Edward Shield

Edward James Shield was an Ensign Junior Class aboard the USS Enterprise-C between 2332 and 2344. After the deaths of the senior officers, he was promoted to Captain. He was one of the founding members of the New Insurrection.

Birth
Born on Lunar Colony 7 on Titan, one of the moons of Saturn, in 2317 Edward Shield was the youngest of nine children. His father, Leopold Pedrag Shield, was the former Secretary of Defense of the Federation Council. His mother, Marya, was of unknown origins from somewhere on Earth.

Childhood and Death of Parents
Shield's father was no family man, and wanted nothing to do with these children that he had made. He spent no time among them, always trying to get back into favor with the Federation Council. One by one, his older brothers either left for Starfleet Academy or ran away from home, leaving him - Shield - alone to face the wrath of their father.

In 2324, Leopold was finally given a position as the Secretary of the President of the Federation. However, his new office would be on Megara II, so Leopold packed up his wife and his son, boarded a passenger ship and headed for Megara II.

The ship came out of warp unexpectedly, but none of this bothered anyone onboard. It wasn't until it was too late that they discovered the problem. A group of Romulan pirates had sent out a false distress signal, which caught the attention of the passenger liner. Once they had come out of warp, the pirate's flagship, the Romulan warbird Kalryhha, opened fire on the passenger ship. When the shields finally gave out, the Romulans beamed on to the ship and slaughtered everyone on board. Leopold and Marya were slain by Nox, one of the younger pirates, but he refused to slay seven-year-old Edward Shield.

The Romulans didn't scuttle the ship, so it was later picked up by another Federation vessel hours later. Edward was taken back to Titan to live in an orphanage.

Though Edward believed his father had died that day, he was wrong...

Leopold Shield
Shield's relation with his father was one of endless hatred and enmity. Leopold blamed all of his problems, and those of the universe, on his wife and children: and since all of Edward's brothers ran away from home, he had to bear the brunt of their father's wrath. Once when Edward walked in on his father sexually abusing his mother, Leo turned on his own son: chaining him up and flogging him with a cat-o-nine-tails flail.


 * To this day, Shield carries a scar on his back from that incident.

Edward believed that the death of his father in 2324 would mean the end of him, and that he - Edward - could continue on with a normal life of his own. But that was far to be. Gerald Gradl, a clone of his father, joined the Enterprise-C with the sole purpose of killing Edward. After Shield took command, his cloned father used his old friend Yakob Sanders to grant amnesty to members of the Enterprise-C crew who would mutiny against Shield. The idea was very popular, and the entire crew (with the exception of the Doctor and Chief Engineer) joined the mutiny.

But when it was put into full, open action, it failed to kill Edward Shield. In fact, it backfired. When he realized that this clone was actually his father, Edward unleashed upon him 27 years of pent-up hatred and pounded Gerald's face into a bloody pulp, killing the last living clone of his father.

Marja Djurhuus Shield
Though his mother suffered the same rage from Leopold Shield, she did not attempt to comfort her children in any way. She did not want to have children to begin with, and therefore she did not care for her children either (though she never punished them unjustly, she didn't like them any more than their father did).

Siblings
Edward Shield had six brothers and two sisters. However, they all left before he could ever get to know them. Whatever happened to them, where they are now, whether they live or lie dead, who can know?

Starfleet Academy
In 2327, at the age of ten, Edward Shield surprised the orphanage headmaster by surpassing all the other orphans in their studies. The headmaster personally vouched for Edward Shield to be accepted into Starfleet Academy. At first, the committee refused to do so, because he was so young. Again the petition was made, and again it was denied. Only after a third time was Edward Shield accepted into the Academy.

For the next five years, Shield took every course offered in Starfleet Academy. He was exceptionally bright, if not a little controversial. He graduated the youngest of his class, but was not to be accepted into the fleet until reaching the age of nineteen.

Before the Enterprise-C was launched in 2332, a representative from the new crew came to the Academy looking for students willing to get some first-hand experience or possibly future jobs with Starfleet. Though he was only fifteen, Shield signed up for the junior officer corps. The Academy teachers refused blatantly to allow this, until they received a personal visit from Rachel Garrett, the captain of the Enterprise, who personally vouched for Shield.

