Arthur Couer-Reynold

Arthur Couer-Reynold

• Basic Info

  Name: Arthur Couer-Reynolds
  Rank: Lieutenant
  Position: Chief Intelligence Officer
  Species: Human (1/4 Orion)
  Gender: Male
  Date of Birth: January 9, 23?? (age 34)
  Place of Birth: Botchok (Rigel VIII)

• Appearance

  Physical: Standing at 180 cm and weighting 72 kg, his hair a shade of dark brown and eyes of light brown, Arthur has a slightly athletic build and short, cropped haircut. Behavior: Walks with a semi-professional gait. Squints often while reading, but not because of any problems with eyesight. Speaks in a slightly higher tone of voice than one might expect from his somewhat athletic build, but his intonation of each and every word is often careful and concise. Not particularly agile. Usually seen moving at a steady pace. Almost never runs in corridors for fear of hitting others.

• Personality

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  Stubborn, devil's advocate, assertive, vindictive, mentally and emotionally disciplined, independent, intense, formally cordial, sardonic (deadpan-snarker), analytical, may be unpredictable, skeptical, introverted, ambitious
  
  Known to have high levels of focus, self-discipline, intentionality, independence, and intensity of thought. Prefers to solve problems and optimize performance. He's also competitive, though he rarely admits to it. Isn't a seasoned conversationalist, but knows the importance of keeping certain things quiet. Friendly, but resists intimacy with others.
  
  Rather straight-forward, Arthur may forget how to be polite when confronted with a person he's developed a strong opinion of. Often plays devil's advocate during heated debates. May be confrontational, but is usually level-headed. Prefers the concrete to the abstract, but is still open to theory. Often considers actions to speak louder than words except in diplomatic cases, when the meaning behind each word is of particular importance. Has an exceptional ability to perceive cause and effect if it involves people.
  
  Naturally acts without concern for principles, but paradoxically desires to have some. Fears his past (pre-Starfleet) and wants nothing to do with it, but also worries that it may one day interfere with his future.
  
  Major hobby: Reading. Non-fiction with a few choices in fiction. He enjoys writing commentaries on the things he reads.

• Background/History

  Short version:
  

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  Year 1 - Born to James Reynolds and Melissa Couer on Botchok (Rigel VIII). Father worked for Orinco Shipbuilders Company as low-level engineer. Mother was an entrepreneur who funded Korantine Restaurant in central Mazak. Arthur enjoyed building things. He grew accustomed to interacting with other species.
  
  Year 9 - Met Emma Bartel, Starfleet Lieutenant J.G. in the Engineering division aboard USS Remington. Arthur becomes fascinated with Starfleet and life in space.
  
  Year 11 - Arthur's father, James, is arrested by the Planetary Government for organizing a worker revolt in one of the orbital shipyards. Melissa took Arthur to live in Tipot (a nation-state on Botchok) with an Orion named Kadrel.
  
  Year 12 - James disappears and Melissa marries Kadrel. Arthur furiously leaves home and is kidnapped by an Andorian working for the Orion Syndicate. He's sent by the Bajoran Maya Kesuma to work on Vem'ir as a messenger.
  
  Year 14 - Arthur turns over one of his fellow children, the Klingon Farkus, after discovering he planned to kill their supervisor, Lamberton. Arthur is then sent to serve as an apprentice to Tellarite engineer Relvak aboard the RRV Orion Dawn.
  
  Year 15 - Arthur joins Relvak in a mutiny and continues serving on the Orion Dawn.
  
  Year 17 - Relvak tricks Arthur into believing he killed the Pakled Nebmikel due to an accident in the ship's power grid he was supposed to prevent. The IKS Y'tem attacks the ship later, and Arthur is helped to escape by the Tandaran Benel. He ends up found by the Vulcan transport T'rel and brought to Namezk to live with Federation diplomat Sulek for three years.
  
