[float=right][/float]BASIC PERSONNEL DATA
Name: Elizabeth Maria Gilbey Conté
Species: Miran
Homeworld: Miri's Planet
Place of Birth: London, Miri's Planet
Date of Birth: April 30, 1953
Academy Year: 2385-2388
Date of Commissioning: N/A
Assignment: USS Galaxy
Position: Security Trainee
Rank: Cadet (Senior Year)
Date of Rank:

• 2385-2386 - Cadet (Freshman Year)
• 2386-2387 - Cadet (Sophomore Year)
• 2387-2388 - Cadet (Junior Year)
• 2388-PRES - Cadet (Senior Year)

 
EDUCATION

• Primary Education on Miri's Planet, circa 1960's
• Primary and secondary education at Miran Institute, 2298-2329
• Private tutoring under the Contés, 2300s
• Starfleet Academy, 2385-2388
• Cadet Cruise, 2388-PRES

 
HISTORY OF ASSIGNMENTS

• 2385-2388 - Starfleet Academy
• 2388-PRES - USS Galaxy (Cadet Cruise)

APPEARANCE
Unlike most Mirans, Elizabeth has the appearance of a thirteen-year-old girl. Standing at five feet, two inches (a little more than 1.5 meters), she has a slim build and the clear shape of a young teenager. She has red hair that is naturally curly, and is usually kept it in curls. Her skin is a warm cream color, a testament to 24th century skin care products and lucky genes. Her vanity is strong enough to encourage the use of makeup, hair products and fashionable accessories, so it is not uncommon to see Elizabeth adorned with makeup and lipstick, with her hair styled or wearing glistening metal objects from her ears, neck or wrists.
 
 
PERSONALITY
General Personality
Elizabeth's personality is a double-edged sword. Her upbringing instilled in her proper values of high society, while the centuries of survival tested her mettle and hardened her emotions. Throwing in premature teenage hormones and mood swings into the mix has created something of a polarized mix of behaviors. Not unlike Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, in one moment Elizabeth can be professional, polite, respectful and poised, the epitome of the blended 20th and 24th century lady, and in the next she can be a vicious cynic, a sardonically sarcastic snotty conceited prig of a brat.
 
Strengths
Elizabeth has a high sense of identity, she knows who she is and what she is. She will not stand to conform or change to anybody elses' standards, though she will pretend to. She is intelligent, and self aware of her intelligence, even to the point of flouting it indirectly.
 
Weaknesses
Elizabeth has the need to be the focus of attention, and accepted. She will do almost anything to get the attention turned to her, and in turn, she hopes, be accepted. Her ultimate goal is to regain her adoptive mother's acceptance, and gaining the acceptance of others can be viewed as stepping stones or practice. Subconsciously, however, she wishes to maintain the status quo, she is used to being an outcast. She may unknowingly sabotage her attempts for acceptance to maintain her status.
 
Her standards for interactions are high, if she suspects that someone is not worth her time or is beneath her, she will play off her arrogance and act like a true brat to get rid of the person. She refuses to tolerate those she does not deem worthy.
 
Ambitions
Elizabeth desires her adoptive mother's acceptance above all else. She doesn't care much about her Starfleet career, it is merely a means to the end.
 
Hobbies & Interests
During her centuries on Miri's Planet, Elizabeth escaped into books. She loves to learn and reading is still a passion for her, when it suits her. When accepted into a circle of friends, she enjoys playing games and, especially with other girls, gossiping. She is currently a member of the Alpha Chi Omega sorority at Starfleet Academy.
 
 
BIOGRAPHY
Born to Sierra and Keldon Gilbey on what would eventually become known as Miri's Planet, Elizabeth was born and raised, for the most part, in her planet's counterpart to London. She attended school like a normal girl, and had many friends and enjoyed play. Her parents were very proactive in her childhood, and Elizabeth was given a strict regiment of activities. After school she was instructed in music, particularly the violin, which she grew to enjoy for a time. Then a tutor would cover the assignments she had been given in school that day, and after that was finished, would proceed to instruct her further. Sometimes her tutor would cover lessons that her school would eventually get to, and Elizabeth would become bored at school, for she knew more than even what the teacher was sharing.
 
