Lieutenant Bartholomew Hale
Name Bartholomew Thaddeus Hale
Position Chief Flight Control Officer
Rank Lieutenant
Character Information
| Gender | Male | |
| Species | Human | |
| Age | 32 | |
| Sexual Orientation | Heterosexual |
Physical Appearance
| Height | 1.8m | |
| Weight | 110kg | |
| Hair Color | Brown | |
| Eye Color | Brown | |
| Physical Description | Bartholomew, or Bart if you want him to look down his nose at you, carries his soft, aristocratic bulk with his chest puffed out. Mistaken for someone likeable, what with his crimson Starfleet uniform, that teddy bear silhouette and luscious crop of hair, this officer seems to permanently wear a look of judgy disapproval; a sort of glare that is more of a blunt instrument than a razor sharp scalpel. Bearded to hide the babyface, and perhaps weathered slightly beyond his years, this officer has skimmed through on the minimums during PT evaluations. A shift to an administrative career, filled with business lunches and semi-formal gatherings has encouraged bad habits best cultivated ashore. Bartholomew is now the sort who runs only to survive; the master of the fifteen minute mile, the sweaty prince of the shuttle run, the lieutenant of leisure. |
Family
| Father | Commander Benedictus 'Benny' Crownholt Widdershins-Hale (ret.), 70 | |
| Mother | Doctor Margaret Doreen Widdershins-Hale, 70 | |
| Brother(s) | Professor Nicholas Crownholt Widdershins-Hale, 40 | |
| Sister(s) | Doctor Jennifer Alice Craig-Widdershins-Hale, 30 |
Personality & Traits
| Personality Overview | Bartholomew Thaddeus Hale outwardly possesses the unshakeable conviction of a man who has never considered that he isn't bloody exceptional. The belief is never stated aloud, that would be unbecoming, instead he radiates a quiet, persistent superiority. With chest out, all pomp and circumstance and booming loquaciousness, Hale saunters around like he owns the place. Not one to jockey for authority, he assumes he has it and sticks to locations where that assertion remains unchallenged. As a creature of ceremony and presentation, Hale is acutely aware of protocol, regulation and procedure. This has made him a capable administrator; one who composes reports with careful diction, maintains meticulous documentation and an understanding of the machinery of Starfleet bureaucracy that allows him to get a satisfactory outcome. Thus, he is a man at ease in formal situations; manners, posture and cultivation are second nature. Here, one could argue that Bartholomew is charming. It is in more informal or work environments where he falters. His unhurried nature can devolve into becoming condescending and stiff, which are qualities that many would define him by. Interpersonal foibles aside, he is far from incompetent. Hale is, of course, reliable and confident in his talent for networking and negotiation. He is perhaps less confident as a pilot. He is technically proficient, but uninspired, lacking the sharp 'killer instinct' often found in the finest flyboys. Instead, he is a careful pilot, deliberate, and perhaps guilty of piloting as though there is a lightyear-wide bubble around his craft. More 'Ma-ma' than 'Maverick'. Of course, his exterior is a carefully constructed armour; the personal styling, the condescending gaze, the carefully maintained air of disapproval. He is no hero; rather, Bartholomew Hale is a man who is pretending to be what he should be, and in time, may actually become it. |
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| Ambitions | Hale doesn't want to just succeed, he wants to be seen to succeed. It's less about ego and more about image control; reputation above all. He's the sort of officer who wants his reputation to precede him in every room. He's no hero; he's not interested in glory and awards, but a nice office, and command without crisis would do nicely. Bartholomew sees himself being part of the Starfleet bureaucratic machine; giving briefings, hosting dinners, and existing among the upper echelons where status is quietly understood. However, underneath it all, he is a man who wants to be what he needs to be; decisive under pressure, confident and commanding without the pretence. |
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| Strengths & Weaknesses | Bartholomew possesses the uncanny ability to navigate the bureaucratic systems of the Federation and Starfleet; he can frame decisions and applications for easy approvals and communicate with the bureaucrats like none other. Verbose and eloquent as an orator and pensman, he crafts reports and papers that are precise, persuasive, and polished. In diplomatic functions, he can delight and handle difficult personalities with control and a thick skin, knowing the right person to approach in a room and how to appeal to their vanity. In making decisions, he is averse to impulsive or reckless decisions, right or wrong, nothing happens too quickly under Hale. This is an asset and a