Melissa Vane

Commander Vane is the Head of Shipyard Operations aboard Starbase 72, with responsibility for the construction of new starships and any repairs or refits conducted on visiting starships. She's had a long career as a member of the Starfleet Corps of Engineers and is considered an expert in starship technology. Often short-tempered, she tends to experience friction when starship commanders attempt to dictate to her how she should conduct repairs and refits, as she considers the starship to be hers once it's in the yard.

History

Early Life (2339-2357)

Melissa Vane was born in the Lunar Colonies in 2339, where she was constantly surrounded by technology. Because everyday life on Luna required artificial gravity, life support, and all sorts of other systems, it was par for the course for colonists there to learn how to repair their own technology themselves, and Vane was no exception. By high school, Vane was a better technician than many people would be after twenty years of experience.

Starfleet Academy (2357-2361)

After acing the entrance examination, Vane entered Starfleet Academy in 2357 knowing exactly what she wanted to do: become a starship engineer. Her laser-like focus on this goal was noted by several professors, and she earned a number of awards in her first two years that led her to be assigned to Gold Squadron, the elite training unit for cadets intending to become engineers and operations officers.

USS Galaxy (2361-2370)

Vane’s first posting after Starfleet Academy was to the USS Galaxy herself, the prototype of the legendary class of explorers. She started out as a Warp Propulsion specialist, before gradually working up the ranks to Assistant Chief Engineer at the end of her nine-year stint aboard the ship.

USS Challenger (2370-2378)

In 2370, Vane transferred to the Galaxy‘s sister ship: the Challenger as Chief Engineering Officer at the rank of commander. The Challenger was a few years newer than the Galaxy and many of her systems incorporated lessons learned in the construction of the prototype. Still, keeping a Galaxy-class ship running was a monumental task that Vane relished. The Challenger embarked on a long-range exploratory mission in the Beta Quadrant, but it was pulled back to Federation space when the Dominion War broke out, serving in the core of Starfleet’s main battle fleets, which kept Vane busy with constant repairs and upgrades. Following the war, the Challenger once again returned to exploratory missions, and Vane continued to serve aboard the ship until it put back to port in 2378 for its first major refit.

Starfleet Corps of Engineers (2378-2381)

While she had wanted to lead the refit herself, Vane was tapped to head a team within the Starfleet Corps of Engineers that was devoted to evaluating the oldest starships in current service to make recommendations for refits, retirements, or other actions. She is widely seen as being one cause for the final retirement of the Miranda-class, but her team’s recommendations only confirmed what many other engineers had recommended as early as 2350. Her team was also responsible for developing a mid-life refit plan for the Ambassador-class.

USS Belmopan (2381-2390)

With plans for the Romulan evacuation going from zero to Warp 9, Vane was posted to the starship Belmopan in 2381 to handle the construction of new facilities for refugees on worlds near Romulan space. While she was first and foremost a starship engineer, Starfleet needed every engineer it could get contributing to the rescue operations and Utopia Planitia was already working at full tilt with a large contingent of Synth labor, while ground facilities were in short supply. While on the Belmopan, Vane found herself working very closely with the ship’s captain, Leighton Mortcombe. They’d met before; he’d been a year ahead of her at the academy and they’d shared an engineering course, but never interacted much. Both officers had devoted themselves to their career at the expense of personal relationships, but they clicked in a way that surprised Vane; after several years working together the relationship turned romantic, and they married in 2389. Their first child, Tyler, was born the next year.

USS Hathaway (2390-2396)

Vane and Mortcombe transferred to the USS Hathaway in 2390, which was a much larger ship, with facilities much better suited to raising a family, which expanded to include Jackson and Madison in 2391 and 2393. While Vane had always considered herself to be a career-focused officer, Vane found herself dreading the time she spent in the engine room away from her children almost as much as she dreaded giving up her career for motherhood. She and Mortcombe balanced their work and family lives as best they could, but with the Hathaway assigned to charting operations beyond Romulan space, both of them realized that they needed something more stable if they were going to be able to stay in the fleet and raise a family at the same time.

Starbase 72 (2396-Present)

Along with her husband who was assigned as Executive Officer, Vane joined the crew of Starbase 72 in 2396 as the Head of Shipyard Operations, where she would supervise both the construction of new ships and the repair and refit of visiting ships. This assignment suited her, as she had a long history with starship engineering, but it allowed her to spend more time with her family. Vane prefers to take a hands-on approach with this job, and she prides herself on having personally worked on every single starship launched from Starbase 72 under her tenure.

Commander Vane In-Play

As a Task Force 72 NPC, you are free to use Commander Vane in your own fiction writing or if your game (RPG) visits Starbase 72 during a mission. The information here is meant as a guide for folks to use this character consistently across different stories, but feel free to take some liberties with her exact characterization. Her rank, position, gender, species, and other mundane details shouldn’t be changed, though. Also, don’t kill her; that wouldn’t be nice.
Vane is a brilliant engineer, but she’s a territorial one: if your ship is in her yard, she’s not going to take kindly to interference in her plans for it.
As the Head of Shipyard Operations, Vane is the person you’d interact with if your ship needed repairs–or if it was under construction at Starbase 72. She’d work with you and your Chief Engineering Officer to assess what needs to be done, and then her teams from the starbase would get to work.
The shipyard at Starbase 72 doesn’t just make starships: if you needed new shuttles or runabouts for your hanger, you’d requisition them from Commander Vane as well, especially if your ship isn’t equipped to build them on its own.
Having served on two of the original Galaxy-class ships, Vane has a very long resumé and experience with a broad range of starship types.
Commander Vane is 1.75 meters tall and of African descent.