On the weekends, if she had been well behaved that week, her parents would let her have some free time or, if she was lucky, would let her accompany them to various events. Her father was a regional executive in an international corporation, which afforded the Gilbeys attendance at high class parties, openings and private parties at theatres and museums and the sort. Generally, quite a comfortable life. Their house reflected their money, and the couple's good tastes. The ability to accompany her parents was something that Elizabeth took to greatly, and she lauded about her experiences in school or to her playmates. She was a popular girl in her class because of it, and Elizabeth thoroughly enjoyed that status.
 
When she was nine, her father received a promotion at work, to become a full executive at the companies headquarters...in America. Elizabeth was so excited, until she learned that she would have to move and change schools. She argued with her parents and cried, but nothing could change the move. Yet on the day of the move, she was excited to be able to fly in an airplane, something she had heard her father talk about, but never had been on one. The move went smoothly, and soon Elizabeth was attending her new school, and the Gilbeys were back in their high flung life, just in a different location.
 
School took an unexpected turn for Elizabeth. Where in London she had been popular in school due to her connections, her American schoolmates shirked her braggart tendencies and mocked her accent. When she became bored in school, it was suggested that she was dumb instead. That was, until her peers discovered that she knew more than the teacher in some lessons, and she then became the teacher's pet. It was a miserable existence for Elizabeth, who had enjoyed her status and popularity at her old school. She pleaded with her parents to return, or to send her to private school, as she'd heard from some other children who attended similar events as her parents. Her parents refused, insisting that they wanted her to be raised as a 'normal' girl. In time, they promised her, her troubles would pass.

After a year, however, Elizabeth saw no sign of change. She had few friends, and was still considered an outsider at school. The rejection by her peers had only made her more resilient, her stories became exaggerated and wild, her attitude more resolved, and her nose held higher. None of her efforts did anything to placate her peers, rather, the opposite occurred. The friends she once had became more distanced, and when they would congregate with others at playtime or lunch, Elizabeth could hear them laughing about her.

It was around this time that the news reports began to trickle in. A strange disease began to appear, far from her city at first, and then it spread. Soon the news reporters were informing their audiences that there was an epidemic, and the entire world was at risk. The Gilbeys stopped going to parties, and restricted themselves to home, school and work for the most part. When the blue blotches started appearing on teachers at school and they began to act out of the ordinary, Elizabeth's parents pulled her out. Then one day, the blue blotches began appearing on her parents as well. She was terrified as her parents began to turn crazy, as they suddenly aged well beyond their years, as they no longer behaved like humans. With no one to turn to, Elizabeth hid in a closet in the house for days while her parents raved and screamed, and finally succumbed to the disease.

When Elizabeth was sure that she was safe, she left her hiding place. She found her parents in the bathroom, or what was left of it, and quickly shut the door. She hurriedly collected what she wanted, some clothes, food and a few other things, and packed them into a bag, and then left the house. She didn't look back as she ran away, far away from that terrible horror. On the streets, Elizabeth encountered other grown ups in similar states, in the throws of death. And even teenagers, just a few years older than she, beginning to look ill and act strange.

She found her schoolmates at the school, they had taken it over as a fortress of sorts. Most of the children were older, like Elizabeth herself, but some had brought their younger siblings. The noticeable lack of younger children told the painfully obvious, that the younger children were too young to understand that their parents were dead and wouldn't survive on their own. Elizabeth soon settled into the school, but her status as an outsider was still well known. When some of the classrooms were turned into bedrooms for large numbers of children, Elizabeth found none of them willing to allow her in, barring the group of youngest children. Rejected, she converted an entire room of her own into a sleeping area.

Months passed, years passed. Eventually more rooms were needed for storage or miscellaneous activities, and Elizabeth was kicked out of her classroom-turned-bedroom. Her final roost became the library, a last refuge for her, and the one room that few of the other children ever frequented. She found comfort in all the books and the rows of shelves provided the satisfying illusion of a smaller enclosure at night.

As the years and decades passed, the status quo remained. Elizabeth retained her accent, her attitude, her stories, and her nose held high above all others. Her status as an outcast survived similarly, she was rarely invited for foolies, and was often taunted by other children. Of all her qualities, only her nose changed status, as she buried it into books to occupy her time.

