Valerie Ashford

Authored by Joana Ribeiro

Biographic Information

• Position: Chief Science Officer on USS Atlantis
• Rank: Lieutenant Commander
• Species: Human
• Weight: 130
• Height: 5'5''
• Age: 34

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Character Biography

Personal Details

• Full Name: Valerie Jane Ashford
• Gender: Female
• Age: 34
• Date of Birth: October 22nd, 2366
• Place of Birth: Sickbay, USS Allegiance

• Hair Color: Dark brown, almost black
• Eye Color: Blue
• Skin: Fair
• Height: 5‘5”
• Weight: 130lbs

• Mother: Sarah Jane Ashford (née Miller), b. 2334 (66 years old)
• Father: Alistair Frederick Ashford, b. 2330 (70 years old)
• Siblings: Alistair Frederick Ashford Jr., half-brother, b. 2359 (41 years old)

Aug 2372 - Jul 2376 Elementary School/Private Tutoring on board the USS Allegiance
Aug 2376 - Jul 2380 Middle School/Private Tutoring on board the USS Allegiance
Aug 2380 - Jul 2384 High School/Private Tutoring on board the USS Allegiance
Aug 2384 - Jul 2385 Université de Paris/Sorbonne, Paris, France, Earth (BSc in Astrophysics, enrolled at 18, abandoned at 19)
Aug 2385 - Jul 2389 Luna University, Lunar Colonies, Moon (BSc in Applied Mathematics with a minor in Astrophysics, enrolled at 19, graduated at 23)
Aug 2389 - Jul 2391 Luna University, Lunar Colonies, Moon (MSc in Applied and Computational Mathematics, specializing in Cryptography, enrolled at 23, graduated at 25)
Aug 2391 - Jul 2392 Starfleet Officer Candidate School, San Francisco, CA, (enrolled at 25, graduated at 26)
Sep 2396 - Jul 2397 Starfleet Intelligence, Quantico, VA (Intelligence Officer Training course, began at 30, graduated at 31)
Aug 2397 - Oct 2397 Vulcan Science Academy, Vulcan (visiting scholar)

Jul 2392 - Jul 2394 USS Rosalind Franklin, Ensign, Scientist
Jul 2394 - Aug 2396 USS Rosalind Franklin, LTJG, Scientist (Project Supervisor Beta shift)
Nov 2397 - Mar 2398 USS Thresher, Lieutenant, Cryptanalyst
Mar 2398 - Oct 2400 USS Thresher, LCDR, Head Cryptanalyst
Oct 2400 - present USS Atlantis, LCDR, Chief Science Officer

Personal History
Having served as a Liaison Officer for the Federation for many years, January 2365 saw thirty-five year old Alistair Frederick Ashford embark on his first mission in space. It had been a hard decision to leave his wife and his six year old son behind, but he finally had the chance to achieve his life long dream of serving as a diplomatic officer on board a starship, and he couldn’t let the opportunity pass him by. It was a three year mission, on board the USS Allegiance, one of the five Discovery-class Starfleet vessels that had been refitted to serve as space faring judicial departments. A place where he could see his grandiose aspirations of bringing peace to many a conflict throughout the galaxy becoming reality. And after his three years of space faring, Alistair Ashford would be done with space and would be back on Earth with his loved ones, having fulfilled his duty.

Still, by the end of his first year on board things hadn’t exactly gone as he had planned them. Despite his best efforts, he now saw that life in space wasn’t as glamorous as he had expected it to be, and work was much more boring than he had envisioned, with a lot more bureaucracy and much less conflict resolution. He felt disillusioned with his career choice, and incredibly distant from his family. The only good thing that seemingly had come out of his time on the Allegiance was his friendship with Sarah Jane Miller, a JAG officer, with whom he had become incredibly close. During the Earthly New Year’s Celebration the pair found themselves drinking one too many drinks with some friends who had put their extensive law knowledge to good use and had sneaked real alcoholic contraband on board. The next morning, the pair found themselves back in Alistair’s quarters with no recollection of the night before. It was only a few weeks later, when Sarah realized she was expecting a baby, that the couple realized their mistake.

It was during a heated discussion with Sarah about their options, that Alistair realized how much going into space had also been an excuse to leave his family behind, and how much he would rather serve on board the Allegiance with Sarah by his side. With a decision finally reached, Alistair found himself using his diplomatic skills in a situation he had never anticipated.

On October 22nd, 2366, Valerie Jane Miller was born. It would take the Allegiance two more years to return to Earth, a time Alistair took to finalize his divorce, with much legal aid from Sarah, without whom he would likely never have been able to see his son again. The boy was now nine, and completely detached from his father, but he could not take his eyes from the small dark haired two year old half-sister.

Alistair and Sarah got married on board the ship that had brought them together, a few days after their departure from Earth. And two years after coming into the world, Valerie Miller was finally given the name she should have had all along – Valerie Jane Ashford.

Growing up, Valerie’s life was the same of any kid that had been brought up aboard a starship. School took most hours of her day, followed by free time roaming the halls or playing hide and seek in the Jefferies tubes, with any other kids on board. With Holodeck usage heavily monitored by her parents, whenever she found herself with no one else to play, Valerie often spent her time on the observation deck, in awe at the beauty of space.

