USS Galileo :: Biography - Lirha Saalm

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Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm

Name Lirha Saalm

Position USS Galileo-B Commanding Officer

Rank Rear Admiral


Character Information

Gender Female
Species Orion
Age 31
Date of Birth September 20, 2360
Place of Birth Vajripam, Rigel VII

Character Type

Category Pending

Starfleet ID

Serial Number FN-636-1660
Rank Class Pending
Security Clearance Level 10
Duty Watch Pending

Physical Appearance

Height 5'7"
Weight 135 lbs
Hair Color Black
Eye Color Light Green
Physical Description Lirha is average height with a slender body and curvy hips. Her skin tone is usually green but tans to an olive color when spending time in the sun. Like many Orions, she has sharp and well-defined features. Her eyes are light green and surrounded by a naturally-occurring dark eyeshadow. The bridge of her nose is slender and leads down to a pair of plush gold-colored lips, and her jet black hair is kept near shoulder length per Starfleet regulations. She keeps herself fit and in shape with a daily physical training regimen and has strong muscle tone throughout her body, though her legs are probably her most toned region.
Body Art During her youth, she was quite fond of body art and used to have many tattoos spread from the back of her neck down to her waist. Those tattoos -- a reminder of her wild and rebellious younger years -- have recently been removed to present a more professional Starfleet appearance. Her ears are both pierced in multiple places, though she rarely wears jewelry while on-duty.
Portrait lirhaavface2.jpg
lirha5av.jpg

Family

Children None
Father Ter Hord Saalm (Deceased)
Mother Aila Saalm
Brother(s) None
Sister(s) Nesh Saalm (18, CDT)
Livana Saalm (32)
Other Family Extended family on Rigel VII
Pets Belle (long-haired tribble), Snuffles (targ pup)

belle.jpgsnuffles.jpg

Personality & Traits

General Overview Lirha is an intelligent, passionate, and ambitious young Orion. While in uniform, she presents herself professionally and performs her duties with precision. As with most women of her species, she is very passionate, affectionate, and open around those with whom she is comfortable. She has a strong sense of loyalty to her friends, family, and crew, and works her hardest to try and accommodate them. Lirha is generally a happy woman and sees many of the positive nuances in life. She rarely loses her temper as she has learned it does no good to let her anger cloud her judgement. Occasionally, despite being mostly even-tempered, she sometimes becomes over-emotional which is more so a flaw of her Orion culture and genetics rather than her personality.
Strengths Friendly and genial, Lirha excels at verbal communication, a trait developed over many years spent aboard trade vessels and interacting with other species. She is very cultured and knowledgeable about other races and can speak most of the major Alpha Quadrant languages, including a few minor ones. Most of her Starfleet training and experience has been in communications and intelligence, though she also has strong barter and negotiation skills from her jobs previous to Starfleet. Good with words and possessing an amiable personality, she prefers to use her tongue as a weapon instead of a phaser. She is not telepathic but is very adept at interpreting body language and speech which gives her good insight into other people's personalities.
Weaknesses She does not come from a tactical background and is not the most cunning strategist or tactician. She rarely pulls out her weapon and has a strong dislike for species or persons who use violence as intimidation. Though she understands it is necessary to sometimes defend one's self, she uses military techniques as a last-resort, which sometimes makes her appear to be soft. She lacks advanced training in the science and medical fields as well, and is sometimes hesitant to take her crew into unknown and potentially dangerous situations.
Ambitions She would like to serve as a liaison between the Orion Empire and the United Federation of Planets. In the distant future, she would like to return to her homeworld and rejoin her family.
Hobbies & Interests Lirha is fond of most types of arts and entertainment including film, dance, and music. She comes from a hedonistic society and likes to frequently indulge herself. The holodeck is one of her favorite places to spend her free time and she also likes to visit exotic resort planets between deployments. While she is on assignment, she if often busy with her daily routines running the ship and keeping herself fit and in shape. The few hours a day she has to herself she spends either in the lounge or the holodeck. She also enjoys culinary arts and has a diverse palate, often sampling food, wine, and ale from different cultures and societies.
Vernacular She speaks calmly and deliberately and is well-mannered, though once she becomes agitated her voice becomes forceful and quippy. Her tonality is often soft and sometimes sultry, and possesses a mid-to-high pitch which is average for most females. Born and raised around Orions, she speaks with a noticeable Yrevish accent.
Orientation Bisexual
Language(s) Spoken Federation Standard, Orion, Yrevish, Kolari, Andorii, Vulcan, Bajoran, Klingon, Ferengi, Romulan

Personal History Lirha was born in September of 2360 in Vajripam, the capitol city of the planet Rigel VII, commonly referred to as the Orion homeworld. Sophisticated and multicultural, the city is one of the main trading hubs located in the Beta Quadrant. She is the middle of two children born to her parents Aila and Ter Hord Saalm as well has having an additional older half-sister, Livana. Lirha had a traditional planetary upbringing for several years before her parents deemed her old enough to enter the family trading business. When she turned five, her trader parents reacquired their permits for their old transport vessel, the OES Sca'run, and set course into the Alpha Quadrant with their newest child in arms.

