Ross Taben

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Revision as of 20:42, 30 March 2006

Ross Taben is a civilian analyst working on Intelligence at Starfleet Operations, located on the main command facility at Fort Baker.

Personal Details

Name: Ross Taben

Age: 47-50

Date of Birth: Unknown. Circa 2353-2355

Place of Birth: Bajor (specifics unknown)

Species: Bajoran

Family: Unknown (presumed deceased)

Interests: Training, contingency plans,

Personality:

Cold and dour, Ross often gives off the air of having quietly restrained contempt for everyone around him. This is more or less true. Though he does not let it interfere with the performance of he duties, it is clear that Ross feels others should prove themselves to him before he gives them their due.

Ross' usual moods run the gamut from his usual impassively judgmental stare, to outright hostility, to mere irritability, to occasional professional respect, to almost unheard of personal affection. He has a sense of humor, but it is always dark, and often at someone else's expense.

He is genuinely paranoid, believing with a firm conviction that shadowy figures are tracking his movements, that those around him may be their agents, and that it is completely reasonable for him to refuse to go anywhere unarmed. He refuses to elaborate on who he believes is tracking him or even confirm that he does indeed feel that way, and never directly mentions them. The people around him only figure out his beliefs on the subject through inference.

Ross is self confidant almost to the point of arrogance. As a former special forces operative, he works feverishly to remain in top condition and maintain what martial skills he can, but his duties over the past twenty years have dulled his edge somewhat. In their place has arisen a new, unexpected set of interpersonal skills. He will never be considered warm or charming, but his brisk, professional style is effective in it's own way at getting what he wants or needs out of other people. Though he has no doubts about the extent of his abilities, he is also keenly aware of his limitations, and often tries to keep them hidden from others. If he has seen others perform competently in areas of expertise that are not his own, he will defer to their judgment in such matters.

Another asset- as he sees it- to his ability to perform his job is a complete and total lack of anything even remotely resembling a code of ethics or morals. There is no betrayal too treacherous, no crime to vile for him to commit without hesitation to further his own long term ends. He does not openly flout laws or moral codes, and does not let others know quite how amoral he is; that would only bring unwanted attention. He will keep his word and behave according to the prevailing rules of society, so long as doing so is expedient. He has never displayed a capacity for remorse. The only thing even remotely approaching a code of ethics that he believes in is a sense of professionalism, which should not confused with a sense of duty or the honor of an officer.

Ross never does anything by halves, and his attitudes towards problem solving reflect this. He often is drawn to one of two extremes of modus operandi; silent and insidiously subtle, or a blatantly aggressive application of all available force within the confines of his mission parameters. Generally, he tries the quiet option first, with Plan B boiling down to some variation of “find the source of the problem, destroy it in detail, then burn the evidence and leave quickly�. This plan comes in literal, and figurative versions.

He is fairly open minded and tolerant of all things (though he is flagrantly condescending of attitudes he considers naïve), and finds nothing that is not a transgression against him offensive, with one notable exception. He is a bigot about all things even tangentially related to Cardassians. This may or may not be related to a deeply suppressed insecurity about his Bajoran heritage. Ross did not learn to read until he joined the Marines, and then he was only taught Federation standard. He speaks fluent Bajoran, but has only become literate in that language around 2378. His knowledge of his native culture is similarly limited, apparently learning of such matters not being a high priority during his early struggle for survival. He has quietly been taking steps to correct this for several years, but has not been able to get to Bajor since he left in 2070.

Medical Details

Height: 5'3

Weight: 135 lbs.

Hair Colour: Black

Eye Colour: Deep Blue

Physical Appearance:

Short and slender, Ross is a very small man. Despite this, he carries with him a surprisingly strong physical presence. His muscles are flat, tough, and hard, and he moves with the confidant grace of a star athlete. His short dark hair and eyes contrast with his pale skin, and his pinched features are marred by a thin scar running the length of the right side of his face, from the hairline to his lower jaw. Nerve damage under the scar impairs the movement and flexibility of the right side of his face, making all his expressions slightly lopsided and giving him premature crows feet on the right side. His earring is a simple design, common of Bajorans serving in a military capacity.

Dispite approaching what should be early middle age for Bajorans, Ross retains a youthful appearance, an effect no doubt assisted by his small stature. His skin is somewhat tougher than it used to be, and the first hints of age wrinkles have begun to appear, but he most definately does not look his age, seeming closer to thirty than to fifty Earth years old. When questioned about this by the examiner in his last physical, Ross attributed it to 'clean living' and forcefully changed the subject.