Enterprise Years: Ensign
Since he was young, Shield could not be given a command of his own. He was promoted to Cadet and placed under the head of the Junior Officer corps., a Vulcan named T'Mar. Due to his age, T'Mar did not allow Shield to see any action during his time aboard the ship, but drilled him endlessly during his studies. Though, as a teenager, he resented this, Shield later commented about his training with her:


 * If it hadn't been for all the training, all the hard-work, all the [expletive] she put me through, I doubt I'd still be alive today.

The training paid off, for he was one day being toured on the bridge, when he noticed a faulty command console that was about to explode in the captain's face. He pushed out of the way, just as the panel exploded, saving her life. For this, he was promoted to Ensign Junior class and allowed access to the bridge.

Narendra III
In 2344, the Enterprise-C received a distress call from the Klingon outposts over Narendra III. They were under attack by the Romulans. Captain Garrett ordered the Enterprise to action to defend the outposts. Once they had reached the Narendra system, they saw that they had entered a "blood-bath". She immediately sent a distress call to the Enterprise's sister-ship, the U.S.S. Admonitor, to come to their aid before they became beleaugered. But it was too late. The Enterprise was on the verge of destruction...

Until a wormhole took the Enterprise-C into the future. Shield never went aboard the other ship, but he learned a little from the talk he heard being whispered among the crew. From what he learned, the other captain told Garrett to go back into the wormhole, even though it meant certain death. She obliged, but Shield didn't like this decision.

According to his own personal log, he was on the bridge, repairing damaged circuitry, when the captain's command console exploded, sending shrapnel into Garrett's face. She was dead, and he felt personally responsible for the incident.

Richard Castillo took command of the Enterprise-C, and took it through the wormhole back to 2344. It was no better, and the Admonitor hadn't come. But when the Romulans had brought the Enterprise to critical condition, they boarded the ship and took prisoners. Shield was hit by a disruptor blast, but survived somehow.

When he awoke, the bridge was deserted and the ship was on the verge of destruction. Atmosphere was leaking, the warp engines were offline and the shields couldn't be reactivated to protect against a laser barrage. He was about to resign himself to his death when T'Mar arrived on the bridge. Due to her Vulcan strength, she was able to save Shield and take him to a part of the ship that had some remnant of atmosphere left.

When all hope seemed gone, the Admonitor finally arrived...

Enterprise Years: Captain
Everyone else in the chain of command was dead, but Shield was too humble to accept captaincy of his own accord. So he was promoted captain by the only person available who had half that authority: Lianna Illch Young.

His first duty was to assess the damages of the ship and see to the crew's well-being. They had lost a good number of people, and it seemed as if the Enterprise-C was dead in the water. But, thanks to a bold move by the Chief Engineer of the Admonitor, a tractor beam was hooked onto the Enterprise and it was pulled along with the Admonitor, while it went into warp. The plan worked, though the Enterprise did take collateral damage.

Shield ordered the ship to be put in at Typhon III, where it could be repaired from the damages. While there, he uncovered a Federation-sanctioned concentration camp. After an incident there, a Romulan by the name of Nox had escaped.

Into the Future
With the death of Admiral Sanders, peace-talks among the Federation and Klingon Empire and the dismantling of the Brotherhood of the Aryan Race, Shield began to feel useless. A stable worm-hole near Jjorek posed the possibility of going into the future. When everyone of the Enterprise agreed, as well as the Admonitor, Shield made the decision to venture into the worm-hole. Upon exiting, they found themselves in the year 2405, sixty-one years after Narendra III.

In the future, Shield learned that all of the changes he started for the Federation were quickly ignored and discarded. The Brotherhood, now renamed the Order of the Master Race, reborn and corruption once again ruled beneath the surface. When he tried to present his problems with the Federation to President Nechayev, but she dismissed all of his plans and even tried to have him arrested while he was leaving.

