USS Galileo :: Biography - Constantin Vansen

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17 Dec 2023 @ 3:18pm

Petty Officer 3rd Class Constantin Vansen

Name Constantin Vansen

Position Operations Officer

Rank Petty Officer 3rd Class


Character Information

Gender Male
Species Human
Age 29
Date of Birth 23rd February 2362
Place of Birth SS Astra

Character Type

Category Secondary Character (PNPC)
PNPC Owner Aria Rice

Starfleet ID

Serial Number OX-285-9800
Rank Class Noncommissioned Officer
Security Clearance Level 3
Duty Watch Team 2

Physical Appearance

Height 6"
Weight 172lbs
Hair Color Brown
Eye Color Blue
Physical Description Constantin is of light/medium built with brown hair he occasionally has slightly longer (yet within regulations) and blue eyes. He has a dimple in his chin, just like his father had. With his background of being brought up in low-G, his bones are more brittle than an average human and as a result his limbs are slightly longer than the average human.
Body Art None
Portrait constantin4 constantinevansen2 constantin1 constantin2

Family

Spouse None
Children None
Father Huig Constantin Vansen
Mother Julianna Katz Vansen
Brother(s) None
Sister(s) None
Other Family None
Pets None

Personality & Traits

General Overview Constantin has an easy way about him when it comes to other people. He never tends to take himself too seriously and doesn't mind having a bit of a joke with people. He enjoys having a drink with friends or play games of chance, but at times will sit by the viewport alone without seeking any company. He has a dark sense of humour, mostly related to things like ways you can die in space, usually said at the worst moment possible. He loves being on a ship where everything just "works".

On the other side of the coin is a man who isn't naive to the dangers of spaceflight and who feels far more comfortable in space than he ever does on a planet. At times his dark humour can take a bitter turn and he tries to isolate himself. Good friends are the ones that spot it and force him out of the dark mood and into what matters. He respects rank and order, but will equally listen to the one with the knowledge more than the one with the rank, even if that at times is him.
Strengths Constantin is knowledgeable about spaceflight, having grown up on a small ship. As such, he has a lot of skills when it comes to keep a spacecraft going, although some if it is a lot more improvised than what is in any Starfleet hand book. He doesn't panic easily and keeps a level head in stressful situations.
Weaknesses Because of spending his childhood in low gravity onboard an unlicensed spacecraft, Constantin's bone density isn't as good as someone who grew up with standard gravity (1 G). As such he is dependant on daily doses of a cocktail of medication to improve bone density and allow him to function as anyone else on the ship. He also has gaps in his knowledge. While not unintelligent, he appears uneducated when people talk about the most basic concepts of philosophy or history. He also has a temper on him, one that usually shows when he is bored.
Ambitions Constantin will openly admit he has no real ambitions except to travel in space and Starfleet is his ticket and ride for it.
Hobbies & Interests Constantin enjoys playing sports in zero g, particularly those involving throwing things. He enjoys a good drink with friends as well and loves being outside the ship in his suit. If he could he would spend a day outside the ship with the stars. He is also currently developing a love for music, something he was exposed to in his late teens.
Vernacular Constantin speaks Standard with an accent that is sometimes mistaken for Dutch, English or occasionally (when he has had a few drinks) Russian.
Orientation Bisexual
Language(s) Spoken Standard (fluent), Ferengi (conversational i.e. haggling), some words in Vulcan, Bajoran, Klingon and Romulan (standard greetings, ordering drinks or cursewords)

Personal History Constantin Vansen is the only child of Huig Constantin Vansen and Julianna Katz Vansen, a pair of wannabe revolutionaries and humanitarians who wanted to explore space "without the interference of the Federation or any other organisation". Believing that space travel was a right of the individual and not for politics, conquest or war, they opposed even the peaceful explorations of the Starfleet. They bought themselves a wreck of a ship, the SS Astra, and rebuilt her to suit their needs before setting off from Earth, with no set destination. Constantine was born five years into their voyage, a healthy baby boy with his mother's eyes and father's chin.

Due to the reconstruction of their ship, the SS Astra had either zero or 0.5 G as standard. While Huig and Julianna didn't see any issues with in, they more or less condemned their son to struggle with any higher gravity. But ignorance is bliss and Constantin grew up comfortable floating around the ship, able to get wherever he needed to. As a small child he could fit into places his parents couldn't, so his father made sure that he knew how to repair their ships, from blocking a leak to bypassing the ship's computer to manipulate the environmental controls. He was even taught how to fly it, happily navigating based on whatever scans they were able to take. He was taught to read and to write, to do calculations and whatever knowledge his parents had, but neither encouraged him to search any database to learn things outside what was needed for the running of the Astra.