curse. In more critical situations, he is prone to panic and make the wrong calls, even if he doesn't present that way. That lack of decisive action has caused catastrophes in the crunch. Delay is disguised as caution in moments where it counts. He doesn't like to acknowledge it, but it gnaws at his psyche. That cautious nature makes him a competent pilot, but no hotshot. He's the perfect A-to-B man; he's not who you want when the going gets tough. It remains to be seen if he's out of practice, completely hopeless, or just needing seasoning. Socially, he is at a loss unless he's in control. Even then, he can be abrasive and intimidating when challenged. He avoids any situation that could expose his flaws, he freezes when his status offers no advantage. Therefore, he selects environments where he can succeed to stay comfortable, but risks becoming stagnant. |
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| Hobbies & Interests | Bartholomew has a range of hobbies and interests befitting a refined gent. He collects wines from across the Federation's diverse worlds and vintages. At times, he will host tastings and provide an opinion that exists on a continuum between 'exquisite' and 'frightfully bloody detestable'. During the quieter hours, he practices violin, enjoying the structure and rigidity of musical phrasing. Hale once impressed a Cardassian Gul with his rendition of the classical Earth piece 'Smoke on the Water' during a diplomatic function on Dorvan V. He also enjoys theatre, and when he gets the chance to use a holodeck, he will view or take a role in plays and musicals such as Edmond Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac, Arthur Miller's The Crucible or Jonathan Larson's Rent. He is yet to pluck up the courage to take part in a performance in real life. Hale also has a love of reading, whether that's Federation case law, tactical and diplomatic white papers or, something he never talks about, Ancient West cowboy pulp comics. |
Medical History
| Past Injuries | Sickbay Treatment Records: 2354- Phaser Burn, stun setting, sustained while toasting marshmallows with fellow cadets on Spring Break. Treated at Academy Infirmary, San Francisco, Earth. 2358- Sustained fractures in left humerus, ulna and radius following a shuttle accident. Treated at New Berlin General Hospital, Luna. 2367- Treated for shock, hypothermia and asphyxia following recovery from an adrift shuttle. Treated aboard USS Nautilus. 2367-69- Ongoing treatment for chronic carpal tunnel syndrome. Treated at St James Infirmary, Juhraya Colony. |
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| Preexisting Medical Conditions | -Carpal Tunnel Syndrome -Noted malunion of left ulna as a result of injury, structural weakness present |
| Personal History | A product of generations of aristocratic humans who felt it was their duty to disperse themselves throughout the galaxy to class the place up, Bartholomew Thaddeus Hale (born Bartholomew Thaddeus Widdershins-Hale) was supposedly destined for greatness from the moment his newborn hand was shaken firmly by his father to welcome him into the world. The year 2337 was one of jubilation for the Widdershins-Hale clan, based in Pike City on Cestus III, who welcomed their second son. With a mother, Margaret, who was a civilian Federation research doctor, and a father, Benedictus, who was a Commander in Starfleet's Intelligence Services, the Widdershins-Hale boys, known as Niko and Bart, were usually cared for by a cadre of nannies and housekeepers. While attentive, the staff were forced to cling to an archaic and impersonal style of childrearing, embraced for generations by the Widdershins-Hales. When Niko and Bart were in the presence of the parents, they were usually seated in the formal parlor for family history lessons. What a prestigious line of forebears they had: a Hale who had been a knight in the 15th century, Major Widdershins who fought for the British Empire in Earth's First World War, a great-great-great grandmother who was a submarine commander and shook hands with The Pope at the end of World War III. With Bartholomew's brother Nicholas already proficient with a microscope by eight years of age, this left the Widdershins-Hale patriarch to place the burden of Starfleet service on his youngest son. As the years passed, the Widdershins-Hale boys grew up playing cricket after school and studying in libraries that smelled of rich mahogany and housed many leather-bound books under the guide of tutors and caretakers. This changed, however, with the retirement of their father from Starfleet after the birth of a third child, a daughter named Jennifer. As their parents mellowed with the addition of a new arrival, the boys were afforded an adolescence that would determine their destinies. While Bartholomew's mother took Nicholas and Jennifer under her wing to fuel their scientific curiosity, Bart found himself under the tutelage of his father