As the year 2266 came and passed for the children, Federation response teams began landing on the planet, establishing facilities and contacting groups of children. For those who had not yet been touched by them, like Elizabeth's group, foolies and life continued as normal. It was during that time that Elizabeth was invited to play foolies with the other children, a rare occurrence, and a chance that she jumped at. The game used a simple cloth ball, made from scraps of clothing found and discarded over the years. At one point in the game, it rolled outside of the bounds, close to Elizabeth and another player. They both approached the ball, but Elizabeth reached it first. As she bent down to pick it up, her sleeve rose, exposing a small, bluish blotch on her arm. The other child quickly froze, but soon called over the rest of the children. They examined the blotch, and found similar ones on her other arm and legs.

The children were merciless, and began taunting Elizabeth. "Lizzie Grup," they called her. "Go away, grup," they told her. After a few days, she could stand no more. Grabbing a few items of worth to her, Elizabeth fled the school building, running deep into the city for protection. She tried to scavenge for food, but there was little to be found. Her stomach grumbled at her as the days wore on, and the blue blotches began to spread. Whether from hunger or advance of the disease, or both, Elizabeth found herself slipping from lucidity, and sometimes from consciousness. When she would awaken, she would be in an entirely different area, and once she found herself naked, with her clothes in shreds nearby. Over a week after the children had expelled her, Elizabeth succumbed to her delirium, and her world went dark.

She woke up a week later in a stark white facility, something the Federation response teams had built themselves upon arriving. Her body was mostly covered in bandages were the blue blotches, the sores, were healing. She was terrified to find herself attended by grups, fully grown grups in a mix of white and blue outfits, all without the blue sores characteristic to grups. But what most terrified her is that she looked different. As she grew to accept the presence of the unaffected grups, and came to know them as doctors and nurses, they were able to explain. Her group of children were found by a search team, and when one of them mentioned Elizabeth, the search team turned their focus to finding her, in hopes of saving her.

It seemed that in the advanced stages of the disease, the affected victim aged several years within a matter of hours. By the time the search party had found her, secured her in their facility and administered the vaccine, it was too late to reverse any of the affects. Most of the doctors estimated that she had aged a few years, three or so at the most. A more detailed scan revealed that her body was an approximate age of 13.5472 years, according to a human female average. The reality was, Elizabeth was no longer a child, she was a teenager. In the eyes of the children, she was no better than a grup.

Reluctantly, Elizabeth agreed to rejoin her group of children. Suddenly, the social awkwardness she had felt became physical awkwardness. She towered above those she had once considered friendly, and the shape of her body and chest were a new target for attacks from others. Rejected once more by her companions of three centuries, Elizabeth tried to find the group of children she had gone to school with in London. However, once she was recognized, appearing some five years older than when she had left, the majority of children in her old school group rejected her as well. A few remained loyal, but even those few could not make up for centuries of abuse and torment, and two failures of acceptance in the present. She was a freak, an oddball, an outcast.

Elizabeth took up residence at one of the Federation facilities, and soon sank into depression. Only one of her so-called friends visited her during this time, and Elizabeth all but turned her away. She met with many counselors, but none could get through. Her existence looked very bleak indeed.

That was, until the Federation decided to set up a school for those they called Mirans, the children of the world they now called Miri's Planet. The Miran Institute, as it was called, provided the means for Elizabeth to rise from her depression. She jumped at the opportunity to be in a school setting again, and as it progressed, she found herself even ignoring the awkwardness and being a social outcast. It still hurt, but after three centuries of abuse, the high she found in school and learning gave her enough to enjoy herself.

By some time after the turn of the 24th century, some Mirans were offered the chance to be adopted by families from the Federation. When a couple came searching for an older girl, the administrators of the Miran Institute approached Elizabeth. She agreed to meet with the couple, and upon meeting them, thought they were all a match made in heaven. Andrew Conté was a well-respected scientist, a physicist. His bride, Wilhelmina Conté, came from a family of Starfleet admirals and Federation politicians, giving her, even if not monetary, wealth and access to power if needed. The lifestyle the two led were so much like her parents, that Elizabeth immediately desired to leave with them. The paperwork was attended to and signed, and Elizabeth was taken aside by another counselor and asked if she truly wanted to become a part of the Conté family. The girl agreed fervently, and so the adoption was finalized. Elizabeth Maria Gilbey became Elizabeth Maria Gilbey Conté.

Elizabeth quickly settled into the lavish and luxurious lifestyle of the Contés. Her schooling accounted for, twice now, she was freed from those responsibilities. And without a gaggle of younger schoolchildren to deal with, she quickly fell into her own crowd. Like her biological parents, her adoptive parents attended social events often enough to, as her adoptive mother put it, "Remind them who we are and that we aren't dead yet." There, Elizabeth met daughters and friends of other astute figures, some close to her age, and she quickly befriended them. She found her niche in gossip and regaling stories of her life before the disease on Miri's Planet, and her life with the Contés. And while she was not the most popular of the group, or the leader, she felt comfortable in what she needed, acceptance.

