Physical Appearance: ENS Samms has an athletic but slim build. She has a pale complexion, raven hair worn short and large, mysteriously opaque black eyes. She moves with a quiet efficiency; her motions becoming increasingly graceful as she forgets herself and begins to feel comfortable with people.

Personality: Personality: ENS Samms is painfully shy. Her rather strange history, young age and genius level of intelligence combine to make her sometimes appear to be aloof but in truth, Riley yearns to blend in with her fellow crew members. She has a warm sense of humor and a genuinely sweet nature. She experiences episodes of what appears to be pre-cognizance during times of stress and an almost uncanny ability to empathize with people. Riley struggles daily to push down her fears of opening up with people. She hopes that this assignment after her extended personal leave from Starfleet will leave her free to explore friendships and to be able to relate to and relax around her peers. She deeply wishes to develop the bonds that the members of Starfleet are famous for and has resolved to accomplish this on her assignment aboard the USS PHOENIX.

Other Pertinent Data: ENS Samms is a voracious reader. Her likes swing from named Dr. Suess and everything in between. A music lover, Riley has taught herself to play a variety of instruments including the piano, a twelve stringed guitar and the flute. She also loves playing board games, chess and a dice game named Yatzee. Her adopted father made sure that Riley wasn’t raised as an academic hothouse flower although her many professors would have preferred it. He encouraged her to also enjoy outdoor activities.

She ran track and excelled at the 100m venue at both her high school and the Academy. The Samms enjoyed hiking and camping and Riley became an enthusiastic participant. It was on such a trek that Riley began relating more easily with her newfound parents.

History: ENS Riley Samms is an enigma. She was discovered in the bowels of an Orion slave ship by LCDR Max Samms during a search and seizure operation. Found in a small cage-like type of confinement, she appeared to be approximately eight years of age. She was obviously a victim of ongoing physical abuse. She had no communication skills when found and in fact, did not utter her first words until approximately six months after she was rescued.

Although numerous searches were made through Starfleet’s databases, no kin stepped forward to claim the child. When it was determined that she was an orphan, LCDR Samms requested permission for he and his wife Jennifer to adopt the girl. He and Jen had kept in close contact with those caring for the child since her discovery and in fact, were the only persons she responded to during those first weeks after she was found.

Max Samms positively doted on his newly adopted daughter. The pair quickly forged a bond that only grew stronger as time passed. While she loved Jennifer, their relationship never approached the closeness she had with her adopted father. When Jennifer was killed in an explosion in her laboratory, Riley and her father grew even closer.

As time passed, it quickly became evident that young Riley was brilliant, more than brilliant. She sailed through the lower levels in school entering secondary school only one year after Max enrolled her in the prestigious Maldoran Academy in New Philadelphia. She progressed to college level courses almost immediately. Earning her degree by the age of fourteen, she immediately applied to and was accepted on a temporary basis into Starfleet Academy. Her progress was carefully monitored and her classes were conducted mostly in private. No one was quite certain how to treat the young phenom and most people left her alone. Riley found the four years she spent at the Academy to be both mentally and physically challenging and abysmally lonely.

Although Max tried over the years through numerous doctors to break through the wall of silence that surrounded her first eight years, Riley never remembered the time before she came to live with him. These gaps in her memory plagued her more and more as she grew older. She was a loving and outgoing child with her adopted father but other relationships made her very wary. Ill at ease over her murky past and constantly kept apart from her peers due to her emerging mental capabilities, Riley never luxuriated in the simple joy of finding a friend, a soul mate to share her adolescence years. When she graduated from Starfleet Academy at age eighteen, she found herself both excited and nervous over the thought of her first assignment. Riley was a little disappointed to find out that she would remain at the Academy working in the Research Department in their prestigious Science Department. Although she was pleased to be given the opportunity to continue her research at one of the finest facilities in the galaxy, Riley had harbored a secret wish to be assigned to one of the sleek starships that explored all those new worlds she studied about during her school years. Realizing she had a lifetime to pursue this dream, she concentrated on the job at hand.

Riley had just begun to settle into her life at the Academy when orders came through to report for duty onboard the USS PHOENIX. Her subsequent extended leave of absence after a near deadly exposure to Black Ice had Riley embarking on a mission of personal discovery for the past year. Her request to rejoin Starfleet as accepted and after taking some refresher courses, she applied and received orders to report once again the USS PHOENIX, this time as their First Contact Specialist.