Ben Vessery (KIA)

Personnel File
Name:	Ben Vessery
Rank:	Lieutenant Junior Grade
Position:	Security Officer
Species:	Human
Age:	28
Gender:	Male
Orientation:	heterosexual
Birthplace:	Utopia colony, Mars
Height:	1.77m
Weight:	77 kg
Hair:	Brownish black
Eye color:	Brown
Played by:	Unknown
Interests
A specific Art- Portraiture, then being idle 'as an art we can all practice', homework on his 'opposite numbers', nice clothes that make him look good, all the different kinds of sports in the universe that each call themselves 'football', beer.
Education
Starfleet Academy, class of 2375.
Service Record
2375: Assigned to USS Harbinger 2381: Transferred to USS Theurgy, KIA
Decorations
N/A

Ben Vessery was a Security officer who served aboard the USS Harbinger and was briefly appointed to the USS Theurgy to serve as Chief of Security before he was killed in action. Before his death, Vessery aided in the opposition against the parasites that compromised Starfleet Command in the end of the 24^th century.

Biography

Vessery is one of the 'apprentices' serving in the USS Harbinger'’s security contingent: young, not terribly experienced, and all somewhat generic men and women by first appearances. On the surface of it they give off very 'supporting cast' vibes. In their smaller dramas it seems to be more about the officers they are growing to be- rather than who they are currently. Their trials revolve around learning and aspiring, faltering and settling... happening within an environment defined by strict control and obedience.

Pre-'flight' Harbinger was known to offer a properly challenging, but ultimately enriching, experience- with a tour that expected professionalism and competency from the get go- that rigidity, deference, would quickly bring to the fore in the newly assigned. Lessons and values a service-being could later build a career from came after one bought into the 'old fashioned' Harbinger ethos. Between its current and former Security Chief there was little real movement in attitude from this expectation. The former, was the rigid and controlling influence, the current Chief the one that stressed loyalty to it.

It was a tough environment to learn in. A by-product was that Security Officers were concreted together by Department stresses, and also by common graduating groups or Academy years they came from, into a clique within the crew. One that would hold together through Harbinger’s great challenge....

What started as the assignment to track and capture the USS Theurgy, was quickly billed as the 'apprentices' chance to put into practice Harbinger values. A near ruthless pursuit, fervently after the 'truth' of why a Starfleet ship would be part of a plot against the United Federation of Planets- as much as having their heads- got the cruiser Harbinger to the bottom of what was going on, and gave them an answer as to why the other ship had to be silenced...

One they couldn't have expected: a conspiracy within Starfleet- against the Federation- willed Theurgy’s destruction for what it knew. In being so good in it's chase of the Theurgy the Harbinger was manoeuvring itself into trouble also. The revelation of what was happening within Starfleet Command shocked and shook the Harbinger... and made them as much the enemy as Theurgy was. The change in fortune from hunter to hunted was made for them. Surrender was no option- with what was now known to be happening within Command. Mercy was not to be expected. ‘Surviving the Harbinger’ took on a whole new meaning...

And life on Harbinger became hard- not 'this will make you a better officer' hard, but an equation of individual lives versus the continued- collective- existence of the ship. The 'redshirts' of Security would be, and were, thinned out in the fighting that followed... as Harbinger went on the run, fighting ships were mobilised to hunt it down, and battles were fought against ex-allies to... rather grimly... remain alive for another evening. This would go on for months...

Vessery did not sign on for such a challenge, but he didn't have a chance to say otherwise... Chief Diadeniera's vocal 'stand and fight' alternative seemed absurd from the moment it was heard of, and it was quickly realised to be some 'personal play' rather than a legitimate suggestion of course... because the Chief quickly iterated her loyalty and brought down her suspicions on the rest of the crew, as to whether they were truly 'with' the Ship and its Command Team. In an instant the fantasy of defecting off ship, and holding onto the fact that a person could be too far down the Chain of Command to be a threat to anyone, that you could be left alone if you quickly declared you wanted such, became as dangerous to entertain as it would have been to try.

Everyone knuckled down, and started dying. Harbinger had been through battles of great intensity and varying length without support, nor real hope... and within this diabolical set of circumstances people were fed the line that since the 'universe' had taken off the gloves; that the crew of the Harbinger should be ready to do likewise. A quiet inquisition by Security against the vague threat of mutiny dominated the 'quiet' stretches the ship had, when without direct action against chasing Starfleet vessels. And the encounters with Starfleet hunting parties included brutal CQB affairs repelling boarders that cost many lives- above those lost to the furious phaser and torpedo exchanges that led to it. The strong did not always survive, only the lucky, and those that endured were the ones that started to harden to the world around them.

