Explorer's Ribbon Purple Heart Peacekeeper Service Ribbon Klingon Invasion Ribbon Innovation Ribbon Legion of Merit Prometheus Ribbon Lifesaving Ribbon First Contact Ribbon Galactic War with the Borg Service Medal
Pilot's Sextant Sheathed Sword TOSMA Russ Bar Order of the Valiant Heart 1-year Member
In Memoriam
Didrik Nikolaj Stennes is a human officer in the FederationStarfleet, currently holding the rank of Lieutenant Commander and serving as Counselor aboard the USS Darwin-A. Having first entered Starfleet in 2388, Stennes left the organization in 2390 and was engaged in various civilian activities until his return in 2393.
Taste in Clothing: Prefers multiple layers (jackets, jumpers, sweaters, etc.)
Voice: Baritone. Prefers to speak Norwegian, but speaks English when circumstances require.
Handedness: Left
Physical limitations: Suffers from congenital analgesia (inability to feel physical pain) and a minor visual impairment.
Personality
Didrik's personality is highly influenced by the culture in which he was raised. While Earth is the Federation capital and one of its most cosmopolitan worlds, there are areas where day-to-day life has changed little over the centuries. Northern Norway, where the Stennes family calls home, is one of those areas. Despite his knowing better, Didrik still carries with him a somewhat parochial and narrow view of the universe, and tends to view things from an Earth-centric perspective. Joining Starfleet and serving with members of other species has opened his mind significantly, and has done much to challenge his outmoded thinking in many ways. Didrik is at times taciturn and contemplative, and at others lively and jocular, mainly depending on the level of familiarity he has with his present company.
Temperament: Didrik adheres strongly to the old maxim, "Say what you mean and mean what you say," and often listens far more than he speaks. He is even tempered and rarely raises his voice in anger or upset, leading him to occasionally be mistaken for aloof or distant. On the contrary, he feels things deeply, something that leads to inner conflict in his role as a counselor, as he occasionally struggles to maintain a professional detachment. Didrik uses humor (or at least what he thinks is humor) to relate to people, and copes with difficulties by not taking himself too seriously. He values politeness, and often says "vær så snill" ("please") and "takk" ("thanks") when giving orders.
Quarters: Didrik's quarters are located in the drive section of the USS Darwin-A on Deck Eight. The apartment is approximately 45m² in area and has a open, single-room layout. A combined living and working area occupies the majority of the space, with a sofa, a table and chairs, storage shelves, a food replicator, and a workstation equipped with an LCARS computer terminal. A vidscreen is mounted into the aft bulkhead for video communications and entertainment viewing. Against the forward bulkhead is a sleeping alcove with a single berth, and a private bathroom with a toilet, sink, and sonic shower. The windows along the starboard side provide a spectacular view of space. While he doesn't have much in the way of memento, mounted on the walls in his quarters The Daystrom Award in Biosciences and the J. Bruce Bioengineering Award, given to him by Aron Kells.
Favorite room: The bridge of a starship
Habits: Didrik is fond of sharing quotations from eminent Earth figures.
Religion or spiritual affiliation: Baptized Church of Norway. While not overtly religious in practice, Didrik believes that forces of good and evil exist in the universe, and that good will ultimately prevail over evil.
Hobbies and pastimes: Mountaineering, winter sports, knitting
Likes: Hearty Terran cuisine, acoustic music
Dislikes: Holographic characters, raised voices
Preferred foods: Prefers savory over sweet
Preferred drinks: Coffee over ice with cream, no sugar
Fears: Rejection, being caught unprepared, drowning
Ambitions and goals: To lead by example in all areas of his life
Achievements: Carving out a satisfying and useful career in Starfleet
Disappointments: Missing out on potential career and personal advancement due to risk aversion.
Mental problems: Diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, carefully managed with therapy and medication.
Personal history
Didrik Nikolaj Stennes was born in Tromsø, on Earth, on 15 April 2360. He was the fifth of six children born to Harald Stennes, a correspondent for the Federation News Service, and Hera Guldbrandsen, a philanthropist who worked for a Bajoran charitable organization. His parents' occupations were unusual for the mostly traditionalist Terran Stennes family, in that they involved significant time spent off-world. Didrik often stayed with his grandparents when his parents traveled for work, but occasionally had the chance to accompany them; he visited Bajor with his mother in 2370 and 2371, and during the summer of 2373 he visted Tellar, Vulcan and Alpha Centauri with his father. Typical for his family, Didrik developed a great fondness for the outdoors at an early age, and would remain an avid outdoorsman throughout his life. As a student, he showed an aptitude for the humanities and social sciences, but was average in mathematics and struggled in the physical sciences.
