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The versatile runnabout is my choice. They are more of a mini-starship than just a shuttle.

Congratulations to Featured Bio Contest winner Randal Shayne and this round’s Feature Nominee Oddas Aria! Randal Shayne was born in Chicago, Illinois on Earth, however most of his childhood was spent on Starbase 912. Both his parents, Eric and Heidi Shayne, were high ranking Starfleet officers. His mother was the station’s CMO and his father would eventually become its Commanding Officer. Both of his parents made Randal and his brother, Zak, a priority and neither child was left wanting for attention. Randal decided to follow in his parents footsteps and was accepted into Starfleet Academy at age 18 as a medical cadet. Randal was intent on helping people the way his mother had done for her whole career. Unfortunately, the pre-med curriculum proved incomprehensible for him and he was far to squeamish around the injured and sick. After his first year he transferred to the Engineering program. During this time Randal had very few friends and focused on his studies. Randal was on track to become a decent engineer, until an instructor noted his above average reflexes and decisiveness. The instructor suggested that he would better serve a ship behind the helm. This led Randal to reluctantly enrol in the flight team. It was during this time that Randal began to make friends, felt the strong camaraderie among his fellow flight team members and came into his own as an officer. Randal was assigned to the USS Gemini right out of the academy as its helmsman and has made his career behind the helm of a variety of ships. Randal Shayne has made his way up the ranks to Lt. Commander and now serves aboard the USS Atlantis as part of the Andaris Taskforce as its Chief Helmsman. The current round of nominations for the Featured Bio Contest closes July. 1st, 2017 so head over to the forums and nominate someone today! You can find out more about the Featured Bio Contest at its wiki page or in its forum. The post Featured Bio Contest Winner for May: LtCmdr. Randal Shayne appeared first on UFOP: StarBase 118 Star Trek RPG. View the full article

(( USS Constitution - Deck 22, ESPO ))::Ensign Frag came up with nicknames for everyone—Ji-hu was “Jitters.” Ensign Berenez loved to talk about his favourite game strategies, and didn’t like being bluntly corrected when he made mistakes. Crewmen Ix and Te loved to take things apart, and had to be ordered not to with specific items, or else they’d claim anything in ESPO. Ensign Tor… well, they didn’t seem to like anything, but especially not Ji-hu.::::After Sindri had introduced him and given him his orders as provisional Engineering Systems Programming Office head, Ji-hu had spent a few days settling in to his little corner console in the deck 22 office, next to Tor and Berenez’s workspaces—the Bynars and Ensign Frag kept their section a little too chaotic, even for Ji-hu. He mostly spent that time organizing the backlog of maintenance requests and systems reviews—and there were a lot of both that had not been dealt with since the last office head had retired. What he quickly learned was the ESPO personnel liked to take their favourite tasks and leave the others conveniently unanswered. Even Tor, who claimed to have run the office without problems, avoided tasks outside of their expertise.::::Mostly, though, he listened and started to learn about the ESPO crew. Once they realized Ji-hu wasn’t there to march them out of an airlock or report for group counselling they left him alone, and it gave him a chance to observe, learn a little about the others. Frag insulted anyone she could at any given point, but like other Tellarites it was simple common courtesy, and if she tried to argue with you it meant she liked you. Berenez had an astounding knowledge of games and a fierce analytical mind, he would’ve made an amazing STARSHIPS teammate. Ix and Te were adorable, Ji-hu had to admit, and they both had these odd little smiles whenever they spoke binary to one another. Tor… well, Tor was insecure underneath their self-assuredness and ego.::Frag: - -think you understand, Berenez! I’ve tried to explain to you about ten thousand times, but it doesn’t seem to penetrate those little cheek flappies! Parrises squares is about brute strength, you puny, hairless Ferengi mono-testicle! Strategy only gets you as far as you can whip a stick around!Berenez: Ensign Frag, you fail to see the intricacies of the sport. There are some theories that say Zakdorn minds work fractionally faster than other humanoids, and applied to physical competition, this woud- -Frag: ::barking, amused laughter:: Not if you’re too chubby to get off your chubby butt, Creet! Have you ever even been on a court?!Tor: Shut up, you two! How’s anyone supposed to hear themselves think with you two cretins blabbing all day?!::Ji-hu