On first meeting her, Sian-Mairead Flynn, or Sian, may seem a bit too bright, a bit too cheerful, and occasionally, a bit too silly. She is friendly, funny, and passionate. If you underestimate her skills and commitment to medicine, however, you will be gravely mistaken. She has so far managed to develop the two sides of her person -- the doctor and the actor.
Her father, a music professor, and her mother, a Starfleet medical officer, are still happily married, despite the long separations forced on them by her postings on starships. Sian spent most of her childhood and teenage years with her mother; when her mother was on leave, or when her posting was very short, she lived on earth with her father.
On starships, Sian mainly spent time at school and with friends, while absorbing her mother's care and compassion toward her patients. She took dance lessons, and, later, acting lessons, while on ship. But she felt her true calling at the tender age of ten, when she set a classmate's broken leg, which he had injured while climbing rocks on the holodeck.
Her parents decided that she should probably finish her education on Earth, and so when she approached high school age, she was sent to live with her father in a small suburb of New York City to go to high school there. Being a Starfleet brat helped her be flexible and adaptive. She was not a top student, but she made good grades, especially in biology and chemistry; she also took theatre classes and was in two plays.
She entered Carnegie Mellon University at sixteen, having skipped a few grades in elementary school. She took advantage of her early admission and decided to earn a double degree (as opposed to working on a double major). Again, she was not the top student in her class, but she did make the Dean's List, and was active in the Biology Department's Undergraduate Society. During her last two years she was a lab assistant at the Xenobiological Genetics Laboratory, the second year as a paid intern. She also co-founded (with three other people) CMU's Shakespeare Project. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Biology and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Drama.
Upon graduation, she was admitted to Johns Hopkins School of Medicine to pursue her medical degree. A medical student's life is hard in any era; Sian made it even more difficult for herself by trying to keep up her theatre activities as well. She limited herself to one campus-based production a year in which to participate, but taking graduate medical courses during the day and rehearsing and performing during the evenings were very taxing on her, physically, psychologically, and emotionally.
When she entered her third year and began her clinical work, she cut down her theatrical allotment to one small production, which worked out much better. Of course, this meant that she did not have as much of a social life as the other medical students, but she was having the time of her life, being able to pursue both of the things about which she cared a great deal.
During her final year in medical school, she did two consecutive internships in xenopathology and xenobiological genetics at Johns Hopkins Hospital and the University of Maryland-Baltimore Medical Center, respectively. Although her internship supervisor at Johns Hopkins respected her often unorthodox approaches to solving clinical cases, her supervisor at the University of Maryland did not. This caused a temporary rift between medical student Flynn and Dr. Vucelich, until Sian decided that she had to learn how to do it the established way first, then go and develop her own methods. Although they still do not get along personally, their professional relationship was, and still is, based on mutual respect.
After her graduation from medical school, where her final specialization was xenopathology, she was awarded a residency at the Medical Center on the Luna campus of the University of the United Federation of Planets (UUFP). Her main work there consisted of research into viral diseases, their etiology, and possible treatments and therapies. She developed some interesting methodologies, which she published in a medical journal with the Chief Resident and one of the attending physicians as co-authors.
She finally decided that she was going to bite the bullet and apply to Starfleet Academy in preparation for what she had been aiming for since she fixed up that boy's leg so many years ago -- serving as a medical officer on a starship. When she was admitted to the Academy, she finally abandoned her theatre work (although she promised herself she would take it up again later), and worked through the Academy's coursework while continuing her residency on Luna. Upon passing her final examinations, she immediately applied for the Advanced Officer Training School at Armstrong Lunar Base, and was admitted.
Upon finishing Advanced Officer Training School, she was immediately posted to the USS ALEXANDER NEVSKY as its Assistant Chief Medical Officer at the rank of Ensign. To properly reflect her medical experience in the civilian arena, she was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant.
While enroute on a joint mission to investigate possible Borg activity in the Vatya system, the NEVSKY and the USS QUASAR encountered a flotilla of ships with severely injured crew and passengers. Because of their dire need for medical and other assistance, the NEVSKY's CMO, CDR Carol Redkin, was assigned to accompany the flotilla as it limped its way back to Federation space. To fill the now empty CMO billet, Dr. Flynn was promoted to Lieutenant Commander and assigned the position.
During the extended joint mission between the NEVSKY and the QUASAR, Sian worked on devising antidotes for the filovirus and methods of administering them to the Borg. Her ethical ambivalence about bioweapons was still intact, and, although her work resulted in the Leonard McCoy Medal of Merit, her guest lectures were always filled with ethical admonitions against using medical expertise for genocide using weapons of mass destruction.
Once the NEVSKY had returned to Federation space, Sian spent three months working alongside her mother and her colleague from the QUASAR, Maia Kelleigh-Crowell, in the infirmary on SB DELTA. However, after the long ordeal that was the mission against the Borg, she felt that she needed a break from military life. She was granted Reserve status, and applied for a position at Chicago General Hopsital as a virologist, and she secured it.
In late 2410, Star Fleet recalled her from reserve status and was assigned to the TAMERLANE, commanded by CAPT Michael Kelleigh, her former CO of the NEVSKY. She realized once aboard that she still harbored some unrequited feelings for the captain. Over the year she was there, however, she found herself feeling less and less for Kelleigh, which was somewhat of a relief to her as someone who had to serve with him as her commanding officer.
After the mission to Kaar, Star Fleet Medical College requested her presence as an assistant adjunct professor in clinical studies, to which BUPERS obliged. She taught there for one term before she was called to active duty again, this time on the RESOLUTION in Gold Fleet.
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