Edward Spears
Edward Spears is currently serving as the First Officer aboard the USS Constitution-B.
| USS Constitution-B | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Edward Spears | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Position | First Officer | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rank | Lieutenant Commander | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Species | Human | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gender | Male | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| DOB | 236305.12 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Age | 38 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Birthplace | Mariner City, Mars, Sol | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Writer ID | C239502ES0 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Appearance
- Height: 188.2cm
- Hair: Sandy Brown
- Hair Length: Medium-Short, conservative
- Eyes: Grey
- Build: Lean
- Skin Tone: Fair
- Voice and Accent: Upbeat and expressive; his accent is from the Mariner Valley on Mars, which contains many of the inflections of a South African or Australian accent.
- Off Duty Attire: Predisposed to button-down shirts, well-tailored jackets and slacks, and scarves.
Personal Information
- Hobbies:
- Ed is an intermediate level cellist with a passion for the Martian masters and Rachmaninoff;
- He discovered the joy of open-ocean sailing once he moved to Earth. He came in 4th place at the Starfleet Academy Fleet Regatta in his final year;
- He has a passion for collecting old books of all kinds, but especially medical and science books from different cultures;
- Zero-Gravity Tennis.
- Dislikes
- Swimming. Despite enjoying his time on the water, he is still a poor swimmer.
- Electronic music. An academy roommate played nothing but electronica throughout medical school and he now associates it with an inability to focus.
- Feeling helpless in the face of others' suffering. During a year away from Starfleet, Ed witnessed what could happen when good people were preyed upon by those who would inflict harm to meet their goals.
- Favourite Food: If it's any kind of curry, Ed wants it. Martian cuisine is heavily based on exotic sauces and spices since the original colonist's bland nutrient rations needed something to make them more interesting.
- Favourite Drink: A cup of Darjeeling tea, or soda water with lime.
- Personal Quarters: Warmly decorated with bookcases and comfortable reading chairs. The shelves are home both to both reproduced old books and a few treasured originals as well as examples of old science and medical equipment from across the Federation. Now also home to several pieces of art from different sources. Some are originals, inspired by a musical pottery workshop run by Lieutenant Lazarus Davis, while others have been procured from the various merchants on Starbase 104. Many are originals from Martian painters and heavily feature landscapes of the homeworld.
Personality
Edward Spears takes his role as a healer extremely seriously, with a commitment to cultural understanding coming right after. He possesses a talent for self-deprecating humour; his main defence mechanism when placed in unfamiliar or uncomfortable territory. Ed is a personable type who gets along well with almost everyone. His openness to learning about and sharing in other cultures ingratiates him with his non-human colleagues who are often eager to share parts of their own worlds and experiences with him. He's optimistic about the future in a way unique to Martians; something developed before Mars was terraformed. Almost a distinct cultural trait on its own many Martians, including Ed, can't help but see the future as filled with the promise and possibility of something better. Ed is passionate about learning and discovery, like any good scientist. He works to further his understanding both inside his field, and also across other disciplines. He is known to socialize with people from every department while off duty so that he might learn something new, whether it's about a culture, ship's system, emerging research, music, or art.
Because of this openness and eagerness to befriend and learn from everyone he meets, Ed is susceptible to being hurt by dishonesty, deception, or unkindness. He hates to see others in pain or suffering, and he cannot stand to see it inflicted on others. He fiercely believes that military action should only be taken as a last resort, and only in self-defence. Ed was once a committed pacifist and still believes strongly that violence is a poor solution, however during a year away from Starfleet he witnessed such suffering by people who did not have the strength to stand up to their aggressors that Ed's stance has shifted toward one of 'carrying a stick but doing everything possible not to have to use it'.
Ed's formative years as an ensign and lieutenant on the USS Constitution taught him many practical lessons, including the idea that absolute convictions were not always realistic in the face of infinite possibilities out in the galaxy. Ed encountered a great many points of view among his fellow crew, as well as among those he met or treated during away missions. Ed was forced to adapt and grow when he was promoted to lieutenant commander and made the chief medical officer. Being responsible not just for individual patients, but for all of them under the care of sickbay was a step outside of his own head, and into discovering his own unique brand of leadership among a crew of stellar role models.
