Marisa Cheshire

Marisa was born in 2361 to a Star Fleet fighter pilot by the name of Irina Serbova, who was stationed at a small frontier outpost along what was to become the Federation/Ferengi Alliance boarder. Her father, William Cheshire, was a Federation diplomat that gained a small bit of renown as trade opened up between the two powers. That wasn’t for a few years though, up until official first contact with the Ferengi it was only a small boring hub which Star Fleet expeditions along with the allied fleets made occasional use of. There was only about 5,000 permanent residents and Marisa was only one of a few children. She grew up watching her mother’s small civil defense squadron go on sortie and the mechanics repair the ships. Though she spent more time with her father, the fighters became something of a mythical fascination and she started pestering her mother to allow her to sit in the co-pilots seat the second she could string sentences together. After relations had stabilised she was allowed to sit in for a few patrols, and it was at that point Marisa was lost to the path.

After 2364 the outpost began to expand. First the defense capabilities were expanded, but slowly it turned into a bustling trade port. At the age of 11 she was known as the bane of the early Ferengi traders that would try and swindle the new market. They quickly began recognizing her as an obstacle and began bribing her with a few strips of latinum each month to keep her mouth shut. For a couple years she basically ran an extortion racket against them, even though she didn’t even know the concept. She even went as far as making a point to hamper their business as much as possible when they failed to pay up. Of course, the second she was discovered she was in a lot of trouble, and almost cost her father his position.

After first contact with the Dominion her mother was transferred to a carrier group as tensions rose, and when the war kicked off William retired from service at the request of Irina and returned to his home land of Western Australia, Earth where it was safer. There he was offered a job from a center/right political organization and eventually acquired the United Earth Government’s chair for the Pilbara Electorate. Despite the higher temperature Marisa found her new home much like her old one before first contact with the Ferengi, which set the stage for her to straighten up in preparation for her Academy application. She developed a love affair with Cosmic horror in order to keep herself from acting out, and the idea of discovering the unknown became just as much of a draw as piloting.

Marisa’s grades were pretty average through out her studies with the exception engineering and her piloting. She already had a lot of hands on experience with the mechanics at the outpost and her studies only built upon that base, but where she truly excelled was her piloting. During her first training sortie she was given the call sign “Alice”, and it’s stuck throughout her career much to Marisa’s vexation. Towards the end of her studies she made the short list as the pilot for a special response squad. The whole set up reminded her of the Red Squad scandal and she told the commander recruiting for the position as much during her audition, followed by her declining the offer. It had a rather poor effect on her career, and in-spite of her phenomenal piloting grades upon graduation at age 21 she was assigned as an Academy flight instructor, known as a FAIP (First Assignment Instructor Pilot), flying the same ships with nuggets for the next 4 years.

At the age of 25 she was reassigned to an Air Demonstration Squadron out of Nellis in which she flew tight formations to entertain spectators as Thunderbird Two. The closer formations were challenging and it was certainly a step up from FAIP she quickly fell into a rut. To keep herself sane she took up the guitar and wrote a couple of songs that described the issues with her postings along with weekends in Vegas.

After 2 years in the Thunderbirds at the age of 27 she managed to score a transfer to a Star Base patrol wing along the Klingon boarder as a flight lead. Her squadron’s job was to protect shipping lanes from pirates. Now, with the leash off she was finally able to cut loose and show off what she could do. Despite the agonisingly boring postings she had previously, they did hone her basic flying capabilities to a razor point. She became known by some of the regulars to traverse that space as “Dun boQqa’pu’” or “Majestic Angel” on account of how smooth her combat maneuvers were as she defended their shipping lanes and the name of her squadron. After a year she was promoted to squadron leader as she became a little bit of a local celebrity among the freighter captains: it was good luck to see the Angel on patrol. Her comrades often joked about giving the captains a copy of “Through the Looking Glass” in order to correct their mistake.

In 2392 her assignment on the Klingon boarder was up and she had finally built up a record with a bit of clout. She applied for a Carrier Wing posting in the hopes of pushing out further into the frontier.