Shortly thereafter, he and his crew (along with the captain and crew of the Admonitor) were once again excommunicated from the Federation.

Physicality
Shield is in fit, athletic shape. This is mostly because, during his days at Starfleet Academy, he played soccer and t'lbrah, a Bolian sport that he picked up from watching the other Bolian students at play.

Other than this, Shield spends some of his spare time learning how to use a sword. His jian is his primary sword, but he also has an authentic 8th century Norse short sword. His skills with a sword are second to none in the Federation (most likely because sword-fighting is now only recreational).

Intellect
Shield is of a sharp mind. What free time he does not spend exercising is spent in his cabin, reading over the many hard-back tomes that he possesses. He rarely uses the Federation Memory Alpha database (NOTE: this is about the Federation's library world, not the Internet site of the same name), because he believes that their records are not the originals.

Political Views
Shield views the Federation as a corrupt, socially-repressive government, much like that of the United States during the 20th and 21st centuries. He says that the Federation only favors humans, since the Federation believes that humans are socially and intellectually superior to other aliens, and therefore it cannot coexist with its alien allies.

Shield's beliefs are much along those with the Declaration of Independence of the United States: that all men, women and extra-terrestrials, are created equal, that they are endowed by their Universal Creator - God - with certain "inseparable" rights - namely life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness - that to secure these liberties, governments are established by the expressed consent of the governed, and that when such governments become such that they attempt to suppress the rights of the people under absolute despotism, that the people have a duty to remove such governments and provide new safeguards for their future security.

This he uses as justification for going against the Federation: that, since the Federation is repressive against both extra-terrestrials and its own people, using corrupt, under-the-table methods to keep "the peace", the people of the galaxy should remove those members of the Federation, most notably the admiralty, who seek to suppress their freedoms and reestablish justice for themselves.

Personality
A non-biased outsider would view Edward Shield as an easy-going, fair captain who gives his crew equal opportunity to prove their skills under his command. However, his crew has recently lost faith in him: they blame him for all their troubles, and are currently attempting a coup. Shield knows about this, but he will not kill them because he does not kill, and even in need, he waits until there is no alternative.

Alien Virus Infection
Shield is mostly even-headed, and rarely has strong, emotional outburts of negative emotions. However, when he slew his father, some of Leopold's blood got into open wounds on Shield's hands. This blood was infected by a genetic defect garnered from Leopold's various cloning.

The virus first became evident in Shield with various mood alterations. At times of great duress, he would make rather ruthless and cold actions in order to save the ship and himself. However, this mood-altering virus has yet to manifest itself physically

Yet...

Physical Manifestation
When Counselor Troi of the USS Titan attempted a mind/emotion link with Shield, aided by Tuvok, the result was disastrous. Instead of reading his mind, she unleashed the alien virus into his brain, which allowed it to take full control. Shield transformed into a hideous, black-skinned alien monster. Immune to phaser weaponry, the monster-Shield stole a shuttle-pod and went onto a nearby planet.

When Young heard about this, she ordered a reluctant Enterprise crew to rescue their captain. They pursued him to a planet that had once been visited by the USS Enterprise, as well as an older, pre-Federation vessel named the Archon: Beta III. When she confronted the monster-Shield, K'hallA was severely wounded, Loghri left comatose, five other crewmen were killed, and Young was captured by the monster-Shield.

They were later joined by Captain Riker and Counselor Troi from the USS Titan, who volunteered to aid in the return of monster-Shield to his original state. Nox, however, discovered that their true intentions were healing Troi, who had been infected and had transformed into a mutant-Troi.

Mutant-Troi ran away and found monster-Shield. The crews of the Enterprise-C, the Admonitor and the Titan tried to capture and rescue them, but their attempts were all thwarted. However, the two creatures would not remain monsters forever. A clone of Landru, the ruler of Beta III's commune known as "the Body", was able to help Troi and Shield recover their former selves. The alien rage virus was suppressed...

For now...

Captain Young
Lianna Young, though she generally hates men, admires Shield as a co-worker of equal intelligence and respects him as an equal. This is quite unusualy, due to her natural feminist views regarding female dominance.

