Lieutenant Commander Harrison Knox
Name Harrison Presley Knox
Position Executive Officer
Rank Lieutenant Commander
Character Information
| Gender | Male | |
| Species | Human | |
| Age | 40 |
Physical Appearance
| Height | 6'4" | |
| Weight | 210 lbs | |
| Hair Color | Ash Brown | |
| Eye Color | Hazel | |
| Physical Description | A Human male with a huskier athletic build, his uniforms fit a bit more snugly out of personal preference. Harrison stands tall at 6'4" and carries his weight well. Now in his forties his ash brown hair is starting to become thinner and his hairline is naturally receding, something he can easily ascribe to genetics. The lieutenant commander has hazel eyes which sometimes appear slightly different. He has broad shoulders and sometimes sports a thick five o'clock shadow or actual growth of facial hair though for the most part he remains clean shaven. |
Family
| Spouse | Lieutenant Mayville (Kia 2369) | |
| Other Family | Knox's former Ark Royal shipmates and best friend, Rylan Gray has seen him through a lot. He considers him family. |
Personality & Traits
| Personality Overview | A friendly, outgoing, and organized individual, Lieutenant Commander Harrison Knox does not particularly care if he is well liked or not. What matters to him is respect. If those working alongside and underneath him can respect him, and he can respect them, then Harrison has faith that they can work together and have each other's backs. He believes strongly in a system where people support one another, motivating and elevating your fellow shipmate. He views his role of First Officer as being the bedrock to the starship community overseeing personnel matters and transfers with efficiency. Though he aims to be approachable, he makes a clear distinction between that and just being sociable. He is Lieutenant Commander Knox, First Officer first and foremost. Friendship is secondary. Though he tries to respect beliefs and opinions that differ from his own, Knox will form stronger connections with people of similar mindsets and ideologies. He values Starfleet and the United Federation of Planets, but does not believe that everyone should be part of the Federation. Building a larger Federation by seeking out new life and new civilizations is part of his job as a Starfleet officer albeit not one he necessarily agrees with because of his background in security. The more members of the Federation, the more potential problems and differing views into an already rampant mixture. He tends to harbor some strong spiritual, political, and philosophical beliefs that he is not as likely to discuss openly, but behind closed doors with an inner circle of friends or family, he will. He has morals and ethics - a sense of black and white, and feels that oftentimes, people get too swept up in the storm of gray and murky. Giving back to others is important to him. He takes pride in his presentation, uniforms are not just slid into or thrown on. He ensures they are stored well, pressed, and as wrinkle free as he can keep them. |
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| Ambitions | With the destruction of the USS Ark Royal, Harrison Knox is striving to not have any of the lives lost be in vain. He is seeking to become a capable and confident command officer. | |
| Strengths & Weaknesses | Strengths Strong sense of duty Practical Resourceful Builds connections Weaknesses Doesn't take criticism well Pridefully Stubborn Inflexible or Rigid Secretive |
Medical History
| Personal History | Starfleet – prim, proper, and disciplined, poised to handle the headaches of paperwork, managing personnel underneath their purview, and dedicating themselves towards diplomacy for the betterment and enrichment of lives from strange new worlds far amongst the stretches of the stars. Starfleet Officers that is to which Lieutenant Commander Knox has ascended into the upper echelons of command; however, he was not the premiere model manufactured from four years of Starfleet Academy. Harrison P. Knox, nicknamed “Possum” comes from more humbled roots. He was just a simple boy born and raised on the Louisiana bayou to a bare essential Human family, nothing special in his genetic DNA. Not a drop of alien blood in his whole family lineage to the best of his knowledge and thorough genetic testing compliments of Starfleet, just a plain simple human that wasn’t even that worldly before joining Starfleet, and by joining, that meant enlisting, not going through Starfleet Academy. Harrison had only seen as far as the lunar and mars colonies before turning seventeen. A few scuffles in school while a young teenager saw him knocked on his ass and academically, he just did not apply himself well. His mother tended to the home and raised him and his siblings, and his father was just a hard-working shuttle mechanic and former merchant marine. There was something that Knox wanted though. He wanted to be more, to make something of himself, become someone that his parents and siblings could be proud of. When he decided that Starfleet was the answer, he was met with skepticism from both his parents, his father especially. Knox was only seventeen at the time, but his parents agreed that they would permit him to enlist in Starfleet expecting his history of being rowdy and unkempt to catch up to him and result in him not making it passed basic training. To everyone’s surprise, even his own, Harrison Knox made it through boot camp. His basic training was rough at first, but he had the grit and tenacity to tackle obstacles head on, perhaps his few years playing football as an offensive tackle came