  Year 20 - Arthur meets Emma Bartel, now Chief Engineer of the USS Endeavour, again. He helps decode an optolythic data rod containing information critical to Admiral Nancy Clement's arrest for ties with the Orion Syndicate. Emma recommends he join Starfleet, and upon his answer, she sent him to Starbase 27 aboard the USS Orion to take the Starfleet entrance exam.

  
  Starfleet Record:
  

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  Year 21 - Arthur passes the Starfleet entrance exam (average score) and joins Starfleet Academy with a focus in the Operations division. Exceptional grades noted in Starship Engineering and Cultural-Social Anthropology.
  
  Year 25 - Arthur is assigned to the USS Warren as junior Operations Officer and part-time Engineer with the rank of Ensign. Incident in a Starfleet outpost on Proxima Centauri resulted in a reprimand submitted by Commodore Harold Reed.
  
  Year 27 - Arthur is re-assigned to the Intelligence division with the consent of Chief Intelligence Officer Harley Briggs.
  
  Year 28 - Arthur is promoted to lieutenant junior grade.
  
  Year 30 - Arthur receives a commendation for his efforts in determining the identity of an assassin prior to the arrival of ambassador L'Kon from the Starfleet outpost on Resolution. Two weeks later, Captain Roland promoted Arthur to lieutenant.
  
  Year 30 - Arthur is reassigned to the USS Henderson as junior Intelligence Officer and part-time Operations Officer.
  
  Year 33 - Arthur transfers to Starbase Montgomery as Assistant Chief Intelligence Officer under Rear Admiral Olivia Manson following the departure of Jasmine Harrison.
  
  Year 33 - Arthur receives a commendation after assisting in negotiations with the L'Waht, who debated joining the Federation.
  
  Year 34 - Arthur is transferred as Chief Intelligence Officer following an incident involving an Yridian ship escaping with classified Starfleet information.

  
  Long version:
  

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  Arthur was born to James Reynolds and Melissa Coeur on Botchok in 23??. His father worked with the Orinco Shipbuilders Company as a low-level engineer, while his mother became an entrepreneur. Early in his life, he built models of buildings and compact devices with his father. He also accompanied his mother to the Korantine Restaurant in central Mazak on days both his parents had to work; there he grew accustomed to meeting different kinds of species. When he was nine, Arthur met a young Starfleet lieutenant (j.g.) named Emma Bartel who told him about Earth and some of the starships in use at the time, giving him his fascination with Starfleet for years to come.
  
  On his eleventh birthday, Arthur witnessed his father being accused of organizing a worker revolt in one of the orbital shipyards. While the Planetary Goverment had James arrested, Melissa took Arthur to live in Tipot with an Orion named Kadrel. A year later, James disappeared, presumed killed during a prison riot. Arthur would never fully recover from that revelation. When he found out another year later that his mother planned to marry Kadrel, he furiously left home and took to the streets.
  
  It didn't take long before an Andorian woman named Vira found him. She took him to her immediate superior in the Orion Syndicate, an elderly Bajoran named Maya Kesuma. Together with eighteen other children, Arthur was sent to work in the mines on Vem'ir running messages between the administrators and the overseers. Two and a half years later, he proved himself to administrator Joseph Lamberton by rooting out a traitor among the other children: Farkus, a 17-year-old half-Klingon boy who was planning to kill Lamberton at the behest of Lamberton's rival in the Syndicate, the Orion Sukanti. In retribution, Lamberton killed Farkus in front of Arthur and the other children, then sent Arthur to serve as an apprentice to the Tellarite engineer Relvak aboard the RRV Orion Dawn, then commanded by Lamberton's old friend Samuel Fletcher.
  
  In reality, Arthur's job aboard the ship was to help keep an eye on Relvak, who voiced his disagreements with Fletcher far too often. While Arthur received extensive engineering training aboard the mixed-design ship, learning how to make human civilian technology operate efficiently with Rigellian design, he grew close to Relvak. Five months later, Arthur joined Relvak in a mutiny against Fletcher that left the latter stranded on Omicron Theta, where Fletcher presumably died of starvation. Together with Relvak and the rest of his supporters, Arthur took to piracy from Barolia on toward the border between the Federation, Son'a, and Klingon Empire.
  