Nox
Nox was rescued from the concentration camp on Typhon III by Shield, and therefore he shows some level of respect. However, Nox was the Romulan who killed Leo and Marya Shield when Edward was nine. Whether or not Shield knows about this now, and whether or not he cares anymore, is an entirely different matter.

Captain Garrett
Shield had great respect for Rachel Garrett, the former captain of the Enterprise-C. She personally vouched for his position aboard the ship. He saved her life from an exploding console, which caused him to be promoted to Ensign.

Even after her death, she continued to inspire him. He would later uncover recorded messages, meant for the First Officer, which would give him hope in the darkest of his moments. This made her out as a kind of "mother-figure" for Shield, which helped him cope over the problems he had in his younger days.

During a pass through an uncharted nebula, Shield relived the day he joined the Enterprise-C crew. While there, Captain Garrett, acting of some kind of self-sentience, asked him if he had the chance, if he would have accepted. He responded by telling her that nothing in the entire universe could have changed his mind.

In a parallel universe, Shield experienced what may have happened if Captain Garrett survived Narendra III. In that universe, she was in charge of the Enterprise-C during the Conflict Years, which ended quicker but at a higher cost. Shield had to decide whether or not he wanted this reality to continue, but when Garrett herself told him that the ship was his, he chose to shoulder the burden that fate had placed on his shoulders. Before they parted - for the last time - they embraced each other...as a mother would her son...

Richard Castillo
Shield considered Castillo to be the "cool, big brother" that he never had. Both were part of the Junior Officer Corps., but Castillo showed less respect for their teacher, T'Mar, than Shield did. Shield showed no enmity when Castillo was promoted before he was, but their friendship remained solid, even after the Cardassian Incident.

The Cardassian Incident involved seven Bajoran refugees fleeing from Terok Nor, the Cardassian space station in orbit over Bajor. They had assassinated a Gul and were facing execution. However, one of them was holding information that was valuable to both the Bajoran Resistance as well as to the Federation. Rather than risk a battle with the Cardassians, Castillo insisted that Shield allow himself to be captured in order to discover exactly what their intentions were. Both escaped alive, and their friendship did not suffer because of it.

Shield never forgot Natasha Yar, that girl from the future who captured Castillo's eye. Though she had been kidnapped by Romulans following Narendra III, Shield made it his personal duty to find her and attempt to rescue her. It wasn't until he encountered Sela, her Romulan daughter in the 24th century, did he learn that she had died.

Alicia Rookwood
Though Shield saved her from a life of violence in the mirror universe, Rookwood joined herself in league with Liin and her lover in their mutiny against Shield. When the ring-leader Pedrag, Liin's lover, was killed by Shield, Rookwood lost all interest in mutiny and has recently tried to be on good standing with the captain.

K'hallA
The only Klingon onboard the Enterprise-C greatly admires Shield as one Klingon warrior to another. She fought him to a draw in a battle of blades, and therefore she respects his skill as a fighter. She intentionally tries to get him angry so that she can see who he really is: and in the few successful attempts, she has begun to like what she sees in him.

It could be called a relationship...or an affair...or something of that sort...

Something More...
After a near-death experience in the mirror universe, Shield married K'hallA.

Yare'ma Liin
Shield rescued Liin from slavery in the mirror universe and hoped that she would be grateful for this. At first, she did seem grateful, and even tried to start a romantic relationship with him. But this all turned out to be a ploy in order to reveal to her all of his secrets so that her lover Gerald Gradl might find a way to kill him that would cause Shield to suffer until the very end. But Shield killed his father and Liin soon fell out of favor with him.

Loghri
It was Shield who vouched for Loghri to join the Enterprise crew, and yet the Reuian joined himself to the mutiny. When Pedrag was killed by Shield, Loghri also gave up his part in the mutiny and has, since then, attempted to regain his honor by serving Shield loyaly.

Conflicts with Others
Despite meaning well, Shield's actions usually always lead to some kind of negative confrontation.

