Nikola Edwards

Devoted Mother, Wife and Star Fleet Officer Lieutenant Ashley Douglas is a talented linguist serving within the Pacifica’s Science Department. She has been with the Pacifica since 2378 and is considered to be a senior member of her department. Outside of her work Ashley devotes her time and efforts to raising her young son Brian with her husband Sam.

Character Information

Name: Nikola Emily Edwards

Rank: Commander

Position: Commanding Officer

Post: [[USS Endeavour

Gender: Female

Species: Human

Age: 42

Physical Appearance

Height: 172 cm

Weight: 57 kg

Eye Colour: Hazel

Hair Colour: Dark Chestnut Brown

Description:

To the casual observer on first appearance Nikola appears to be a quiet and thoughtful individual with an unassuming presence. Standing at a height of 172cm (5’ 7”) Nikola tips the scales at a tick under 58kgs (127 lbs) which should be noted is slightly below average for a human female of her height, nevertheless she is a picture of good health. Nikola is nevertheless a picture of good health and maintains an active lifestyle with daily runs and the odd aerobic session. Thanks to her extensive cross county background Nikola has excellent endurance and power in her legs, but she does lack a lot of upper body strength.

Personality & Traits

General Overview:

Ashley is hard working and carries herself with a high sense of professionalism when she is on duty, but she also knows how to let her hair down and have fun. She tries not to take things to seriously as evidenced by her a quirky sense of humour, made up mostly of self deprecating jokes that she makes at her own expense. She is never short on material for her jokes as she can be quite clumsy at times. Despite this Ashley is very self assured and confident, this was not always the case as she lacked confidence in her youth but her time in Starfleet and motherhood has changed that for the better. One of the quirks that Ashley has developed since becoming a Mother is her use of parentese (baby talk) which she has a tendency to accidently drop into normal every day conversation.

Strengths & Weaknesses:

Ashley’s greatest strength is by far her family. While a constant source of strength and inspiration for her Ashley’s family is also her greatest weakness. Her concern for her family’s safety in particular that of her young son Brian, will often cause her to worry and lose concentration, especially during alert situations.

Ambitions:

Despite her ambitious nature Nikola had never pictured that she would one day wind up serving in Starfleet. The seemingly endless days of her childhood were often spent dreaming of lofty goals like becoming a princess similar to the ones found in the old Earth fairy tales that her Grandparents use to read to her. To much more simple and achievable dreams of becoming a school teacher like her own favourite primary school teacher Miss Ellis. Like most childhood dreams these were all fleeting and would quickly morph into whatever new fascination had managed to snare her imagination.

By the time of her thirteenth birthday, she had started to set her sights on one day following her father into political spectrum. Her ever increasing interest, awareness and knowledge in all things political made a career involving politics appear to be a natural progression for her, this was not only apparent to Nikola but to her parents as well. Political studies in secondary school continued to shape and hold Nikola’s attention until the start of her senior year when a Starfleet recruiter caught her ear.

Hobbies & Interests:

Nikola is an active woman with a strong love for cross country running. She first started running when she was in primary school and it quickly became a major foundation in her day to day routine. Since giving birth to Imogen Nikola rarely has enough free time to devote to her cross country training and her overall level of fitness has fallen away as a consequence of this. She still tries to go for a run a couple of times a week, but her work often gets in the way of this. Nikola’s other main passion lies in the field of politics and government, a trait that she no doubt picked up from her father who is heavily involved in local government back at home. She is a political scientist by trade and she enjoys keeping up-to-date on political matters from across the Federation.

Nikola is a bit of history buff with a particular love for both Early Federation and Earth history. It is not uncommon to find her reading some sort of historical text from either of these two periods of history. She is also a massive fan of English literature and often enjoys revisiting the works of her favourite writers including such famous as Shakespeare, Dickens, Hardy and Jane Austen. At the insistence of her parents Nikola was taught at a young age to play the piano by her Grandmother. Despite hating it as a child, Nikola has developed a fondness for it and enjoys playing the occasional tune. She has been putting serious thought into getting a piano of her own as she would love to one day teach it to her own daughter.

Languages:

Federation Standard, French, Latin and two different dialects of Vulcan.

Family

Father: Charlie Franklin

Mother: Rose Franklin

Brother: William Franklin

Spouse: Lieutenant JG Sam Douglas - married on the 4th of August 2378

Children: Brian Douglas - born on the 25th of December 2380

History

Childhood & Early Life

Ashley Maree Franklin was born on the planet Earth in the spring of 2351 in the city of Philadelphia. Her parents Rose and Charlie Franklin owned and operated a small yet successful old book store near Logan Square. Ashley spent many an hour in her parent’s store, reading through a wide variety of different books with the assistance of her parents. On her 13th birthday, Ashley was given a copy of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet by her grandfather, which opened up an entirely new world of literary style. Shakespeare quickly became Ashley’s favourite writer, as she loved analysing all of his work. This led to Ashley to developing a keen interest and understanding for the field of Linguistics during her years at Middle School, but it wasn’t until Ashley’s senior year of High School that she decided to actively pursue it as a career. Following her graduation from High School Ashley was accepted into the University of Chicago Linguistics Department Undergraduate Program. She graduated four years later in 2372 with a Bachelor of Arts in Linguistics.

