Bradford, Melanie

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PRC  Personnel - box.png

 STAR FLEET PERSONNEL COMMAND FILE
 SECURITY RATING 3, CONFIDENTIAL[1]

RETIRED[2]
Melanie Bradford
Personnel.png
Career Occupation
Position:
Tactical Officer
Assignment:
USS Enterprise, CV-07
Rank:
Midshipman
Midshipman
Biographical Attributes
Species:
Human
Gender:
Female
Height:
178 cm (5 ft. 10 in.)
Weight:
74.8 kg (165 lb.)
Eye Color:
Green
Hair Color:
Dark Auburn
Hairstyle:
Mid-length and straight, just above the shoulders.
Affiliation:
United Federation of Planets
Born:
(N/A) 07.09
Age:
26
Familial Relationships
Father:
Paul Bradford
Mother:
Lee Ann Bradford
Status of Parents:
Alive and well in Brisbane, Australia, Earth.
Siblings:
Only Child
Marital Status:
Single, Never married


Personal History

Melanie was born in Brisbane, Australia. Her childhood was relatively uneventful, as she existed in a happy home with her mother and father. Her days were spent reading up on Earth history, which was her main interest in school. She grew into a love of sport as she neared her teen-age years, earning a spot on her secondary school's female rugby team. After she graduated, her parents had planned for her to attend Brisbane University, just as they had, to earn a degree so that she could get a well-paying job. However, her mother had been a nurse at the local trauma centre before Melanie was born, and then returned to that job as Melanie reached adolescence, and the long work hours and high-stress environment was utterly uninteresting. Melanie's father had been an archaeologist all of her life, and although Melanie loved to learn about history, playing around in the dirt was also utterly uninteresting. Her parents had been pressing for Melanie to find a field in which she was both interested, and could earn good pay for. As the years passed, however, they were disappointed to see Melanie go from one interest to another, without focusing on one thing. They suggested that she go into teaching, as she loved history so much, but Melanie didn't care for sitting in classrooms for hours on end, and she couldn't imagine doing it even after she'd graduated. Never the less, she would have to enrol in university, there seemed to be no way around it. But then, after graduating secondary school, she managed to talk her sometimes over-bearing parents into letting her take a year off, to "find herself." This turned out to be the best decision she could have made, since it just so happened her father's brother, Uncle Stewart, came in to visit that summer.

Although Melanie lived in a very happy family, she had been very isolated her entire life. She knew of her uncles and aunts, but rarely got to see them. She knew her Uncle Stewart, though she hadn't seen him since she was eight. At that time, she remembered that he worked on a freighter, running freight back and forth between Earth and far away colonies. Melanie remembered how awesome that sounded to her at the time, and how she used to pretend her swing set was her own star ship, cruising to distant worlds. Although she'd forgotten all that, with Uncle Stewart here, it came flooding back. Needless to say, when Melanie found out that Stewart was now Captain of his own ship, the S.S. Rose Marie, she was very excited.

Uncle Stew, as she grew to call him, was in town for several weeks. As the days passed, they spent more and more time together. Stew told her how much she reminded him of himself in his late teens. Nothing on Earth seemed to satisfy him, either. The thought of another four years of school was repulsive, and the idea of spending one's life in a comfortable, and monotonous suburb was totally unacceptable. Melanie began to realize that she had more in common with his side of the family than her own, and Stew began to think of Melanie as the child he'd never got to have. By the end of the visit, Stew came to Melanie with a job offer. He told her how he was on Earth to recruit new crewmen, and although she had no experience, he thought she'd learn very quickly. Melanie was very excited at this prospect, and agreed to go with him almost instantly. Her parents, however, were very disappointed in her choice, and even though they couldn't stop her, they made clear how they felt, that this was a big mistake. Her mother, specifically, worried about the danger of her little girl hopping from system to system with a man whose own life choices she deemed as "questionable." Never the less, Melanie went with him, even though her parent made clear that if she did, she couldn't expect them to help put her through school when she realized her mistake.

The first few months on the S.S. Rose Marie were rough ones. Melanie was by far the youngest crewmen on the ship, and one of only two women, with ten other men. Her uncle, the Captain, made clear to the men that Melanie was not for the taking, and they mostly respected that, but still, homesickness and the low gravity of the Norkova-class ship made her ill most of the time. She started off doing simple things, like cooking. Although the ship had a replicator, the crew loved to eat hand-made meals, and Melanie liked cooking them. It was about the only job onboard she could do, so she chose to do it well. As time passed, she learned about the ship, and what went on in it. She learned about various cargo, the space lanes they travelled, and her favourite thing, she learned about the planets they visited. Her uncle took her under his wing, letting her sit with him in the cockpit, and when no one was looking, he let her take the helm. By the time her first year was up, she could pilot the ship through an asteroid field at full impulse without the aid of the nav computer, which she found to be quite keen. She missed home less and less, and found that her uncle and the crew were becoming as close to her as her own family. In fact, they were her family now. After the first year, her uncle called the crew to the galley for a ceremony. Proclaiming that young Melanie had lasted were others her age would have quit, and that she'd learned in one year what others took several to learn, she was now one of "them." It took a special person to spend months at a time in space, without ever seeing a planet, or another ship, and Melanie was indeed a "spacer." As proof of this, she was giving a tattoo on her right arm, an eight-pointed "north star" design, that symbolized how ancient Earth ships navigated, and how modern ships moved through the stars, always finding their way to their destinations. Melanie was very proud of this, and she started wearing sleeveless shirts just to show it off.

