Ducote, Ranaan
PRC 
|
STAR FLEET PERSONNEL COMMAND FILE |
|---|
| Ranaan Ducote | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 | |||
| Career Occupation | |||
| Position: | First Officer | ||
| Assignment: | USS Ozaki, PFF-7168 | ||
| Rank: | Commander | 
| |
| Star Fleet Registration: | 19509.20 | ||
| Time on Site: | 
| ||
| Biographical Attributes | |||
| Played By: | Main PC | ||
| Species: | 1/2 Betazoid, 1/2 Human | ||
| Gender: | Male | ||
| Height: | 1.9m | Weight: | 100kg |
| Eye Color: | Slate grey | ||
| Hairstyle: | Clipped neatly | ||
| Physique: | Stocky for his height | ||
| Complexion: | Weathered | ||
| Voice: | Warm, gravelly | ||
| Affiliation: | United Federation of Planets | ||
| Homeworld: | Earth | ||
| Birthplace: | Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | ||
| Born: | 17807.07 | Age: | 46 |
| Familial Relationships | |||
| Father: | Erich Ducote | ||
| Mother: | Ratela Ducote, née Jal | ||
| Marital Status: | Single | ||
| Children: | None | ||
Personal History
Ranaan grew up playing in the streets of Rio, into a family of law enforcement officers and Star Fleet Security personnel. While he was never 'groomed' per se for public or Fleet service, the fact that so many of his relatives were in the profession, and plainly passionate about it, had a strong effect on him. While he was never the victim of racism or xenophobia (Earth being the figurehead of the Federation has its benefits for those of off-world descent), he was still aware that he was a minority - and bonded with an Andorian boy at school through shared experience this way. His empathic senses are not as strong as a full-blooded Betazoid, but he could still tell a lot about someone's emotions and mind-state. Shalerin's emotions always rose close to the surface, as with most Andorians, and it made him easy company for Ranaan. He didn't have to try hard to see what his friend was thinking.
As was almost a foregone conclusion by the time he graduated school, Ranaan applied for and was accepted to a place at Star Fleet Academy to become a Security officer. His solid determination and ability to handily spot a lie or fabrication made him a natural investigator, and he was assigned to the USS Jeb Stuart, 2nd Fleet Reserve, on completion of his training. The amount of time his ship spent docked at Bravo, however, meant he was often seconded to the Base Security teams for patrols or criminal investigations. He ended up being permanently transferred to the station's roster, discovering a rather seedy element to the transient civilian population and a perennial underground organised crime problem that proved increasingly difficult to control - until the terrorist attack on Star Base Bravo perpetrated by Romulan saboteurs.
Picking through wreckage looking for survivors was his first task, but then came the seemingly-endless series of interviews and evidence reviews to try and piece together what happened. At some point during this process, Ranaan realised that he couldn't pursue his chosen career path any longer - there was too much stress, too many events he'd been powerless or misplaced to prevent, and too little visible return on his efforts. He took a sabbatical in order to consider his options, returning to Earth. He got in touch with Shalerin and spent the better part of five hours talking to him over subspace and 400 lightyears while the Andorian did his best to help his friend through the crisis.
Ducote decided to go back to the Academy to take the necessary courses to transfer to the Science department of Star Fleet, focusing on forensics and the more subtle aspects of crime scene investigation, in order to still work towards the original goals he'd set for himself when he joined the Fleet.
Once he mustered out the second time, his skillset made him ideal for posting to the 2nd Fleet's 202nd Police Flotilla, aboard the USS Ozaki. He hopes to regain his footing on his career ladder and, preferably, without any further crises of confidence.
His first outing on the frigate was as part of the escort group assigned to a Corps of Engineers attachment to the fleet that assaulted the Krynar homeworld. Working with the USS Titan and the USS Sheridan, the Ozaki defended the construction group in charge of building a prefabricated transwarp gate that would allow the fleet to return home once their task was done. When that battle ended with the complete annihilation of the system and close to a trillion lives lost, Ducote wondered quite what he was doing there. It was an act that went against every principle the Federation stood for, and the fact it was lauded as a great victory somehow made the fact even harder to swallow. However, the SCE group survived to complete the gate, though the police ships Atlas and Oceanus were lost with all hands. Compared to the losses in the main body of the fleet, though, the little Escorts were insignificant. They were mere statistics.
