Eldred Skyler
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Professor Eldred Skyler, PhD is a noted cultural specialist perhaps most known for his work amongst the Federation scientific community throughout the better part of the 24th century. He currently works with the Galactic Anthropology Committee, studying and chronicling the locales, species, and histories of the races in the region to the Galactic ‘South’ of the Federation, a region of space patrolled by Starfleet’s Eleventh “Pegasus” Fleet.
Contents
Personal History
Studies of the Federation
Eldred first arrived in Federation space in 2293 aboard one of two transports carrying El-Aurian refugees bound for Earth. The transports became ensnared in a strange astronomical phenomenon known as the Nexus. Unable to break free, they sent out an urgent distress call which was answered by the USS Enterprise-B under the command of Captain John Harriman while on her shakedown cruise. Eldred was one of only forty-seven survivors beamed to the Enterprise before the transports were crushed by the gravimetric shear. For a fleeting moment, however, he felt the irresistible tug of the Nexus.
Though he no longer had the privilege of studying amongst his own kind, Eldred found the cultures and peoples of the Federation to be equally fascinating. He spent his first few years on Earth exploring the planet and learning more about its diverse population before deciding to forego joining Starfleet in favor of touring the Alpha Quadrant on his own terms. It was a journey that would take him nearly half a century and would transcend various political boundaries of the age until it brought him nearly full circle with a position teaching advanced cultural studies at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. By the late 2350s, Eldred had published several papers on the development of various cultures both within and outside of the Federation. Perhaps the most notable of these was his study regarding the “Theory of Parallel Development” which focused heavily on the socio-psychological factors responsible for similar cultural developments on what appeared to be vastly different worlds.
Influence of Galactic Events
The onset of the Dominion War in 2373 saw a significant increase in the number of men and women choosing to join Starfleet in defense of the Federation. Eldred made the conscious decision to remain at Harvard rather than directly participate in combat as several of his colleagues had chosen to do and continued to teach the tenants of cultural sensitivity to those students who entered his classroom each day. Following the close of the war, Eldred took a two year sabbatical during which he visited the devastated regions of the former Cardassian Empire to study the effects of the war on its population. His research and observation proved of great value to Federation humanitarian efforts which relied upon cultural understanding to bridge the gap between two former enemies.
Eldred was approached by Starfleet Command to serve as part of a team responsible for analyzing the records and logs of the USS Voyager upon its return from a seven year journey in the Delta Quadrant in 2378. He worked closely over the next few years with several other cultural specialists from civilian and Starfleet backgrounds as well as members of Voyager’s own crew. Their primary task was to help construct a better picture of what Voyager’s experiences could teach the Federation about the far reaches of their own galaxy. Eldred’s participation in this project inspired a supplement to his previous paper regarding the “Theory of Parallel Development” as it related to the Delta Quadrant species encountered by the Voyager crew.
The Galactic Anthropology Committee
Sometime in mid-2387, Eldred was approached by the chairman of the Galactic Anthropology Committee and offered a position within the organization. Dr. Tyrrell believed Eldred’s experience with advanced cultural studies would prove advantageous to the committee’s efforts to study and chronicle the locales, species, and histories of the races in the region to the Galactic ‘South’ of the Federation.