Lieutenant Caleb Garcia
Name Caleb Pablo-Tomas Garcia PhD
Position Chief Engineer
Rank Lieutenant
Character Information
| Gender | Male | |
| Species | Human | |
| Age | 32 |
Physical Appearance
| Height | 6'9" | |
| Weight | 226 | |
| Hair Color | Dark Brown | |
| Eye Color | Brown | |
| Physical Description | There is one word that describes Caleb Garcia above all else: Tall. He isn’t just run of the mill tall, but even taller than what would be considered average tall for a human. He is not lanky by any means and has over the years built up a toned form that is trim. He has dark brown hair, which he wears within regulation, with it being shorter on the side but a bit longer on top. Sometimes he wears his hair shorter and sometimes bit longer. It all depends on his mood… or his absentmindedness. His eyes are a light brown with hazel flecks and they are bright and full of wonder. Caleb also tries to stay clean cut. He has tried the beard thing—falling for a trend—and though it came in great, it just wasn’t for him. He leans toward a clean look and is particular about his appearance. This isn’t about being vain; he just likes to look nice… this is more for himself than for others. Typically he always has a day or two worth of stubble (he is the type who will shave in the morning and have a 5’oclock shadow by two in the afternoon) and then he will shave—mostly out of the fact his cheeks get itchy. His clothing style is rather relaxed, though all of his off-duty clothing fit him and his form perfectly. He tends to opt for clothing that is bright and full of color. He likes anything that is solid in color or a pattern. The ship’s stores tend to be his worst enemy since they tend to not carry the sizes he needs in uniforms, boots, or clothing in general. So, he tends to hold onto what he has, being meticulous in the care of all his clothing and uniforms. Generally, Caleb just tries to be himself when it comes to his appearance. He is fairly casual about things, but when it comes to his uniform and his appearance, he sticks to regulation. |
Family
| Spouse | Single | |
| Children | No offspring | |
| Father | Commander Pablo-Tomas Garcia | |
| Mother | Surrogate | |
| Brother(s) | No brothers | |
| Sister(s) | No sisters | |
| Other Family | Small extended family. |
Personality & Traits
| General Overview | Caleb Garcia is a gentle giant. There are some who assume that just because he is tall and has some muscle, that he must be aggressive. This is furthest from the truth. He is friendly and approachable, yet his personality is a bit on the introverted side. Though he is approachable, he doesn’t tend to approach others. This is only because he is not very adept at small-talk. He isn’t always good with social situations and though he tries, he feels like at times he stumbles over his own words. With work, it is a different story. With math and algorithms he is confident and knows his stuff, but when it comes to others outside of the engineering labs, he doesn’t always get it. He also doesn’t fully grasp if someone is joking around, being sarcastic, or poking fun. There are times he feels like he is being laughed at and not with and tries to cover that up by laughing himself. He tends to lean toward light-heartedness in any situation, but that doesn’t always work for him. Caleb is also a kind and caring man who prides himself in upholding Starfleet ideals. He would easily go and help those in need, even if it means putting himself in danger. He is very well aware the risks and dangers that the uniform comes with, but for him it’s worth it because the uniform stands for exploration, for education, for knowledge, for helping others, for seeking out the unknown. Caleb stays true to all those ideals, it is something he learned from his father and it is a proud tradition he is very happy to carry on. He has also never been in a relationship. Some of that comes down to his introverted nature, some of it comes down to his extreme focus on academics and his job, and some of it just comes down to the fact he isn’t sure what he is looking for. He doesn’t really give it much thought—which probably contributes to why he has never experienced a relationship with another. He sometimes feels that loneliness, but yet he feels okay about it as well. He supposes that if it is meant to happen for him then it will happen for him, until then he is content with how things are. In general, Caleb is a guy who just is really a run-of-the mill type guy. He doesn’t consider himself anything more than average and is okay with this. |