Benedictus. As the two became closer, in the most distant sense, Benedictus invited his son to call him Benny as the 'lads in the fleet' did, and the two would go hunting and sailing. Eventually, Benny would bring his boy Bart on extended cruises around the Federation to reunite with old Starfleet pals and relive the good ol' times. In mixing with the diverse groups of officers with which his father had served; old dogs who'd knocked around when it was acceptable to hate Klingons, and others that had found new enemies like the Cardassians and Tzenkethi, Bartholomew found himself entranced with the Starfleet way of life. His head ringing with tales of phaser fights, cowboy diplomacy and interstellar political intrigue, Bartholomew applied for entrance to Starfleet Academy at the age of 16. With glowing recommendations from his father's peers and a head full of dreams, he was invited to sit placement examination on Cestus III. With only three cadets sitting the exam after the fourth was prohibited from participating due to tardiness, Bartholomew emerged victorious over the other two candidates. Admittedly, one was a Vulcan with Pa'nar Syndrome and the other, a Bolian, had Thelusian flu. And so Bart departed to his ancestral home planet of Earth to attend Starfleet Academy as the next generation of Widdershins-Hales. It immediately became clear that Bartholomew far from a star cadet or prominent figure on campus. While his instructors praised his knowledge of protocols and procedure, he found his tendency to follow the rules alienated him from many of the more boisterous cadets. Not particularly bookish either, he found himself shunned by the academics on campus too. Bartholomew became increasingly alienated, but harnessed this to cultivate an image of being something of a solo operator. He set his own standard; dorm neat as a pin, all classes attended, uniform impeccable. However, a rift quickly began to grow with the Widdershins-Hales on Cestus as news of this social ostracism and mere pass marks began to reach home. It was clear that he wasn't living up to their standards, and Starfleet Academy had not lived up to his. The next year, Bartholomew was placed in the piloting and administrative tracks, showing an aptitude for orbital mechanics and an encyclopedic knowledge of the Starfleet rulebook. A cadet advisor suggested he may also be suited to work as a judge advocate once he had gained experience as an officer. As the year wore on, he also tried harder to fit in, though the permissive social culture of his peers was one that he was on the outside of looking in. It didn't stop him making poor choices to fit in, however, including an incident during Spring Academic Break in which Bartholomew was injured after daring another cadet to toast a marshmallow he was holding with a Type-1 phaser. The resulting injury and dressing down by the Academy Staff left Bartholomew embarrassed and his father questioning whether he deserved the family name. Upon reaching adulthood and entering his third year, Bartholomew found the scrutiny of his parents and the burden of his family name to be excessive. Thus, he dropped the Widdershins from his name. Cadet Hale, liberated from his name and more determined than ever, found himself selected to act as CONN and watch officer on a cadet cruise aboard the USS Republic. His instructors and fellow cadets noted his focus on safety and careful piloting, but were critical of his officious disposition and abrasive handling of junior cadets. Qualifying as a pilot, Hale graduated in 2357 with little fanfare; only his siblings attended his graduation, and his first assignment was a quiet indictment. The Jovian Run. A solo assignment, monotonous, with little oversight. For more adventurous pilots, it encouraged dangerous shuttle stunts and fun. However, for the conformist Hale it was torture. Eventually, he found himself needing some kind of entertainment, and so he turned his idle mind to literature; plays, musicals, and novels of all sorts. As his mind and love of the arts increased, so did his intolerance of the antics of the other flyboys in his sortie; those who used the shuttles to cause havoc. He found himself in conflict with a more senior pilot who performed the notorious Titan's Turn. Frustrated, Bartholomew reported his peer and became resented by the other pilots. This eventually came to a head when the pilot who was reported performed a dangerous and close flyby of Hale's shuttle, resulting in both crafts being damaged and Hale fracturing his arm in several places. In the aftermath, Hale was offered a transfer off the Jovian Run. He requested a starship assignment and was offered a position as relief operations officer on the USS Lantree, an old supply ship that was overworked, underpowered and threatened to fly apart at the seems every time she passed Warp 3. Far from a front-line or important posting, the Lantree visited ports across the breadth of the