Xiang Shu

Early Life

Born in Melbourne, Australia, Xiang Shu’s early years could be summarised as fairly typical and not terribly note-worthy. A sixth-generation Australian, Shu’s early life is a mixture of school, the occasional move, summer holidays that seemingly had no end, friends coming and going and the occasional heart-break. By the time she finished high-school however she already had her sights set on the wider universe, falling in love with the idea of joining Starfleet after encountering an expo booth at a pop-culture convention her first year of high-school. Her friends teased her mercilessly that it wasn’t Starfleet she’d fallen in love with, or the universe at large, but the lieutenant that she spent over an hour grilling for details.

This had been no series of questions about weird space aliens or new vistas to enjoy, but actual indepth questions about shipboard life, duty expectations, educational requirements and more. She had truly been asking what the Starfleet experience was like, asking far more questions and building a far more informed basis on which to base any decisions than the target audience did.

It was no surprise to her family then that her her entry application to the Academy had essentially been years in the making when she made applied, tailoring her own education towards physics and engineering to ensure she could enter the engineering programs that Starfleet had to offer. Rigorous study and training ensured she passed the entrance qualifications easily. While more prestigious universities might have offered similar programs, Starfleet’s came with the lure of the stars but also the chance to work with the engines that made classical physicists weep. There had never been an ‘ah ha’ moment when she realised she found her calling, but by the end of her second year she was a through and through engineer having discovered the joys of working to understand complex engineering principals as well as actually get her hands dirty with the machines responsible for putting theory into practise.

Starfleet Career

Rodney NV-17

Upon graduation from the Academy, Shu was initially assigned to Rodney NV-17 as a junior engineering officer and newly commissioned Ensign. Her time aboard ship was filled with a myriad of firsts, as expected of graduates of the Academy not born on United Earth’s colonies or boomer ships. Rodney however wasn’t an explorer, but an older Intrepid-class ship primarily used for patrol work, so options for the promised grand adventures were never going to occur, but many of the things recruiters promise those considering careers in Starfleet did during her time aboard ship. Ultimately however during her years aboard Rodney, Shu never managed to travel more then a few light decades from Earth.

Guangdong NCC-124

Promotion to Lieutenant Junior Grade came with a new assignment, this time to the Daedalus-class Guangdong NCC-124, and Shu’s first real interstellar adventures. Admittedly so much of the time spent aboard ship was merely in transit, moving from one destination to the next, but opportunities to stretch one’s legs and fulfil some of those grander promises occurred. The disadvantage however of a smaller but more manpower intensive ship like the Daedalus-class was the close confines and pressures on the crew which ultimately contributed to Shu’s transfer off the ship in late 2151.

The pressure cooker of personalities, at times with little to do during transits, found her in middle of an interpersonal relationship triangle that went from fine to seriously impacting the Engineering department of the ship in very little time. While all three parties were ultimately reassigned to other vessels, Shu’s was a voluntary request, seeking to remove herself from the situation and ideally end the problem, which her CO at the time commended her for recognising the situation for what it was and moving to take a responsible course of action. Due to their forward posting however, she wasn’t able to depart the vessel for nearly six weeks until Guangdong rendezvoused with Auckland NCC-187.

Auckland NCC-187

Unexpectedly for her, the transfer also came with a promotion as she had completed time in grade while waiting to leave her previous ship and her commanding officers had considered her an exemplary officer. Transferring to the Auckland as a full Lieutenant, Shu was placed as the second duty officer of Beta shift immediately. While an increase in responsibilities, she handled the workload admirably, though notably at the suffering of her free time, which her immediate superiors did comment on, but never with the manpower requirements inherent to such a ship they did not act on in any meaningful manner.

Expressing interest in expanding her skill sets however, she regularly volunteered for away missions, even becoming the first person to step foot on no less then fifteen celestial bodies in recorded history. While admittedly most of those will likely never be visited again by anyone, there was one M-class world that was discovered and surveyed by Auckland where Shu was indeed the first to step foot upon the world. The world, SF-A-2152-07-1, still lacks a name, but reports from the ship’s science teams did name several features upon the world during their three weeks of survey work, including the eponymously named Shu’s Fall, name in hour for her rather unfortunate trip out of a shuttlepod face planting upon a new world.

Glowworm NV-34

Once more reassigned, returning to an Intrepid-class starship, Glowworm, named in honour of HMS Glowworm, Shu stepped in as a shift leader within the engineering team and was primarily responsible for overseeing a series of process and training modernisations amongst the crew. Glowworm‘s primary duties consisted of convoy escort duties with limited scientific research when opportunities presented themselves. With the declaration of war, Glowworm‘s meagre scientific endeavours came to an end and the ship was asked to do more and more convoy work with minimal downtime.

In the lead up to the Battle of Sol and the order for as many ships to rally to Earth as possible, Glowworm suffered an engineering breakdown, caused by a lack of maintenance due to high operational tempo. With an enforced forty-eight hour field repair, all of the ship’s engineers working with minimal rest, Glowworm was able to resume her sprint for Earth. Her reduced speed and the time spent engaging in repairs meant she missed the battle, forced to listen to the entire conflict via subspace radio. Her only contribution was to form part of an obvious search line, pounding away with all active sensors, to funnel any escaping Romulan ships into the embrace of far more capable combat vessels.

Atlantis NX-05

Following on from the Battle of Sol, Shu was removed from her position aboard the Glowworm and reassigned to the Atlantis to accommodate a staffing shortage. While Atlantis‘ damages had been light during the battle, her personnel where forcibly being spread thin in light of the severe losses elsewhere in the fleet in order to try and graft experience onto fresh crews. Going from mere Engineering Officer to Assistant Chief was a reasonably large jump in responsibility for her, but was balanced by the mentorship of the ship’s CEO, Commander Gavin Holmes, who seemingly took it as a personal challenge to bring a new crew, save for a few who where original features to Atlantis, up to his standards.

With so many other ships undergoing repairs or bound for the scrappers to make new ships all together, Atlantis found herself pressed to the front lines and Shu’s experience of the war went from a theoretical conflict she had avoided for over a year to a very real conflict with very real stakes involved. Her on the job training as a senior engineer included repairs and maintenance procedures for the advanced NX engines that were most certainly not in any manuals, impromptu counselling for junior officers and enough practical experience that after nine months aboard ship she sat and passed her advanced first aid certificate.

Unfortunately Atlantis’ time on the front lines wasn’t to last as June of 2156 came around. Caught up in battle with Romulan forces over Tau Ceti IV, Atlantis was badly damaged defending the colony, the ship rendered inhospitable post-battle and requiring extensive time in dock for repair work. The only saving grace that day was that the crew were able to abandon ship, though not without casualties. Shu herself was among the wounded and would spend three months in hospital and another two in rehab before being allowed to resume her duties.

Endeavour NX-06

Following her passing medical examinations and physical fitness tests, which she claimed were borderline torture at the time, Shu was declared fit for duty and immediately handed her new orders to assume the position of Chief Engineering Officer aboard the Endeavour NX-06.