Elias Burke
| USS Gorkon | ||
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| Elias Joshua Burke | ||
| Position | Engineer | |
| Rank | Lieutenant JG | |
| Species | Human | |
| Gender | Male | |
| DOB | 237001.18 | |
| Age | 31 | |
| Birthplace | Olympianus, Mars | |
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Ensign Elias Joshua Burke, commonly known as Eli, is currently serving as a low-level engineer aboard the USS Gorkon in the Tyrellian sector. He graduated the StarFleet Academy in San Fransisco on Earth in the spring of 2393, toured aboard the USS Centris-A for his required one year of field training, and was posted to the Gorkon in the fall of 2394 under the command of Rear Admiral Quinn Reynolds.
Appearance
- Height: 1.83m
- Weight: 86.2kg
- Hair: Dark Brown
- Eyes: Hazel
Personal Background and Early Career History
Eli was born at a Utopia Planetia medical facility on the northern slopes of Olympus Mons, in Olypianus City on Mars. He was born on star date 237001.18 to Joshua and Elizabeth Burke, Joshua was an employee of the Utopia Planetia shipyard in orbit above Mars. Joshua and Elizabeth had been unable to conceive children and as a last attempt the couple resorted to a new, experimental procedure to induce conception of which Elias was a product. The couple were devout Christians and considered the birth of Elias to be an answer to their prayers for a child, thus they name him Eli (Hebrew: Eliyahu, Jehovah is God).
Elizabeth was a passionate astrophysicist and worked aboard an orbital observatory above Deimos. For the first three years of his life Eli lived there with his mother while his father, Joshua, worked at the UP shipyards, but at age 4 Eli and his mother moved to the personnel level at the UP shipyard's hab-facility so that Eli could begin attending school there.
Eli excelled in all of his classes and at a young age it became obvious the boy had a passion for learning, the school was soon not enough for him. At age 12 Eli began working with his father after school on small projects for Joshua's deck manager; at age 14 Eli was working right along side his father and his father's fellow engineers as a veritable equal with dreams of one day becoming an engineer in StarFleet. At age 17 Eli enrolled at Columbia Mons' Ares University with a specialization in aerospace engineering.
Ares University opened Eli's claustrophobic mindset, raised almost entirely in the cramped quarters of Utopia Planetia space stations, and broadened his once very close horizons. He fell in love for the first time and made friends he thought he never would, particularly with a Ferengi philosophy major named Nebb. His friendship with Nebb revealed whole new philosophical worlds to Eli and soon his already unstable Christianity, inherited from his parents, began to crumble. When confronted by the great wealth of evil in the universe and its seemingly inherent meaninglessness - particularly the evils of the 2388 martian quakes responsible for the deaths of thousands across Mars and the heavy civilian casualties of the Dominion War and its make subsidiary conflicts - Eli revoked his Christianity and declared himself an evangelical atheist. His parents were devastated. They pleaded with their son to reconsider and to speak with academic Christian apologists on Earth, but Eli would not listen.
In the spring of 2389 Eli graduated from Ares University with plans of joining Utopia Planetia as an assistant supervisor in their core of engineers. However, when his three-year girlfriend broke up with him two weeks after graduation Eli had a shift in priorities. Intent on leaving Mars behind Eli looked back to his dream of joining StarFleet and signed up to attend the Academy in San Fransisco on Earth. He was accepted and departed Mars aboard his own personal interplanetary shuttle.