Starfleet Record

Rank: Lieutenant Commander (resigned 2398)

Assignment: Intelligence Analyst, (Civilian) Starfleet Operations

Decorations: Purple Heart (2374, twice in 2375); Starfleet Commendation Medal (2374), Intelligence Star (2382).

Reprimands: Commanding Officer's Demerit (2370, 2371, 2372); 40 days in the brig for gross insubordination (2372);

Service Record:

• 2371 – Enters Starfleet Marine Corps.
• 2372-2374 – USS Troika marine detachment; 34th Rifle Regiment; D Company - Rifleman (Private 1st class)
• 2374-2377 – Records deleted, authorization classified. Sometime during this period, he is transferred to Starfleet and given a field commission.
• 2377-2380 – USS Laffey; Infiltration Specialist (Ensign; Lieutenant JG), later Chief of Intelligence (Lieutenant.; Lieutenant Commander)
• 2380-2381 – Whereabouts classified
• 2381-2383 – USS Redemption (Lieutenant Commander)
• 2383-2398 – No fixed assignment, deployed where required
• 2398-present – Resigns Starfleet commission, works as a private consultant under contract with the Federation.

History:

Born somewhere in the southern hemisphere of Bajor, little else is known about Ross' early life. He does not know the date or location of his birth, and seldom speaks about his childhood. The few statements he has made on record indicate that he may have been a beggar child or petty thief. His small stature most likely is a result of chronic malnutrition during these early years.

Shortly after the Occupation ended, Ross somehow found his way onto a transport to the newly renamed Deep Space Nine, where he quickly gained an intimate familiarity with the security office's holding cells. Commander Sisko tried to return him to Bajor to be taken care of by a war orphanage, but was unable to find a facility willing or able to take in another problem child, as supply shortages were still very common on Bajor at this time. When Ross became old enough to enlist in the Marines (approximately old enough at any rate- his true age remains unknown, so he may have been a year younger or older than the age requirement), Sisko managed to pull some strings, and shipped Ross of to Earth to join the Marines, who would hopefully instill some discipline in him. This was a highly unusual situation, the Marines are usually all volunteer, and it is unclear specifically what favors were called in from whom to allow this to happen. Why he wasn't pressed into the Bajoran militia is equally unclear. Regardless, Ross arrived on Earth in late 2070 and began basic training.

Ross spent his early time as an enlisted trooper in and out of the brig, spared being ejected from the Corps (Apparently against his will- some of his statements at the time indicated he was trying to be expelled.) only by his obvious skills as an infantryman. When not standing before his CO being dressed down for some recent infraction, Ross trained with a feverish single mindedness, and was among the best in his platoon in almost every measurable respect. Were it not for his discipline problems, acute paranoia, and complete lack of charisma, he would have quickly risen to become an NCO.

His problems culminated in a caustic verbal assault on his commanding officer, Captain Dresden, during a dispute about a demerit Ross was being given. His 6 month sentence was suspended when his company was reassigned to the USS Troika which was scheduled for a long patrol along the Klingon boarder. Dresden, despite his well documented personal dislike for Ross, did not want to leave one of his most talented soldiers behind in the event of the brushfire conflicts between the Federation and the Klingon Empire escalating into open war. Ross' company saw minor action during the conflicts, mostly small raids.

When the Dominion War started in 2374, something changed in Ross. His first large battle was a desperate holding action on Gravalax 5 to buy time for evacuation of the Information Warfare Research and Development complex located there. It was there that Ross earned his Starfleet Commendation Medal for single handedly engaging and destroying three Cardassian infantry fighting vehicles and their cargoes of over 32 Cardassian soldiers- most of a platoon- from ambush. Ross' actions rallied his already savagely mauled company, which halted their retreat immediately and reversed course into a strong counterattack straight through the freshly blown hole in the enemy advance, taking the Cardassians by surprise and stalling a whole battalion's advance for two hours. After the battle was over, Ross never had another disciplinary infraction on record. He did not become a model solider, remaining somewhat cold and aloof to his fellow Marines, but he no longer intentionally pushed the boundaries of what his superiors would allow.

A few weeks later, while his company was being rotated off of the front for a brief r&r, Ross was recruited by Special Forces Command. All his subsequent activities during the war remain classified, though it is known he was wounded three times and given a transfer to Starfleet and a commission as an officer. Such promotions of enlisted personnel are almost unheard of during peace time, but were tragically all to common during the war due to high casualty rates amongst the officer corps.

Ross remained with Special Forces Command for a year after the war, and then was transferred to Starfleet Intelligence, and assigned to the USS Laffey as their Infiltration Specialist, along with his associate Johnathan Whittaker who would serve as Chief Intelligence officer, and Ross' direct superior. On board the Laffey, Ross met a woman named Vishana Miriber who was the ship's lounge manager, and fell deeply in love with her.