Federation, taking Bartholomew to locations both sundrenched and sordid. A slow pace a life between destinations again allowed Bartholomew to continue to expand his library of completed books and learn more about ship's systems beyond what was pertinent to flight control. He sharpened his skills in resource management and allocation, logistics and management. However, with a small crew and long voyages, he found the tight knit community demanding, but tolerated it with being able to always be busy with his duties. In 2361, Hale was offered an assignment as the Dockmaster of Starbase Earhart at the recommendation of an academy instructor. In the bustling environment of a starbase where his administrative skills, methodical disposition and talent for astrodynamics, Hale thrived. Living ashore, he was able to attend concerts and plays, watch sports and even access a holodeck for the first time. This breath of life allowed Hale to begrudgingly make some social connections, mingle with crews from across the fleet, and attend formal dinners. With an ever-rotating roster of admirals and captains visiting the Starbase, he found another strength; charming the Federation's best and brightest. Following his tour at Starbase Earhart, Hale was transferred to the Cardassian Demilitarised Zone aboard the USS Korolev, a rusted-out Constitution Refit attached to the sleepy backwater of Deep Space 5. The vessel was a relic of Starfleet's past, a century's worth of mismatched technology, held together with self-sealing stembolts and prayers to the Great Bird of the Galaxy. While Bartholomew missed the opportunities to schmooze the brass, he did enjoy the challenge of helping keep the ship running, with each crewmember required to act as a jack of all trades, and a master of absolutely none. Even the captain, a rough and tumble type, was seen rolling his sleeves up to repair the warp core or fix a faulty torpedo. Despite officially being Korolev's CONN Officer, he was also made the vessel's second officer, as he was one of a handful of officers in a crew of less than a hundred. Korolev's mission brought Hale face-to-face with the Cardassians in a smattering of minor disputes and skirmishes, though it was no secret that he lacked the ingenuity and tactical brilliance of more experienced combat officers. However, Hale also managed to resolve situations with a silver tongue. He visited worlds under the occupation of Cardassians whose brutality was hidden beneath veiled threats and wolfish grins. He was rocked by the plight of the Bajorans, displaced, desperate and ground down in labour camps. For the first time, he found himself morally outraged, but powerless to help. Deeply affected by the desolation on the DMZ, Bartholomew fastened his hopes to an escape rope; a position with Starfleet's detested Office of the Inspector General. Having witnessed the scrutiny and calibre of Starfleet's most controversial officers firsthand, he jumped at the chance to apply for transfer barely a year into his assignment on the Korolev. Returning to idyllic Earth on reassignment, he was armed with a pair of white gloves to check every surface for dust, a PADD for taking sly notes, and a hope that he could effect some meaningful change after witnessing complacency in the face of despotism. For the next five years, Bartholomew toured the Federation with his fellow Inspectors General, spreading a particular brand of bureaucratic terror. Hale was the perfect inspector; well versed across many areas of starship operation, obsessive about the rules, and adept at asking the right questions to surgically extract the right information at exactly the right time. Bartholomew was in his element, delivering reports to admirals, presenting policy and protocol briefings and having lavish lunches with his colleagues. Perhaps best of all, he could look down his nose at non-compliant personnel and make suggestions to remedy the most minor defects. To his face, every officer he met was accommodating, honest and dutifully polite. Behind his back, his name was mud. Bartholomew bloody loved it! In his final year in the Inspector General's office, Hale's life was changed irrevocably. Seconded to provide a general inspection of the USS Ahwanee as a Christmas gift to her crew in 2366, he found himself embroiled in the periphery of the Borg attack on the Federation. His inspection was cut short when the Cheyenne Class vessel responded to a distress call while en route to join Admiral Hanson's attack fleet at Wolf 359. Eager to rid themselves of the visiting bureaucrat and make use of his background as a pilot, Ahwanee's captain ordered Hale to shuttle a rescue team to a cargo vessel that was crippled by the Borg Cube stampeding toward to Sector 001. Left behind to conduct the rescue, Hale's shuttle was severely damaged when ordnance in the ship's hold detonated in close proximity, completely destroying the freighter and crippling the Ahwanee