Lieutenant Commander Ritsu Tainaka
Name Ritsu Tainaka
Position Chief Engineering Officer
Rank Lieutenant Commander
Misc
| Permission Level | Department Head |
Character Information
| Gender | Female | |
| Species | Human | |
| Age | 27 |
Physical Appearance
| Height | 5'6" | |
| Weight | 122lbs | |
| Hair Color | Brown | |
| Eye Color | Hazel | |
| Physical Description | Ritsu has a traditional Japanese look. However her hair isn't dark, it is a medium shade of brown. Her eyes are also a nice shade of hazel. She has a rather thin build as she is often quite active. She can often be seen wearing an old Engineering Uniform from the 2360's (TNG) as she prefers to wear older uniforms when working on her engineering. Especially her engineering overcoat. |
Family
| Spouse | N/A | |
| Children | N/A | |
| Father | Yuta Tainaka | |
| Mother | Tomoka Tainaka | |
| Brother(s) | Satoshi Tainaka | |
| Sister(s) | N/A |
Personality & Traits
| General Overview | Ritsu is what you would class as a tomboy and a little bit excitable. She is an engineer through and through, there is no doubt about that. She is one of the engineers that would rather get things done than have to worry about other stuff like paperwork. From a young age she was brought up amongst engineers so she knows how to get around a starship engine. She loves to get her hands dirty (literally) in fixing and replacing things. She can often be found between decks in the jeffries tubes. However when off duty she is a little bit of a joker and can often get herself into some stick spots. Plus there is nothing she loves more (apart from engineering) than a good cup of herbal tea and cake! |
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| Strengths & Weaknesses | Ritsu's strengths are her ability to get a job done. She is a very capable engineer and makes it her buisness to get to know every last detail of the ship she is on. She has been known to disappear for hours and even days when she's gone looking for a problem, but safe to say it ends up fixed in the end. Another strength is her ability to command a team. She has what seems a natural ability to help and teach others, this is why she was appointed as a Engineer lecturer at Starfleet Academy. Her weakness is that she can sometimes be a bit of a joker and a pranker. This has often gotten her into trouble with other people especially people higher up than her. However she has always managed to get out of those sticky situations. She is also a bit clueless when it comes down to men. Her tomboy attitude is attractive, yet due to the fact she's never really had chance to be a girl she doesn't know what to do when a man flirts and she never see's the signs. |
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| Ambitions | Ritsu's ambitions are clear. She want's to keep doing her engineering. She doesn't want to be a command officer, those decisions are far too difficult for her to do. She would rather be the one repairing and fixing things and running in and out of her starships engine. | |
| Hobbies & Interests | Ritsu's hobbies include: - Repairing and Doing general Engineering Work - Fiddling and meddline with pieces of technology - Designing starships and new engine designs - Building working models of various types of vehicles - Playing the drums |
| Personal History | Ritsu is the oldest child in her family. She was born on the USS Paladin to Yuta and Tomoka Tainaka after just one year of marriage. Yuta and Tomoka were both engineers with Yuta being the chief. Therefore Ritsu has always been brought up around engineers and engineering. As a child aboad the Paladin Ritsu would often spend time with her parents as they worked. She spent many hours of her early life upto the age of five inside jeffries tubes watching as her parents worked. By the age of five she was old enough to attend the school room aboard the ship and she found this boring. She was once told off when she was six years old for being bored in class and when the teacher wasn't look she managed to completely remove one of the plasma conduits at the back of the room. She was however wearing one of the dress-up plastic hard hats so according to Ritsu it was completely safe. Ever since that moment Ritsu has been obsessed with Engineering. When her family transfered to the USS Takanashi Ritsu got a bit of a shock. She was going to have a baby brother. Ritsu didn't quite understand that she wouldn't be the only child anymore. However just before her seventh birthday Satoshi was born. While her mother was busy with Satoshi her father wouldm often take Ritsu to various parts of the ship and let her sit with him. This was mainly because her mother couldn't cope with both of them at the same time. While with her father she learnt a great deal. She was soon helping him in general repairs and replacing various conduits and relays. Ritsu remained fascinated by the engineering world and her father often had her doing errands such as running around picking up spare parts and doing minor engineering work (Like replacing light bulbs). When Ritsu got to the age of ten. She was rather knowledeable in engineering. She didn't know everything but she knew a great deal. After she had repaired the replicator in the family quarters while babysitting Satoshi she made up her mind that she wanted to become a Starfleet Engineer. Satoshi at the age of three didn't understand that when she told him. However she told her parents and she was told that she could go for it and have their support. For her eleventh birthday her father bought Ritsu her first hyperspanner. He had it engraved with her name on and she's had it ever since even if it is a little used by now. She has never stopped since then. She started to excel at her school, especially in mathematics and science. However she wasn't too good with languages unless it was computer language. Her teacher's knew about her passion to do Engineering and wanting to go into Starfleet, so unlike