sighed. There was a certain camaraderie between the four… no, five, Ix and Te were two people… five of them, maybe born out of just being stuck in the same room together, but they wouldn’t work together by choice. Frag didn’t take any of the others seriously, Berenez was witheringly condescending, Tor got frustrated when the others didn’t listen to them, and Ix and Te seemed to just do whatever they felt like.::::He had the message written. Ji-hu took a deep breath and pressed “Send” on his console.::::He heard a series of pings from throughout the room. Ensign Tor’s head snapped around to fix a glare on Ji-hu.::Tor: We’re right here, you know!::Ensign Frag ambled around the corner of the central console, with the Bynars in tow.::Frag: ::casually scratching her butt, to Ji-hu:: Hey Jitters, ::to Tor:: Smiley, ::to Berenez:: Flaps. Hear there’s an ESPO meeting.Te: Crewmen Ix…Ix: … and Te reporting…Te: … as requested, Lieutenant Choi.::Ji-hu nodded as Tor crossed their arms, scowling. Berenez turned in his chair, keeping his face neutral.::Choi: A-alright, thank you all for c-c-coming. ::he looked down to his wrist-mounted PADD and pushed a document through, and five sets of eyes went to their PADDs, consoles or implant feeds in the case of Berenez and one of the Bynar:: I’ve b-been working on grouping the b-b-backlog of maintenance requests and routine s-system reviews we need to finish b-b-before shore leave is over.Tor: ::scowling, looking away:: There was a backlog before Lieutenant Sarolk retired. We’ve been trying to get caught up.oO Yeah right, and I’m Fleet Admiral Wolf’s glorious Klingon masseuse… Okay, deeps breaths. Tor is just insecure. OoChoi: I’m n-n-not blaming anyone. ::maintain eye contact, even though it’s the absolute worst:: Listen, I g-get that everyone likes focusing on their specialities, b-but other d-departments have been p-picking up our slack. Here’s m-m-my idea. I’ve grouped the jobs based on particular complimentary skills with the m-most important tasks at the top. Ensign Tor, you’re g-going to work with Crewman Ix and Crewman Te on the maintenance requests that have to do with programming errors, data recovery and computational systems circuitry hardware.::Tor gave a begrudging nod, while Ix and Te blipped at each other for a second before nodding their assent.::Choi: ::glancing at his wrist-mounted PADD:: Mr. Berenez I’d like you to h-h-head up some data analysis and system reviews. ::Berenez nodded, but Ji-hu wasn’t finished:: And I’d like you walk Ms. Frag through it. We n-n-need someone else who is g-g-good tackling routine m-maintenance checks online and off, and handling the data flow.::The pair started to argue, but Ji-hu ignored them and pushed on, his hands trembling.::Choi: Ms. Frag, you’re going to be handling the b-bulk of the physical systems repairs, and there’s a lot of them…::Including an analysis port in Main Engineering Ji-hu had accidentally set fire to, but there was no need to mention that.::Choi: B-b-but I’d like you share some of your expertise with Mr. Berenez. ::the Zakdorn looked horrified at the idea:: Consider it a challenge, Ensign.::That shut him up. The Zakdorn had fallen into a sullen, contemplative silence.::Choi: I’ll m-move between b-b-both groups and tackle some of the backlog on m-my own. Uh… sound g-g-good?::The group started to turn away to collect tools and head out to their first tasks, but Ji-hu cleared his throat and they turned back.::Choi: A-a-actually there’s one more thing… oO Deep breath. Oo The Constitution’s been flying for almost th-thirty years, and even though it saw an overhaul with the QSD, the computer system is still operating on Class XIX. ::he glanced down at his PADD and pushed the proposal through to them:: We’ll n-need to bring a proposal to M-Main Engineering, we might even need to speak with the Command Officers, but we’re g-going to come up with a plan for strategic retrofitting, including systemwide hardware and software updates. I w-want to bring the system up to at least a Class XXI.::Except for the Bynars, the ESPO crew’s jaws all dropped open in shock at the proposal.::Tor: That would mean…Choi: ::nodding:: Yup. We’re g-going to improve overall system processing speed by .015%.::There was a shocked silence. Berenez shook his head.::Berenez: ::muttering:: You’re a madman… you’re… a madman…::The Tellarite took a couple of menacing steps forward. There was a moment’s silence before she reached up and clapped Ji-hu on the shoulder, hard enough to leave bruises, grinning an enormous toothy grin.::Frag: Jitters, you may be as hairless as a Laudean molerat, but you’re worthy of my mother’s bushy, glorious [...]-beard!Choi: ::terrified:: Uh… th-th-thanks?ENDThe Engineering Systems Programming Office PNPCsEnsign Creet Berenez, Ensign Frag, Ensign Tor and Crewmen Ix & TeAs simmed by:Lieutenant (JG) Choi Ji-huEngineering OfficerUSS Constitution-BC239402CJ0