shuttle's power systems. For weeks, the shuttle drifted amidst the debris, the survivors sustained only by a weak forcefield jury-rigged from the team's phasers. Hale's distress calls went unanswered as Starfleet scrambled to regroup after the Borg massacre. He waited, and watched as his colleagues perished from the cold and dwindling oxygen. The last of the survivors sacrificed himself to give Hale a chance to live. Hale awoke in the sickbay of the USS Nautilus. How long he had been there, he did not know. Too far from Earth and with a long road to recovery, Hale learned of the devastating attack on the Federation and the loss of the Ahwanee with all hands. Burdened with a debilitating survivor's guilt that he'd never admit, he insisted on returning to duty. With the Nautilus en route to the Cardassian DMZ and too far from Earth, he was invited to supplement the Nautilus' crew as a CONN and Operations officer. Struggling for purpose, and haunted by the faces of the men who'd died in that shuttle, Hale threw himself into his work and lived like a hermit until new orders came through. Told to pack a dress uniform and a box of champagne flutes, Bartholomew was transferred to the outlying Federation colony on Juhraya to establish an outpost to monitor the Cardassian situation and secure a Starfleet presence on the contested world. Within the vibrant Juhrayan colony, Federation and Cardassian citizens lived in harmony. Occasionally, Cardassian officers would visit to be wined and dined, a far cry from the devious misanthropes he'd encountered earlier in his career. However, as the Cardassian Union jockeyed for more territory, things turned bitter. Dinner turned to tense discussion. The safety and ease of the planet turned to one fraught with the threat of violence, even terrorism, from all sides. Bajoran refugees were resettled on the planet, expected to make a harmonious new life with their Cardassian oppressors. The Federation citizens pitied them and resented the Cardassians' ever-encroaching hold on the world. Soon, explosions became commonplace in Cardassian gathering spaces and military barracks. Bajorans began to disappear, their bodies found, beaten, on the outskirts of town weeks later. It was clear the situation was out of control, especially when a bipartisan investigation by Hale and his counterpart Glinn Teri of the Cardassian Second Order uncovered that Federation citizens were involved in the unrest against the Cardassians. Bartholomew quickly realised that not all was as it seemed; the Cardassian military became unlikely allies; the oft-victimised Bajorans became a paramilitary threat; and Federation civic leaders he'd known for years became adversaries. With all sides cut off from reinforcement by a brokered non-aggression pact, Hale and Glinn Teri failed to maintain order among the colony's inhabitants. The Cardassians, against orders from Teri, expanded their reprisals to include Federation citizens who were intimidated and beaten in front of their families. The Federation and Bajoran citizens formed vigilante gangs to target any Cardassian they suspected of involvement. The walls were closing in on Hale, as he sensed a wavering allegiance even from his own Starfleet detachment. In 2369, all factions claimed sovereignty over the colony and were in open conflict. A concerned Cardassian Union and Starfleet ended their blockade to launch a joint evacuation of the planet. With negotiations over a resettled border already in hot debate, the planet was declared neutral and was to be demilitarised. Glinn Teri, Hale and their respective staffs were ordered off the planet, their militaries withdrawing. Both sides agreed that any remaining Juhrayans did so at their own risk. As the situation disintegrated before their eyes, Teri and Bartholomew looked on in despair as their military officers cast aside their oaths and uniforms to resign their commissions and remain to oppose the other side. With them, hundreds of stubborn citizens, Federation and Cardassian alike, chose to stay. Heckled off the planet by furious citizens, the departure from Juhraya was a dangerous one. It was tarnished further by the assassination of Glinn Teri, who was murdered by one of Hale's former staff. With less than an eighth of the colony's combined population evacuated, Hale watched from a shuttle as the planet he'd once loved shrank from view, and he felt, once again, as if he was entering exile. |
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| Service Record | 2353-2357 Starfleet Academy 2357-2358 Shuttle Pilot Jupiter Station 2358-2361 USS Lantree Relief Operations Officer 2361-2362 Starbase Earhart Dockmaster 2362 USS Kovolev Chief CONN Officer/Second Officer 2362-2367 Office of the Inspector General Investigative Officer 2367 USS Nautilus Relief Operations and Flight Control Officer (TAD) 2367-2369 Juhraya Outpost Administrative Officer 2369 USS Thunderbird Chief Flight Control Officer |