Didrik's father was reporting for the FNS on Betazed when the Dominion invaded and occupied the planet in 2374, leaving him stranded. Didrik became preoccupied with learning everything he could about the war, often to the distraction of his school studies. By the time the war ended, Didrik decided he wanted to join Starfleet and become a tactician. His parents disapproved, as the Stenneses were not a military family, but didn't discourage his new ambition. He applied to Starfleet Academy after completing secondary school in 2378, but his grades and entrance exam scores fell short and he was rejected. Taking the advice from a family friend, Didrik enrolled at the University of Bergen, in the hope that excelling in tertiary studies might strengthen his Academy prospects. Majoring in military history and minoring in survival tactics, Didrik graduated from the University in 2382, reapplied to Starfleet Academy, and was accepted as part of the class of 2386.
University of Betazed–Deep Space 6 Outreach Center: Deep Space 6
Matriculated: 239208.01
Graduated: 239209.30
Major: Counseling (Continuing Education)
Starfleet Medical Academy: San Francisco, Earth
Matriculated: 239309.01
Graduated: 239311.30
Major: Counseling (Continuing Education), Medical
Languages
Didrik's native language is Norwegian, and was educated solely in Norwegian Bokmål until age 14, and both Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk up through his university studies. As a secondary and university student he learned English and French, and had a basic understanding of Bajoran as a result of his travels to Bajor with his mother. His lack of non-Terran languages, and his limited mastery of Federation Standard put him at a disadvantage when compared with his Starfleet Academy peers. While on duty, Didrik usually speaks English or Federation Standard, as the universal translator has a somewhat imprecise translation matrix for Norwegian.
Professional history
Starfleet Academy (2382-2388)
As an Academy cadet, Didrik pursued a double major in Tactical and Helm/Navigation. He briefly wrote for the Academy newspaper in his first year, and was a member of the junior varsity volleyball team in his second year. Academically, he demonstrated exceptional strengths in survival, piloting, and diplomacy, but struggled in physics, biology, and engineering. By the end of his second year, he had managed to bring his grade points average back over 3.0, but just barely.
In the fall of 2384, Didrik began his third year at the Academy on shaky ground. Depressed at his poor performance in some of his core courses, and buckling under the stress of trying to catch up, he grew disillusioned with life as a Starfleet cadet, and withdrew from the Academy at the end of the first semester. In early 2385, after leaving the Academy, Didrik accompanied his mother on an extended trip to Bajor. Inspired by the success of the planet's reconstruction, but recognizing that much work was still left to be done, he relocated to Bajor and began working as a teacher in a village in Rakantha Province.
While there, Didrik met and fell in love with Elrem Tiro, a colleague. By mid-2385, Didrik and Elrem were planning a holiday and had discussed moving in together. Didrik's time on Bajor provided him with clarity and purpose, and rekindled his desire to resume his Academy studies. His decision to leave Bajor came as a surprise to Elrem, who offered to leave everything and accompany Didrik back to Earth. Didrik refused, and the hitherto happy relationship ended in acrimony.
Resuming his studies in mid-2386, Didrik sailed through the remainder of his Academy classes. His marks improved significantly and he successfully defended his senior thesis, For My Son, For All Our Sons: On the Use of Single-Soldier Guerrilla Tactics by the Cardassian Underground, in late 2387. Following the completion of a cadet cruise aboard the USS Belgrade, Didrik graduated from Starfleet Academy on Stardate 238811.13, earning a commission at the rank of Ensign.
USS Drake NCC-1987 (2388-2390)
Withdrawal from Starfleet and Recovery (2390-2392)
USS Columbia NCC-85279 (2392)
USS Darwin NCC-99312-A (2392-2393)
USS Blackwell NCC-58999 (2394-Present)
Shortly after his return to active service aboard the USS Darwin-A, Didrik was transferred to the Olympic-class USS Blackwell, whose primary theater of operations would be the Par'tha Expanse. Didrik arrived at Deep Space 26 in January 2394, but before he could take up his position aboard Blackwell, an emergency incapacitated everyone aboard the Starbase, leaving Lt. Commander Brell in command of the fledgling Andaris Task Force. Didrik remained aboard Darwin to help coordinate the flow of information as a trio of away teams investigated DS26.