in handy. He certainly had the physical conditioning for the fitness expectations, and his stubbornness could be useful if he applied it correctly. His life on the bayou also was beneficial to him during this time because he had years of experience as a boy shooting phasers. He was strong, burly, and could hit a target with a phaser. Perfect. That was the basics taken care of. Now, he just needed to be good at something to earn a rating. He spent several years as a crewman on the lower decks of an aging Oberth class starship with an uncomfortable maroon and cream uniform with a midnight black tunic poking out, scratchy beyond description. He was always assigned to random medial tasks or ‘chores’ aboard the USS Pythagoras. He would literally be tasked once in a while to use a sonic scrubber to get some of the grime and caked on grease off of some of the bulkheads and railings. It was not the most joyous work but after a few years, he made rank to Petty Officer 3rd Class and earned a rating within the Security and Tactical Operations as a sensor technician. He was transferred to the USS Philadelphia, a Freedom class light frigate. He served on the Philadelphia from 2353 into 2358. As a sensor technician he would sometimes be tasked with recalibrating sensors or reviewing sensor logs and collected data well after several eyes already reviewed them, remedial but crucial work for due diligence. Promotion and reassignment to a Federation Ambassador class starship, the USS Albright in 2358 was a significant step up from Knox’s previous assignments. For a short span of several months, he was posted in weapons control as a Torpedo and Phaser Control Technician. It was a potentially dangerous position that came with an exceptionally high level of clearance for enlisted personnel. He impressed the Assistant Chief Tactical Officer with his professionalism and work ethic. His years of experience within Security and Tactical Operations had been brought to the attention of the First Officer of the USS Albright. She recommended him for promotion to Chief Petty Officer. He was reassigned aboard the starship Albright as Master-at-Arms and was given additional responsibilities of Chief of the Boat overseeing all enlisted personnel aboard the starship with nearly a thousand souls aboard, a significant population of which he was responsible for as enlisted personnel make up the backbone of any starship, especially one as large as the Albright was. He would remain with the USS Albright for a few years and received encouragement and sponsorship into Starfleet’s thirteen week Officer Candidate School in 2361. The next several years in Harrison Knox’s life were more eventful than the years before, and this new chapter in his life was a transitional one. He completed OCS and earned his commission as on officer in Starfleet, an ensign a bit shy of his 34th birthday. When many academy graduates would be seasoned lieutenants nearing their third pip, some already settled in with three pips on their uniform, he was a bottom rung junior officer. What set him apart from the rest aside from not being babyface and worrying about everything were his decade and a half of experience. He was never going to be one of those ensigns that remains pigeonholed at the rank for several years. Assigned to the aging Apollo class USS Ella Fitzgerald, Harrison was a tactical officer during the late years of the Circassian Boarder Wars. He was promptly promoted to Lieutenant Junior Grade after a year and became the Assistant Chief Tactical Officer. It was during these years aboard the Fitzgerald that Harrison earned his infamous nickname of ‘Possum’ for his unorthodox tactics of powering down specific regions of the starship as though it had been disabled by enemy weapons fire, “playing possum” with them. One of his many tactics that he used. He received the Grankite Order of Tactics for his part in the bombardment of Lessek. An act that got him noticed and recommended for transfer to the USS Ark Royal. The Centaur class USS Ark Royal was Knox’s home for many years. The crew he served with were practically family to him, the Captain, a man he admired and looked up to. The First Officer, one of the closest individuals that Harrison has ever gotten to know. He first joined the Ark Royal after earning his full two lieutenant pips and served as Chief Tactical Officer and Security Chief, a position that he held until the order to abandon ship; however from 2367 until 2369 he had become the starhip’s Second Officer and earned his third pip during this time. |
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| Service Record | 2345: USS Pythagoras | Crewman Third Class | Crewman Recruit 2345-2346: USS Pythagoras | Crewman Third Class | Crewman Recruit 2346-2349: USS Pythagoras | Crewman Second Class | Crewman Apprentice 2349-2353: USS Pythagoras | Crewman First Class | Crewman 2353-2355: USS Philadelphia | Petty Officer Third Class | Sensor Technician 2355-2358: USS Philadelphia | Petty Officer Second Class | Sensor Technician 2358-2359: USS Albright | Petty Officer First Class | Torpedo & Phaser Control Technician 2359-2361: USS Albright | Chief Petty Officer | Master-at-Arms | Chief of the Boat 2361: OCS (thirteen weeks) Officer Candidate 2361-2362: USS Ella Fitzgerald |Tactical Officer | Ensign 2362-2364: USS Ella Fitzgerald | Assistant Chief Tactical Officer | Lieutenant JG 2364-2367: USS Ark Royal | Chief Tactical Officer | Lieutenant 2367-2369: USS Ark Royal | Second Officer / Chief Tactical Officer | Lieutenant Commander 2369: USS Thunderbird | First Officer | Lieutenant Commander |