Alastair Mckenzie
¶ Overview
- Full Name: Alastair James Mckenzie
- Aliases: The Designer, Al'sev'tir
- Codename: Odysseus
- Species: Human
- Ethnicity: Caucasian
- Nationality: League
- Height: 178cm (5'10")
- Born: December 11th, 2632
- Place of Birth: Calysto
- Gender: Male
- Sex: Male
- Sexual Identity: Heterosexual
- Faction: League / Heretics
Alastair Mckenzie is one of those rare, cursed individuals who always ends up in the middle of everything, even if he doesn't want to be. He started life as a decent officer and gifted ship designer; he is now, arguably, the most powerful man in the galaxy. He wears this power like a crown of thorns, however. He feels it's his burden to bear, regardless of weight.
Most importantly, he is a classic spymaster. He plans for every contingency, adapts on the fly with ease, and has an unreasonable number of contacts. Strand him on an uninhabited asteroid with nothing but an EVA suit, and he'll show back up in three days with an entire fleet, just to show off.
¶ Physical Description
Alastair Mckenzie has the appearance of a middle-aged man in his mid forties. He's generally considered good looking, with a well-trimmed beard, dark brown hair going grey at the temples, and blue eyes.
He's physically fit, and while not overly muscular he has the build of someone who works out often, but not obsessively.
¶ Personality
McKenzie has a genial personality and a great deal of charisma. He curates himself very well, not loosing his cool or letting things get under his skin in most situations. However, when something pushes him over the edge he can be very hot-headed an impulsive. It's a side of himself that has gotten him in a lot of trouble in the past so he keeps a tight leash on it, but when it does come out it comes out with a vengeance.
¶ Special Abilities
...
¶ Signature Weapon
...
¶ History
¶ Early Life
McKenzie was considered an average child, with middle of the pack grades. His teachers suspected he was bored, and only putting in enough effort not to stand out one way or the other. The one thing thing of note that several teachers pointed out over the years was that he always knew the names of all of his classmates, along with their siblings and parents. He'd know when someone was sick, or anything major was going on in their lives. It was often faster to ask McKenzie why a student was absent than calling their parent.
¶ Family and Personal Life
McKenzie's parents were pretty typical for middle-class League parents living in the capital world. McKenzie's father was an independent engineer who contracted with the League Military from time to time. His mother was a botanist; she was often gone for months at a time studying native plants of various planets.
When he was sixteen, his mother was killed in a shuttle accident. He and his father supported each other and McKenzie doesn't talk much about it, even to people who've known him for decades.
¶ Religious Views
Religion always fascinated McKenzie, but he never considered himself a man of faith. Instead, he was drawn to understanding why humans felt the need to worship made up Gods and enforce rules on each other. He studied the major human religions, then branched out into some of the more obscure, followed by famous cults and cult leaders. He once wrote a paper about how organized religion itself was a cult, with a critical analysis of the current major religious leaders and how they follow the normal cult leader playbook; needless to say, his Christian teacher was not impressed.
¶ Military Career
¶ League Naval Academy (2650 - 2653)
...
¶ Naval Ship Engineer (2653 - 2660)
...
¶ Engineer's Assistant (2653 - 2656)
...
¶ Chief Engineer of the ??? (2656 - 2658)
...
¶ Chief Engineer of the ??? (2658 - 2660)
...
¶ Ship Architect (2660 - 2665)
...
¶ The Archigos Experiment (2664 - 2665)
- (See: The Archigos Experiment)
...
¶ Captain of the LSX Archigos (2665 - 2675)
...
¶ Admiralty (2680 - 2695)
...
¶ Head of Naval Intelligence (2682 - 2695)
...
¶ Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs (2690 - 2695)
...
¶ Political Career
¶ President of the League (2695 - 269X)
...
¶ President of [ Insert Name for Unified Humanity Here ] (269X - 27XX)
...
¶ Legacy
...
¶ Ships
- LSX Archigos - McKenzie's design and first command. He'll keep her flying till the stars burn out.
- LSS Rokkr - The Erebus-class assigned as McKenzie's flagship upon reaching Flag Rank. If you think he was content to have a stock ship as his flagship, you don't know McKenzie very well.
- LSS Tisiphone - An Ares-class McKenzie requisitioned as part of the Rokkr upgrades. Sometimes you need a tough little ship, and if it's reliable, sneaky, and purpose-built for espionage tasks, well, all the better for a Spy Master.
