Commander Riko McCord
Name Riko McCord
Position Executive Officer
Second Position Assistant Chief Intelligence Officer
Rank Commander
Physical Appearance
| Height | 5'5" | |
| Weight | 125 lb, 57 kg | |
| Hair Color | dark brown | |
| Eye Color | brown | |
| Physical Description | Tall, slender build, slight eye-tilt and the hair texture of her Japanese ancestors, broader shoulders, broad nose and stubborn chin of her Scots ancestors, Riko is a physical mix of Broken Drive genomes. |
Character Information
| Gender | Female | |
| Species | Human | |
| Age | 38 |
Family
| Spouse | Darren Miyazaki: divorced | |
| Children | NA | |
| Father | Teru McCord | |
| Mother | Colleen Watanabe | |
| Brother(s) | Daiki McCord (34), Hotaka McCord (28) | |
| Sister(s) | Keiko McCord (31), Midori McCord (17) | |
| Other Family | Great Aunt Kinzie Mori, unmarried Many aunts, uncles, cousins all 4 grandparents |
Personality & Traits
| General Overview | Riko is studious and serious, with a splash of humor and just a bit of mischief mixed in. She is friendly, but keeps her distance from those in her command. It takes a while to develop more than casual acquaintance with her. She's more likely to be found in a science lab than hanging out with a crowd. | |
| Strengths & Weaknesses | Strengths: persistence, humor, intelligence, peacemaker Weaknesses: stubbornness, occasionally slow to make decisions because she sees both sides of a question, peacemaker |
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| Ambitions | Although Riko is interested in pursuing many scientific questions, she really achieved most of her dreams by becoming Chief Science Officer on a Federation starship. Then she transferred to a starbase, and achieved another dream of inventing something that could make a difference in the Federation, but she's stymied by the fact that it could also be weaponized. For the moment, she's content to be first officer on a small ship tasked with intelligence operations and fact finding for Starfleet. |
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| Hobbies & Interests | She does fine embroidery, generally floral fantasies, blending the styles of both her Japanese and Scots ancestors into wall hangings which are museum quality, although she doesn't sell them, but gives them to friends and family. |
| Personal History | The McCord family history is a topic of frequent and rowdy discussion in Riko's parents' home. While most of the original Scots immigrants on Broken Drive were highland Scots, Riko's branch of the McCord family had returned to the Highlands from America only half a century before their ship departed Earth in 2076. There were other McCords on Broken Drive who had never made a 300-year side trip to the Colonies, some dating back to the Isle of Skye, though Riko's family had come to America from Ulster, Northern Ireland. Both branches had caught up with one another in Lochcarron, in the Scots highlands. When the mix of Japanese islanders was introduced into the line, after their ship's drive failure and establishment at Broken Drive, their new home by default, things became more complicated for a while. In the centuries since then, time has allowed the two cultures to meld into one strong, independent, and occasionally downright feisty, group of people. Their home world, rather than a solitary planet, is a series of habitats in three asteroid belts circling a dim sun. There are huge gas planets close to the sun and at a distance, but in between, instead of smaller planets with an atmosphere, there are only three asteroid belts. The pressures of the two sets of gas giants pulling away from each other kept those fragments from coalescing into planets. At first, the colonists dug into some of those asteroids to build their homes, but later, they used materials from those asteroids to build their habitats. Riko's family, along with many other McCord descendants, called an O'Neill Cylinder their home. Though there were McCord engineers who worked for Starfleet in the NeoEdinburgh ship-building facility, including Riko's father, there were many others with medical or scientific interests. Riko personally knew one cousin who was a ballerina. The McCords welcomed Riko as their first child, and she grew up knowing she was well-loved, and expected to excel at all she did. Anything else was simply unacceptable. Even at four, when her next sibling was born, Riko felt some relief of having to share the love and the pressure of being a McCord. Fortunately, Daiki took to being eldest son and engineer from an early age, being a prodigal with building blocks and computer games almost from the time he could walk. This left Riko free to pursue her love of animals, which eventually led to her interest in biology. During her Academy years, she specialized in xenobiology, specifically xenoentomology, or as her youngest sister, Midori, said with disgust, alien cooties. The McCords were not wealthy, but did well enough financially. They belonged to the First Church of Elvis, Reformed, and tithed a generous amount to its support. There was no servant class in Broken Drive, but there were robotic helpers, and Riko's family had more than enough, so they didn't have to concern themselves with the mundane chores of existence. There was little crime anywhere in Broken Drive, and the McCord O'Neill was entirely safe for children to wander. Wander Riko did, exploring everything and anything. She did well in her studies, and learning came easily to her, with the exception of music and art. While she loved both, she was entirely tone deaf, and stick figures were the best she could manage on a canvas. Her parents gave up those expectations by the time she was nine. Riko graduated fifth in her high school class, which suited her entirely. It meant she didn't have to waste time preparing a speech to give during the graduation broadcast, and could get on with more interesting things. From the beginning, she'd known she wanted to experience science in a wider milieu than Broken Drive allowed. It would always be her home, and she'd come back again and again until she settled there at the end of her career. In the meantime, though, she wanted to see the universe and everything in it. That goal had been firmly in her mind since the age of 12, so she had prepared to take the Academy exams from that time forward. Since Broken Drive was a member of the Federation, taking the exam was a matter of going to NeoEdinburgh, not another planet. Of all the parts of the test, social skills might have been the hardest, but Riko managed to pass all sections on her first try, though one or two areas were not as high as she wanted. During her years in the Academy, Riko blended well with most humans. She occasionally took initiative, but tended to follow others who had more experience in larger planetary cultures. While Broken Drive was not a back-water, it was sheltered. She had to learn many new skills to survive the Academy and society on Earth. Riko didn't particularly want command at any time, but occasionally found it thrust upon her, and she did well. While she did not make the most startling or fastest solutions to a problem, she did solve the situations presented in a way that was almost always successful. Again, she graduated high in her class, but not the very top. Her first posting was preceded by a short visit home for the first time in four years. During her leave, she met Darren Miyazaki, a young man who was different from her in every respect. Though he had no interest in science or engineering, he listened to the stories she told and charmed her entirely. At the end of a month's wild courtship, he asked her to marry him and she agreed. The two families put together a quick festive occasion through the First Church of Elvis, Reformed. As the strains of "Love Me Tender" played, Riko's mother watched her eldest child walk down the red carpeted aisle, and she shed a few tears. After a glorious, but short, honeymoon, it was time for Riko to join her first starship crew. Darren returned to his job, creating training films for Broken Drive's educational system, and they agreed the separation would be difficult, but they'd see each other often. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. Absence, in the case of Darren, did not make the heart grow fonder. It was less than a year before he sent Riko a cryptic message telling her he wanted to dissolve their union. After several attempts to contact him failed, a heart-broken Riko signed and filed the electronic forms he'd sent her. She vowed never to make the mistake of marrying again. |
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| Service Record | 2376-2380: Starfleet Academy, Cadet 2380-2383: USS Drake, Biologist, Ensign 2383-2386: USS Lexington, Biologist, Ensign promoted to LTJG mid-2383 2386-2388: USS William Ross, Asst. CSO, LTJG promoted to Lieutenant mid-2386 2388: USS Samurai, CSO, Promoted to Lieutenant Commander 2390 2390: Attacked by Pirates, survived to dock with SB109, take a 6 month leave home. 2391-2396: SB109, attached to Science Dept., but essentially assigned to USS Samurai during refit. promoted to Commander, 2395 2396-current: Detached; first officer duty on WV Nomad, gathering intel for Starfleet |