Tanner Dale

Name: Tanner Dale
Position: Chief Flight Control Officer
Rank: Lt. (J.G.)

Character Information
Gender: Male
Species: Human
Age: 26

Physical Appearance
Height: 5'11"/180.3cm
Weight: 165#/74.8kg
Hair Color: sandy brown
Eye Color: blue

Physical Appearance: Tall and slim, Tanner carries himself with an air of confidence and a slightly-cocky demeanor that is sure to charm some and rankle others. He's handsome in a rogueish sort of way, with arched eyebrows and an "I know something you don't know" smirk on his lips. When he's behind the helm, there's a certain intensity about the way he does things that lets you know that, while he's not the Captain, when he's behind the helm, the ship he's flying belongs to him.

Family

Spouse: Ha!
Children: None he knows about.
Father: Warren Dale (Deceased)
Mother: May Willingham Dale (Deceased)
Brother(s): Terrence (Deceased), Marcus (Twin),
Sister(s): Rhea (17)
Other Family: None he ever met or cares about.


Personality & Traits

General Overview: Tanner is dead certain behind the helm. He's precision and confidence incarnate, and he's impressed a lot of people with his flying abilities. It's when he's not flying that he's likely to get into trouble. He gets bored easily, he's a smart-ass, and has a tendency to be mouthy and opinionated. He likes going fast -- walks fast, talks fast and flies fast. He's friendly, and likes to banter on-shift, but sometimes his choice of subject matter can get him into trouble. He fumes when he thinks the higher-ups are cracking the whip, and hates flying by the book -- He'd rather fly by the seat of his pants. It takes a lot for him to actually like and trust someone enough to call them friend, but once he does, he'd probably take a phaser blast for them. Except that he'd rather shoot the jerk who's pointing a phaser at his buddy. He does have a spiritual side, but unless someone walks in on him while he's in the midst of his meditations, they're not likely to see it. He's alert and attentive to all that goes on around him, even if he doesn't seem particularly concerned with it.

Strengths and Weaknesses:

Strengths: In addition to being an exceptionally-talented pilot, Tanner is good at ops, and can pitch in for some minor engineering work. He's good in high-pressure situations, and multi-tasks well. Turning on the charm comes naturally to him -- he has the gift of gab, and is witty. He's also determined, innovative and can make the hard decisions when he needs to.

Weaknesses: One of his old instructors once said that Tanner was a problem child, and he wasn't wrong to say so. Impatient, headstrong and impulsive, he bristles under the rank structure of Starfleet. He'll think of several underhanded ways of doing things before he ever comes up with something that fits in with the Federation's ideals.

Ambitions: He's trying to be a good example to his little sister, Rhea, who is now a cadet in the academy. If not a good example, then, at least, a less-bad one than he might have been several years ago. He'd really like to get a ship of his own once he musters out of the fleet. One that's a fixer-upper he can tinker with, like the Waffle, if he can find out where it was mothballed.

Hobbies: He bicycles, skateboards, surfs, rides hovercycles and other things that involve the sensation of going fast and maneuvering recklessly. Except it's not really reckless if you know what you're doing. He has about a thousand action games on his PADD, which keep him from getting too bored. He plays the piano pretty well, but he'd rather be shot with a phaser on heavy stun than be in a ship talent show.

Languages: Federation Standard, Bajoran. Can curse fluently in several others.

History:

Tanner Dale was born the third child of Warren and May Dale in 2362, three hours after his twin, Marcus, in Wellington City on Ronara Prime. His parents ran a mildly-successful import/export freight business that operated in the area that would later be known as the Federation/Cardassian Demilitarized Zone. The Dale children were raised aboard their family's Sojourn-class freighter, the Crepe Suzette, and were educated by their parents and by computer. They learned the family business early on, schooled in every part of starship operations by their parents, who expected them to help expand the business in time.

When the Federation signed the Federation-Cardassian Treaty of 2370, the Dales' world-of-charter, Juhraya, was located right in the middle of the DMZ. Despite all the promises and assurances of the Federation, it soon became apparent to everyone that the Cardassians were only giving lip service to honoring the treaty, violating it whenever they pleased to hassle anyone from the Federation, including the Dales. After having their shields nudged, their hull phaser-burned and their their lives threatened one too many times by Cardassian cruisers, the Dales began submitting complaints to the Federation, including sensor logs and recordings of the threats, but these fell on deaf ears. In 2371, the Dales joined the Maquis, and used their ship for smuggling in ship parts and relief goods to the beleaguered Maquis. In 2372, the Dales traded in their freighter for two modified Ju'Day class vessels ("Maquis Raiders"), the Waffle and the Pancake, and joined in the fighting in earnest.

That was the year that Terrence led his brothers on a little "mission," "borrowed" a few phaser pistols and carved a cliff-face of Belding Mountain on Umoth VIII into a gigantic bust of Admiral Alynna Nechayev, along with the legend, "Gul Nechayev." This political statement got attention on both sides of the DMZ, and was blasted out of existence three days later by the Cardassians.

The Dales had a good run of it until the Dominion stepped in and started slaughtering the Maquis in 2373; and then it was time to get out. The Dales did their best to help evacuate the settlements that were targeted by the Dominion, but there were so many people to evacuate. Their last run was to evacuate the children of Maquis operatives from a "safe house" on Juhraya, including the three youngest Dales. The refugees were split up into two groups, as were the Dales; Warren and Terrence took the Pancake while Amy, Marcus, Tanner and Rhea flew out on the Waffle. They skirted the badlands, even though it doubled the distance to the Federation border -- If the Dominion came after them, diving into the badlands might be their only defense.

