Derik Veradin (KIA)

Personnel File
Name:	Derik Veradin
Rank:	Lieutenant Junior Grade
Position:	Acting Chief CONN Officer
Species:	Trill (Unjoined)
Age:	27
Gender:	Male
Orientation:	Homosexual
Birthplace:	Zelthus, Trill
Height:	6’1” / 1.85m
Weight:	193 lbs / 87.54kg
Hair:	Dark Brown
Eye color:	Lake Blue
Played by:	Bryan Thomas
Writer:	Formerly: Mathis, JayLatte, Argyros
Interests
Piloting Fitness Running Weight Lifting Drinking Partying Poker Boxing Martial Arts Billiards
Education
Trill General Education, class of 2372 Starfleet Academy, class of 2378
Service Record
2378-2381: Ensign, Assistant Chief CONN Officer, USS Resolve 2381-Present: Lieutenant J.g., Asst. Chief CONN Officer, USS Theurgy
Decorations
N/A

Before dying in the Battle of the Houses, Junior Lieutenant Derik Veradin was the Acting Chief CONN Officer on the USS Resolve before he defected to the USS Theurgy after the Battle of Starbase 84, where he got the same position. Derik Veradin aided in the opposition against the parasites that compromised Starfleet Command in the end of the 24^th century.

Biography

Derik was born in the City of Zelthus on the Trill homeworld. Both of his parents worked as researchers for the Trill Science Ministry. As the fourth of five children, Derik was the only of his siblings not to follow in the family pursuits of Science and Engineering.

His early childhood was relatively uneventful, receiving average scores in his various schooling levels. In his adolescence he found a passion in fitness and athletics. He also realized, and embraced early, his attraction to men and pursued lots of ‘extracurricular activities,’ often to the detriment of his schooling. Only his love of sports and their grade requirements kept his head in the game enough to scrape by with passing grades. The old Earth phrase of “drugs, sex, and rock and roll” would be an appropriate motto for his overall lifestyle in this time of his life. His behavior predictably bothered his parents quite a lot, as they always considered schooling and education a top priority. They tried to crack down on him but he only drew more distant as a result.

When he finished his primary schooling, having barely graduated, he got a job with a commercial shipping company that operated out of Trill that took their shipments all over the quadrant. Derik loved the freedom that he finally enjoyed while working for them. Wanting to expand his skills and value to the company, he asked one of the pilots to teach him to fly. He showed amazing natural talent, picking up the skill faster than the older pilot had ever seen before.

Derik was weeks away from Trill when a natural disaster struck Zelthus. He could only watch the news-vids from his bunk on the cargo freighter halfway across the quadrant as he saw reports of the damage and following civil unrest his home city had fallen into. Though he had become a little estranged from his family, his heart was wrenched because he wasn't able to get through to them on any subspace channels for days. When everything finally settled, Derik was able to get through and learned the terrible news that his younger brother, Tehren, had been killed. Something inside him seemed to break when he learned the news. He had been closer to Tehren than anyone else in his family. He was the only one Derik would regularly write home to. He made his way home as quickly as he could.

Months went by after his return home, and his whole family was trying to deal with the fallout of everything that had happened. Derik had quit his job at the shipping company and his life felt a little adrift, finding solace only in his normal nightlife activities, feeling guilty that he hadn't been home when everything had happened.

Early in 2374, just months after his brother's death, his cousin Coryn visited Trill to be with the family. Coryn was on leave from Starfleet and was only able to be there for a few days, but he and Derik had been close growing up and seeing him helped Derik immensely. Feeling uplifted and a little less guilty after Coryn's visit, Derik eventually decided that he wanted to do something more with his life, something to honor Tehren. His little brother had always spoken of wanting to join Starfleet, so Derik decided that he would apply at Starfleet Academy the next term. With Coryn’s endorsement, Derik was accepted.