  During his tenure as a 'pirate' with Relvak, Arthur had a chance to learn about several of the species they captured or killed. Among these was a Pakled collector, a Tandaran weapons dealer, and a Klingon who had been disgraced and forced to command a cargo runner; all three were later integrated into the crew, and Arthur had many more opportunities to learn about their peoples' customs and values. Arthur particularly grew close to Benel, the Tandaran. This made Relvak suspicious, and two months after Arthur's seventeenth birthday, he killed Nebmikel, the Pakled, and made it appear to be an accident caused by Arthur's carelessness. While Arthur was forced to remain in his quarters as punishment, the ship was attacked by the IKS Y'tem, a Klingon scout ship patrolling the zone. Relvak and most of the crew were killed in the initial attack. As the Klingons boarded the ship, Benel tried to help Arthur get to an escape pod. Instead, Benel was killed by Muldok, their Klingon crewmate who had deliberately contacted the Y'tem earlier that day.
  
  Eventually, the escape pod found its way toward the Cebrinc star system, where it was picked up by the Vulcan transport T'rel, which was transporting an ambassador named Sulek to a conference on Namezk. Sulek helped Arthur deal with the trauma of his experience, teaching him a simple Vulcan meditation trick before arriving at their destination. Arthur started working and training at the embassy as Sulek's junior aide for the next three years. While there, he learned a fair deal about Vulcan customs and even played kal-toh together with Sulek, which Arthur failed to master for a long time.
  
  Five months before his twenty-first birthday, he met Starfleet engineer Emma Bartel once again. This time, Bartel was serving as chief engineer of the USS Endeavour, which was assigned to conduct an investigation into the activities of Orion Syndicate members that supposedly received information from an inside source in Starfleet. He helped her decrypt an optolythic data rod which held a message between Syndicate leader Raimus and Starfleet Rear Admiral Nancy Clement - in actuality, a former close associate of Raimus. Because of this, Emma recommended Arthur to Starfleet, and on his twenty-first birthday, he boarded the USS Orion on its way to Starbase 27. As a parting gift to Sulek, he offered a completed kal-toh and felt he had earned Sulek's respect.
  
  After passing the entrance exam with markedly average scores, Arthur traveled to Earth to attend Starfleet Academy. Since he was older than most applicants and from an obscure background, Arthur found it difficult to make friends. He spent much of his time studying alone in his dorm. His roommate, the half-Vulcan Carmen Salek, wasn't very disruptive, but Arthur thought Carmen's attempts at psycho-analyzing his behavior was annoying. While Carmen studied to become a counselor, Arthur worked toward a commission as an Operations officer. Arthur's best marks were in Starship Engineering and Socio-Cultural Anthropology.
  
  Four years later, he graduated alongside Carmen and traveled to Proxima Colony to await his first assignment aboard the USS Warren. While waiting at a restaurant with Carmen, he got into an argument with private Sarbal th'Ruanni, an Andorian marine who bragged about his father's exploits in battle. When Carmen revealed that Arthur "never really knew his parents", Sarbal and his compatriots further taunted Arthur. A fight broke out in which Arthur ended up unconscious with two broken ribs and a broken nose. While trying to break up the fight, Carmen was thrown into a table and accidentally killed by Marine private Joshua Prescott. After recovering, Arthur received a mark on his record.
  
  During his tenure aboard the Warren, Arthur served as junior operations officer and part-time engineer. This was the first time on record when he was noted for being 'cold and detached' to the rest of the crew. One of the reasons for this report was his avoidance of the mess hall during peak hours and dismissal of fellow ensign Farga's affections. Two years later, he requested a change in department following a fallout with the assistant chief engineer. He was made a junior intelligence officer a few months later following a successful crash course with the aid of CIO Harley Briggs. In this position, Arthur proved to be exceptionally cautious and attentive to detail, such that Harley considered him a worthy successor of her former aide.
  