During a year away from Starfleet, Ed was finally forced to reckon with his eternal optimism and faith in an institution that did not exist at the edges of civilization. He witnessed the strong taking what they wanted from the weak, and his attempts to broker positive relations through dialogue simply made him a target of that aggression. Being hunted for no other reason than speaking out against a criminal regime dramatically changed Ed's outlook on self-defence, and deterrence. Ensign Spears pushed back against security orders that forced him to bring a phaser on away missions. The Ed Spears of today wouldn't leave the ship without one. More than that, Ed has learned through hard lessons that sometimes words aren't enough to stop atrocities from being persecuted against the innocent. The idea of the Federation's armed starships have started to make a lot more sense in his mind as tools of diplomacy.
Relationships
- Father: Frederick Spears (Age 71)
- Mother: Dr Bethany Lawrence-Spears, MD (Age 69)
- Sister: Clara Clarke (Age 37)
- Significant Other: None
- Children: None
- Friends:
- Mentors:
- Dr Karen Heartmier, MD
- Dr. Wyn Foster, MD
- Dr. Cade Foster, MD
Background
Early History and Education
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Ed Spears was born to Frederick Spears, a space-habitat architect, and Bethany Lawrence-Spears, a family physician in Mariner City on Mars. Ed’s childhood was spent in the hundreds of kilometres of tunnels and dome habitats that cover the Martian surface, but his father’s work allowed for frequent trips to Luna, Io, and Ganymede. His first experience going to Earth wasn’t until Ed was 16 years old, and was selected to represent the Mariner Technical Collegiate at a Youth Federation Assembly. Ed was stunned by the beauty of humanity’s homeworld, having only seen it in holographic form before. The mock assembly also put the delegates in contact with influential mentors from across the Federation with an eye to attract future leaders in the diplomatic and political fields. But Ed, ever the unconventional student, found himself wandering the campus alone. Thinking of his mother’s vocation, he decided to tour Starfleet Medical. A fateful encounter with one Doctor Karen Heartmier changed Ed’s course in life from one of engineering or diplomacy to one of medicine and discovery.
Over the next few years, Ed and Doctor Heartmier kept in touch as he finished his studies on Mars. She personally recommended him for Starfleet Academy’s pre-medicine program, but he decided to take some time to gain experience working in the Martian Volunteer Technical Corps before making any final decisions on his final direction in life. Having given some years of work to his home planet, he finally accepted an offer to Starfleet Academy. His first years at the academy were some of the best, and most difficult of his life. Unused to the full gravity of Earth, Ed struggled with the physical training elements of Academy life; and since he wasn’t from a ‘true’ low gravity world, he wasn’t offered much assistance. It was also the longest he’d spent away from his family and he missed important milestones in their lives, including his older sister’s wedding. Despite the challenges, he managed to make it through the pre-med program and into Starfleet Medical proper.
Fully immersed in his medical studies, Ed found himself forming firm friendships with the other medical students, but especially those who weren’t from Earth. His openness and enthusiasm towards different cultures ingratiated him to his non-human peers and propelled him toward a focus in xeno-physiology. In the end, Doctor Edward Spears finished the rigorous training at Starfleet Medical and took his oath.
USS Constitution-B
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After graduating from the academy, Ed was immediately assigned to the USS Constitution-B as a junior medical officer. He was immediately thrown into a classified undercover mission to retrieve a hijacked Starfleet vessel. Ed’s cosmetic surgical skills were immediately tested, and so were his convictions. Growing up in the Federation core, Ed had never known true cruelty. Reading about an atrocity was very different from witnessing a deplorable act firsthand. Ed came away from the experience with a new appreciation for what the Federation truly stands for, and against. That idealism is something he has not lost ever since.