In the fall of 2374, Derik entered Starfleet Academy, in the piloting program. He took to it with such zeal and natural ability that he impressed his instructors from the start. For the most part, he was a model cadet, scoring well in all of his classes, though his science and engineering classes required a lot of all-nighters. Through all of this, Derik kept a ‘work hard, play hard’ mentality. He lived up to, and sometimes beyond, the typical “arrogant, bad boy” pilot stereotype, yet he had the memory of his brother to keep him tempered and to keep it from interfering with his studies, for the most part.

In the summer of 2378, Derik graduated with honors from the Academy, rising to the rank of ensign. He found out that his first post was the USS Resolve, a long-range exploration and science vessel, as their Assistant Chief CONN officer.

Full of an excitement he'd not felt since his adolescent days, he packed his bags and made his way to his transport that would overnight him to the USS Resolve.

Despite his excitement and high hopes, the next three years would end up being far from what he’d hoped for. On his very first mission aboard the Resolve, his ship was flung across space while studying a spatial anomaly. When they realized where they were, it was all they could do not to let despair flood in. They were in the uncharted spatial rim well beyond Romulan space. It would take them years to get back to Federation space.

The next three years were a trial by fire for Derik and his shipmates. They came together as a family, but they lost many members of that family along the way. He eventually became Acting Chief Conn Officer in a way he would never have wished, when Lt. John Kinney, his friend and mentor and Resolve’s Chief Conn Officer, was killed during a battle, just four months before their arrival at Starbase 84.

Despite being celebrated as heroes in their return and arrival at the Starbase, Derik could sense the tension in the welcoming party, and noticed the increased security presence. Something wasn’t quite right. Frustrated that he wasn’t allowed to send a message home yet, he found a bar and someone to take back to his ‘guest quarters’ aboard the starbase. Luckily he wasn’t too drunk and left his fling in the room when Captain Kendrick called them back to the Resolve unexpectedly. He rejoined his crew and waited aboard the ship, ready to help his new family however he was needed.

Personality Profile

On the outside, and most of the way through to be honest, Derik is your typical hot shot pilot. He's confident, brash, arrogant, skilled, yet charismatic and charming when he wants to be. He can let his passion for life get the better of him, though since joining Starfleet he's been able to keep that more under control. His mouth still sometimes lands him in hot water with his superiors though.

Though he plays hard, he takes his work very seriously, taking pride in his accomplishments, he aspires to a great career in Starfleet, hoping to pilot large Federation dreadnaughts someday, and he knows that assignments like those don't come to the lazy or unqualified. The reminder of his lost brother weighs on him, pushing him to be the best so Tehren would be proud.

He's never been in a truly serious relationship with a guy, mostly because his passion for life bleeds over into his romantic pursuits, leaving his few relationships to be fueled by intense passion, only to burn out soon after. His current mentality is that life's too short to do more than just enjoy whatever, and whoever, life throws at you. Deep down this is all due to a fear of commitment and the fear of loving someone too deeply and feeling that he’ll inevitably lose them. Despite this he still has lit embers for a few people, just too afraid to act on them.

His time aboard the Resolve, lost in uncharted space, hardened him a bit. He’s not as loud and fun as he used to be. He takes his duties as serious as ever, knowing their survival meant everyone working to their best ability at all times.

Physical Profile

At 6'1" and 193 lbs, he sports an athletic and well-muscled body, toned from many years of dedication to his hobby of personal fitness. He has piercing lake blue eyes with tiny streaks of green and dark brown hair. As with other Trill, he has two sets of spots that start at his temples and travel down the length of his body.

He also has a tattoo on his left bicep of a celtic-type cross that he picked up after partying in Ireland during his academy days. He still to this day doesn't remember getting it or why, but he likes the design so decided not to have it removed.

As a fitness enthusiast, members of the crew will often find him in the gym or running the corridors early in the mornings. His time aboard the Resolve gave him training in hand to hand combat beyond that typically taught in the Academy, and he’s decent with phaser rifles and pistols as well.

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