The war passed them by as something that happened around them, with evading all sorts of ships and dealing with small ships here and there to keep them fed and deliver messages. Constantin never realised the danger they were in, the idea of being blown up with a hostile ship seemed no more of a concern than if the hull got a crack and they got spaced. It become one of those things that could happen, so why worry about it?

A the age of 15, his parents had been smuggling successfully for years. For Constantin it was normal, you docked with various people and he stayed out of the way while his parents dealt with it. Then there was cargo to deliver and that was that. Supplied were replenished and they were on their way again. He never thought much of it, not seeing any immorality about it.

It was in 2377, two years after the war had ended, that the SS Astra got into trouble. Or more, its small crew did, when the cargo leaked. Constantin's parents had loaded it into the secure cargo hold and forbid Constantin to go there, so he did what he always did. He obeyed. A few days later his parents sickened. His father died a day later and his mother was very, very sick. Worried and with his mother incapacitated, he sent out a distress signal.

The signal was picked up by the USS Marco Polo, who happened to be within range. When boarding, the away team were at once shocked to find the environmental controls tampered with and the sick woman with the lanky teenager. When questioned, Constantin said he had buried his father in space via the airlock, just the way he had been told to do. The two survivors were transported to the ship and Julianna put in quarantine. She had been exposed to a biological weapon which was recovered in the cargo hold. As for Constantin, his adventures only seemed to start.

When arriving onboard the USS Marco Polo, the boy's breathing became strained. When asked, he said it felt like he was being crushed. It was quickly established that the standard 1G of the Marco Polo, the same as Earth's gravity, was affecting the boy simply because his body had never been exposed to it before. It also explained why he was so lanky. He was put in a room where the gravity was changed before the doctors managed to give him a mixture of medication to try and help his body accept the extra gravity without physical protection. Julianna survived and the Marco Polo delivered her to Earth with her son. With various criminal charges facing her as well as the charge of having mistreated her son, Julianna left Luna and her son behind.

Constantin was put into the foster system, taking into the care of Wellcome House, a house that took care of teenagers of all backgrounds who had not been able to fit into society. With his medication, Constantin got used to the world around him and found it good to interact with other people. However he disliked being on Earth, the horizon bothering him. He complained that he never seemed to get used to it and felt imprisoned by what was around him. One of the staff joked that maybe he should join Starfleet. Constantin never saw it as a joke though but more proper advice. They also asked him if he considered surgery to help with his 'condition', but Constantin felt that the experimental nature of possible having metal based rods in his skeleton was worse than taking a hypo every morning.
Starfleet History At the age of 20 Constantin enlisted into Starfleet. He was a couple of years older than the others on his course, simply because he had been forced to study extra to make the basic requirements for enlisting. But while he didn't score too high on the exam papers, the practical and psychological exams were aced. And while he might not be able to sit down and have a discussion about literature, philosophy or history, he could tell you how a warp core worked, the details of what strain a craft got when entering the atmosphere and the best way to repair an airlock.

Constantin graduated with decent scores and a recommendation from one of his instructors. It was what got him on the USS Nash where he served as a shuttle maintenance engineer. While unremarkable, he didn't get into any trouble. His next transfer was the USS Carolina, which in itself was unremarkable. He did however prove himself as more than just a general maintenance man when the ship suffered damage when the ship's shield were disabled when entering an unstable asteroid belt. While power was diverted to support the forcefields keeping the ship from decompressing, Constantin was part of a handful of volunteers from both Ops and Engineering to go and repair areas of the ship where the environmental controls were failing. Armed with repair kits and space suits, he and the team went into the areas and repaired it enough to take some pressure off the forcefields. The malfunction with the shields was later uncovered to be an error with the diagnostic of the system. In a dramatic situation that barely ever happened in Starfleet, Constantin kept a cool head and a sense of humour, as well as relying on his unusual skillset.

In 2391, he was transferred to the USS Galileo in the Operations department. Excited about a deep space mission, he embraced what he could and tried to make friends. He got some out of it, although occasionally he finds his own lack of knowledge frustrating.
Medical History Diagnosed with low bone density and an inability to function in Earth's gravity, Constantin takes a daily cocktail of medication in a hypospray to enable his body to function in the standard gravity of a Starfleet ship. If he misses one of those doses, he experiences pain and stiffness in his joins and difficulty breathing. Prolonged exposure to standard gravity without his medication can leave him disabled with increased risks of strokes, bleeding and death.

Whenever he is on Earth, he reports to Starfleet Medical for one weeks observation to see how his body is adapting.
Service Record 2382-2384 Starfleet Academy Enlisted Programme
2384-2389 USS Nash, Crewman, Maintenance (Ops)
2389-2391 USS Carolina, Crewman, Maintenance (Ops)
2391-PRES USS Galileo, Petty Officer 3rd Class (Ops)

Character Progression System

CPS Option DISABLED

Skills and Perks


Skill Training