Lieutenant Michaela Holland
Name Michaela Holland
Position Chief Engineering Officer
Rank Lieutenant
Character Information
| Gender | Female | |
| Species | Human | |
| Age | 25 |
Physical Appearance
| Height | 1.6m (5’ 3”) | |
| Weight | 54 kg (118 lbs.) | |
| Hair Color | Blonde | |
| Eye Color | Blue | |
| Physical Description | Upon first glance, one might mistake Michaela for one of those Starfleet poster girl types—beauty, confidence, exuberance, she’s got them all in spades. In actuality she was only a runner-up for the recruitment campaign, and her likeness never made it onto a poster on display. Though Michaela isn’t upset over missing out on a bit of meaningless fame, she is convinced that she was overlooked because of her height. Though not exactly a paranoid narcissist, she is without a doubt flamboyantly vain, and chooses to be memorable in her own way, often with minimalist uniform minidresses cut from designer fabrics, edgy cosmetics, elaborate hairstyling, and heeled boots that make her noticeably taller. Whether this approach actually achieves anything is debatable, but she certainly is fearless in the face of whatever impracticalities or judgements may come her way. |
Family
| Father | RDML Maxwell Holland (age 60) | |
| Mother | Meredith Holland (age 58) | |
| Sister(s) | Josephine da Gama (age 31) | |
| Other Family | LCDR (ret.) Damien Holland (paternal grandfather, age 87) |
Personality & Traits
| General Overview | Michaela is often best described as a study in paradox, when no other descriptors will quite make do. At the academy, she felt that the person she used to be would’ve never made it far in Starfleet, so she killed that personality and did her best to reinvent herself as an officer candidate with more compatible traits. But those traits were based off of successful role models that she eventually realized she didn’t really like. Soon after that she realized that she didn’t really like herself either. Going through life as someone she despised didn’t seem like a solid pathway for long-term career success, so Michaela tried to kill that personality too, in favor of resurrecting the old one. She struggles with the personal fact that that is now something easier said than done. All of this see-sawing back and forth has made Michaela a bit… well, crazy. But like beauty, crazy is in the eye of the beholder, so we’ll let you be the judge. Personality quirks aside, Michaela is a solid, dependable officer. She adheres to logic and reason, and makes favorable decisions far more often than not. She rarely misses a counseling session, and her record is clear of serious behavioral concerns. One just can’t help but wonder what sort of Michaela one will encounter at the next staff meeting, and how much different she will be than from the last. |
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| Strengths & Weaknesses | ‘Perfectly acceptable’ tends to be among the list of adjectives that predominate Michaela’s performance reviews. She’s neither a natural born leader, nor a great innovator, or even a skilled engineer, but she’s perfectly acceptable at fitting into the various hats she must wear. What she is known for is the surprisingly versatile tool kit she brings to work every day, and the ease with which she can juggle whatever tools she pulls from it. She’s resourceful, perseverant, and clever in her own sort of way. She’s got a knack for teamwork, a great eye for talent, and enough modesty to let that talent outshine her own. Michaela is also surprisingly well connected, which might help explain why someone so ‘perfectly acceptable’ as her leads a group of techie geniuses and savants. As an engineering officer, Michaela is known for being an NCOs best friend, and a superior’s worst nightmare. She adheres to a hands-off approach to leadership that grants her various systems sections and specialists near-full autonomy, and only lays out the most basic framework of tasking and resource allocation at the beginning of each shift. As a result of this her department is very flexible and effective at dealing with the multitude of work orders sent its way, but to outside observers it tends to be seen as very chaotic, and lacking in communication when more complex issues arise. Michaela doesn’t micromanage, so she rarely knows exactly what is going on in her department when called to unplanned senior staff briefings, and may be seen as ineffectual because of this. She usually owns whatever mistakes are made by others as a result of her leadership, and she prefers whatever respect she’s earned within her department, even if it comes with ridicule from outside of it. |
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| Ambitions | Michaela doesn’t have many ambitions or long-term goals aside from the one she's already reached–becoming an engineer in Starfleet. For her, that feat in itself seemed to require enough ambition for a hundred lifetimes. Now that she’s in, she’s more or less content to toe the line, and follow the career path that’s been set out for her. She cares little for the allure of command, and contents herself with the more tangible benefits of working with cutting edge technology, visiting exotic worlds, and meeting people from all over the galaxy. To Michaela, her career in Starfleet is like bull-riding in a rodeo—having control over much of anything is hardly a consideration when it’s all she can do to hold on tight and keep from getting bucked off and trampled. | |
| Hobbies & Interests | Though Michaela often tries to cast herself as interesting and enigmatic, in truth she’s anything but. She’s actually a boring homebody who can’t wait to kick off her boots, pour a drink, and enjoy some peace and quiet after a hectic day. Whenever she does find herself socializing, Michaela will usually try to go along with what other people are doing, and feign enough interest to keep them from asking about what interests her. There was a time when she was once passionate about theater and dance, but those days feel long gone, any such passion there feels insignificant beside the notion that her life has become a bit part in a giant, ongoing space opera. |