Every Starfleet officer dreams of their own first encounter with new life. As a medical officer, Ed was perhaps keener than many to be one of those people. He got his wish, but it wasn’t as straightforward as he’d imagined. In an encounter with an energy-based lifeform, the ship was attacked and damaged. Ed was responsible for the coordination of Sickbay's emergency response efforts, but during the crisis, a crew member fell gravely ill and required immediate surgery to save her life. Ed acted despite having only the basic Starfleet Medical surgery courses. He fought valiantly, but his patient had a rare and deadly disease that ultimately claimed her life. This was the first time Ed had lost a patient outside of the simulations in medical school and the death hit him harder than he'd anticipated. If it weren't for some of his friends and colleagues onboard helping him work through the guilt associated with the loss, he might not have recovered from this event. Thanks to that support, instead of leaving medicine he decided to undertake a surgical fellowship so that he would be better prepared in the future.
It is said that experience breeds wisdom, and after another bizarre mission Ed was starting to find his stride. Not only were his own medical skills progressing, but his personal and professional relationships were blooming as well. Ed's skills were recognized again with his appointment as the Chief Medical Officer. His appointment had come not long after the departure of his original mentor, Wyn Foster. As it happened, the Constitution needed a CMO more than ever as new medical officers found their way to the Constitution regularly with a need for guidance, mentorship, and clinical practice.
To be a physician in Starfleet is often to have a finger on the pulse of the ship and crew at large. Ed’s promotion to lieutenant-commander affirmed that he had made the right choice in accepting the role of department head. It was also a rank that started to draw more attention. Ed had always considered himself a capable clinician, and a capable administrator as the CMO but when things went poorly on a supposedly routine trade mission, Ed was asked to step into a role he had not anticipated filling; that of Second Officer. It was a role that signified to the crew that he was capable of leading more than just a sickbay, but perhaps officers and crew from other departments. There was an irony in Ed’s mind as he’d spent the majority of his career within the comfortable bulkheads of sickbay, not learning how the other departments interacted on the bridge. Still, the need was there, and Ed was dedicated to helping in whatever capacity he was needed. If being the Second Officer would help, he wasn’t going to shy away from the role.
Leave of Absence
Ed made the challenging decision to leave the Constitution and Starfleet for a period of time. It was a decision meant to help him resolve some elements of his life. He'd suffered heartbreak and conflict with a mentor leading him to question his place, prompting him to step away. At first, Ed returned to Mars to spend time with his family. But life at home was simple and devoid of the challenges he'd faced daily with Starfleet. Ed's wanderlust saw him leave home after only a week, seeking a place where he could make the most impact as a physician. His journey took him beyond Federation space, to the colonies at the fringe of the quadrant. They were hard places, inhabited by people of many species fleeing from war, persecution, and poverty. Among these people, Ed became immediately valuable. Medical training was hard to come by in the colonies, and Federation standards of medicine were unheard of. But medical supplies were hard to come by and Ed soon learned of the criminal cartels that kept the colonies in their grip. Kidnappings, extortion, and casual murder were common at the hands of those cruel beings. Ed stood up to them. For standing up to the cartel he was taken, beaten bloody, and then made to watch as his clinic and then the whole village was razed to ashes. He was then left with the people he'd tried to protect.
Service History
| Insignia | Rank | From | To | Position |
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Cadet First Class | 238702.14 | 239502.14 | Starfleet Medical Cadet |
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Ensign | 239502.15 | 239510.15 | Medical Officer |
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Lieutenant Junior Grade | 239510.15 | 239602.06 | Medical Officer |
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Lieutenant | 239602.06 | 239611.12 | Chief Medical Officer |
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Lieutenant Commander | 239611.12 | 239801.12 | Chief Medical Officer |
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Civilian | 239801.12 | 239811.30 | Leave of Absence |
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Lieutenant Commander | 239811.30 | 239905.22 | Medical Officer |
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Lieutenant Commander | 239905.22 | Present | First Officer |
Awards & Service Decorations
- For award descriptions, see: Awards and Service Ribbons
NPC Listing · USS Constitution-B Crew Manifest · Crew History
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