the rest of the children that would take exams she was advised to take an apprenticship with the Engineering department before applying to Starfleet. So thats what Ritsu did. At age fourteen she asked her father to train her. After gaining permission from the captain she was accepted. She was given an old Engineering uniform so that she would stand out as the trainee amongst the Engineering Department. However she loved being a part of things. After two years she was granted a basic engineering commission by the captain of the Takanashi. Ritsu was one of the engineers on duty when the USS Voyager returned home in 2378 and the Takanashi was assigned to the fleet to escort her home. In 2379, Ritsu applied to Starfleet Academy at age sixteen. Because of her sponser from her father and the captain of the Takanashi she was accepted onto the course. She was overjoyed when she got on, and even though she was one of the youngest cadets on her course she loved the idea that she was finally going into Starfleet. During the academy she made a few friends, but she loved to fiddle with technology. Also due to her apprenticeship she knew more about engineering from the start than the rest of the class. So she hardly had to try or study through her first and second years to get good marks. She was kept an eye on however by the academy commodant who had heard about her background and was keeping tabs on her record. Ritsu managed to complete the engineering course a little earlier than the other cadets and passed with an amazing score of 98%. This was the highest that the academy had ever seen on the Engineering course. She was therefore the Valedictorian at the graduation ceremony. Both her parents, her brother and the captain of the Takanashi attended. She was granted the rank of Ensign and told she would be getting a very good assignment. However before she could accept an anything and straight after the graduation speeches the Academy Commodant, Rear Admiral Johnson approached her. He asked her if she would be interested at staying at the academy for another two years, to teach the new cadets in Engineering and to enrol onto the Montogomery Scott Advanced Engineering program. Ritsu was shocked. After discussing it with her parents she accepted. The next two years for Ritsu were what she would call as "The best time of her life". She discovered she had a natural ability to teach others in her own way and she was also learning engineering principles, theories and practicals that were brand new and so advanced that only the best engineers knew them. After her two years at the academy and at the age of twenty two, she was granted the rank of Lieutenant Junior Grade, her mother's current rank. (In which she rubbed in at christmas of course...) After gaining her qualification in Advanced Engineering which was the Starfleet Equivalent of a Master's Degree she decided to leave the academy and move into space. She was quickly snapped up by the USS Scarborough as their new Assistant Chief Engineer. She was the youngest on the staff however she didn't mind that as she had always been the youngest when she was with her father. The Scarborough a brand new Intrepid Class was just what Ritsu ordered. It had new technology she could sink her teeth into and she loved being part of the engineering team aboard. She would often go beyond the call of duty to fix problems and would often be caught fixing something. She was known as the joker of the engineering team, especially the time she pulled the best april fool's joke on the chief by getting all the ship to pretend she was the Chief Engineer for the morning. Even the captain complied and called her instead of him, confusing him. After three years Ritsu was transfered over to the Cestus Fleet Yard with the rank of Lieutenant. She was looking forward to being able to help with the construction of new Starships. She was assigned to one of the space docks under a Lieutenant Commander sh'Rohi. She was enjoying the fact that she could actually get her hands dirty and build new ships. However her career took an unexpected turn after only a year and half of working on the USS Eisenhower. Lieutenant Commander sh'Rohi was promoted into command of the fleet yards and this left a gap in the command structure. Therefore Ritsu after only serving as a Lieutenant for one and a half years was told that she would be given the rank of Lieutenant Commander. Also a new ship had been ordered, the USS Tacibana a brand new Ronin Class starship. Ritsu was ordered by Starfleet Command to oversee and command the engineering teams for its complete construction. Ritsu was a little shaken. She was building a ship from scratch, she had never done that before and she had made it into the top senior ranks at age twenty six. However she put her foot down and started construction on the Tacibana. Of course she made a few minor adjustments to the design as she found flaws in some of the systems. After just over a year and half of construction the Tacibana was spaceworthy and only minor interior items needed doing (putting in furtiture, placing picture frames, that kind of thing according to Ritsu). Once the Tachibana was built, Ritsu handed the ship over to its new Chief Engineer. Due to her success as the Chief Engineer on the ships Construction she was asked if a post on a Corps of Engineers Starbase would interest her. She said yes and was soon reassigned to Starbase 80 as their new Chief Engineering Officer. |
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| Service Record | 2379 - 2383 - Starfleet Academy - Engineering Course [Cadet] 2383 - 2385 - Starfleet Academy - Montgomery Scott Advanced Engineering [Ensign] 2385 - 2388 - USS Scarborough - Assistant Chief Engineer [Lieutenant JG] 2388 - 2389 - Cestus Fleet Yards - Engineering Supervisor [Lieutanant] 2389 - 2391 - Cestus Fleet Yards - Starship Construction Chief Engineer [Lieutenant Commander] 2391 - ???? - Starbase 80 - Chief Engineer |