  Captain Roland covertly assigned counselor Casey Jones to talk to Arthur and "break him out of his shell". Despite initially rejecting her attempts to befriend him, Arthur soon found a reason to listen. An anonymous letter, claiming to be from his father, told him to "look toward the future instead of living in the past" and "never lose confidence in the wake of [Arthur's] mistakes". Over the next few weeks, lieutenant Jones took note of Arthur's change in disposition. The next four years led to a startling change. Arthur proved to be more cooperative with the counselor and the rest of the crew. His punctuality and efficiency led to his promotion to lieutenant junior grade. Still, he remained rather resistant to intimacy, and most of the crew could only claim he was an acquaintance.
  
  When the Warren was quarantined at the Starfleet outpost on Resolution, Arthur helped security flush out an assassin among the crew prior to the arrival of Vulcan ambassador L'Kon, who was to be transported to Pullock V as a replacement for the ailing T'Mirel. After determining that ensign Janice Durant had connections with the Syndicate during a casual conversation, he covertly revealed part of his own past and earned her trust. Together, they worked on planning the assassination, but Arthur ultimately sabotaged her efforts and had her arrested minutes before L'Kon arrived. Furthermore, he uncovered the identity of her superior: Maya Kesuma, the same man responsible for Arthur's tortured past. Following this incident, Captain Roland promoted Arthur to lieutenant.
  
  One year later, Arthur had been reassigned to the USS Henderson under Commander Sevor, a Vulcan captain that preferred Arthur's detached behavior. On a ship where nearly half the crew were Vulcan, Arthur grew to appreciate their company. During his time aboard, however, Arthur found it difficult to converse with the non-Vulcan side of the crew. Finally, counselor Hendrix suggested he be transferred to Starbase Montgomery on their way to Bajor. Rear Admiral Olivia Manson agreed to take Arthur on as Assistant Chief Intelligence Officer under the supervision of Chief Intelligence Officer Rekor after his previous aide, Jasmine Harrison, went on to become CIO on the USS Oxford a week earlier. While Rekor was away, Arthur would be able to advise Strategic Operations while continuing to receive intelligence reports.
  
  While there, Arthur had a chance to be involved in negotiations with the L'Waht, who were applying to join the Federation since xenophobia had recently died down to minor levels. During the negotiations, he met a Betazoid diplomat named Renna Adana, who introduced him to cavat muffins and uttaberry pudding - what would become a staple of Arthur's breakfast in later years. Over the course of several months, they worked together on the proceedings alongside the Pandrilite Jokinra and Ferengi Moz, also diplomats of their respective peoples. Part of Arthur's strategy in mediating between the conservative and liberal factions of L'Waht involved playing devil's advocate, although this earned him some disdain from Admiral Manson. When Renna tried to get close and learn why Arthur spurred her advances, he avoided her and spent increasingly more time with the L'Waht delegation. Later that year, the L'Waht were accepted into the Federation, and Renna departed from the station without a farewell.
  
  After this, one of Arthur's few close friends suggested he get involved in the diplomatic corp. While Arthur considered the option, he ultimately rejected it and decided to continue working in the Intelligence field. His last major assignment on Starbase Montgomery was to investigate a Yridian merchant ship that was quarantined and unable to leave the station while he and Security checked for illegal data that had been stolen from a Starfleet ship operating out of Talarian space. While assisting an engineering team in investigating the Yridian's weapon systems for use around the date of the attack, he stopped Lieutenant J.G. Sentara from sabotaging the investigation. However, he was too late to stop an overload in the Yridian ship's engine core, forcing him to evacuate the ship and order Strategic Operations to eject it away from the station. In actuality, the breach was a fluke, and the Yridians went to warp before Arthur could stop them.
  
  This was a black mark on Arthur's record. Not only had he overstepped his bounds in ordering the CSO to release the ship, he made that order based on an assumption. In the Intelligence field, it was crucial to have all the pertinent information before making a decision. When Commander Ikrea Bareas, XO of Starbase Montgomery, found out, she had Arthur forcefully reassigned. However, Admiral Manson appreciated his frankness and believed he could be of aid to a certain captain she knew from her Academy days...