¶ Major Associations
¶ Nyana McKenzie
- Relation: Spouse
The love of his life, mother of his children, and the only person he ever looked up to. When she was murdered, he found it hard to keep seeing the good in the universe. Still, being with her was always bittersweet; he knew he would probably out live her, and even when they were together, he felt like she was never fully there, never entirely his. He knows she loved him, but she loved her people more. He made peace with that early on in their relationship and never once doubted it. He sees his relationship with her as one of his personal monuments to happier times and will defend that memory fiercely.
¶ David McKenzie
- Relation: Son
McKenzie and his son have a very strange relationship. They either are enough on the same page there's little that needs to be said, or they're so diametrically opposed that neither even knows where to begin to relate to the other. Instead, they turn to Glyse to be the bridge between them, now that Nyana is no longer there to do it.
Despite the communication issues, he is very proud of his son.
¶ Glyse McKenzie
- Relation: Step-daughter
McKenzie has always felt awkward about his place in Glyse's life, but she has mad it clear in no uncertain terms that she considers him her father. He's always wondered if she even had memories of her biological father, but she refuses to take the bate. Which, he supposes, is enough of an answer.
Glyse is the person he relies on to ground him and make sure he isn't taking things too far. She's also the one who can explain David's point of view when McKenzie feels like he's been banging his head against the wall with his son.
His one concern about Glyse is that she will forever stick to the shadows cast by her father and brother, and never realize she casts a rather long one herself.
¶ Christia Freeland
- Relation: Ex-Lover, Coworker
If he's honest with himself, he's always been in love with Christa. When they first met and got involved, neither of the were in a place to settle down. Things were new and exciting and they had all the time in the world. Then, the Archigos Experiment happened, and he came back a year later, with a wife, step-daughter and a son on the way. Christia never seemed to forgive him for that, and it was easier to just avoid each other than have a discussion.
That was, until they both ended up as Joint Chiefs and had to work together. Since then, they've managed to figure out how to work together and even picked up some of the old easiness they once had with each other. Since Nyana was murdered, they've gotten much closer, and at times McKenzie wonders if, even after all this time, maybe...?
¶ Lizbeth Locke
- Relation: Confidant, Sometimes Employer, Often Friend
If it wasn't for the fact that he'd learned to use [Focus][] himself, he never would have put two and two together and worked out Lizbeth's secret. After the events of the Archigos Experiment, he reached out to her with a very cryptic, "I know your secret." After almost getting killed by her more than once, the two finally sat down and had a drink. After an excessive amount of alcohol the seeds of their friendship had been planted, and they've been close ever since.
McKenzie is all too painfully aware of her hang-ups, but he still values her perspective and trusts her to be honest with him. Over the years, they've built a mutual trust that borders on a sibling relationship, though if she ever realized that, he suspects she would pull way back. She doesn't want another Simon, after all.
¶ Kashk
- Relation: Lifetime Friend
McKenzie and Kashk view each other as brothers. The difference in species doesn't even occur to them half the time. Kashk is one of the few people McKenzie trusts implicitly, and Kashk has entrusted his life to McKenzie more than once. Their history and how they met is considered too personal a tale to Kashk, and that's perfectly fine with McKenzie.
The only source of contention between the two is Jirael. Kashk insists that NorAellians do not get jealous, and McKenzie just politely ignores any evidence to the contrary. Kashk has insisted that whatever may or may not be between Jirael and MxKenzie, that is her business, and he doesn't need to know. McKenzie knows his friend is lying, but does his best to keep things respectful, regardless. (Jirael, for her part, loves torturing her two favorite boys, and thinks they should stop being so prudish.)
¶ Jirael
- Relation: Lifetime Friend / It's Complicated
McKenzie is the primary reason Jirael and Kashk met. Both credit him with their decades long partnership, though at the time McKenzie was trying to focus Jirael's energies in any other direction. Now, so many years later, the two have a very easy relationship filled with copious amounts of Jirael flirting with McKenzie, the later sometimes returning it, other times distancing himself quite quickly from the Lyndri woman. (She finds those moments adorable.)
Whether or not anything's ever transpired between Jirael and McKenzie, the two have obvious affection for each other and both are fiercely loyal. Jirael is unblinkingly protective of McKenzie, both verbally and physically. For his part, she was targeted by a very well connected bigot once, who (after harassing her for a week solid) disappeared suddenly, all while McKenzie was very publicly (and conspicuously) busy. She has no doubt it was him who removed the unwanted person, and never needs to know the details of what that bastard must have suffered before finally being allowed to die.
Even Kashk known not to come between the two of them.