Commander David Rolandson
Rolandson’s mother returned to active service after his birth, reassigned to Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards on Mars. The child grew up in the Yards, immersed in Starfleet culture and frequently visited his maternal grandparents in San Francisco, where his grandfather taught Terran history at Starfleet Academy. The family suffered another loss when, four years later, his maternal uncle was lost with the USS Pegasus.
His mother distinguished herself during her long tenure at UPFY, but eventually felt the pull of the stars. Through hard work, she earned a commission an a position on the prestigious Galaxy Class project. Working on the construction and test team for the Enterprise-D, she was able to successfully compete for a position on her crew and, when she launched, Enterprise carried away mother and son together into space.
Rolandson loved life aboard the Enterprise and embraced it eagerly, perhaps a little too eagerly as he developed a shipboard reputation for mischief. He also developed a brotherly attachment to Wesley Crusher, whom he admired for his leadership of the ship’s children in various crisis and who, in turn, was sympathetic to him due to their shared experience of having lost their fathers at a young age. The six year age difference, Crusher’s own perspicacity and his acquisition of shipboard duties prevented them from becoming close, however.
After two years, Rolandson’s mother had earned a promotion, but was forced by the Enterprise’s legendary retention rate to seek a position elsewhere in order to advance. She was offered a supervisory position at Utopia Planetia again, but turned it down in favor of an assignment as Chief Operations officer on the USS Melbourne (Excelsior Class). Rolandson, now 12 and thoroughly committed to entering Starfleet, returned to Earth to live full time with his grandparents. The next year, his mother was lost with the rest of the Melbourne’s crew at the Battle of Wolf 359.
The event was shattering to Rolandson. In addition to the loss of his mother, he also suffered a crisis of faith in one of his greatest heroes, Jean Luc Picard. Like most of the Enterprise’s children, he had idolized her famous Captain and it took him years to resolve his emotional issues over Picard’s involvement in delivering Starfleet the most stunning defeat in it’s history and killing his mother. The final resolution did not come until his freshman year at the Academy when Picard, haunted himself by the ghosts of Wolf 359, looked him up and apologized during a visit to Starfleet Headquarters.
Rolandson entered the Academy in 2372, in a period of great strife and controversy. Earlier hostilities with the newly encountered Jem’Hadar had developed into more widespread conflict. The destruction of the Odyssey and the Enterprise-D, as well as the then-unexplained disappearance of Voyager and several other vessels on both sides of the Wormhole, had demonstrated Starfleet’s vulnerability. The ongoing controversy over the Cardassian Demilitarized Zone and the rise of the Maquis created divided loyalties among Starfleet personnel as had no issue since the peace process with the Klingons, who themselves had recently broken that peace and declared war on the Federation.
Rolandson attended the christening ceremony for the Enterprise-E, then reported for duty at the Academy only weeks before the introduction of the increased security protocols that culminated in the Leyton Coup. That event, with the dark implications of Starfleet vessels firing on each other, set the tone for what might have been the most unique class run in Academy history. Constantly fearful of Changeling infiltration, suspicious of each other after the revelation of Red Squad’s involvement in the coup, the Class of ’76 struggled to meet the already demanding program under extreme stress. They experienced a Borg attack on Earth in ’73 and the onset of full-scale War with the Dominion in ’74. They watched news feeds with growing horror as casualty counts climbed from hundreds, through thousands and into the tens of thousands. They attended the memorial service for the Class of ’73, over 75% of which died together at the Battle of Tyra, less than a year after graduation. They gave up study time to additional combat training and filled in assisting with the increased starship production at Utopia Planetia, which began launching ships with much of their scientific equipment missing, their lab decks empty and unfinished. As a result of these added pressures, they became the first class in Academy history to be graded on a curve.
Then, in 2375, they joined with the rest of Earth’s population in yet another exclusive club: survivors of the first direct attack on the Terran homeworld by an alien power in Federation history. In the aftermath of the Breen raid, the entire Academy corps was mobilized to aid in emergency relief operations. With classes suspended for two months following the attack, Rolandson’s class struggled to catch up and graduate on time. Even with the allowances made by the staff, less than half of them qualified for their scheduled graduation date, Rolandson among them.