As she grew older, Valerie’s interest for astronomy and astrophysics grew as well, often beyond what her teachers could explain to her. With labs heavily geared towards forensic science and research, there were not a lot of astrophysicists around, and soon Valerie found that if she wanted to study the subject in depth, she had to rely on more than the knowledge base in the Allegiance’s computer, and leave the ship eventually.

At eighteen years old, after graduating from her high school education, Valerie traded the comfort of the USS Allegiance for the unknown that was life on Earth. She had been on Earth before, but usually the stays were short, mostly to see her half-brother in a small English coastal town. She had never spent a lot of time planetside, and especially not in a busy town like Paris, where she had chosen to further her studies in Astrophysics at La Sorbonne.

The first year was hard. Too hard, even. For Valerie, who wasn’t accustomed to planet living, the busy French capital was overwhelming, and even though she wanted nothing more than to remain, she decided that leaving was the best thing she could do. Not back to space though. Having loved her classes, especially the more mathematically inclined subjects, Valerie wanted desperately to finish her studies, and when the opportunity arose for her to do so at Luna University, she promptly moved to the Moon Colonies where the settlements were far less busy.

Still, by the end of her Master’s Degree, Valerie knew that her place was not to settle on a planet. With a finished MSc in Mathematics and Cryptography, a subject she had ended up finding even more fascinating than Astrophysics, Valerie joined Starfleet where she hoped her knowledge arsenal would be useful.

Her mathematical knowledge led her to be placed on the Science vessel USS Rosalind Franklin, although not as a communications officer, as Valerie had expected. There she applied her cryptographic expertise to the study of alien communication and how they related to naturally occurring signals like those of quasars or pulsars. This allowed her to work on both her passions together, even though her research breakthroughs were limited.

Valerie’s career remained steadily unchanged until 2396 when she made an unexpected discovery. With the Rosalind Franklin in the vicinity of Beta Prime, a planet with whom the Federation had successfully established First Contact a few years prior, an interesting pattern made its way to Valerie’s sensors. It wasn’t immediately apparent what made it distinct from the remaining background noise, but there was something that captured Ashford’s attention. Over the next few months she worked tirelessly on it, fully convinced that the signal had more to it than met the eye. Her efforts finally paid off a few months later when she managed to adjust her own decryption algorithms and partially decode it, revealing a few strings of words in Federation Standard. In awe, Valerie quickly sent her findings to a few friends on the field that could double check her findings but mysteriously no reply ever came.

Later the same year, during a short stop on Earth for the Rosalind Franklin to resupply, Valerie was approached by Starfleet Intelligence which not only seemed very interested in her discovery, and actively wanted her to progress her work under their wing, but also seemed to be the reason why her research had never reached the people she had sent it to. After a long discussion with her brother, she accepted Starfleet Intelligence’s offer and was assigned to the USS Thresher as a Cryptanalyst after a year of rigorous training.

Life on board the Thresher was mostly uneventful with the occasional burst of action, but even then, as a scientist and an analyst, Valerie’s work was done behind the scenes and not in the front lines of the action. The closest she ever came to that was when she decrypted a transmission from a rogue group, scant minutes before an attack on the shipbuilding tycoon Lucas Holloway. The attack couldn’t be prevented, but the transmission ended up being crucial in the conclusion of the group’s activities, earning Ashford a promotion to the rank of Lieutenant Commander and to the position of Head Cryptanalyst of the USS Thresher.

Given the importance and quality of Valerie’s work on board the USS Thresher, and the high regard in which she was held by the ship’s captain, Colonel Ryan York, it is not apparent why she was transferred to the USS Atlantis, where she currently holds the position of Chief Science Officer.

Personality
At first glance, Valerie Ashford appears to be a somber and stern person, but when the right conditions are met she quickly opens up and reveals that is not the case. Everyone that has ever worked under her guidance claims her to be extremely approachable and open minded, even if she doesn’t immediately appear to be so. Because of this perceived steely personality, Valerie is often found alone, which she doesn’t entirely mind but has, at times, wished it wasn’t always the case.

Due to her upbringing on board a judicial starship, by parents who were both officers of the law, Valerie has a strong moral compass that is not easily shaken. This was later exacerbated by the time spent on Vulcan. However, this same certainty of her ideals has caused her to question parts of her line of work within Starfleet Intelligence, which she had no choice but to accept and live with.

Medical Records
Valerie doesn’t have a history of severe injuries or diseases. There are, however, two items worthy of note:

• Having almost drowned in the rough waters off the coast of England on one of her first visits to Earth, and being promptly taken to the local hospital after the incident for a full check-up. She is listed as having no lasting consequences from the accident;
• Being allergic to a wider range of Earth’s dust and pollen than the average human, as due to her upbringing on board a Starfleet ship, she was naturally less exposed to these elements, due to the filtered air that circulates on board.

Psychological Records
Valerie has had extensive psychological evaluations as it is the standard for Starfleet Intelligence officers. Several names are listed on her profile as having signed off on her routine evaluations. The name with the longest record is that of Salvek, a Vulcan specialist on xeno-neurobiology that Valerie seems to have seen for three months, from the beginning of August to the end of October 2397. However, the records are classified and not regularly accessible although they too clear Ashford for duty. Other than that, the only thing of note in her file is the record of a controlled fear of bodies of water.