Gabriel Price

Despite being the son of a prominent Starfleet Admiral (Admiral Thaddeus Price, Retired), on paper Captain Gabriel Price is a competent but unspectacular starfleet officer that has had many competent but unspectacular tours on several Starfleet vessels, usually serving in Security or Operations roles, interspersed with several competent but unspectacular assignments in various positions on various starbases, usually “frontier” Starbases versus those closer to home.  His older brother Michael is one of the Federation’s most promising up-and-coming Ambassadors (to a degree where some suggest he might soon be the first Human to hold the Federation Presidency in decades), and his younger sister Raphaella is a talented artist.  Both appear doted upon by their parents.  By comparison, Gabriel seems largely forgotten.

On paper.

If one talks to many of those Gabriel has served with about him, there might be a fair bit of awkward talking around the point that many of them seem reluctant or even unable to say much about him.  Even his superior officers will simply note that he was a “fine officer” and not much else.  A keen eye might notice that his assignments are highly irregular in duration — a lot of strangely short assignments versus the usual “set” tours of duty many Starfleet officers possess.  At best a few of Gabriel’s former crewmates might note some spectacular acts that somehow haven’t seemed to make it into his official records.  The kinds of acts that win other people medals and legendary reputations, but Gabriel has few medals and his reputation is nearly a blank.  Unless, of course, you’ve got the right clearance, or happen to be part of the right division of Starfleet, in which case you might see Gabriel’s REAL record. The one with enough classified markings to make a Tal Shiar infiltrator blush.  Because Gabriel Price is a spook.  Maybe the spookiest spook that Starfleet Intelligence has, and no, he’s not part of any rogue “sections” because while his father may have instilled a deep sense of loyalty to the Federation in him, he also made clear that compromising the principles of the Federation to do your job just makes you as bad as some of the Federation’s foes.

Gabriel was assigned as the XO of the Sherman by Starfleet Intelligence, both for his skills at covert information gathering and his unshakeable loyalty to the Federation.  While Captain Park was not privy to the “real” record he did retain a strong suspicion as to who Gabriel was working for, as did most of the command staff and crew.  Gabriel even showed a bit of humor about the situation by barely denying it.  Whatever Starfleet was hoping or dreading Gabriel would find among the Sherman’s crew, though, it apparently didn’t materialize, and by the time the crew was split up for the Dominion War, Commander Price had developed a strong respect for the Sherman’s command staff and crew, even if the relationship wasn’t exactly warm.  He returned to intelligence duties during the remainder of the War, and following it was assigned to the newly-established Federation Embassy on Romulus, along with a promotion to Captain.  

Gabriel is stoic enough to make Vulcans proud, though he evidences a sense of humor that is both dry as the Sahara and black as a cloudy midnight.  He is generally quiet in both word and action, wasting no more words than necessary and trying (though not always succeeding) to avoid drawing too much attention to himself, even among allies and friends.  If he has any close relationships, he hasn’t shared that information with anyone.  He does have moments of warmth, in social and private settings, though it always seems accompanied by a touch of melancholy.  On duty he is a consummate professional whether the work is open or covert, and applies a certain degree of borderline-ruthless efficiency to all that he does.  In his own words, he is a “problem solver” and he’s quite good at making problems go away, one way or another.