Starfleet Academy

Ashley had intended to remain at Chicago University to obtain her masters degree, but she learned through a Starfleet Recruiter that she could do her masters degree through Starfleet Academy. Up until point in time Ashley had never really considered a career for herself in Starfleet, but she was well aware of the career potential that Starfleet would offer her as an Officer and as a Linguist. After doing a great deal of thinking and weighing up her options Ashley decided to set her sights on Starfleet and enrolled in Starfleet Academy. During her four years at the Academy Ashley successfully obtained her masters degree in Linguistics and took a number of specific language related courses. She also undertook a number of minor science courses that included Botany and Xenobiology. Ashley graduated from the Academy in 2376, finishing in the top 25 of her class. She was promoted to the rank of Ensign and was nominated for a ship based assignment.

Starfleet Career

Assignment #1 – USS Agincourt NCC-70088

Fresh from her graduation Ensign Ashley Franklin was assigned to the USS Magellan and it’s Science Department where she served as a Linguist until 2379. The Magellan was a modern Nebula Class Starship that had been tasked with heading up Starfleet’s exploration of the Tau Sigma Cluster. As one of only two Linguists aboard the Magellan it was Ashley’s job to catalogue and translate the many dialects that the ship encountered. It was a task that Ashley truly excelled at and even more importantly she loved doing it, it was the reason behind why she had started studying Linguistics in the first place all those years ago.

While in love with her work from day one, Ashley’s first couple of weeks on the Magellan were difficult. Having spent much of her life on Earth it took Ashley close to a month to adjust to the daily routine that came with life aboard a starship. By the end of her first month on the Magellan all her worries had well and truly been put to rest, as she now considered the ship to be her home, and it’s crew to be her family. In order to break up her daily routine Ashley took back up one of her passions from her teenage years on Earth, Ballroom Dancing which was being taught weekly in the Magellan’s Gym. It was during these classes that Ashley first met Sam Douglas a member of the Magellan’s Engineering staff who shared her passion for the social sport. There was an instant connection between the two and quickly hit it off, it wasn’t long before their friendship blossomed into a full blown romantic relationship. Sam proposed to her early in 2378 and the two officers were married on Stardate 55590.7 in a small ceremony performed by their Commanding Officer Captain Richard Blake with Ashley choosing to take on her husband’s surname of Douglas. Ashley’s harmony in her personal life was also shown in her work as she continued to impress her superiors with her work ethic and base of knowledge. By the time of July in 2379 Ashley successfully managed to establish herself as the Magellan’s senior Linguist and this was shortly followed by her promotion to Lieutenant Junior Grade.

In November of the same year, her husband Sam was offered a promotion and the opportunity to transfer to the USS Pacifica a Sovereign Class Starship. For years Sam had been working hard to establish a name for himself as a Impulse Systems Specialist and the transfer to the Pacifica would give him a chance to do just that. While happy with the life that they had made for themselves on the Megellan, it was simply an opportunity that they couldn’t afford to ignore. With heavy hearts the couple made the decision to both transfer across to the Pacifca once a position could be secured for Ashley.

USS Pacifica NCC-72545 (2380 - 2383)

Ashley transferred to the USS Pacifica with Sam in early 2380 and the two quickly settled into life aboard their new home. Ashley instantly fell in love with her position as the ship’s Language Specialist, it was a large step up from what she had been doing on the Magellan as she was now responsible for the entire Linguistics Department and she relished the added responsibility. Ashley and Sam had only been on the Pacifica for a couple of months when they discovered much to their delight that Ashley was pregnant with their first child. It took some time for the reality of their situation to sink in, but when it did it hit them like a tonne of bricks. Their initial delight at the news turned to that of worry as they began to discuss the merits of raising their son or daughter in space. The couple chose in the end to not rush to any one decision and preferred instead to focus on the wonderful journey that they were now on as parents to be. As Ashley’s pregnancy continued to advance those initial fears and concerns started to disappear completely from their thoughts. The couple welcomed their son who they named Brian Shane Doughlas into the world during the wee hours of Christmas Morning in 2380. Not long after giving birth to Brian their early concerns about raising their son aboard in space came back to the forefront during an engagement with the Rikan Pirates. The thought of raising her son in a potentially dangerous environment, caused Ashley a great deal of trouble and caused some friction in her relationship with her husband. With guidance and encouragement from Counselor Baron Ashley and Sam were able to work through their difficulties and reach a point where they were both comfortable with the prospect of raising Brian on the Pacifica.

Service Record

Civilian | 2351
University of Chicago | 2369
Starfleet Academy | Cadet | 2373
Starfleet Academy | Cadet | 2374
Starfleet Academy | Cadet | 2375
Starfleet Academy | Cadet | 2376
USS Magellan | Linguist | 2377
USS Magellan | Linguist | 2379
USS Pacifica | Language Specialist | 2380
Ti'ane II Expedition | Linguist | 2383
USS Pacifica | Language Specialist | 2383