Shelly Marsden

Shelly Marsden was the Chief Engineer of the USS Anomaly.

Marsden was the only child of Harold Marsden and Ann Marsden, two xeno-archaeologists who specialized in ancient alien technology. When she was a toddler, the Marsdens were working at a dig site on Pyadall when they were attacked by Whurakan raiders. They were saved by a ship commanded by Reginald Bain, a fact that Marsden never shared with her future captain (Primary Sources [BG]). After a few such incidents, her parents decided it would be safer for her to live on Earth, so she went to live with her great-grandparents in Eastern Ohio. She saw her parents whenever they got back to Earth, which was actually quite often. Marsden's great-grandmother had been a Starfleet Engineer, so she showed Marsden a lot while she was growing up. Her great-grandfather was used a hoverchair due to a transwarp racer accident, so Marsden learned to helped her great-grandmother with chair maintenance and eventually most other things around the house. In her teen years, she attended the Federation Magnet High School, where she became friends with Natalia Kasyov. Marsden's great-grandmother was friends with a couple of Starfleet admirals, who sponsored Marsden's application to Starfleet Academy.

After the Academy, Marsden worked in Starfleet Special Projects, where she developed the anti-singularity drive. This drive combined elements of Federation and Romulan technologies to achieve incredible speeds. She was unable to stabilize the system, though, until she took the unorthodox step of funneling the drive energies through a piece of space debris that was discovered by the USS Secondprize over a century earlier. This debris was actually part of an advanced culture's starship and served as the housing for the sphere-encased brains they used to regulate their engine systems. Marsden's use of housing attracted Cabral, who phased through the hull of the Hermes-7 prototype containing the housing and took over control of the ship, taking Marsden and Hector Arroyo along for the ride. Once Captain Reginald Bain was able to intercept the Hermes-7 and befriend Cabral. Cabral elected to remain aboard the ship, which was renamed the USS Anomaly. Bain was made Captain and Marsden ordered to serve as his Chief Engineer. (If I Only Had a Brain [BG])

Marsden was upset that Bain took command of the Anomaly away from her (and also that he changed the name to the Anomaly), so she attempted to get a transfer rather than serve as Bain’s chief engineer. Admiral Kristen Larkin denied the request and threatened to bill Marsden for all of the destroyed prototypes if she resigned from Starfleet. (One Track Mind [BG])

After the Anomaly was damaged in the Andromeda Galaxy, Marsden signed up for a credit account at Gyjik's Galaxy Gateway and used it to get parts for repairs, narrowly avoiding being killed by a particularly angry clerk droid in the process. (Yes, We Do Indeed Have Something To Declare! [BG]) After making repairs and getting the Anomaly moving again, she pretended to be Bain's wife as the pair went to look at renting a condominium while really trying to determine the locations of Kasyov and Lieutenant Commander Tovar, who had been taken by the Associates. (Domestic Tranquility [BG])

When the Anomaly and its crew were taken into protective care by the Nabusari, an older race that considered Bain too young to be running a starship and quite irresponsible to have taken a bunch of children out into space, Marsden led a small group in escaping the day care facility that all of the crew except Bain were taken to. She was able to establish contact with Bain and later pretended to be him to pass a pilot's exam in order to get the Anomaly back. (Respect Your Elders [BG])

Upon returning to Earth from Andromeda, Marsden helped Arroyo investigate the disappearance of his fiancee, Janie, who used to work with them in Starfleet R&D. Arroyo revealed to her that he and Janie were only pretending to be engaged in order to get Arroyo's parents off his back about his dating life and marriage prospects. In return, Janie had gotten a recommendation from Senator Arroyo that allowed her to get her position with Admiral Okawa's office in Starfleet Sciences. Arroyo and Marsden took the USS Navigator to investigate and discovered that Okawa and Janie had been captured by the Serellan artist Veraxe', who was working on a massive unauthorized space painting. They were briefly captured as well, but Arroyo was able to escape Veraxe', destroying multiple robots in the process, then free Marsden, Janie, and Okawa. They fled Veraxe's ship only to find that he had completed the painting, which was absolutely gorgeous. They decided not to destroy it. (The Ties That Bind [BG])