After returning home, three years later, at age 22, she found her parents in a sad state. Although she'd written often at first, her messages gradually trailed off as she grew closer and closer to her new family. Her parents both grew more and more depressed as the years passed, and both retired from their jobs. They didn't tell Melanie of this, but it was evident when Melanie saw them for the first time in four years. Not only were they depressed, but they frowned upon her tattoo, which she held in such high regard, and they symbolized how they were disappointed in her. Even though she'd made quite a bit of money for her share of the profit, they were not pleased in her career choice, and what was worse, they didn't even consider it a real job.

Saying good-bye to her family aboard the Rose Marie was even harder that saying good-bye to her parents when she first left. Over the last four years, she'd grew to depend on them in all things, for support of the emotional kind, and for her very safety, which was never guaranteed on a Norkova-class freighter. Her uncle was sad to see her go, but he understood. There was some healing to be done with her parents, and he respected that. So, Melanie spend the next few months at her old home, with her mother and father. Although they got re-acquainted, learned to laugh together again, and generally enjoyed and loved each other, Melanie felt that the gravity on Earth was just too strong. She badly wanted the excitement and freedom of space, and it showed. She loved her parents, but she also loved space. It was a Sunday afternoon, and Melanie and her father were having tea, when he finally mentioned that it was obvious how unhappy Melanie was. He went on to tell her how he could tell she was really not here, but light-years away in her mind. Melanie apologized, and said she loved him, when her father stopped her. Melanie will never forget the words he spoke next, "Sweetie, your Mum and me know you loved what you were doing. We know that it made you happy, I'm just sorry that it took us seeing you so miserable to realize that."

Those words lifted a weight from Melanie's shoulders, her parents actually understood her, perhaps for the first time in her 22 years! After talking it over with both parents, she decided to leave again. Her parents knew she loved them, and they wanted her to be happy, and that was all Melanie really wanted. The only problem was, Uncle Stew was long gone by now, and he wouldn't be back again for years. Melanie couldn’t imagine signing on to a new freighter, and getting to know a new family, and that's when she considered Star Fleet for the first time. She'd met several Star Fleet types on her journeys, and had admired them for their service, even though most seemed too "uppity" and "righteous" for her. They did keep the peace, and she was sure they could use experienced spacers like her. She decided to sign-up at 22 years old. Melanie didn't know what to expect, but being the oldest person in the academy was certainly not it. She found most of the other cadets were there because their fathers had been, and most were already plotting what ship their old man could get them on. No one really gave Melanie any credit for her four years of deep space experience, not even the instructors. Even though Melanie could fly with the best of them, she still had to go through every level of training, and to her disappointment, her civilian experience meant nothing in Star Fleet rank, so she would not go directly to Ensign like she hoped she would. None the less, she persevered, and scored higher than the other cadets on most all the training simulations. She hoped that as the final exam neared, Star Fleet would recognize the talent she had, and that she could advance quickly. Most important, though, she knew her parents were behind her this time, and she knew that somewhere out there she'd meet her uncle Stewart, and show him what a fine young officer he'd made her into.

Personality Profile

Hobbies and Pastimes: Reading of Earth HIstory, especially ancient history (Roman, Greek), sport (rugby).
Short-Term Goals: Earn a spot on a ship in deep space, and make an impression on her C/O
Long-Term Goals: Do Well in Star Fleet, and see where her new career takes her.
Personality: Very easy going, hard to make an enemy of.
Sense of Humor: Sarcastic, mostly... only serious in on-duty situations.
Likes: Open-minded people, people who share her love of space and small ships, people who will trade stories.
Dislikes: People who "KNow it all", sons or daughters of officers, other sarcastic people "there's only room for one in every crowd.)
Distinguishing Features: "North Star" tattoo on right bicep (explained later).

Career History

Stardate 20708.09 - Graduated, Tactical, Star Fleet Academy
Stardate 20709.09 - Promoted to Midshipman, USS Enterprise, CV-07
Stardate 20709.09 - Retired, USS Enterprise, CV-07




  1. Unless otherwise specified, the information contained in this document is rated CONFIDENTIAL.
  2. Please note that familial and historical references to age may be current only to time of retirement.