The Contés gave Elizabeth almost everything she wanted. From clothes to jewelry, books to art, and toys and gadgets galore, Elizabeth was surrounded by luxury that soon surpassed what her birth parents had provided for her. The Contés were unlike the typical Federation citizens, they still adhered to an older view of material wealth, a lifestyle which Elizabeth slid comfortably into.

As the decades passed, and as those around her aged, though she did not, Elizabeth returned to her high-classed attitude, her snobbish arrogance, and her attitude. The cluster of friends of similar status grew ever older, and new eventually replaced the old. The cycle continued for years, decades, never seeming to end. There were times when Elizabeth was more accepted, others when she was almost repugnant. Yet there were always future years to look towards, and different friends, which came eventually.

And eventually, her adoptive parents grew older. While most in their inner circles knew of Elizabeth's species, her history and why she never aged, new inductees into their class were surprised by her. It became more awkward to introduce Elizabeth as their daughter without some sort of explanation. The Contés grew tired of spending their evenings sharing their daughter's life story with others. Elizabeth felt her parents excluding her more and more, and indeed her accompaniment to their events slowed down. Soon she was attending an event just a few times a month. It wasn't until one of her friends pointed it out that she realized what was happening.

Elizabeth never said anything to her adoptive parents, but continue to let them believe that they were fooling her. Finally, one night, she showed up to an event her parents had not asked her to attend, conspiring with her friends to make it happen. She surprised them and confronted their actions. Hostility raged in the Conté household for weeks, until another event superseded it. On November 14, 2382, Andrew Conté passed away in his sleep. Elizabeth reached out to her adoptive mother for comfort as the family grieved, only to be pushed away. She approached her group of friends, and found compassion, for a time. Eventually, as her adoptive mother stopped attending events and Elizabeth, naturally, stopped as well, her friends began to detach themselves. They didn't want to be associated with someone who had fallen from favor.

Outcast by her mother and ostracized by her friends, Elizabeth turned to an unusual place, Starfleet. There, she hoped, Elizabeth could regain the attention that her mother had lost in her. Her adoptive mother's family was filled with Starfleet officers, a few of them admirals, and they ensured her acceptance in the Academy. She struggled with the coursework and her grades wavered, she was not the best student at Starfleet Academy. It was difficult to adjust to the social constructs of the Academy; they were worlds apart from the dinners and galas she had enjoyed in her life of privileged. Yet through the years of study, Elizabeth discovered a direction, a passion that excited her. She found herself majoring in Security, and with it, a renewed tenacity in graduating and becoming a Starfleet Officer.

During her junior year at the academy, Elizabeth was approached by a member of Starfleet Headquarters' staff. He recognized her determination, and of her own merit, recommended her for a training cruise, placement aboard a starship or base instead of completing her final Academy Year. While the cruise could extend her schooling beyond the year she had left, it often gave the participants a fast track to promotion. Elizabeth accepted, and was stationed onboard the USS Galaxy as a Security Trainee.

NOTES

• A bit of trivia (for anyone who cares): Elizabeth's name comes from the book The Golden Compass/The Northern Lights by Philip Pullman. The main character in the story, Lyra, uses the cover name Lizzie Brooks in one part of her adventure. Later she uses the name Lizzie Ransom. In the film adaptation of the book, Dakota Blue Richards (the actress portraying Elizabeth Conté) plays Lyra, and thus the name fit perfectly.
• A second bit of trivia (for anyone who cares): Conté is a Romantic language name derived from the Latin comptus, meaning 'order or control.' This evolved from the Roman Empire, in which comptus applied to officials administrating a small region, into a title of nobility, and still today is used in the Italy (spelling: Conte) as a noble title. The French and English versions are Comte and Count respectively. The use of the word as a surname ties directly into Elizabeth's personality.

Ideas for Lizzie plots on the Galaxy:

-Her mother becomes ill, causing Lizzie to become depressed and extremely demur and melancholy

-Lizzie becomes involved in Galaxy's gossip underground

-Enzo Marchetti offers to take over Lizzie's training from Aisha, her rival and a focus of the Mary Jane investigation