Ensign Noah Balsam

At first glance, Noah could be mistaken for a Betazoid because his eyes are so dark. But his mannerisms, his speech, his interests quickly land him within the Human species. Noah is very fair-skinned, almost to the point of being pasty. His skin contrasts strongly with his glossy, dark hair and eyes. Noah is not conventionally attractive, the best words to describe him being innocuous, inoffensive, and even nontoxic.

In build, Noah is almost like a live-action caricature of Ichabod Crane or Jack Skellington- he is all legs and his legs are thin, failing to fully meet in his thigh gap. Noah is very slight of build but also lanky. He is long-limbed, to the point that his fingers are articulate and long. There is a certain quality when he walks and moves that invokes a colt or some kind of stick insect. Noah is hypermobile in his joints, and he has a tendency to lean on consoles and bend his elbows slightly back. He also likes to sit in chairs with his legs pretzeled like a Yoga pose.

Though he is lanky and thin, his face is a combination of apple round, but with high and notable cheekbones. His mouth is full-lipped and seems a little too big for his face. When he smiles especially, its a display of largeness and toothiness. But his most notable facial feature maybe his nose- narrow long and angled slightly down- an aquiline nose.

Dr. Noah Hyman Balsam, Jr. (Age 54). Dr. Balsam is a scientist and lecturer in the field of theoretical temporal dynamics who now works with Doctor Vassbinder's Outer Worlds teams at the Ganymede Thinktank around Jupiter. Originally he worked at the Bright Thinktank on Enceladus. Dr. Balsam and Dr. Tempe have separated, as of about nine years ago, though they maintain a distant but platonic communication.

Dr. Norah Tempe. (Age 52). Dr. Tempe is a guest lecturer at Starfleet Academy in the field of material engineering. When not lecturing at the Academy, she works on Titan Station around Saturn. Dr. Balsam and Dr. Tempe have separated, as of about nine years ago, though they maintain a distant but cordial communication. Norah has been seeing a Bajoran man five years her junior and there is some consideration between them about moving to Bajor's Hill Province. Norah is looking in to civilian engineering projects on the Bajoran moons and colonies, and potentially even colonies re-established in the Gamma Quadrant.

Simon Balsam. (Age 24). Noah's older brother. Simon is a civilian environmental engineer on Rigil Kentauros Colony. He recently applied for work at Proxima Fleet Yards.

Dr. Noah Hyman Balsam, Sr. (Age 86). Noah Hyman Balsam is a medical engineer who had tenure at the Daystrom Institute up until 2385 and the attack on Mars. He had a celebrated career in Medical Positronics and was even up for the prestigious Carrington Award for some of his team's trailblazing work in the field. Then Mars was destroyed and Synthetics were banned. Overnight, most of the programs he worked on were shuttered and his team disbanded.

Balsam was heavily involved in the lawsuits within the courts trying to overturn the ban. But he finally, once all avenues were exhausted, retired. He now lives on Toliman, the capital world of the Alpha Centauri Colonies. He constructs lightweight wooden animatronic creatures, his brilliance whittling away with senility and depression. He doesn't travel anymore. He is deeply embittered.

Xi-Tendri Balsam. (Deceased age 66). Xi-Tendri was a native of Catulla and was Noah Balsam Senior's partner for almost thirty years. She was a systems engineer. She died shortly after Noah Balsam III's birth of a degenerative neuromuscular disease not uncommon on Catulla.

Marc Tempe. (Age 8). Noah's unofficial "nephew" through his Mother's side. They are cousins. Marc is Autistic.

Birthplace

Noah Balsam was born on the bathyscaphe colony of Eilat Anchorage on Enceladus, a moon of Saturn. Enceladus is a tiny moon and one of the smallest off-Earth civilian settlements in the Sol System. It began as a colony of dissident free-thinkers who rejected Eugenics, Ultra-Nationalist, and Optimist policies spreading primarily in Israel, the Palestinian Territories, Greece, and Egypt. It was a colony founded on rigorous scientific discipline and the advancement of the Precautionary Principle. They also strongly opposed the early Martian Terraforming Initiative believing it was arrogant for Human Beings to alter another world to suit themselves. To this day, Enceladans avidly oppose any further terraformation in the Sol system. Enceladans are often socialist, secular, and pacifist.

Enceladus joined the Federation well before Noah Balsam was born- just after the Federation-Klingon War of 2256-57. The small colony has grown very close to other highly technological and pacifist-leaning cultures, among them the Bynars, Catullans, and Medusans. The colony has been a place that offers counseling, integration, and acceptance to fringe groups like Ex-Borgs. In 2386, with their efforts to end the Synthetics Ban after the Mars attack thwarted in the Outer Worlds Commonwealth, the colony joined the Opposition League. The Opposition League has used sanctions and embargoes to suspend their involvement with the Federation Charter- and to leave the Federation altogether if necessary. In that time, they have also been pushing hard for "Emergent Infolife" rights and recognition in the Federation.