Security 'tightened' into something discomforting; its people at once more vulnerable to one another, and dependent... enemies were invented- and expectations of correctness magnified. The 'Winter Queen'- the XO T'Rena- became a truly scary proposition to come up against... and the Security Chief's personality and suspicions further alienated a Department that was being bled by the hunt.

Vessery shifted within this environment mostly as a background figure, but his face became associated with a problem; a non-verbal and non-specified unease. If it was felt there was a problem of 'his' sort within the Department, the sharp looks from above settled on Vessery before anyone else... he was not considered a mutineer as there were other people who were watched for 'that potential'... but he was the personification of that second kind of problem: the Officer who might not be able to do what was necessary to survive- who didn't have 'the right stuff'.

Objectively he performed well: distinguishing himself in two boarding actions, and by cross training with Tactical so as to potentially stand shifts manning the ships weapons, he further proved himself... but there was always this feeling he might be a bit 'wet'. It wasn't that he was soft spoken, but that he was quiet. His habit of preferring consensus became a black mark that his tone when leading, and reliance upon going along with things, couldn't quite erase from the memory of those above him.

His life before the Harbinger seems a distant factor in peoples opinions of him... but from it people remember he came from a good family, living in a good area, going to a good school, enjoying a good standard of living. It was assumed he was more like the people Starfleet protected, than anyone who should be doing the protecting. Stories about growing up on Mars, of his old school, of touring Earth and Andoria and Vulcan, seemed indulgent more than informative... part of that complaint may have been due to the 'telling'... but he seems like the kind of kid who doesn't go into Starfleet... that class who always have it comfortable before settling down, and disappearing back into the well-to-do but not particularly inspiring populations that they came from.

He transferred aboard the USS Theurgy to replace Lieutenant Commander David Grayson who had sustained fatal injuries at the hands of the USS Calamity’s holographic AI known as Cala. Lieutenant Ben Vessery died on the surface of Theta Eridani IV, the victim of aerial bombardment from the Calamity’s AC-507 Mk I Reaver's. He was succeeded by Lieutenant Commander Wenn Cinn, who ironically enough had been the Theurgy’s first chief of security.

Personality Profile

Being an accommodating type who values consensus, cooperation, and a greater good influencing his objectives, all makes for a solid team player. This predisposition sometimes has more to do with a willingness 'to go along' with what sounds right, than actual altruism- with the experience being that he then defers to stronger voices. If he can't keep up with expectations he will attempt to be civil in his resistance: says he is Gandhi-esque in an ambition to 'not injure but not comply' to workloads or tasks he can't handle. In reality he just becomes irritatingly indirect when on the job then, and avoiding in his behaviours. Hardly mature or enlightened.

His tone while leading looks strong however, directive, but he always delegates in truth- save one aspect he visibly handles- to 'give example' by. In his duties he is cautious with the responsibility given to him, but fearful of being easily out-manoeuvred by others, so can and does act suddenly- out of that unease to keep any initiative from travelling too far away from him.

Some lack of verve, boredom, and disconnect keeps him un-trusting of his own merits, nor the truth to the connections he has with others. Mostly he wants to be a good man, seen as both respectable and distinct in good character. Bar that he wishes to be 'null' or neutral, so avoiding negative evaluation. He is reassured when he feels people recognise, or believe him to be gentlemanly. He also believes he has some awareness about what's being played out around him, what's 'really' at stake, and an overall picture of the ship's situation laid out against his values; without any of that actually changing his superfluous effect on scenarios.

His wit is kept dry, and he is happy sometimes being 'intellectual'. But intellectual in his mind is playfully done, by being lazily draped over furniture; discussing 'lofty' ideals, far enough removed from ones day-to-day experience of the universe- to not upset the natural order of things too obviously. He is insightful and reflective by degree- but his thoughts and conversation can be meandering, and with his personal admiration of stoicism, the effect is that it can have him stay quiet... to play out a scenario all in his head, instead.

Now by seeing what lacks in his own profile he then appreciates trusting and energetic friendships; close relationships without hierarchy... and so can be suckered by a romantic ideal.

Physical Profile

A thin faced man with clean, neat features; straight nose, admirably set jaw, and slight hollow under his cheek bones. His thick eyebrows, dark hair, and shadowed eyes give of an impression that is vaguely stand-offish. He is thin lipped but his smile is genuine, wide, and loose, so he has preference to smirking out of one corner of the mouth when he can help it. His hair is combed fiercely to one side- kept off his face, and short at the back and around the sides, in that very martial fashion.

He has a good shaped body, average height; wider but at the shoulders, and as such athletic without anything looking particularly muscular... he does have an attractive physicality to him, close to flat at the stomach, has sinewy arms ending with sharp knuckles- and a kicking man's legs. He walks a slow step, hint of a hunch at rest, and conscious practice of turning his chin up.