Stardate 238812.03: Pilots shuttlecraft Portebelo on away mission to Tellarite orbital facility. Assists in the rescue of four USS Drake crewmembers and makes first contact with an artificial intelligence inhabiting the facility.
2389
Stennes in 2389, recovering from an eye injury
Stardate 238902.05: USS Drake is pulled into another dimension (referred to as null space) while looking for a lost shuttle carrying Lt. Cmdr. Whale.
Stardate 238902.26: Commands an away team for the first time. Leads five-person team onto a planet in null space to locate dilithium from a crashed Gorn ship.
Stardate 238903.04: Suffers a lacerated cornea and resulting globe rupture during a shuttle crash onto a planet in null space.
Stardate 238903.17: Comes into contact with a DNA-altering condensate endemic to null space.
Stardate 238903.27: Returns to normal space. Eye injury leaves a minor, but permanent vision impairment. Henceforth uses corrective lenses. Contact with Mist alters genetic makeup, resulting in the inability to feel pain.
Stardate 238904.17: Promoted to Lieutenant junior grade; awarded Purple Heart ribbon for injuries sustained in null space.
Stardate 238906.15: Participated in mission to Jektim Imperium.
Stardate 238907.24: Underwent Marine Search and Rescue training supervised by Major David Whale on Ishkarian shard planet.
Stardate 238908.27: Briefly becomes phased out of normal space-time while assisting Major Whale and Lieutenant Pandora in activating an ancient Ishkarian sensor relay. Encounters a space-time reality the resident Ishkarians refer to as Karbogi, which the computer somewhat incorrectly translates as Purgatory.
Stardate 238910.27: Promoted to full Leutenant; awarded the Klingon Invasion Service Ribbon.
Stardate 238910.30: Enlists the help of Captain Aron Kells of the USS Mercury to rescue the Ishkarians trapped outside of normal space-time. The two begin work on the project via subspace and holoconferencing.
Stardate 238912.13: The Drake makes contact with a spacefaring species, to whom they give the provisional name Cosmozoa.
Stardate 238912.21: Taken from the Bridge of the Drake and brought inside the body of the Cosmozoan. Learns to communicate with the species through recalled memories. Discovers the Cosmozoa are hunted for both food and fuel by an unknown alien civilization, and that members of the Cosmozoa were present during the explosion of the Ishkarian homeworld.
Stardate 238912.31: Received Pilot's Sextant, Sheathed Sword and TOSMA I awards for service in 2389.
2390
Stardate 239002.28: Upon arrival at the Ishkarian homeworld, is captured and imprisoned by members of The Path, a clandestine terror group seeking to exploit Stennes' unique form of congenital analgesia. His position on the Drake is taken by a genetic copy.
Stardate 239006.01: Rescued from The Path by Starfleet Intelligence. Arrived at Starbase 118.
Stardate 239006.12: Evaluated by Starfleet Medical and diagnosed with PTSD. Placed on indefinite leave from active duty.
Stardate 239006.24: Recruited by the Federation Accountability and Ethics Office as a civilian observer. Assigned to the USS Drake.
2391
2392
Stardate 239206.19: Posted to USS Columbia as an observer on temporary assignment with the Federation Diplomatic Corps.
Stardate 239207.10: Assists Columbia's crew in destroying an Iconian gateway on Avronis V, using the artificial singularity from a Romulan power generator.
Stardate 239207.23: Completes temporary assignment and returns to Starbase 118 unemployed.
Stardate 239208.02: Accepts civilian position as Strategic Operations Specialist aboard USS Columbia.
Stardate 239209.20: Resigns position on USS Columbia. Relocates to Deep Space 6 and resumes university study.
Stardate 239209.22: Accepts civilian position as Counselor aboard USS Darwin.
2393
Stardate 239304.13: Starfleet commission reinstated, promoted to Lieutenant Commander and Second Officer of USS Darwin-A.
Family
Parents
Harald Stennes
Hera Guldbrandsen
Siblings
Katarine Stennes-Cavanaugh
Ulf Stennes: Born in 2355, Ulf was the Stennes family's 'favorite son'. Gifted with intelligence, talent, and a magnetic personality, Ulf seemed to be destined for greatness, but lacks one vital ingredient: ethics. A trickster and conman from an early age, Ulf's stellar intellect and interpersonal skills weren't enough to forgive his questionable character, and he has spent much of his adult life estranged from the Stennes family and engaged in various criminal pursuits. As of December 2393, he is living in Norway once again, having been released from a period of imprisonment.