The two began relationship, but it died almost before it started. The reasons for this are unclear, he refuses to talk about it. Regardless of the reason why, Ross could be seen over the next few years watching her from a distance, never touching her, except once during an attack on the ship to tend to a wound on her forehead. It was apparent to the rest of the crew that he still held feelings for her, and that she held some for him (though hers appeared quite less intense), but they never followed it up.

This changed when Ross returned from a two month long undercover mission, and found out that Visha had a brief fling with the ship's doctor while he was away. The circumstances of that event were somewhat unusual; Visha actually killed the doctor before Ross returned to defend another civilian, a reporter named Jodie Juniper, from an apparent assassination attempt being made by the doctor. A postmortem examination of the body revealed that the doctor was in fact a sleeper agent of an unknown player who was placed on the Laffey to kill Juniper. The investigation into the identity of the party that placed the doctor there was inconclusive.

When Ross learned of Visha's (reportedly sexual) relationship with the now dead doctor, it was clear that his feelings for her had changed dramatically, spiraling down towards hate, or at the very least, extreme anger. He was never seen in the ship's lounge, or anywhere he might run into Visha again. She mysteriously disappeared during a computer virus attack on the Laffey. He appeared not to be bothered in the least by this.

A few months later, he was transferred off the Laffey, and given another classified assignment. His public record continues sometime later with his assignment the USS Redemption as Chief of Intelligence. He served in that capacity for three years, earning a reputation for cold efficiency under pressure. He was awarded his Intelligence Star in 2382 for facilitating the defection of the third most senior member of the Tal Shiar, winning varying degrees of respect or infamy (his methods were considered distasteful by some) among the intelligence community, and it is likely this feat would have propelled him into the inner circle of Starfleet Intelligence and given him the ear of several influential members of Starfleet Command had the Borg not begun their invasion two months later.

The long term implications of his actions were rendered academic by the Borg War, and he spent the first several months of that conflict aboard the Redemption before being called to duty behind the lines, where he served as a roving trouble shooter for Starfleet Intelligence, developing a surprising knack for solving problems associated with personnel and red tape using his trademark style of identifying the cause(s) of the problem, and annihilating it, or them, with an almost disturbing focus of aggression.

But however effective he became in his new role as the desk jockey from Hell, as the apocalyptic conflict ground down to its final showdown in the Sol System, the need for strategic intelligence became less and less vital, until finally, Ross was left with little to do. He spent the Battle of Sol in a bunker in North America, eating rations and watching the fight unfold on the news feeds.

Shortly after the battle was over, he was tapped by Starfleet Intelligence to once again solve a problem. During the desperate days of the war, the surviving intelligence resources of the other great powers had been combined with that of the Federation's in an improvised, helter skelter manner, with the inevitable clashes and problems pushed back by the mutual agreement of all the involved parties and delayed until after the fighting. But old rivalries refused to die, and once the immediate threat seemed to be over, the pressures that had kept the remnants of the Tal Shiar, Klingon Imperial Intelligence, SFI, and various other, smaller agencies together fell away and long delayed disputes came to a boil. Because of the deep cultural biases involved, it was decided that Ross' status as a Starfleet officer could only hinder his mission of easing these tensions and resolving the disputes as expeditiously as possible, and so he was asked to resign his commission; he did so in early 2399. Ross met only limited success in this new assignment, but the problems were so deeply entrenched that any progress was an achievement.

In early 2404, he called in some favors and was given a position as the intelligence liaison to the Operations Command division in San Francisco. As a matter of course, he reports to Lt. Cmdr. Anthony Brooks who in turn reports to the Fleet's Executive Officer Admiral Tom Paris. On occassion, Taben may be called upon to brief the Admiral in person.

It is occasionally rumored within the Intelligence community that he maintains a private network of assoicates and business contacts, but the veriacity of these ideas are unknown. It has been noted (quietly) by some that he sometimes appears to have access to an unusual amount of personal wealth and resources, but no evidence has surfaced that ties Ross to any illegal activities.

OOC Background

Ross Taben was Chris Daniels' first Bravofleet character, created in 2000. The decision to make Ross a Bajoran came from Chris' desire not have his character's species be the same as anyone else in the game. After a rough start on the ill-fated USS Souix, Chris transfered Ross to the USS Laffey, where he stayed for three and a half years. In 2004, Ross was temporarily retired, leaving the Laffey as Chris focused on his new character, So'l Mackenzie. In late 2005, Ross was reactivated and placed on the SS Theseus, which shut down almost immediately afterwards, but Chris stuck around for the Theseus' successor game, the USS Redemption, which also shut down almost immediately. After that, Chris decided to take Ross into FE.