Before leaving Eli had a particularly violent fight with his father over his atheism, one in a series of many violent fights. Aboard the shuttle enroute to Earth Eli had time to think. In a final confrontation with his Christianity Eli prayed for the first time in almost a year, "God, if you are real then prove yourself to me," thinking that this would be a sure-fire way to prove or disprove God's existence once and for all. If God were real He would prove Himself and if He were not then He would not. Much to Eli's dismay, God proved Himself. In a freak accident a golf-ball sized, high-speed asteroid blasted a baseball-sized hole in Eli's forward bulkhead. Eli was able to make his way to the rear compartment and seal it, but to this day Eli will attest that he heard in his mind the clear words: "Ask and ye shall receive, O ye of little faith." The asteroid upon impact had shattered and punctured Eli's abdomen, if he did not receive help quickly he would bleed out and the communications array was in the now vacuum-sealed forward compartment. Miraculously an Andorian freighter received his ship's automated distress call, arrived in time, and tractored him into low earth orbit where Eli was able to receive medical attention.
Now on Earth and enrolled in the Academy, Eli was distracted by his fight with his Christianity. Had it really been God? Two weeks after the accident Eli attended a church service, the first time in almost a year, at the First Baptist Church of San Fransisco. Before entering he prayed again, "God, you've shown me your wrath, now I need confirmation of your love."
God answered Eli's prayer. Seemingly by coincidence the pastor's message came out of Matthew 14 - when the apostle Peter walks on water to Jesus, loses sight, fails and falls, cries out to Christ for help, and Jesus rescues him - in which is found these words after Jesus rescues Peter: “O ye of little faith, why did you doubt?” It was all the confirmation Eli needed. He dedicated his life and his service in StarFleet to Christ then and there.
While at StarFleet Academy Eli served at San Fransisco's First Baptist and studied under Tellarite apologist Aishish at Hebron Seminary. In the spring of 2393 he graduated StarFleet Academy and was posted to the USS Centris-A in the Serellan sector as an engineer in training under Commander Brell. His most notable mission of service aboard the Centris was the assistance of the Bajoran medical mercy ship Shabtai.
After his one year training tour was completed Elias was promoted to the rank of ensign and assigned to the sovereign-class starship USS Gorkon where he currently serves as an engineer under the command of Rear Admiral Quinn Reynolds.
Service History
Education & Training:
Elias Burke served as a cadet at StarFleet Academy in San Fransisco on Earth from 238909.01 to 239304.18. There he majored in aerospace engineering and theoretical astrophysics. Upon graduation Cadet Burke was posted to the nova-class vessel USS Centris-A for his one-year, mandatory field training where he served primarily in the Serellan sector under the Bolian Commander Brell as an engineer in training. The Cadet's most notable mission of service aboard the Centris as engineer in training was the assistance of the Bajoran medical mercy ship Shabtai. Cadet Burke served under Commander Brell aboard the Centris-A from 239304.30 to 239409.20.
Transfer to the USS Gorkon (NCC-82293):
On 239409.21, at the end of his one-year, mandatory field training, Cadet Elias Burke was promoted to the rank of ensign and assigned to the sovereign-class vessel USS Gorkon on 239409.26 where he currently serves as an engineer under the command of Rear Admiral Quinn Reynolds.
"The Devil's Expanse" (239409.17 - 239411.01):
On stardate 239409.17 the Gorkon was pulled out of her established quantum slipstream by subspace fissures created by high-energy pulsars in the dense Roman Expanse nebula. The forced hard stop was enough to temporarily disable both the Gorkon's warp core and her quantum slipstream drive, leaving the ship with only minimal impulse power. However, due to an inexplicable power drain the Gorkon soon lost even impulse power and energy levels dropped so low that reignition of the ship's warp core and slipstream drive became impossible. The ship was dead in space and, upon surveying her surroundings, the Gorkon found that she was not alone. Several other ships drifted within the heart of the Roman Expanse, derelict and drained of power. The derelicts were represented by many races and affiliations, a majority Romulan, but one nearby ship was Federation: an Excelsior-class cruiser, the Phoenix.
