Ensign Fridan

I am reposting the character background of Fridan, the character I am playing for the VA-RPG. I am planning to expand some aspects of Fridan’s past and retell past RPG updates from Fridan’s point of view.

Ensign Fridan
Andorian Engineer, and a new graduate of Starfleet Academy

Fridan acts and behaves, in all respects, like a human, despite the fact that he’s an Andorian. He is a registered citizen and resident of Earth and lived with his adoptive parents until he went away to the Academy.

Little is known of his background as a child in Andor. His adoptive Human parents, Enrique and Mimi Caceres adopted little Fridan from an orphanage in Andor when he was five years old, and the Caceres are in their early forties. The couple retained his given name, but legally, he is known as Fridan Caceres. Lately, he’s been calling himself only by his first name, as per Andorian tradition.

Enrique and Mimi raised Fridan in their home near a beach in Greater Hong Kong of Earth. Fridan became a technophile at an early age, making little gadgets that, most of the time, just became added clutter in their attic. His love of gadgets came from his human father, Enrique, who was a Starfleet engineer stationed in San Francisco.

For her part, Mimi, a planetologist, opened Fridan’s eyes to the natural wonders of Earth. During her frequent trips to the rainforests of the New Luzon Cordilleras and the Hundred Islands underwater laboratories in the Philippine islands, Mimi would almost always bring Fridan with her. And, in most of these trips, Fridan would surprise Mimi with his ability to name almost all the flora and fauna that they would encounter.

It was in one of these trips to the rainforest that he met one of his best friends, the Aurelian, P’Yek. And even now, the two still regularly exchange correspondences. He also met Pedro Pilim, on one of these trips. Pedro, the son of the head marine biologist of the Hundred Islands labs, did not hit it off well with Fridan in the beginning, given that they competed in almost everything while Fridan stayed in the facility. However, in one of the worst emergencies of the lab, the two worked together to save the facility when the pressure barrier in the lab’s main observation room started to weaken. Combining their skills, they were able to stop the collapse of the barrier, long enough for them to report it to the engineers. The two have been friends since.

His best friend was perhaps Li Yao, his next-door neighbor, and childhood friend. They had been friends since the day Fridan arrived in Greater Hong Kong. The two have been constant friends since, and it was hard for them when Fridan had to go with his mother on her frequent trips to the Pacific. They studied in the same schools and had the same interests. Yao, a Kung Fu aficionado, convinced Fridan to take up Kung Fu lessons with him in Tibet. Fridan’s parents objected at first, but because of his persistence, they relented. Immediately after their final term, the two relocated to Tibet and began their Kung Fu lessons.

While in Tibet, he and Yao frequently went mountain climbing. With his higher stamina and strength, Fridan did not have a problem dealing with the dangerous slopes and low temperatures of Tibet’s mountains. Yao, on the other hand, had difficulties. In their very last climb, Yao slipped and his harness broke. He fell down the slopes and was critically injured, not having had time to press the emergency transporter trigger that both carried. Fridan raced down the slopes to rescue Yao, and immediately transported him to the nearest hospital. But the human’s injuries were too severe – Yao was declared dead on arrival.

Fridan did not take the incident well, believing that the fault was his. His two friends, P’Yek and Pedro, were with him at Yao’s funeral, consoling and comforting their grief-stricken friend. Trying to shake him out of his grief, the two suggested that Fridan join Starfleet, as they both intended to. The human-Andorian was convinced, but he decided to postpone his application and honor Yao’s memory by finishing his matials arts training. He returned to the monastery and finished his training.

Several months later, his application to the Academy was granted and, to his pleasant surprise, he was assigned quarters with Pedro, with P’Yek living in the adjoining quarters (Aurelians had special needs and needed quarters of their own).

While Fridan took the engineering track, Pedro and P’Yek took the science track. Still, all three continued to pursue their hobbies and interests all throughout Academy. P’Yek had a fascination with all things 21st century so she would always drag the others to the academy’s recreational holosuites, and participate in holo-simulations of 21st-century karaoke bars. Typically, Fridan would just watch his friends sing old Earth songs off-key while he enjoyed his favorite brand of synthale.

All throughout his Academy days, Fridan experienced occasional bouts of insomnia. And during these sleepless nights, he would take out his saxophone – his favorite musical instrument, and visit the holosuites, activating night-time beach simulations, and play to his heart’s content. His dad also played the saxophone, and this was his way of bringing a bit of home back with him.

His Terran social skills and cultural knowledge were put to the test when he fell in love with a human girl in his Temporal Mechanics class. Her name was Tricia and, although he did everything to try and get her attention, she didn’t respond. She said that she wasn’t interested in an interspecies relationship. Fridan was heartbroken. A few months later, he found out that Tricia had started a relationship with one of their Klingon exchange students. Fridan became almost suicidal. To try and take away his hurt he concentrated on his studies and eventually finished his Starfleet training at the same time as his friends.

Fridan graduated with the highest honors in his class, which was not surprising given his bright, inquisitive nature, his dogged determination (coming from his need to drown his personal problems), and his eidetic memory. His grades made him the kind of graduate that many starship captains and station commanders look for, and was immediately assigned to the Deep Space 7 space station. Pedro and P’Yek also received their orders soon afterward, and all three continue to stay in touch with each other.

His first assignment was as an engineer on the gamma shift of Deep Space 7. This arrangement worked well with his frequent bouts of insomnia, but the work was boring to him. He wanted to work on a starship, and though a raw Academy graduate, he dared dream of serving on the Federation flagship, the USS Enterprise-E, but, trying to be realistic, he instead hoped for a posting on a science ship like the Luna-class USS Titan. After his application for reassignment, he was soon assigned to a starship. Although it was not the USS Titan, it was close – he was assigned to another Luna-class starship, the USS Europa.

This time he was appointed as an apprentice engineer – more as a troubleshooter – an engineer without any area of specialization; in the vernacular – he was a gofer. Still, the ship’s chief engineer and the captain didn’t fail to notice his good work and gave him commendations. As a new ship undergoing shakedown, the Europa was plagued with all kinds of problems – mostly engineering-type problems. But Fridan did the lion’s share of the work that made the ship’s voyage smooth, and this didn’t fail to escape the notice of his superiors.

After several months, he received new orders: he was reassigned to Research Station Canarvon near the Romulan border. He was curious as to why he was assigned to this backwater research station but did not think it appropriate to ask his superiors. Several days later, he found himself aboard a shuttle going to the surface of Eldorado. Apparently, transporters didn’t work on the planet because of the unusual ambient radiation surrounding it.

Upon landing, he was greeted by the station’s chief engineer and was given his first briefing. He had just started to settle down in his new job, but, a few days later, he received a hand-carried communique (the same phenomenon that prevented transporters from working also interfered with subspace communications, so messages were couriered from place to place).

The message was from Pedro. He was told his father just died. The authorities said that it was from an accident, but Pedro thought there may have been foul play. Still, the investigation wasn’t done yet, so no one knew the real events. Grief-stricken, Fridan vowed to return to Earth the first chance he got, and get to the bottom of his father’s possible murder.

But, in the meantime, life went on in the distant science outpost