Backgrounds of the Crew of The Ace of Spades part 3

Judith Kramer - Human Doctor aged 31.

Judith was the eldest of two children of Wolfgang and Diane Kramer. She was born on Terra (Sol 3). Her brother, Jeffrey, was two years younger than her. Her father worked as a solicitor and her mother as a personal assistant in the corporate sector. Judith was a very studious child and achieved top grades at school. She decided to continue her academic career and remained at university for a further 12 years, achieving a doctorate in medicine. With such impressive qualifications she could have walked into any job in the medical profession. With a deep yearning to explore the stars, she signed on as a doctor on board a Survey Scouts Endeavour class IX Cruiser called the DSX Livingstone. The ship had a crew of 376, and Judith was appointed as deputy chief medical officer in a sickbay with a capacity for 20 patients at a time. She learned a lot and gained excellent practical experience. She got on well with her staff and other crew members, but when her tour of duty was up after four years, she decided to move on. She was hoping to find a job that placed her in charge, instead of being a second-in-command. As it happened, a young nurse called Gwendoline Papillion had been informed by one of Judith's former crew-mates that she was looking for a new post. Gwendoline invited Judith to speak to her captain, Kimberley Wells, who was actively looking to recruit new crew members for her independent scout ship, The Ace of Spades. Judith was immediately won over by Kimberley and Gwendoline's personalities, and so happily accepted the post of chief medical officer. Gwendoline was particularly delighted to be serving under such a distinguished surgeon as Judith.
Judith found the first two years of her time on board The Ace of Spades a very different experience to her time on the DSX Livingstone. For a start, Kimberley ran her ship in a very relaxed manner and gave her crew a lot of leeway to do what they thought best. Discipline was not a high priority on The Ace of Spades. Secondly, Kimberley seemed to have an unerring knack of finding trouble. Life was never dull. One year ago, whilst on a scouting mission, Judith rescued a baby daggertooth cat who had lost his owners. She had always had a love for animals and so she adopted the cat and called him, "Fizz". Fizz quickly became known as the ship's mascot and is loved by all except Celeste, who views him with indifference. Judith is the most pacifistic person on board the ship. She strongly disapproves of violence and has, thus far, resisted all attempts to learn any combat skills. In her mind, she saves lives, she does not take them.
Typical Quotes
"Has anyone seen where Fizz went? He was here a moment ago."
"No, don't kill it! We need to collect a specimen."

Lynda Pelligrosso - Human Research Scientist aged 26.

Lynda Pelligrosso was born on Augusta (Augustus 2), the capital planet of the Mercantile League in the Antares starsector. She was the only child of Lucius and Ludmilla Pelligrosso, who both worked in the corporate sector. Upon graduating from university with an Honours degree in Engineering, Lynda accepted a job from a prestigious megacorp research division known as the Trident Corporation. Her first assignment was to develop new techniques for manipulating graviton waves from a distance. At the time, this was a "hot" problem and the League Navy was funnelling huge sums of money into the megacorp to fund the ongoing research. After only two years, Lynda made a major breakthrough. Excited, she reported her findings to her superiors... who told her to keep her mouth shut and bury her results deep in the data-files. It took her a while to understand what was going on, but when she finally realised, she was horrified. Solving the graviton wave problem would put an end to the ongoing military funding, and that funding far exceeded any possible profit the Trident Corporation could realise from Lynda's discovery. Economic reality dictated that her breakthrough should be shelved - at least until the megacorp had siphoned a few more billion out of the Navy. Lynda quit and tried going out on her own. Her academic credentials should have entitled her to government funding, but her erstwhile employer had effectively "blacklisted" her with all funding agencies. If she wanted to do pure research she realised, she'd have to go begging to the Trident Corporation she'd just quit. That simply wasn't an option!
Lynda went into business for herself as a researcher for hire. This was initially only going to be a temporary solution but what she had not predicted was that she'd enjoy the variety and ever-changing challenges of her new lifestyle so much. Now she'll work for anyone - except megacorps, whom she hates. Two years ago, she was hired by captain Kimberley Wells as a crew member of The Ace of Spades scout ship. She serves multiple roles, as the ship only has a small crew. Her primary role is still that of research scientist, but she also takes on the ships comms role and also helps out with the ship's engineering. Lynda exudes confidence and she's become a hard-nosed businesswoman. She will work on any project she doesn't consider harmful to human life. Whilst she is a pacifist at heart, she has learned a few self-defence skills.
Typical Quotes
"And I say, keep the know-nothing politicians and corporate dickheads out of my way!"
"Of course I'm familiar with Simpson's revision of Tien's superstring theory. Who isn't?"

Sharuna Randall - Human Computer Hacker aged 21.

Sharuna Randall was born on Tyche (82 Eridani 3), a planet populated by 10 million human colonials and 150 million Tychan canines. The two races get on well with each other. Indeed, Tychan society is virtually identical to that of Terra. The planet has been extensively terraformed to resemble Sol 3. Her unmarried mother, Loleatta Randall, made sure that Sharuna had a good education and a respectable upbringing. From a very early age, Sharuna was fascinated with computers. Her school grades were impressive and she enrolled at university aged only 8. She majored in cryptology and stayed on another four years to attain a Masters degree. Her mother was so proud of her when she graduated aged 16. However, Sharuna had no clear goal of what she wanted to do with her life. Obviously, she wanted to utilise her computer skills, but she just couldn't find the right job that she really wanted to do. This lead her to the realisation that she ought to spread her wings and leave Tyche. So she took employment on a small star liner, The Merry Duchess, as a general dogsbody. It wasn't an ideal job, but it gained her valuable experience on board a starship. She stayed a year before setting out on her own as a freelance computer hacker. Work was slow but profitable.
A year later, she was waiting at a starport on Arcturus 6, when she overheard three women who were sitting at a table next to her, discussing vacancies for their new scout ship called The Ace of Spades. The more she listened, the more she realised she wanted to join them. So she introduced herself to them. They were captain Kimberley Wells, engineer Kyran Calaveri and nurse Gwendoline Papillion. Luckily, Kimberley could see the potential of having a skilled hacker on board and she immediately hired Sharuna. In the past two years, Sharuna has found the job she was born to do with a crew who treat her as one of the family. At age 21, she is the youngest member of the crew. She is very quiet and taciturn, apart from when she goes online and her whole personality changes to a sassy and confident woman. She values the advice given to her by the other crew members and she loves the freedom that Kimberley gives her. Like a few other women on board, she is very much a pacifist. She has, however, agreed to learn martial arts from Julia Frostorm, purely to defend herself should the need arise, but she finds guns frightening and she won't touch them. Given a choice, she prefers to stay on board ship to venturing outdoors. She feels much safer on board.
Typical Quotes
"Be careful what you store on a computer: it might get ideas... LOL!"
"Uh, uh! I'd much rather stay onboard."