Character Name: Tracey Graham
Playby: Jewel Staite
Age: 30
Height: 5'6"
Weight: 120 lbs
Eyes: Green
Hair: Blonde
Build: Slim / Average
Gender: Female
Distinctive Characteristic:
Position: Deck Chief
Personal History: Tracey never knew her father. Her mother told her, when she was a very curious three year old and asking questions about the way things were at home, that her dad had left before she was born. She said if, later in life, she really wanted to know him she could hire a private investigator and look for him. At the time, Tracey didn't really understand. She'd never had a dad; never needed one. What was the big deal?
From a young age, Tracey knew she was different from other girls. She wasn't particularly fond of dresses or tea parties and absolutely detested dolls. Tracey was in to cars, motor oil, and using the limited power tools around the house - and a few borrowed from neighbors - to build basic machines while her mom was out at work or with one of her numerous boyfriends that she picked up and dropped over the years.
Her mother, an independent woman and advocate of women's rights and privileges, never discouraged Tracey's unusual interests. If anything, she would fan the flames by buying her robot kits, toy cars, and taking her an occasional auto race. It was her mother that bought her her very first model Viper. Tracey didn't know it then, but that simple model would spark an interest that would last with her through her school years and forever into the future. It wasn't a passion for flying Vipers - but a passion for building them.
During her Elementary school years, she remembered a few classroom 'romances' and a few arch-enemies forming around her, but she never got herself involved. When other girls would meet up during recess to discuss boys and celebrities, Tracey would laugh at them and run off to the playground where she could dig around in the dirt and (on the rainy days) build sandcastles. It was in that very sandbox that she met her lifelong friend - Jason Orpheus.
He was a boy about her age with a funny looking haircut. He was digging around in the dirt on the other side of the sandbox busily working on something resembling a Battlestar. Tracey, having learned about the creation of the Battlestars and the Cylon War not long before in class, was interested and moved in for a closer look. As she approached, a few of the schoolyard bullies - most of whom were nearly double Jason's size - showed up and stomped on the boy's Battlestar. Tracey expected him to burst into tears, like most boys his age would have. Instead, Jason stood up and punched the bully that had stomped on his work right in the gut. As he doubled over, one of the other two bigger kids grabbed Jason around the neck and held him down as the other one got ready to wallop him. Tracey, not wanting to see a fellow sandbox artist getting beaten to a pulp, ran up and pushed the preparing bully over.
"What the frak?!" he shouted, using words not allowed on the schoolyard but commonly used, nonetheless.
"Don't you touch him!" she warned.
"What are you going to do about it?" said the bully, standing up and trying to look menacing. Tracey knew his ego had to have been bruised after being pushed over by a girl half his size, but he was doing his best to conceal it.
She shrugged and delivered a swift kick to his groin.
"That," she said.
The other bully quickly lost interest and ran away, probably to tell a teacher about the incident. Tracey didn't care. She picked up the boy with the funny haircut and the two introduced themselves. They shook hands and talked about Battlestars and became instant companions. The two would stick together as "partners in crime" - which they insisted everyone else call them - all the way through elementary school and into high school.
In her second year of high school, Tracey finally figured out why she had never been interested in boys and dolls and fancy dresses. She was gay. There was nothing particularly shocking. No sudden moment of horrid realization. The idea had just never really been present in her mind due to a lack of knowledge on the subject. It was during her classes Sex Ed classes that Tracey began to realize who she was. A few talks with her very accepting mother about the subject helped concrete her confidence in her new found individuality. It made her feel free. She no longer felt like she was missing out on something by not being attracted to boys. Jason was also very open to it, and the two had many conversations after that about which girls in the school were hot, which were dykes, and which Jason could chase after.
Two years later, Tracey found her face covered in bandages and her arm in a sling. Her sides ached and her legs were bruised and cut. She had made a bad choice at a party. She'd had a little too much to drink and decided to make the moves on her crush - Emily Neilson. She didn't know Emily very well, which she later determined was why she wasn't aware that Emily was not only straight, but also had a boyfriend who was very protective and prone to violent behaviour.. or that Emily and her boyfriend and their friends felt very strongly about gays, atheists, and intellectuals - in a very negative fashion. Needless to say, they did not take kindly to her advances. She eventually recovered and laughed it off, swearing never to get that drunk again.
After graduation, the two of them decided they would both apply to the Colonial Academy. Both of them were interested in Vipers, Battlestars, the Cylons, and all the other "awesome" stuff that they would get to learn about and experience. When they received back their initial test results, it seemed the Colonial Military deemed Jason most compatible with officer training. Tracey showed an extremely high aptitude for mechanics - especially those of Vipers and Raptors, which she had built countless models of during her youth. Both of them were ecstatic and continued frequent contact during their days in the academy and into their military careers afterwards. The last Tracey heard from him, Jason was the Commanding Officer of a Defender-Class ship named the Argo. She promised him she'd buy a model of that one day on an R&R leave and build it for display in her quarters.
It was a few weeks later that she was transferred from her job as a mechanic at Colonial Midway Station Omega to a new and much more fascinating career aboard the brand new Battlestar Rhea.
Academic History: Elementary school (Bayview Annex), High School (Philostrate Secondary), Colonial Military College
Career History (or Service History): 7 years aboard the Colonial Midway Station Omega as a Deckhand
Goals and Ambitions: To one day not only model, but design the ultimate fighting ships - be it Vipers, Raptors, or even Battlestars. Her dreams fly amongst the stars, and its her job and her goal to make them a reality.
