Lieutenant Ryan Collingway

Ryan was born into a wealthy family on the colony planet Xin as an only child. Most of the population on Xin belongs to the criminal element and accept federation status very reluctantly. His father, Stephen Collingway, is in charge of New Frontier logistics, and views his son as the path to continuing his legacy. Knowing that New Frontier is a front for black market activities, Ryan rejects that plan and decides to live a more meaningful life. In the middle of the night, he sneaks away and applies for Starfleet Academy. This act greatly angers his father, who is determined to ‘remove’ the Starfleet out of him, by whatever means necessary.

Shortly graduating Starfleet Academy, however, things did not go well for Ryan. After a few months, the ship was attacked and boarded by Nausicaan raiders. The Captain ordered a self-destruct, as a desperate plan to make the Nausicaans flee. It worked, but the ship was too significantly damaged to reverse the self-destruct and the entire crew had to abandon ship. Ryan’s escape pod veered off course into a nearby nebula, along with four other pods. This act inadvertently saved Ryan’s life, as the nebula masked his readings from the Nausicaans who decided to return and destroy the escape pods as revenge for losing their prize. Ryan could only watch as his shipmates were murdered, powerless to help them.

After a while, the surviving pods were rescued by another starship, and Ryan was assigned medical leave for six months before being deemed able to return to duty. However, he emerged from the experience as a changed man, unable to form bonds after losing so much. He drifted across multiple ships and racked up discipline problems in the process. On his latest ship, the USS Lexington, Captain Merrick took a vested interest in him and decided his best path would be to transfer to the USS Pathfinder, who had a reputation for helping troubled officers find stable ground.

Strengths & Weaknesses

Ryan is extremely intuitive. If something is wrong, he is the first to notice it. He is a gifted engineer and despite his problems with discipline, shows leadership qualities. He prefers to demonstrate leadership by working closely with his fellow engineers, not bossing them around. On away missions he is able to demonstrate courage and calmness under pressure.

Ryan is not physically imposing and will often rely on security over fighting himself. His attitude is often direct and sarcastic, which often gets him in trouble with his command team. His inability to form bonds gets in the way of him forming any meaningful relationships. When he is about to get too comfortable with something, he will subconsciously try to wreck it, in order to protect himself.