Garth

Authored by Ben Z

Character Biography

Physical Description

Garth is a short, squat man with a rounded figure like most tellarite males. His face bears the tanned swine-like appearance and hard lines distinct to his species, but Garth also has particularly small, squinting eyes. The tusks that protude from Garth's lower jaw are yellowed in color and chipped in places. Garth has a full, thick beard with accompanying curled-up mustache, and it's apparent that he takes great care of his spindly facial hair, which has maintained its golden color (with a few gray hairs dispersed throughout). The hair on Garth's head has not fared so well: he is balding with a receding hairline, causing two distinct puffs of frazzled yellowish-white hair to stick out every which way from either side of his skull. Garth wears a sciences-blue uniform with a black lab coat over top and matching, constantly refreshed black latex gloves. In addition, he wears a set of goggle-looking contraptions high up on his forehead and walks with a jet-black cane in his left hand.

"Heh? Urm, yes. The cane is entirely necessary, mostly for waking up cadets that fall asleep at the lab consoles."

Personality

Garth is a pure-bred tellarite, meaning that he loves to argue and complain and has a stark lack of patience. Garth can be head-strong and single-minded when he is working on a set goal, and has been known to display some neurotic tendencies. Ultimately, Garth is a very passionate and dedicated Starfleet officer, who believes that the mission at hand is more important than manners or niceties. However, Garth can be persuaded to express his appreciation and admiration of others if given the opportunity to form a healthy respect for their professional capabilities. Just don't expect a lot of gooey, touchy-feely stuff from Garth, as he is quite the loner and believes strongly in "tough love," although he knows when to temper his disposition for the benefit of cadets.

"What are your thoughts on interactions between tachyon beams and class B itinerant pulsars because it's obvious their potential has gone severely underutilized."

Profession

Garth carries a rather junior rank for his age due to joining Starfleet later in his career, having first made a name for himself as a civilian scientist and inventor on Tellar Prime, and as such most of his accomplishments have occurred outside of Starfleet. If asked, Garth will explain that his philosophy with training cadets is to treat them as competent members of Starfleet, as he believes that being too overtly nurturing is "patronizing" to their abilities. He often presents opportunities for cadets to conduct their own experiments or assist with his own, valuing practical experience (failures included) over being coddled. For this reason, Garth requires that any cadet under his purview completes an individual project with his supervision prior to finishing their cadet cruise. Garth is known to be a tough teacher, but one that does his absolute best to bring out the talent in his students.

"So you joined Starfleet because you want to explore? With science, you can do plenty of exploring without even leaving a 20-foot square room. Let's try that first."

Biography

Born and raised on Tellar Prime, Garth was deemed ingenious from an early age, and pursued a career in personal and contracted invention and scientific work. Garth is credited with several patents, including for advanced magnification and scanning goggles (a set of which he wears regularly), the portable interstellar telescope, and prototype cross-quadrant communication array specifications. Garth joined Starfleet in his mid-40s after developing a fascination with stars and stellar anomalies, wishing to study them up-close and establish a lab on a portable vessel that could more easily explore the cosmos. Garth has not pursued advancement since earning his slot as a chief science officer, seemingly content to run his experiments from whatever ship will have him.

"There's a lot more than just stars out here. But lets not forget that everything comes from space dust, and ultimately, everything returns to it."

Medical

There are several ailments of note in Garth's medical file. Firstly, Garth has very bad eyesight, suffering from distinct nearsightedness. He has previously refused any sort of remedy to this problem other than the magnification goggles he constantly wears on his head. Additionally, Garth requires multiple daily medications for managing blood pressure and blood sugar. Garth has many bad habits when it comes to exercise, food, and sleep, leading an overall unhealthy lifestyle. One of Garth's lower-jaw tusks has a chronic internal cavity. Scans of Garth's leg reveal that he has no reason to use a cane, and if asked he will insist that it is a preventative measure to keep him from falling, indicating that it does not actually serve any medical purpose.

"Bah, I don't have time to waste on 'taking care of myself' when I have work to do that will inform our understanding of the infinite universe for eons to come."