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| Strengths & Weaknesses | Strengths, at least in Caleb’s opinion can be easy to come by. Sometimes a strength is just something you are good at, sometimes a strength is something that you work hard for, and sometimes it’s just a gift one naturally has. Caleb loves being an engineer and he loves his career in Starfleet. To him, he considers these two large strengths that he possesses. He also prides himself on being friendly and approachable and he is a guy who is easy to work with. Once people get to know him and his quirks and once he gets to know the other person, he will become a good, loyal friend who will give the shirt off his back if you need it. In between those strengths and weaknesses is Caleb’s height, which is both a blessing and a curse—though he obviously lives with it. It has its advantages of course, but those advantages are far fewer when serving on a starship. He has to duck his head more times than not, and crawling around Jeffries tubes are a bit cramped. Caleb’s weaknesses tend to lean toward personality. He is a bit socially stunted in that he doesn’t always do well in social situations. He isn’t always good at small talk and sometimes will go off on tangents that have nothing to do with what is being discussed. As he has gotten older, this has calmed quite a bit, but new situations can be tough for him because it is like starting over. Once he gets reacquainted into a routine and settles in, things get easier for him. He also tends to have other more minor weakness, sometimes it’s laughing at inappropriate times. Sometimes it’s forgetting to duck. Sometimes it’s just being so lost in his own thoughts that he forgets to do something (like eating, or using the restroom). Overall, Caleb fully embraces his strengths and weaknesses and just does what he can to be the best that he can be. |
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| Ambitions | Caleb has a hard time wrapping his head around the concept of ambition. He had worked hard to get where he was at and so he attributes that to just hard work, not because he wants to be the best. There are things he wants out of life, but at the moment his work is going to come first. He figures everything will fall into place as it happens and he just takes life as it comes. | |
| Hobbies & Interests | Caleb’s hobbies and interests vary just as much as anyone else’s. He feels that these evolve just like his strengths and weaknesses. Just because he liked something when he was ten years old, doesn’t necessarily mean it carried into his adult years. His main interest will always be tinkering. He does enjoy swimming and it was something he partook in competitively in high school and in the Academy. It’s truly his main form of cardio exercise and he does laps four to five times a week. His workouts are important to him, it helps clear his mind but more importantly they keep him healthy. He also loves a good book, mostly those in the genre that is full of action and adventure. These types of books help him use his imagination and get away from the humdrum world of numbers and equations. He also finds that books are a good conversation started… at least some of the time. Mainly he is the type of person who will try anything once and if it looks interesting he will definitely try it. To him duty and uniform are important, however, a life outside of duty and uniform is just as important. Because of what the uniform represents, he is cognizant of how important it is to be sure to live ones life to the fullest. |
| Personal History | Caleb Garcia was born on Earth on April 5th, 2223 to Pablo-Tomas Garcia—who was a full lieutenant in Starfleet—and a surrogate mother. Caleb was born in San Francisco, which was where his father had made his home. The fact that Caleb’s mother was a surrogate isn’t talked about much even to this day. He has no need or wants to know who this woman is and was perfectly content with his childhood. Sure, there were times when curiosity got the better of him, but for the most part he never cared that it was just he and his dad. With that, Caleb lived a pretty decent live. He can never look back on his childhood with ill will or contempt. His father was a good, decent man, and provided well. Sure, there were times that Pablo-Tomas had to be gone on missions, but for the most part the elder Garcia was able to secure a lot of assignments on Earth… and eventually secured a position at the Academy as a part time instructor and Lab Head in the xenobiology labs. It wasn’t always easy, and he would never admit that it was. There were times that he thought it was unfair when his father would miss a birthday, or a special event, but there were things beyond his control that he could not change. That was what frustrated him the most, and as he had gotten older he realized that being a Starfleet brat meant you had to take the good with the bad. Some of his classmates who were in his predicament were either withdrawn or rebelled, and yet most of them still chose careers in Starfleet themselves. In reality, the one thing he learned was that there were always going to be ups and downs in life and that was just how it was. You either made the best of it or you didn’t and Caleb chose to make the best of it. Caleb grew up to be a rather shy and introverted person, but was social enough to get by. Once in high school he joined the swim team and made friends and that certainly helped. His nose was always stuck in a book, but it was also high school where his love of math started to fully emerge. He absorbed all his math and physics courses courses and even began taking university level courses in the mathematical sciences. He knew where his path lie, and that was a career in engineering. It wasn’t hard for him to get into the Academy because he was one of those well-rounded types that the Academy craved. However, he had a hard time adjusting to the environment. He had visited the Academy hundreds of times over the course