Crew

Name: Lieutenant Ashton Griffith
Position: Chief Engineer, USS Mariner
Serial Number: 612T-MIXR993-Theta
Race: Human
Gender: Male
Subjective Age: 30
Objective Age: 142
DOB: June 3, 2244
Family: Michael and Ellen (parents, deceased), Denise (sister, deceased), Samuel (brother, deceased), Sara (Niece), various extended family

Physical Description:
Ash is just above average height and while fit has a fairly slim build. He has blue eyes and sandy brown hair. He's been told that he still has a boyish smile, although he would never dream of boasting about how he looks.

Personality:
Ash has a strong sense of duty and loyalty, which is one reason that he chose to remain in Starfleet and join the Mariner's crew. While he will always take time to help people who are genuinely struggling or willing to learn something new, he doesn't have any patience for people who are lazy or claim to be more intelligent or skilled than they really are. He also dislikes self-proclaimed miracle workers, thinking they tend to write checks that someday they won't be able to cash. He generally favors a sort of humble pessimism and can always find something to cheerfully gripe about.

Background:
Ashton Griffith was the oldest of three children born to Michael and Ellen Griffith, two Starfleet officers. His family had a long tradition of going into the service stretching back past the Romulan War, and so the main question was whether he would take after his father and go into science or his mother and become an engineer. (Security, his grandfather's trade, was a distant third.) He spent much of his childhood bouncing between the family homestead in North Carolina and various starbases. In 2262, he was accepted into Starfleet Academy. While his general performance was not especially outstanding, he did well enough in his specialization to squeak in to the top tenth of his class.

Griffith's first assignment was the USS ABERDEEN, a Coventry-class frigate that was primarily assigned to the Klingon border. During this assignment he briefly saw action during the aborted Klingon-Federation War of 2267. The ship was involved in several minor battles as the two sides probed each others defenses. His next ship was the USS KHODARAMPUR, an aging Kiaga-class Perimeter Action Ship. The ship was almost thirty years old by that point and the entire class was being phased out in favor of the new Akyazi-class PAS. It was an interesting learning experience, if nothing else, as he was forced to make due with outdated equipment and the small crew meant he was in a position of greater responsibility than he would have been in on a larger ship. That assignment was cut short by the Kzinti Invasion of 2272. KHODARAMPUR was caught in the thick of the initial assault and, as the class was designed, was essentially there as a speedbump to slow the invaders down so Starfleet could rally and respond. The ship took heavy damage and was abandoned, and Ashton and the rest of the crew spent several weeks dodging Kzinti troops on one of the border colonies. They were rescued shortly before the end of the war and the survivors were decorated for their actions.

His next assignment was the USS MARINER. He was thrilled with the position as Constitution-class ships on exploratory missions were very prestigious. It was just his bad luck that he arrived shortly before the ship was trapped by a singularity. When it emerged, more than a hundred years had passed. His closest living relative was his brother's youngest daughter, Sara, who herself was already a grandmother. His extended family welcomed him home and their acceptance and help was one of the major factors in his successful adjustment to life in the new time period, although he still finds that he is often awkward and out of place. After several months of mandatory leave and counseling, he threw himself into a Starfleet career extension program. When he received word that MARINER would be deployed again, he volunteered to serve aboard the ship and helped with the refit process. He hopes that that reconnecting with others aboard the ship will help him truly settle in to his new life.