Admiral Sanders
One of the greatest opponents to Shield and his mission to restore justice to the Federation, Admiral Sanders considered Shield a threat once he destroyed the slave-mining camp on Typhon III. He issued Order 865 against him and the USS Admonitor. Even with his dying breath, Sanders refused to accept Shield's helping hand.

25th Century
Even after coming into the 25th Century, Shield still made enemies with the members of the higher echelons of the Federation.

Admiral Nechayev
Shield did not agree with any of the decisions of Admiral Nechayev and said so in no uncertain terms. He later discovered that she was the head of a reorganized Order of the Master Race. She later reinstated Order 865 and declared him an enemy of the Federation.

Admiral Picard
In 2405, Admiral Picard invited Edward Shield to meet him on the Enterprise-E as a guest. During his stay there, the two of them got into a heated argument about God and man, the Federation and its communist ideals, the injustices, prejudices of man and the fact that Shield has been denied a chance to speak on his own behalf. At the end, Picard lashes out at Shield in very much the same way that Norah Satie had lashed out at him in 2367:
 * "Those who make peaceful revoltion impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."


 * How dare you! You, who consort with Romulans, with Q, dare to invoke a good and noble human to justify your backwards, traitorous opinions?! It is an offense to everything I and the Federation hold dear! And to hear these words use to subvert the United Federation of Planets, MANKIND altogether!! Humanity is strong and powerful, we are a beacon of purity, integrity and wisdom to the entire galaxy. You don't deserve to wear that sacred Starfleet uniform, or to even have our glorious red blood flow through your accursed veins, or to be in command of such a noble ship as the Enterprise! I love the Federation, you would seek to destroy it, and bring back the wicked barbarity and stupidity of our dark age, when we still believed in such foolish notions as God! You stain and corrupt the Federation with your very breath! You undermine our very way of life! I'll show the universe the tyrant you are: I've taken down Q|gods greater than you!


 * - Edward Shield, quoting John F. Kennedy, and Picard's angry rebuttal, mirroring Norah Satie.

Captain Riker
William Riker believes whole-heartedly in the goodness of humanity and the Federation. So when Order 865 was reinstated, he obeyed it without question. His wife, however, believed Shield to be mentally unstable, and therefore had him captured and examined. During the examination, she accidentally let loose the rage virus into his brain, which completely took control over him. Riker would have left it alone and thought it good riddance, had Troi not been infected with the rage virus herself. Even after both were cured, Riker held a grudge.

Benjamin Sisko
The Emissary of the Prophets was sent back into the physical world in order to prevent some great disaster that was about to devastate the galaxy. At first, he believed that it was Shield who, according to the Federation, was spreading diversive lies about some imaginary secret society and making sick jokes about corruption on Earth. Later, Sisko was shown the truth. However, he refused to join Shield's insurrection, but refused to go to battle against him.

Kathryn Janeway
As vice admiral, Kathryn Janeway began noticing some interesting patterns in the administration of President Nechayev; all of them leading up to the same design: making her term life-long. Janeway feared that a president-for-life would be a step away from personal freedoms and she made her complaints known. Nechayev made no action against her, but Janeway feared that something was going on beneath the surface.

Her fears became realized when she discovered that Nechayev was going to use Seven of Nine as a "Typhoid Mary" for the Borg: much in the same way she had suggested in the mid-late 24th Century that Picard use the Borg Hugh. Janeway knew that it would kill her, so she objected to it at once. This began the start of her doubts about Nechayev's legality.

When Nechayev finally instilled her term as life-long, Janeway took command of Voyager once again and tried to contact the Maquis so that she could gain their help in case the worst should happen. Instead of them, she encountered Shield and the Enterprise-C.

Tristan Marshal
During a long and arduous career, Tristan Marshal made nine different encounters with Shield. The first was when they met up to find the Spear of Destiny. Picard, whom Marshal enlisted for his help, captured Shield and had him incarcerated on the Enterprise-E while he himself went down to the planet. Knowing that Picard would want to destroy the Spear to get rid of any evidence to the existence of Christ, Shield broke out of his cell and contacted an Ultari vessel that had just entered the system: they were after the Spear, but they didn't know where it was. He said that he would show them the Spear on the condition that they released him and that, upon taking the Spear, they would never use it but hide it away safe from the rest of the world.

