Sarah Dayson

Sarah Dayson is a Captain.  Not just a Captain, but a fleet commander in the Alliance Navy, year 13,432 AD.  She is a result of wartime promotions. 

The Alliance Fleet is currently being devastated by an enemy known as the Hive.  I'm not going to go into detail about what the Hive is, but with a name like that you might make a few assumptions.  One is that the enemy is a single mind.   The other is that the enemy are a race of alien bugs.  One of those assumptions is wrong, and one is right.  If you read my other blog posts, you might know which.

The Hive has a lot of ships, they are effective on the battlefield because losses are irrelevant to them.  They simply attack in numbers.  Because of this the Alliance fleets have been devastated with a high rate of attrition.  That includes both the loss of lives and ships.

Due to personal competence and luck, Sarah has been promoted beyond her years.  She's 38 years old and the survivor of several losing battles with the Hive.  During those battles she demonstrated the ability to lead and survive in harsh battle conditions.  Each success resulted in an increase in rank until she reached her current position, the Captain of the Michael Stennis, a front line heavy battlecruiser.  The Stennis is the primary FTL capable ship in the Alliance 7th Fleet, and the Captain of the Stennis is also the fleet commander. 

Sarah has a knack for fighting until the last possible moment, then retreating and saving her vessel for repair and return to the fight.  That has endeared her to the Alliance, which cannot produce ships fast enough for the war. 

Sarah is the daughter of an important Alliance world, Saltanni.  Saltanni is an industrialized world with large ship building facilities.  The Alliance protects it at all costs and secures complete cooperation from the citizens of Saltanni by integrating them heavily into the military.  Sarah is a benefactor of that integration. 

Sarah is unmarried, has no children, has one fish in her cabin.  She is heterosexual, atheist, and apolitical.  She is extremely professional most of the time, although she will relax with her bridge crew and other officers.  She is extremely protective toward her crew, and sees to their comforts and morale when they are not in battle.  In return, she expects them to serve valiantly when duty calls. 

Sarah arrives with her fleet at Refuge with the fleet heavily damaged from battle, her crew demoralized, and more dead than she's ever had from battle.  Her challenge is to keep her crew focused on survival, repair her fleet enough that the ships are reliable homes, and to explore the unexpected find that is Refuge.  Up to this point in her career she's been 90% warrior and 10% diplomat.  Now she's going to need peak skills in both to integrate with the natives and fight new enemies.