His first assignment was to the Security force on the USS Argonaut, a Nebula Class vessel equipped with an salvage pod and assigned to a task force organized to search for and recover vessels and personnel still unaccounted for after the War. He served aboard for three years, developing strong piloting skills in various auxiliary craft, achieving promotion to Asst. Security Chief and Lt. Jg in 2378.
After a year in that role, he was transferred to New Bajor. He served there as a shift supervisor for a year, before qualifying for the Special Tactical Reaction Team (STAT), a SWAT-style response force that operated in tandem with a locally based squadron of Beowulf Class runabouts. He performed so well in this role that when, in 2382, the squadron was embarked experimentally upon the Akira Class vessel USS Harrelson, he went with it as XO.
Fourteen months later the Harrelson was lost in a disastrous encounter with a rogue Romulan Warbird turned pirate. His CO dead and his ships damaged far from the nearest Federation facility, Rolandson took command and nursed the battered survivors back into the shipping lanes. Forced to cannibalize all but two of the Beowulfs to keep the remaining ships functioning, he, the only surviving Medical officer and the senior surviving NCO hit upon the novel concept of stretching out the life support by converting environmental suits into field-expedient cryo-sleep chambers.
After crawling back into the shipping lanes and being rescued, Rolandson found himself, as the ranking surviving officer, in the unique position of standing court-martial for the loss of the Harrelson, a vessel he had never even served directly on the staff of. He was acquitted, however and decorated again for his actions in bringing the survivors home. Promoted to Lt. Cdr, he was fast-tracked to command of a new-build Defiant Class ship, USS Steadfast.
2375 Decorated for actions during and immediately after the Breen attack on Earth.
2376 Graduated Academy. Assigned to USS Argonaut.
2378 Promoted to Lt. Jg/Asst. Security Chief, USS Argonaut.
2379 Transferred to New Bajor as a Security Shift Supervisor.
2380 Transferred to New Bajor STAT group.
2382 Promoted to Lt. and embarked on USS Harrelson as Beowulf Squadron XO.
2383 Assumed temporary command of Beowulf Squadron-USS Harrelson after
destruction of ship. Decorated for actions in this role.
2384 Promoted to Lt. Cdr. and assigned as CO, USS Steadfast.
| Character Information | ||
| Name | David J Rolandson | |
| Rank | Commander | |
| Position | Commanding Officer | |
| Gender | Male | |
| Species | Human (Terran) | |
| Age | 31 | |
| Physical Appearance | ||
| Height | 5’ 11” | |
| Weight | 189 lbs. | |
| Eye Color | Hazel | |
| Hair Color | Brown | |
| Physical Description | Rolandson is a reasonably attractive human male in excellent physical condition. He tends to wear his hair longer than the norm for males of his race in Starfleet, but still off the collar. | |
| Personality & Traits | ||
| General Overview | ||
| Rolandson is a somewhat controversial officer in the present state of Starfleet. His experiences, before and especially during the Dominion War, have led him to the conclusion that Starfleet needs to maintain a robust military posture for the foreseeable future, striving to maintain technical and tactical superiority over all known interstellar powers. He is not militant, in the sense of supporting expansionism or the picking of fights with other powers and is a strong believer in diplomacy. He simply believes that, while pursuing the peaceful goals and ideals of the Federation, Starfleet must also assure that it can rapidly and decisively defeat any potential aggressor and should not be shy about showing this fact. This conviction has hurt his career development in the post-War years, as strong elements in Starfleet pressed to a return to the kind of pre-War standards and philosophies that left the Federation so vulnerable to the Dominion, in his view. | ||
| Strengths & Weaknesses | ||
| Rolandson is a driven man, aggressively pursuing any course he sets. He is a natural leader and has been cited often in his records for original, out-of-the-box thinking. Forthright and honorable, he is also an excellent combatant, with everything from his bare hands and feet to a starship, although he has no experience commanding larger ships to date. His weaknesses mostly derive from his strengths. His hard-charging attitude can be intimidating to some and, combined with his views on Fleet policy, leads many to brand him a militant. The combat-focus of his hobbies and other interests add to this view, as does his generally blunt, forthright manner of speaking. |
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| Ambitions | ||