Under the command of First Officer Trellis Vondaryan, a shuttlecraft was dispatched to investigate the remains of the Phoenix while Chief Engineer Cory Stoyer attempted to reactivate the Gorkon's warp core by forcing electro-plasma manually through the core's main conduits. Plans of action were soon disrupted however when enigmatic, faceless, shape-shifting entities began phasing aboard the Gorkon through subspace fissures permeating the ship's inner decks. The faceless subspace entities seemed to be attacking the crew of the Gorkon at first and defensive strategies were put into action to contain and expel the creatures from the ship. However, when Eli was attacked by one of the creatures he was infected by a tele-nueroligic virus that acted as a form of both communication with the faceless entities and a method of their remote control of Eli's basic brain functions. Soon after Eli's infection Rear Admiral Quinn Reynolds was infected by the tele-nuerologic virus and, via their mutual confirmation of one another, the crew of the Gorkon learned that the subspace entities intended to assist the Gorkon and her crew in escaping the nebula.
Aboard the Phoenix, Vondaryan's team discovered the now deceased crew's logs and, upon investigation of them, learned that a dangerous creature lurked within the nebula. As Vondaryan and his team returned to the Gorkon Eli began replication of a device--the blueprints of which had been implanted into the ship's computer by the subspace entities--and Admiral Reynolds attempted further telepathic communication with the mysterious beings. Upon analysis of the data provided by the entities the crew of the Gorkon learned the beings referred to themselves as the Seraphim, a metaphorical way of communicating their benevolent intentions. The Seraphim's device was soon replicated and sent into the Expanse, just as Stoyer and his team brought the warp core back online. The device revealed a monstrous, invisible, subspace creature lurking just above the Gorkon, leeching her power. With a modified phaser emitter the Gorkon was able to break free and escape the creature, but their departure from the nebula was very nearly cut short when, as the ship fled, the creature emitted a powerful electro-plasmatic wave that damaged the Gorkon's already fragile systems even further. However the ship was able to escape both the beast and its lair. With heavy damages the Gorkon limped her way back to the Tyrellian system where repairs were soon underway.
"Telutho'kai" & Promotion to Lieutenant JG (239412.28 - 239503.31):
After the mysterious disappearance of the crew and inhabitants of StarBase 173 the Gorkon and her escort ships were dispatched to investigate and resolve the crisis. The Gorkon arrived on the scene and immediately began beaming crew over to the starbase. Eli was part of an away team--one of four away teams to board the base--led by the Gorkon's Chief Engineer, Lieutenant Cory Stoyer. Eli's away team began their investigation of the base's engineering section with a mysterious sensor-dark area on the section's third deck. At the same time, an away team led by Lieutenant Commander Ayiana Sevo searched the base's science section, a team lead by Commander Alucard Vess searched the base's docking and cargo bays, and a team lead by Admiral Reynolds herself searched the base's command section.
Reynolds' search revealed the recent docking of a StarFleet Intelligence vessel, the korolev-class USS Kell, and Commander Vess' search confirmed it. However, the Kell was nowhere to be found in or around the vicinity of the base. Sevo's team's search uncovered the corpse of one Commander Grall and after an extensive postmortem inspection of the body the medical teams back aboard the Gorkon discovered intensive biological experimentation and deliberate artificial mutation of several key organs of the Commander's body. Eli's team, led by Stoyer, upon arriving at the sensor-dark area of the base's engineering section, found an unknown subspace anomaly embedded into the external casing of one of the base's small thermonuclear reactors. After probing the anomaly with scans from their tricorders the subspace field collapsed and the resulting breach in the reactor's hull induced a catastrophic overload of the reactor's now uncompressed core. The reactor exploded. Fortunately, no member of Eli's team was injured. However, the anomaly left the Gorkon's crew with significantly more questions than answers.
| Service History | ||||
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| Insignia | Rank | Dates | Posting | Assignment |
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Cadet First Class | 239304.18 - 239409.26 | USS Centris-A | Engineer in Training |
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Ensign | 239409.26 - 239503.31 | USS Gorkon | Engineer |
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Lieutenant JG | 239503.31 - present | USS Gorkon | Engineer |
Images of Elias Burke
NPC Listing · USS Gorkon Crew Manifest · Crew History
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