Commander Caelen LaBrie

Being born on the moon that orbits earth (sol IIIa), in the city of New Berlin and still having a good amount of family on Earth itself, due to the travel between the two mostly in shuttle pods, Caelen developed an affection for the smaller flying objects on a very early age. As he got older his affection grew, he slowly also started to see the beauty of Star Ships now. As long as he can remember Caelen had answered the “what do you want to do when you grow up” question with: I want to fly.

It didn’t matter to him whether he flew a shuttle pod or a Galaxy class star ship, as long as it did indeed fly. So when he enrolled into the Starfleet Academy, in San Francisco, he was as happy as ever. After succeeding the general years without too much trouble, not counting that he almost failed on the subject of basic first aid, he obviously chose for a specialization as flight control officer.

As a fourth year cadet he joined the ranks of the star ship Gemini as an ordinary Helm cadet. Although it was mostly routine flights Caelen enjoyed himself a whole lot behind the ‘wheel’ of the mighty Galaxy class vessel. He got along great with the ship’s Chief Flight Control officer, as well as most other members of the crew. The fourth and final year of his training flew past, riddled with graveyard shifts, poker nights and everything a Cadet liked about his first posting. After the year was over the crew of the Gemini was sorry to see him go, his outgoing personality and never failing happiness had made him quite popular amongst the crew, unfortunately the crew roster was filled and there was no need for another Flight Control Officer on the Gemini.

So now with a fresh rank pip on his neck he took the wheel of the much smaller USS Intrepid, it was to be the start of his glorious career. As a lowly ensign and simple helm officer he mostly took the helm on the graveyard shifts, due to the placing on the Gamma shifts Caelen had little sleep, he didn’t want to miss the fun nights and everything they did during the day, as a result Caelen can manage sleeping only four hours a day for at least two weeks long before resulting in fatigue. Caelen liked the Gamma shifts; it was more quiet, more peaceful. It was also the place where he met Alexander, after they had been on some shifts for quite a while and gotten to know each other better, it seemed as if they were long lost brothers, sometimes they were even mistaken as such. They did everything together and knew each other’s thoughts and feelings.

Two years Caelen had lived on the Intrepid and as the opportunity arose he wanted to move on, taking another step on the ladder so to speak. Being handed a second, be it dark, rank pip he reacted to the opportunity to become Assistant Chief Flight Control on the USS Lakota, a big old sturdy Excelsior class vessel. This new position mostly meant being put on the helm position on the bridge with some extra paperwork to go through every time he got off. He left a lot of friends behind again, most importantly Alex, his mate, his brother. Laden with sadness but also with new hope and fresh enthusiasm Caelen stepped onto the old girl when both CO’s and the TFCO had accepted and processed the transfer request.

Keeping in contact with Alexander while being on his new post proved to be more difficult and time consuming then both guys had thought. From once every three days to once a week, eventually lessening to once a month. Then there was a two month silence until a message of Alex’ CO blackened and shattered Caelen’s heart. Being promoted to full lieutenant and Chief of Security on the USS Intrepid Alex lead a search and rescue mission for a federation diplomat, and his staff, on a hostile planet. Alexander was shot in the back only several feet away from the shuttle they rode in on. It tore Caelen apart, it send him in a downward spiral of depression and outbursts of anger for no reasons whatsoever. In his last will Alex had left him several personal belongings, including a silver ring that now never leaves the finger of Caelen unless it’s pried off his cold dead fingers.

The light at the end of Caelen’s tunnel came in the form of an Ensign called Jennifer Grey, a communications officer fresh out of Academy. Another friendship that started on the bridge, another friendship that turned out to be more. Not brotherhood but love grew from it.

Caelen got promoted to full Lieutenant for his efforts in the Battle for Sector 001, while the entire ship was sustaining heavy damage and the Chief Flight Controller had been killed by an explosion on the bridge Caelen took control of the helm and was able to fly the ship into safety before being destroyed by the Borg. Unfortunately the Borg had already destroyed large portions of the ship, Jennifer was one of the unlucky that got trapped under debris of buckling bulkheads and other shrapnel. Luckily the skilled Medical staff on the Lakota, with the help of the EMH, made sure Jennifer would survive. Unfortunately Jennifer had her left arm shattered in the accident and even with the sophisticated technology in the 24th century they had to amputate her lower left arm to make sure she would survive. After Jennifer fully recovered, and back to full strength, they had a mechanical arm replace the missing lower half of her arm. You wouldn’t see the difference between a real arm and her mechanical arm, and most people don’t even know. But mentally it did her a lot of damage, even with the full support and love of Caelen.

Staying with the Lakota and Jennifer, Caelen was accepted as Chief Flight Controller. For four years Caelen was happy with this post, in the meanwhile he had gotten married to Jennifer. But he wanted more, he wanted to achieve more, he wanted to achieve the ultimate. So after much considerations, weighing up pro’s to con’s, Caelen applied for Command Officer Training. But he didn’t want to leave behind Jennifer, who had trouble finding a job at the location of the Command Training. So the training was delayed half a year until Jennifer finally found a job as teacher to first year cadets in Communication’s class. Moving into the campus of the Academy for two years to complete his training the young couple were blessed with a little girl, whom they named Alexandra, Alex for short, after Caelen his lost “brother”.

Again Caelen got through the education without too much problems, he got awarded the rank pips of a Lt. Commander at the graduation ceremony. Now it was his job to find a new ship to reside on, once more moving to a new home. This was less true then the years before, Caelen had learned about the opening of the XO position of the USS Gemini, the ship where he was posted as a 4th year cadet. The CO of the ship had retired and the XO had taken over his position, leaving open the XO position. Caelen applied and without any doubt the CO took him in, also arranging for Jennifer to become Chief of Communications as the former officer had found a posting at a Star base, for personal reasons.

Caelen was surprised at how many of the crew still recognized him and openly accepted him back into the group. It was always meant to be, the crew, the ship and Caelen were a match made in heaven. The rather peaceful missions of the Gemini, that was normally an exploration ship, came to an abrupt end when the Klingons attacked Cardassia Prime and sounded the beginning of what was to be called the Dominion War.

Two years the Gemini had fought, defended and survived the War. Now getting ready for what was to be the final strike of Starfleet the Gemini had joined the Task Force send for Cardassia in the three pronged attack lead by Captain Sisko and Admiral Ross. Although the battle was fierce, infiltration of three Starfleet officers made the Dominion surrender and return to their home world. The war was over, but at what cost?