The Ultari agreed, though they never intended not to use the Spear, and they beamed on to the Enterprise-E. The carnage that ensued as they got Shield to the transporter pad made him realize what kind of mistake he had made. But it was too late: he was trapped with enemies on both sides. He had to play his part to the end and then make his move when the opportunity presented itself; a dangerous game that would most likely seal the case the Federation had against him as a traitor.

The Ultari were destroyed and Shield got his knee broken. He said that he regretted allying himself to them, since he had seen their ulterior motives, and was taken into incarceration on Earth without struggle. His knee was mended, but he was kept imprisoned until his "hate-crimes trial" would be assembled.


 * He knew that it would be just a formality; that at that moment, they had already decided what the verdict would be and that the trial would just be a joke to appease the masses.

His Klingon wife, K'hallA, led a raid on the prison and rescued him, saying that he would have been killed for being captured had he been a Klingon, but stated that since he was human, she would let him live.

The second encounter (though not in person), was during the Siege of Earth.

The third encounter with Tristan Marshal occured in 2407, when Shield was almost convinced to allow Arthur Rosslyn command of the New Insurrection. Despite their personal differences, Marshal and Shield were able to band together and save both the Insurrection and the Federation from Rosslyn's madness.

Typhuss James Kira
Typhuss believes in the goodness of humanity and the Federation. Typhuss sees Edward Shield and his rebels as a threat to the Federation. When Order 865 was reinstated, Typhuss obeyed it without question.

John Michaels
Admiral Michaels is a member of the Order of the Master Race and a staunch opposer of freedom of any kind of religion. He usually pushes for the execution of the New Insurrection without mercy. Along with Captain Typhuss, Admiral Picard and Admiral Nechayev, he is one of the three greatest opponents of the New Insurrection, down to a near-psychotic level.

Arthur Rosslyn
In the year 2407, Shield was apporached by Rosslyn and was offered the chance to join his insurrection against the Federation. For the most part, Shield accepted, until he learned the truth about Rosslyn from an old friend.

Some have stated that Shield is similar in many ways to Arthur Rosslyn. However, having grown up in poverty and abuse, Shield was not mentally affected by the revelation of the Federation's corruption the way Rosslyn was, which caused the mental breakdown of the other. Furthermore, though both are prone to acts of violence, in the case of Shield, they are almost rare.

Trivia

 * Shield has in his possession a 3rd century jian, which he keeps in working condition using 24th century technology.
 * Though Shield is not racist towards any human ethnicities or to aliens, humanoid or non-humanoid, he strongly dislikes Cardassians, a loathing shared by Nox.
 * His cabin onboard the Enterprise includes a collection of hard-back books. In this collection are several memoirs by famous Federation captains such as Jonathan Archer, Pavel Chekov & Christopher Pike. Other books include "The Lord of the Rings", "Paradise Lost", "The King James Bible", several works by Shakespeare, and several controversial works by Khan, Zefram Cochrane and Noonien Soong.
 * Ethnically, Shield is Caucasian, with mixed German and Nordic ancestry (more specifically Faroese on his mother's side). The main dialect, however, that was spoken on Lunar Colony 7 was North-western American, which he picked up.
 * Shield is a Christian. Though Christianity was originally discouraged by the Federation as being repressive, violent and intellectually ignorant (as was said about all of Earth's religions), it survived here and there in certain spots among members of Starfleet. By the 22nd Century, atheistic humanism was the global "religion" of Earth, as well as the official moral belief system for the Federation. However, certain nameless ones have silently kept Christianity alive (note: there are two major factions of the underground Christianity movement: the New Catholic Church and the Second Protestant Movement). Shield is part of the Second Protestant Movement.

See Religion and the Federation


 * According to the psychological profile made on Shield by Deanna Troi in 2405, he has AvPD.