| Rolandson’s chief ambition is to advance in rank and authority within Starfleet until he is in a position to effect real change in it’s policies and contribute as directly as possible to maintaining the security and prosperity of the Federation. Rolandson is also a highly competitive individual, with a particular fondness for individual, combative sports, competing in them whenever possible. Most recently, he spent a year and a half training in the Klingon bat’leth with a fellow officer on his last assignment.and now feels himself ready to enter the annual Fleet competition. |
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| Hobbies & Interests | ||
| Rolandson is a “workout guy” and exercises hard and regularly. As befits coming up through Security/Tactical, he is well trained in a number of combat styles, both armed and unarmed, and makes a strong effort to keep his skills sharp. He is also a history buff, training in historically aspected combat simulations when possible. In addition to his more physical pursuits, Rolandson is an avid reader with eclectic tastes. In addition to the historical interest already mentioned, he favors philosophical and cultural works. He is also very interested in learning about other cultures first hand. |
||
| Languages | Federation Standard, some Klingon. | |
| Family | ||
| Father | Matthew Rolandson (deceased) | |
| Mother | Tabitha Rolandson (deceased) | |
| Brother(s) | None | |
| Sister(s) | None | |
| Spouse | None | |
| Children | None | |
| Other Family | Kyle Rolandson (maternal uncle), Serina Venti (maternal Aunt), James and Thomas Venti (maternal cousins) | |
History
David James Rolandson was born in early 2354, into a Starfleet family. His father was a Diplomatic Corps officer and his mother and Ops NCO. Three uncles on his father’s side, an uncle and an aunt on his mother’s were also in Starfleet. Both parents were assigned to Starbase 35, near the Tholian border when he was conceived. His mother took a leave of absence half-way into her pregnancy and returned to Earth, due to the desire of both parents to have their child born there. The decision proved to be a fateful one, as the Tholians savagely attacked two months later, leaving only Kyle Riker (father of William Riker) alive.Rolandson’s mother returned to active service after his birth, reassigned to Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards on Mars. The child grew up in the Yards, immersed in Starfleet culture and frequently visited his maternal grandparents in San Francisco, where his grandfather taught Terran history at Starfleet Academy. The family suffered another loss when, four years later, his maternal uncle was lost with the USS Pegasus.
His mother distinguished herself during her long tenure at UPFY, but eventually felt the pull of the stars. Through hard work, she earned a commission an a position on the prestigious Galaxy Class project. Working on the construction and test team for the Enterprise-D, she was able to successfully compete for a position on her crew and, when she launched, Enterprise carried away mother and son together into space.
Rolandson loved life aboard the Enterprise and embraced it eagerly, perhaps a little too eagerly as he developed a shipboard reputation for mischief. He also developed a brotherly attachment to Wesley Crusher, whom he admired for his leadership of the ship’s children in various crisis and who, in turn, was sympathetic to him due to their shared experience of having lost their fathers at a young age. The six year age difference, Crusher’s own perspicacity and his acquisition of shipboard duties prevented them from becoming close, however.
After two years, Rolandson’s mother had earned a promotion, but was forced by the Enterprise’s legendary retention rate to seek a position elsewhere in order to advance. She was offered a supervisory position at Utopia Planetia again, but turned it down in favor of an assignment as Chief Operations officer on the USS Melbourne (Excelsior Class). Rolandson, now 12 and thoroughly committed to entering Starfleet, returned to Earth to live full time with his grandparents. The next year, his mother was lost with the rest of the Melbourne’s crew at the Battle of Wolf 359.
The event was shattering to Rolandson. In addition to the loss of his mother, he also suffered a crisis of faith in one of his greatest heroes, Jean Luc Picard. Like most of the Enterprise’s children, he had idolized her famous Captain and it took him years to resolve his emotional issues over Picard’s involvement in delivering Starfleet the most stunning defeat in it’s history and killing his mother. The final resolution did not come until his freshman year at the Academy when Picard, haunted himself by the ghosts of Wolf 359, looked him up and apologized during a visit to Starfleet Headquarters.