of his eighteen years, yet this was different. There were far more people, far more cultures, and the academics were far more involved. He wouldn’t say he exactly thrived at the Academy but just like high school he made steps toward making friends, getting to know people and he joined the swim team. He knew from the moment he entered the Academy which track he had wanted and after a couple of hiccups, was placed into the engineering track with the specific field of structural design with a minor in warp field theory. It was a tough four years for Caleb. There was a war that was brewing and some of the upper classman were pressed into service before they were ready. Caleb wasn’t sure why he wasn’t pressed into service with some of his other fellow classmates, but he took it as a sign that he was meant to finish his studies at the Academy. If a war did break out, which it eventually did, they would need engineers at the shipyards and on starships. After the Academy and after he was commissioned and assigned to McKinley Shipyaards, Caleb entered a graduate program at M.I.T.. A doctorate wasn’t needed to pursue an engineering career on a starship, starbase or shipyard, but this was something he wanted to do for himself. Sure, it would delay his going onto a starship or a starbase, but he was willing to wait. To him, being in the graduate program offered him more of a specialized academic structure. He worked more closely with professors, did more research and was able to get off-world with some of his professors as a research assistant. He had even taught as a teaching assistant a couple of semesters at the M.I.T.—which was an odd experience for him. However, once war broke out with the Klingons things changed quickly, not just for Caleb Garcia, but for all of Starfleet. To this day, Caleb wonders how he continued to do remote studies while serving on a starship during war. So many people, including his father, had told him to just put his studies on hold and focus on his current duty. He refused, and the thing was, nothing suffered. His work never suffered and neither did his academics. Again, it wasn’t always easy but he managed. What took the most out of him was the war itself, constant battles drills, constant red alerts (and alert readiness), and constant battles. The Intrepid was lucky enough to come out of each battle, but it was barely unscathed. Men and women died with each battle, and by the last battle the tiny starship barely was intact. The starship was in bad shape and had to be towed back to a starbase. By the end of the war, though it was remote, Caleb had finished his studies and was award his doctorate. This was a very small victory for him personally, but yet it felt hallow. Maybe it was because in hindsight, so many people didn’t make it and he did. This was when the survivors guilt kicked in and he started to experience bouts of anger, depression, and anxiett. For most who served in what came to be known as the ‘Four Years War’, counseling was needed. Many people experienced PTSD, and many people experienced survivor’s guilt along with it. For many currently in Starfleet, this was the first interstellar war that they had to deal with, so it was a new experience. Gone was peace, and it was replaced with horror, destruction, and carnage of the worst type. Caleb isn’t ashamed to say that he needs counseling once in a while to this day, but the symptoms of his PTSD have eased over the years, and he once again has found inner peace. After the war, and some off time, Caleb found himself being assigned once again to the McKinley Shipyards. Starfleet needed vessels, and they needed qualified engineers to make that happen. He had many jobs while stationed at McKinley, but it wasn’t until a couple of years that he received a promotion to project manager to the Ares-class refit. The Ares-class was one of Starfleet’s finest ships, but they were beaten and battered and in need of a refit in a bad way. As project manager he coordinated with the Tellarite Shipyards at Tellar Prime as well as the Ares-class vessels that were being refit here at McKinley. It was his time as project manager that he got to know Captain Donatella Figueroa, a Starfleet captain who didn’t take ‘no’ for an answer. Her ship, the Musashi, was one of the ships that were being refit and she wanted to be involved every step of the way. She was a thorn in Caleb’s side, but he also understood how important the Musashi was to the captain. They butted heads, but they also came to a mutual understanding. So, he was surprised that after the refit was mostly completed, she asked him to join the Musashi’s engineering team. He was hesitant to accept, but ultimately did so. Caleb Garcia currently resides on the USS Musashi as the Assistant Chief Engineer. |
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| Service Record | 2241 – Enters Starfleet Academy 2245 – Ensign, McKinley Ship Yards, Junior Engineer 2245 – Enters M.I.T. Doctorate Program 2247 – Ensign, USS Intrepid, Engineer 2248 – Receives promotion to Lieutenant Junior Grade 2250 – Receives doctorate (remotely earned) in project management 2250 – Assigned to McKinley Ship Yards 2253 – Assigned as Project Manager to the Ares-Class refit project 2255 – USS Musashi, Assistant Chief Engineer |