The first few months were troublesome for young Lirha. She was the only child aboard a vessel of only ten crew and her access to the ship was restricted to only those areas which her parents deemed appropriate. With no peers her own age to interact with, she was often felt distressed and isolated, but grew up quickly due to her parents' guidance and commitment. She attended home school for several years with the help of Sca'run's Federation databanks, and quickly revealed herself to be a bright and intelligent young woman. During her five years aboard the vessel, she met many different races from all sectors of the Quadrant. Still a child, she picked up the different languages and cultures very quickly and followed her parents' example of becoming an interstellar businesswoman. By the age of ten, she had learned to fluently speak six different languages and was becoming adept at using the traditional and seductive Orion methods of persuasion to negotiate transactions. She also learned and mastered the four basic motives behind business; profit, loyalty, revenge, and spite.

In 2370, in the Sol system, Sca'run was heavily damaged during a volatile business transaction and was rescued by a Starfleet vessel and towed back to Luna shipyards where she was scrapped for parts and decommissioned. Without a ship, Lirha's parents acquired working rights aboard an Earth trading vessel, SSConcord. Unlike Sca'run, Concord was primarily a dilithium hauler, full of miners but lacking in businessmen. With the help and experience of Lirha and her family, the ship soon began to venture farther out to distant colonies and space stations while turning a significant profit on each haul. Lirha encountered even more new species and grew as knowledgeable as she could about their culture and operations.

In 2373, the Dominion War began, and trading became a dangerous occupation. With the Federation suffering multiple military defeats and barely able to police their borders, pirate activity had become rampant. On several occasions, Concord was ambushed and pillaged, some of the crew even taken and held for ransom. Lirha almost became one of them. Fourteen years old at the time, she was a beautiful and exotic young woman who would fetch substantial latinum in the underground slave market. In an encounter with Naussican pirates in 2374, Lirha's parents and crew fought off and protected her from a savage boarding party. Though she was kept safe and Concorde eventually escaped back to the Sol system, there were casualties. Her father, Ter, was mortally wounded in a viscous hand-to-hand battle while protecting his daughter and wife. Unable to receive advanced medical treatment and despite their doctor's best attempts, he died two days after the assault. The loss was devastating for her and her mother, and they chose to settle on Earth for the remainder of the war.

The years which followed were welcome change. She had never spent much time planet-side but her first few months on Earth were pleasant, to say the least. She was introduced to Human culture and society and found it to be very similar to Orion culture. They shared many of the same ambitions, pleasantries, and sometimes impulsive actions which her race was also accustomed to. But she found something different between them. A sense of morality and ethics which were lacking in Orion society. Despite their most irrational and illogical behaviors, Humans were bound by a code honor, one which told them to respect other races and their beliefs and which promoted tolerance and understanding. Earth was a utopia, almost completely devoid of crime, unlike her species' homeworld. After such a traumatic experience in the interstellar trade business, Lirha became fascinated with Human culture and society, especially the ideals of the United Federation of Planets. With most of her working experience being aboard space-faring freighters, she turned her eyes towards Starfleet, the exploration and military branch of the UFP. Her in-depth experiences throughout the Alpha Quadrant made her a prime candidate for Starfleet Academy, and she applied with the hopes of learning new skills and pursuing a new career.
Starfleet History In January 2378, she was accepted into Starfleet Academy and reported to San Francisco in August to begin her first semester. Academy life went well for her. Surrounded by many different species and people from similar backgrounds, she felt comfortable and somewhat at home. Her desire to learn and her passion to improve herself proved invaluable as she worked her way through the basic coursework during her first two years. She took a variety of different classes ranging in a broad spectrum of topics; the equivalent of an aptitude test for Starfleet to determine the strengths and weaknesses of each cadet. Lirha excelled at courses such as xenolinguistics, interspecies protocol, and anthropology, yet struggled with others including tactical techniques, warp theory, and quantum chemistry. In 2380, after her first two years were complete, she was assigned to the Operations Development Program (ODP) with her focus being in communications and diplomacy. She successfully completed her last two years with high marks and passed her bridge officer qualifications with a 92 percent score. She graduated in May of 2382 and was assigned the rank of Ensign for her accomplishments.