After that, the Ozaki was repaired and sent to fly the flag over Andgio, a mining colony on the Romulan border. Andgio produced Surax, a rare and unreplicatable mineral used in jewellery and as trading collateral. The planet itself is barely inhabitable, and the colonists relied on a geodesic dome and heavy-duty environmental regulation to survive. This equipment was failing, so the crew sent down an away party to repair it. While there, the colonists were less than welcoming, and tipped the away team that they were being held hostage. Ranaan was on the ship in orbit, and was helping to figure out why the Ozaki had lost main power. Their Chief Engineer appeared to have sabotaged them, and subsequently had locked himself in a turbolift. Shortly afterwards, he evacuated the air from the car and committed a grisly suicide.
With sensors back up, the Ozaki detected signs of a cloaked ship sharing their orbit. Once they realised that they'd been seen, the ship decloaked and opened fire on the Star Fleet vessel. The ships were a match, with the unknown leveraging their advantage that their ship seemingly followed no sound logic in its layout nor construction. It was a blend of about six different technology bases from Ferengi to Romulan, and it took a lot of juggling system resources to adequately map its weaknesses. Eventually, the ship was disabled by detonating a volatile component of its engine exhaust, destroying a good chunk of the stern of the vessel and leaving only a dozen or so survivors. This coincided with the ground team overcoming the colony's captors and revealing a connection to an organised smuggling ring - a Bajoran family named Adroni. Normally, the Adroni would be involved with narcotics trafficking, and Ducote was puzzled as to why they'd branch out into minerals and extortion. The captives from the colony were beamed to their ship (life support was minimal, but functioning) to await one of the 2nd Fleet's larger cruisers capable of taking the entire crew prisoner for interview, and their ship under tow.
The investigation into Trip's betrayal continued.
Their quest took them to X'in, an Andorian colony surrounded by a treacherous asteroid belt that would have discouraged traffic were it not for the fact that the planet had become a local trade hub for their sector. Trip's parents had ostensibly been taken hostage by an organised syndicate - not the Adroni, but the th'Dila from Andor. This made it likely that they'd been sold into slavery, which would have been bad enough, but Ducote realised this must mean that the big families had decided to settle their differences and work together. A merger of the syndicates would only ever mean bad things for everyone, no matter what their reasons were.
The slavers' base was located in the asteroid belt (thanks to an old acquaintance of Cdr Tam's) over X'in, and an assault was mounted. The away team were equipped with heavy body armour, stun grenades, and phaser rifles, and travelled in force. They split into groups - one to the slave pens and one to the command centre. Ducote's group headed for the latter. The facility was well set-up to defend against this sort of incursion, though, and the going was rough and bloody. Ducote himself took a badly-aimed shot to the foot that blew three of his toes off. Things went downhill from there.
Ranaan and Ensign Kala Celes were captured, and were taken to warp in a shuttle. The Ozaki was unable to give chase as Tam's contact, Nolan, made his own escape from the ship and was still being (re)apprehended as the officers were kidnapped. They were thrown into a cell after many hours of flight, a simple hole in a rock face with a steel door, and poor hygiene. He was tortured and interrogated, but was determined not to tell his captors anything of worth. Especially since the one seemingly in charge, a scarred Andorian named zh'Tharen, was a relic from Ducote's own past - a stint working undercover for Bravo Security had resulted in zh'Tharen's incarceration. Apparently, the man had escaped, and was more than happy for the opportunity to turn the tables.
It wasn't until they threw Celes in an arena with a pair of venomous monitor lizard analogues that Ranaan agreed to reveal (general, and the least-sensitive possible) information to zh'Tharen. He bargained for medical treatment for Celes' bites, his own foot, and better accommodations than they'd been afforded yet. All this was agreed, and Ducote tried to decide what to tell his captors if they couldn't escape first.
A change of uniform, fresh dressings on his traumatised appendage, and a solid meal later, and zh'Tharen collected on his end of the bargain. Ducote revealed the (outdated and almost certainly changed in view of his capture) locations of several ships from the Ozaki's parent flotilla. Sometime during the verification process for this, the Ozaki found their location and had sent down a large away team. Ranaan managed to use the distraction to overpower zh'Tharen and escaped with Kala.