Rolandson entered the Academy in 2372, in a period of great strife and controversy. Earlier hostilities with the newly encountered Jem’Hadar had developed into more widespread conflict. The destruction of the Odyssey and the Enterprise-D, as well as the then-unexplained disappearance of Voyager and several other vessels on both sides of the Wormhole, had demonstrated Starfleet’s vulnerability. The ongoing controversy over the Cardassian Demilitarized Zone and the rise of the Maquis created divided loyalties among Starfleet personnel as had no issue since the peace process with the Klingons, who themselves had recently broken that peace and declared war on the Federation.
Rolandson attended the christening ceremony for the Enterprise-E, then reported for duty at the Academy only weeks before the introduction of the increased security protocols that culminated in the Leyton Coup. That event, with the dark implications of Starfleet vessels firing on each other, set the tone for what might have been the most unique class run in Academy history. Constantly fearful of Changeling infiltration, suspicious of each other after the revelation of Red Squad’s involvement in the coup, the Class of ’76 struggled to meet the already demanding program under extreme stress. They experienced a Borg attack on Earth in ’73 and the onset of full-scale War with the Dominion in ’74. They watched news feeds with growing horror as casualty counts climbed from hundreds, through thousands and into the tens of thousands. They attended the memorial service for the Class of ’73, over 75% of which died together at the Battle of Tyra, less than a year after graduation. They gave up study time to additional combat training and filled in assisting with the increased starship production at Utopia Planetia, which began launching ships with much of their scientific equipment missing, their lab decks empty and unfinished. As a result of these added pressures, they became the first class in Academy history to be graded on a curve.
Then, in 2375, they joined with the rest of Earth’s population in yet another exclusive club: survivors of the first direct attack on the Terran homeworld by an alien power in Federation history. In the aftermath of the Breen raid, the entire Academy corps was mobilized to aid in emergency relief operations. With classes suspended for two months following the attack, Rolandson’s class struggled to catch up and graduate on time. Even with the allowances made by the staff, less than half of them qualified for their scheduled graduation date, Rolandson among them.
His first assignment was to the Security force on the USS Argonaut, a Nebula Class vessel equipped with an salvage pod and assigned to a task force organized to search for and recover vessels and personnel still unaccounted for after the War. He served aboard for three years, developing strong piloting skills in various auxiliary craft, achieving promotion to Asst. Security Chief and Lt. Jg in 2378.
After a year in that role, he was transferred to New Bajor. He served there as a shift supervisor for a year, before qualifying for the Special Tactical Reaction Team (STAT), a SWAT-style response force that operated in tandem with a locally based squadron of Beowulf Class runabouts. He performed so well in this role that when, in 2382, the squadron was embarked experimentally upon the Akira Class vessel USS Harrelson, he went with it as XO.
Fourteen months later the Harrelson was lost in a disastrous encounter with a rogue Romulan Warbird turned pirate. His CO dead and his ships damaged far from the nearest Federation facility, Rolandson took command and nursed the battered survivors back into the shipping lanes. Forced to cannibalize all but two of the Beowulfs to keep the remaining ships functioning, he, the only surviving Medical officer and the senior surviving NCO hit upon the novel concept of stretching out the life support by converting environmental suits into field-expedient cryo-sleep chambers.
After crawling back into the shipping lanes and being rescued, Rolandson found himself, as the ranking surviving officer, in the unique position of standing court-martial for the loss of the Harrelson, a vessel he had never even served directly on the staff of. He was acquitted, however and decorated again for his actions in bringing the survivors home. Promoted to Lt. Cdr, he was fast-tracked to command of a new-build Defiant Class ship, USS Steadfast.
Service Record
2372 Entered Starfleet Academy.2375 Decorated for actions during and immediately after the Breen attack on Earth.
2376 Graduated Academy. Assigned to USS Argonaut.
2378 Promoted to Lt. Jg/Asst. Security Chief, USS Argonaut.
2379 Transferred to New Bajor as a Security Shift Supervisor.
2380 Transferred to New Bajor STAT group.
2382 Promoted to Lt. and embarked on USS Harrelson as Beowulf Squadron XO.
2383 Assumed temporary command of Beowulf Squadron-USS Harrelson after
destruction of ship. Decorated for actions in this role.
2384 Promoted to Lt. Cdr. and assigned as CO, USS Steadfast.
Awards
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