She served her first two years aboard the science vessel USS Santiago in the Operations department, serving as a communications specialist. Her knowledge of languages and alien cultures made her a precious commodity in Starfleet. In her first year of assignment, she played an integral role in establishing first contact with two new races, as well as helping to negotiate peace talks between several Breen and Cardassian colonies. In 2384, Santiago was decommissioned and she was promoted and reassigned to USS Mackenzie, a larger and much more capable exploration cruiser. Lirha served in the same position as a communications specialist but was also given temporary duties in the Intelligence department as a cultural adviser. Mackenzie spent two years on the border of the Delta Quadrant, inspired by the journeys of the USS Voyager in an attempt to strengthen relations between the neighboring Quadrant's species and to expand the influence of the Federation. After a two year deployment, Lirha was transferred to Starbase 137, a newly-constructed Stardock Class service and resupply station. She was promoted to full lieutenant and reassigned to the Intelligence department. A year later in 2387, the destruction of Romulus put Starfleet on high alert and Lirha was again promoted and given a department head position. She transferred to USS Athens, a Galaxy Class flagship serving in the Fifth Fleet. The details of her operations aboard SB-137 and Athens are classified.

In late 2388, Lirha was recalled to Starfleet headquarters where she soon learned she would be reassigned to a new posting with a new position. It came as quite a surprise to her when she was promoted to the rank of full commander, transferred to the Command department, and given operational authority of Starfleet's newest Nova Class starship, USS Galileo. A planetary surveyor by design which belonged to Starfleet's Planetary Sciences Division, Lirha soon became very fond of the small ship, and in early 2389, Galileo was officially commissioned and launched from San Francisco Fleet Yards.

Now, in 2390, Galileo continues to explore the unknown and strives to complete its ongoing mission: To explore strange new worlds, and to seek out new life and new civilizations.

Medical History Lirha has suffered several recent injuries while serving aboard Galileo, the most severe of which included deep tissue trauma to her upper thigh, a broken jaw, and the invasion of Borg nanites into her body during an attempted assimilation. Although she has physically recovered from all of her injuries, there is still some psychological distress which lingers.

In addition, she requires weekly treatments to reduce her body's pheromone secretion, per Starfleet regulations. Being a pure-blooded Orion female, the natural oils in her skin possess unique pheromones which increase the metabolisms of males of many different races. The biochemical reaction makes them vulnerable to suggestion and raises production of adrenaline, leading to aggression and sometimes delusion. Human females react negatively to these same pheromones and often experience headaches.

(Source: Memory Beta - Orion)

Service Record 2360: Born in Vajripam, Rigel VII
2365: Lives/works aboard the OES Sca'run
2370: OES Sca'run decommissioned, transferred to SS Concord
2373-75: The Dominion War
2374: Settles on Earth
2378: Accepted into Starfleet Academy
2382: Graduates Starfleet Academy with the rank of ENS
2382: Assigned to USS Santiago (Miranda) as Communications Specialist
2384: Promoted to LT(JG), transferred to USS Mackenzie (Nebula) as Communications Specialist
2386: Promoted to LT, transferred to Starbase 137 (Stardock) as Asst. Chief Intelligence Officer
2387: Hobus Disaster - Destruction of Romulus
2387: Promoted to LCDR, transferred to USS Athens (Galaxy) as Chief Intelligence Officer
2389: Promoted to CMDR, transferred to USS Galileo (Nova) as Commanding Officer
2389: Promoted to CAPT, assigned as Task Group Commanding Officer (TF 21.2)
2390: Promoted to CDRE, assigned as Senior Task Group Commanding Officer (TF 72)
2390: Promoted to RADM, reassigned as Task Force Commanding officer (TF 21)

Character Progression System

CPS Option ENABLED
Primary Band Command
Secondary Band Intelligence

Skills and Perks

Basic Skills Charisma
+ Barter
+ Networking
+ Relationship

Intelligence
+ Acuity
+ Aptitude
+ Linguistics

Perception
+ Alertness
Department Skills Command
+ Administration
+ Command & Control
+ Management

Intelligence
+ Strategic
Department Perks Command
+ Administrator
+ Negotiator
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Skill Training

Completed Command
+ Command & Control

Intelligence
+ Strategic