| Personal History | Michaela Holland was born on April 9th, 2241 in a medical bay on Starbase One. She was born in space, grew up in space, and seemed destined to spend her life roaming the stars. She never worked toward that kind of life, it was an opportunity that more or less fell into her lap. Born into a long tradition of family service to Starfleet and the Federation, stretching back to its foundation over a century before, Michaela grew up with the notion that there had never been a time when there wasn’t a Holland serving as an officer in Starfleet. Her father, a Starfleet captain, was the first to command his own ship, but his father and grandfather had both put in decades of service to the space-faring organization as well. More than that, each managed to reach greater heights then the one before him. Needless to say, tradition ran strong in the Holland family. Michaela was the younger of two daughters, so naturally her older sister Josephine was spoon-fed all the tradition and indoctrination, most of which she did her best to reject. Even their mother seemed caught up in it, though she’d never shown any personal interest in joining Starfleet herself. While Michaela never seemed to mind, Josephine hated always moving from place to place as their father worked his way up the chain of command. As soon as Josephine came of age and became old enough to enroll at Starfleet Academy, she’d had enough. She wanted to marry her long-time boyfriend and attend college with him, and was adamant in not pursuing a career in Starfleet. The conflict of interest created a significant rift in the family, one that never properly healed. Josephine left, got married, and went to school to pursue a career in music. She contacted the family from time to time over the coming years, but never made any serious attempts to reconnect with their father. Six years younger, it was some time before Michaela figured she would find herself in her sister’s shoes, but surprisingly the time never came. No one had ever pushed anything on her when she was a kid, and as she grew into adulthood she began to figure out why. It was an unspoken expectation that succeeding Holland men and women to join Starfleet would do his or her best to reach a greater height. As her father had reached captain, that sort of tradition now seemed on the verge of becoming an improbability; the next would have to be promoted to flag officer rank, a very rare occurrence indeed. Her father’s star was still on the rise, and while the officers in her family admitted that Josephine might have had what it took to get to the top, all seemed to doubt that Michaela ever would. They never even asked if she was going to enroll in the academy. So, it came as a shock to the family when Michaela decided to attend… not to carry on the tradition, but to show them that she thought she had the right stuff. She shipped off to San Francisco, her first time living on a planet, and did her best to prepare herself for the worst ordeal of her life. As expected, the academy was an academic nightmare. Hours of courses every day, combined with hours of homework every night. Plus her instructors focused her onto an engineering track, which was the last thing she wanted to do. It was almost more than she could take, and every year Michaela became more convinced that when it came down to it, she wasn’t going to make the cut. But when it came to graduation, by some miracle Starfleet seemed to disagree. Michaela’s first assignment was the USS Sol, an aging Kelvin-class that had long been relegated to home system defense duties prior to her arrival. Slated for retirement, it was unexpectedly put back into first line service to meet a growing need for ships, and given a full crew complement. Upon her arrival, Michaela found herself surrounded by rusting bulkheads, obsolete equipment, and a tired warp core that should have been retired and dismantled long before she’d stepped foot aboard. It was not an ideal, or enjoyable first assignment, but it was what she’d been given, and she made the most of it. As with her first few years at the academy, Michaela struggled adjusting to the fleet. She had no problem living aboard starships, and indeed, her fleet background was the major source of her frustration. She was used to being the captain’s daughter, not just another reactor deck troll. Staying focused on her duties, respecting the chain of command, and playing the professional were all aspects of the job that took a lot out of her once her shift was done. Even after her first year, she often wondered whether her family had been right, if she really was cut out for the job of a Starfleet officer. After two years in Starfleet, Michaela still didn’t have the answer. One thing she knew for certain though… she was tired of the Sol. And she was starting to get a little homesick, if that could even apply to someone who’d grown up in space. She pleaded and begged her father for a transfer to his ship, the Daedalus, both because it was nicer, and also because it was where her parents were. In retrospect, ‘moving back in’ with her parents was probably not the best of career moves in the long-term, but it did conveniently come with more responsibilities; her two years of fleet experience made her the second ranking engineer aboard the ship, making her the assistant chief. Michaela spent two years serving under her father aboard the Daedalus, and though they would probably be the most fondly remembered, she was not oblivious to the thought that they might later become a source of regret. Her father had always been a bit protective of her, not holding her to the high standards that he would have expected her sister Josephine to meet. Michaela did have an important job to do, of course, but serving in her father’s shadow insulated her from many professional challenges, mostly those involving leadership and discipline; few in her department seemed willing to risk the captain’s personal ire by giving her a hard time. After two more years, Michaela’s time aboard the Daedalus came to an abrupt end. Her father had been promoted to rear admiral, something she should have seen coming, and that signaled the end of his time as a starship commander. With her parents no longer aboard the Daedalus, and with there being no immediate prospects for advancement there, Michaela saw little reason to stay. She put in for another transfer, and tried to distance herself from her father and his new position a little. She was reminded of why she’d joined Starfleet in the first place. |
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| Service Record | Starfleet Academy (2258-62) 2258:Cadet Freshman Grade 2259: Cadet Sophomore Grade 2260: Cadet Junior Grade 2261: Cadet Senior Grade First Posting (2262-64) USS Sol (NCC-0523), Kelvin-class Cruiser 2262: Engineering Officer Second Posting (2264-66) USS Daedalus (NCC-0812), Miranda-class Frigate 2264: Assistant Chief Engineering Officer Third Posting (2266-Present) USS Defiant (NCC-1764), Constitution-class Heavy Cruiser 2266: Chief Engineering Officer |