Once the pair of escapees had met their saviours, they were ambushed by a group of Consortium guards. In the standoff, Celes took Tam hostage at gunpoint in an act of treachery that Ducote will hate himself for not having seen. He had always avoided empathic contact with the Bajoran on the grounds that she had a phobia, allegedly. He'd deliberately not listened to her emotions out of courtesy. She admitted to having been the one behind the ship's sabotage over Andgio, and, as she had been the one leading the investigation into the Chief Engineer's death, had avoided detection. She fed information about the away team to zh'Tharen during the base assault over X'in, and made sure that she was 'captured' alongside Ducote. And now she was taking a much more valuable prisoner than Ducote had ever been, and not just because of her greater Fleet clearance.
He ordered the security team to flood the passage with wide-beam stun shots, but they were cut down from behind before they could make good their escape. This time, Ducote didn't wait to be rescued. He managed to goad his door guard into opening the cell, and didn't waste any time launching himself at the guard. Keval ch'Alev, tactical officer on the Ozaki, helped subdue the second guard, and they were off. They met up with the captain in medical, retrieving a wounded Amalek Barrett, and made best speed towards the shuttlebay as alarms blared around them.
They commandeered a shuttle, and lifted off seconds before the base detonated in a nuclear fireball. It is unlikely that Celes and zh'Tharen were still inside it when it blew up, and so Ranaan plans to hunt them down as soon as he is recovered and circumstances allow.
Personality Profile
Academy Major(s): Security training, crime scene investigation
Academy Minor(s): Science cross-training, forensics, telepsychoprofiling
Hobbies and Pastimes: Playing the piano, a morbid curiosity for cold-cases
Short-Term Goals: Get his life/career back on-track
Long-Term Goals: Solve a cold case
Personality: Generally warm and friendly, but recently embittered by his experiences on Bravo and later betrayal by a crewmate on the USS Ozaki. Driven to succeed, and to prove that he has made the right decisions so far.
Sense of Humor: Usually pretty dry, but tending towards dark lately.
Phobias: None
Likes: Honesty, a good puzzle, people who appreciate a good dark joke
Dislikes: Evasive answers, clutter
Pet Peeves or Gripes: Picking something up and not replacing it in its original position
Bad Habits or Vices: Can snap at people, unwarranted, if he thinks they're making a stupid suggestion, or defending one
Illnesses: None
Strengths: Grit, dogged determination to finish something he starts
Weaknesses: He leans on his empathy when dealing with people; it makes him almost lazy when interacting with people on a social basis
Fears: Disappointing his heavily-Security-led family
Prejudices: the accused. Generally, people aren't lightly accused these days, and he can lean towards 'guilty until proven innocent' occasionally.
Off Duty Clothing Tastes: Jeans, t-shirts, maybe a hoodie if he's feeling particularly dapper
Distinguishing Features: crows-feet, but whether from laughter or scowling is hard to tell; lately, he has needed a cane to help him walk
Friends: Shalerin Tharess
Personal Paradigm Shifts
Most Painful Experience: Having his confidence shattered by the terrorist attack on Bravo
Best Time: The (first) graduation party, where he, Shalerin, and the rest of their Security class got blind drunk and cause a mountain of paperwork for their future colleagues.
Most Crucial Experience: Going back to Star Fleet after his sabbatical; 'getting back on the horse'.
Role Model: No one individual, but his entire family are an example he wishes to live up to.
Career History
| Service Medals Awarded | ||
|---|---|---|
| Image | Description | Qty. |
 |
Star Fleet Academy Graduate Ribbon | 1 |
 |
Gold Star | 2 |
 |
Diamond Star | 1 |
| Campaign Medals Awarded | ||
| Image | Description | Qty. |
 |
Krynar War Campaign Medal | 1 |
| Achievement Medals Awarded | ||
| Image | Description | Qty. |
 |
Role Player of the Month | 6 |
- ↑ Unless otherwise specified, the information contained in this document is rated CONFIDENTIAL.
