Jimena Zelenko

Jimena Zelenko was born in early 2363 on the USS Venture. Her mother was an operations officer and her father was a civilian. Due to the nature of her mother’s busy job, she generally spent more time with her father, and her accent more closely resembles his Slavic affectation than her mother’s Hispanic.

In 2373, she and her father were transferred from the Venture to Starbase 172 as the vessel prepared to take a more prominent role in the Dominion War, but they returned to the Venture and her mother in 2376.

Zelenko was accepted to Starfleet Academy once she turned 18, and graduated in 2385 as a tactical officer. She was assigned to the Saber-class frigate USS Doolittle, and quickly made a name for herself as a calm and collected officer who could keep her nerves no matter how stressful the situation. Her time on the Doolittle mostly consisted of running escort and patrol missions in wolfpack formations, and while she saw little action beyond fighting pirates and raiders, it was enough to convince Zelenko that her future lay with more aggressive Starfleet vessels. After a year and a half, she was promoted to Lieutenant JG, and was upgraded from Relief Tactical Officer to full Tactical Officer

In 2389, Zelenko was promoted to Lieutenant, and was transferred from the Doolittle to the Defiant-class escort USS Piorun, and served as a bridge tactical officer. During this period, she was exposed to much more heavy combat, with her ship primarily used to patrol the Tholian border and fight off any incursions they made into Federation space.

In 2394, after five years of serving on the Piorun, Zelenko was promoted to Lieutenant Commander and made executive officer of the Excelsior-class vessel USS Tecumseh, a vessel assigned to the 4th Fleet’s Task Force 93 and predominantly used in humanitarian missions. While this was done to diversify Zelenko experience and avoid creating a vastly overspecialized officer, she nonetheless interpreted moving from a Defiant to such an older vessel as a hinderance to her career trajectory. However, the assignment and the ship itself soon grew on her. She found the humanitarian relief and rescue missions to enormously fulfilling and far more challenging than she’d assumed, and the sheer rugged dependability of the Excelsior-class led to her developing quite a bit of affinity for the old ship.

After serving on the Tecumseh with distinction for six years, Zelenko was transferred from the old Excelsior to the Achana, a small Raven-class corvette, to prepare her for a full-sized command. After three months of commanding this vessel, she promoted to Commander and given command of the Reliant-class frigate USS Shepard.