Halfway to Federation space, two Jem'Hadar fighters spotted them and vectored in for the attack. In the scant minutes they had before the fighters intercepted them, the Pancake beamed all of their refugees over to the Waffle, while the Waffle beamed over their full compliment of photon torpedoes. Then both ships dropped out of warp and dived into the Badlands. The Jem'Hadar gave pursuit, but they wasn't as fast as the raiders were at impulse speeds, and the Dales were, by now, well-versed in guerrilla techniques in the plasma storms.

For three hours, the ships played cat and mouse; the Waffle shield-bumping the Dominion fighters to give the Pancake openings to fire through. On one particularly energetic bump, a plasma conduit blew on the bridge, critically injuring Amy Dale and forcing her eleven year old sons to take the helm and weapons, as the only other adults on the ship were concentrating on keeping the ship from flying apart. Their reckless tactics allowed the inferior Ju'Day fighters to destroy one of their attackers after an hour's chase through the Badlands, but by then, the Dales' ships were in bad shape. The Jem'Hadar were beginning to get impatient, as well; antsy for the kill. Over the course of the next two hours, Amy Dale passed away, but Marcus and Tanner shoved aside their grief and fought on.

Meanwhile, on the Pancake, Warren Dale had his son Terrance rig up their remaining photon torpedoes to the warp core of their ship. They called the Waffle and had the twins guide their ship in for another shield-nudge on the Dominion ship. Only this time, instead of firing, the Pancake rammed the Jem'Hadar ship, and both ships were destroyed in the massive explosion that resulted.

Marcus, Tanner and Rhea Dale eventually made it to DS9 with their ship full of refugees, and the Federation's social-services engine kicked in, relocating the children to other starbases and colonies. The Waffle was stripped of its weapons and mothballed, and the Dales were sent to a group home on Starbase 74. Early on, Rhea (who was only 3 at the time) was adopted out to a couple who couldn't have kids. Tanner protested this, but Marcus wanted their sister to have a chance at a normal life outside of Federation Social Services. The group home was a sad place, where most of the kids were abandoned or orphaned, and disciplinary problems ran rampant. The Dale twins had to learn to fight and stand up for themselves, because the other kids there were mean, ruthless, and had nothing left to lose.

Four years went by, and while Marcus walked the straight and narrow path, Tanner acted out and fell in with the wrong crowd. He learned to circumvent computer safeties and got into trouble for replicating marijuana and alcohol, for joyriding, and vandalizing ships and the Starbase itself. When the authorities cracked down on him, he was given probation and mandatory counseling, but soon got tired of it and, when he turned 15, he removed his transponder implant and high-tailed it off the station on the first transport he could sneak aboard.

Seventeen months later, he turned up in the Emergency Room on Stratos after having been the victim of a vicious stabbing. He was identified genetically and turned over to Starfleet. After a year and a half of getting up to some dangerous criminal exploits, his luck had finally run out when the captain of a ship he had boosted had finally caught up with him and exacted brutal revenge. Tanner was brought back to Starbase 74, where his brother and new case-handler gave him an ultimatum. He could either straighten up his act and enroll in Starfleet Academy like his brother was in the process of doing, or he could go to a penal colony for violating probation.

Tanner made the right choice, worked hard to catch up with his classes and therapy sessions and applied to the Academy. He was accepted at the Academy on Beta Ursae Minor II, whereas his brother was accepted into the Academy at San Francisco. Without Marcus to keep him under control, Tanner managed to rack up as many honor code strikes as he did honors. His professors wanted him to specialize in Operations, but Tanner chose flight control instead. His Cadet Cruise was aboard an old Miranda-class bucket, the USS Insurgent. Instead of carrying on his legacy of seeing how much he could irritate the people in command, he took advantage of the training facilities to take fellowships in Games Theory and Aggressor Tactics. He graduated seventy-eighth in his class, but only because his first three years were a little more fun than they should have been.

Once finished with his cadet work, Tanner was assigned to the USS Swiftsure, a Sovereign class ship, where he served as Gamma shift flight officer, Shuttle pilot and relief Alpha shift flight officer. While aboard, he continued his fellowships, which he believed would serve him well later in his career. After a few years aboard the Swiftsure, he was transferred to the USS Jian, a Saber-class escort, and assigned as CFCO. He liked the Jian a lot; it didn't have a whole lot of embarked craft to keep track of, it was fast and maneuverable, and the C.O., Captain Billingsley, was pretty indulgent of Tanner's quirks because he recognized the young man's value as a helmsman.

Despite nearly four years of exemplary service aboard the Jian, Tanner retains a mildly rebellious streak, and he seems to have a gift for getting himself and others in trouble on shore leaves and in starbase lounges. He has a long streak of short, sometimes spectacularly-bad, relationships under his belt, none of which he really talks about, save to relate anecdotes about them in bars for a good laugh.

Service Record

Enters Starfleet Academy at Beta Ursae Minor II

Cadet Cruise aboard USS Insurgent
Rank: Cadet (4th Year)
Position: Flight Control Officer

Graduates 78th in class. Assigned to USS Swiftsure
Rank: Ensign
Position: Flight Control Officer

Completes Fellowships in Games Theory and Aggressor Tactics

Assigned to USS Jian
Rank: Ensign
Position: Chief Flight Control Officer

Assigned to USS Deimos
Rank: Lieutenant (J.G.)
Position: Chief Flight Control Officer