Bio

Winston is the oldest son Martha and Earl Smith, rich Uranian academics of minor academic fame in bioengineering. Winston was the result of prenatal gene selection and ex-utero development and birth. This advanced gene tailoring was originally considered wildly successful, as Winston exhibited prodigal intelligence. During childhood however, unanticipated complications developed, leaving Winston nearly crippled. Over aggressive neural tissues deprived Winston’s body of nutrients, leaving Winston a frail and anemic child even by Uranian standards. As he spent the majority of his childhood in partial stasis, Winston was almost exclusively tutored privately. Earl and Martha consider Winston’s birth procedures a failure, and selected their second son, Nathan Smith by more conventional means.

Winston flouted family tradition by enrolling in the Uranian Academy of Advanced Space Sciences rather than pursuing an academic career in biological systems. Despite his considerable intellect, Winston did not take to the institutionalized learning of formal academia. Winston maintained a reputation for absenteeism as a student, and performed merely adequately, graduating 42nd of 109.

After graduation, Winston surprised his family by seeking work outside the university, but were reassured when he secured work at a prestigious technology firm as a junior scientist. It was at this time that he worked for Adrian Del Zotto further refining the electronics of monofillament blades. Despite working for a leading high tech corporation, Winston soon became unhappy with the nature of his work. He deemed the work unimportant and unworthy of his attention.

Winston surprised his family by quitting work the tech firm for a position at a Dynacorp, a lesser corporation. Here, Winston was given more freedom to work in the area of his interest, Computer/organic interface and intelligence. Believing his work was essential to the goal of personal immortality by transferring the consciousness of an organic human brain into digital medium, this was the first position Winston fully applied himself.

Soon after the fist tangible results of Winston’s work were demonstrated, Dynacorp ran into legal trouble. The prototype brain/electronic interface broke several health laws on earth, where intra-cranial cybernetics were typically illegal. Winston himself was called to defend his work, and testified for the potential of its peaceful applications. By advocating for its use as a learning tool allowing enhanced “skill downloads”, Dynacorp succeeded in loosening the intra-cranial cybernetics laws. During the legal proceedings Winston met and fell in love with Catharine Least, a young Dynacorp officer. Least was a rising executive, and Winston was the young star of Dynacorp’s breakthrough Cranial cybernetics devision. After a short courtship, the couple became engaged.

Winston’s career as a scientist at Dynacorp came to an abrupt end when the Memory-Wipe Scandal broke on earth. The advanced sub cranial interfaces Winston helped design were being modified and sold by a subsidiary of Dynacorp on the black market as a memory sweep. These modified interfaces were used by criminal syndicates to selectively delete or alter the memories of unwilling witnesses and officials. While Dynacorp succeeded in obscuring any criminal connection between itself and its subsidiary, as a public advocate of the technology Winston was likely facing charges of perjury. Winston lost all public and scientific credibility and Dynacorp transferred him from his work on cranial cybernetics to inconsequential side projects. When it became apparent that his once promising career within the company had been derailed, Catharine Least broke off their engagement.

Disillusioned with corporation work and horrified at the criminal applications of technology he had helped create, Winston resigned his position at Dynacorp. Falling into a Depression, Winston was being publicly offered as a scapegoat in the memory sweep scandal. In a very public plea bargain, Winston enlisted into the interstellar navy as an engineer to avoid charges on Earth for perjury and contempt for the public welfare. Winston served 8 years of a ten year contract with as engineer, applying the more practical aspects of his former career by retrofitting fighter craft and modifying boarding vessels for the Marines under Cpt.Broeker. Winston was granted an honorary discharge two years early after he miraculously survived a near-fatal ordinance misfire when a recruit detonated the magazine of a nearby missile battery.

Now nearing forty, Winston is seeking to rehabilitate his flagging career and destroyed public image. Winston is skeptical of large institutions, which he sees as either unscrupulous (the large private corps.) or incompetent (the Navy). Winston’s solution is to view himself as “a corporation of one” and pursue his scientific objectives on his own. Winston is now in the process of accumulating the large amount of capital necessary to further his work in Inracranial cybernetics. While he once was horrified at the weaponization of his inventions, he no longer entertains the notion his work will not have military applications and refuses to let these new weapons be wielded by anyone but himself for fear they will once again abused.

Notable Possessions:

Computer 3
-Intelligent Interface 1
-Expert Gun Combat 1 (rifles)
-Security 1
—Regional Radio Transceiver
Valued at 3300 Cr

SHIPS BOAT WAYFARER II
Engineer Toolkit
Rescue Bubble
Valued at 1600 Cr

ROBOTIC ASSETS
Ark Mark I
Lil’Valkyrie
Valued at 34158 Cr
Sundry robot parts recovered from martian base.

LIQUID ASSETS
valued at 66,083
2 tons of salvageable tech parts from space stations