ensign | 239210.11 - Present | USS Apollo-A | Science Officer |
Awards & Service Ribbons
- For award descriptions, see: Awards and Service Ribbons
- (We've gone ahead and filled in your first service ribbon: the Starfleet Academy Graduate Ribbon. As you complete missions and continue to serve with the fleet, you'll earn additional awards and service ribbons that you can post here, with the date you got them! For full instructions on how to add more awards and service ribbons, check out Template:Ribbons Display.)
| Awards and Service Ribbons | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||||||||||
SIM Archive
- Replace the links below with links to your own SIMs that you find memorable or are important to your character - you may want to add more as your time with the fleet goes on! You can find a complete archive of sims here at the SIM Archive.
- Title of First SIM - (Stardate and brief description of what happens)
- Title of Second SIM - (Stardate and brief description of what happens)
- To end your bio, we're going to drop in some code here for your ship's crew template, which should appear at the bottom of your bio and will help members of the fleet easily browse other bios of your shipmates. Change the name of the ship below to whatever the name of your character's ship is, unless of course you've been assigned to the USS Gemini! Don't forget the letter suffix for your ship if yours has one (such as the USS Darwin-A).
NPC Listing · USS Apollo-A Crew Manifest · Crew History
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
