Captain Poll Erlinger, late 23rd Century

You are Captain Poll Erlinger, one of Starfleet's newest captains. And possibly its luckiest.

Or its shrewdest.

You can look over your personal dossier in the Starfleet computer network, and have it all spelled out for you in vivid detail.

You were born on Earth in the middle of the 23rd Century, one of the most dynamic centuries in human history. At this time, the United Federation of Planets and the Klingon Empire are locked in a cold war that is later interrupted by Romulan raids launched after a hundred years of silence from their region of space. Not that it touched you in your early years nestled in the urban sprawl of earth’s great metropolises. Your parents were diplomatic liaisons and cultural intermediaries attached to Federation headquarters—you grew up under a cloud of deal-making, compromising, and the real back-room politics that make the alpha quadrant tick.

No wonder you’re fucked up.

Like any Earth-born kid in the 23rd Century, you wanted to sign up. And your family connections made getting into Starfleet Academy easy. But with your parent’s legacy you found it hard to be quite as hard-working and noble-minded as your classmates. You knew how the galaxy worked on a level most of them never would, and more importantly you knew how to pressure the right people when things got dicey. It’s not that you were that much dumber or more lazy than the other cadets—you just couldn’t be bother to put in effort that wasn’t really necessary. Not when the Academy had triplet Caitian sisters wandering around campus.

So you coasted through Starfleet Academy. And scored in the bottom six percent of your class. Which would’ve been fine for you, but that was a mark on your early career. People would think that’d affect you. But not you. See, despite appearances you’re actually an exceptional command officer, able to rally support crew with just the right mix of micromanage and inspiration to get them all pulling together to do what you want. Kind of like those Caitian triplets, actually…

Over the next decade, you managed to shine amongst the ranks of Starfleet’s officers. You accidentally discovered a new method to chelate transporter data to speed up beam-up times on next-gen ships. While stationed on the Romulan Neutral Zone you developed a maneuver to engage massed raiding forces that was introduced into the Academy’s tactical manual as the “Erlinger Loop”.

You had enough accolades, of personality, and deeply-hooked connections throughout Starfleet that the occasional complaint about your personal conduct not only didn’t end your career—it didn’t even slow it down. Now you’re stepping into the captain’s chair, with a hand-selected crew, and you can’t wait to show the galaxy what you’ve got.