Personal Biography

Cinda Zhang was born in Sattahip, Thailand, the daughter of a Canadian-born oceanographer and a non-Thai native of Chinese descent. The only child, she was coddled by the nannies and service personnel her parents employed. Cinda's mother was stricken with numerous "illnesses", and spent most of her time in a darkened bedroom at the rear of the estate house. Her father was most often away from home, pursuing his work.

As a result, Cinda was not close to her family and soon learned how to escape the army of nannies and governesses. She explored the coast, enchanted by the numerous shells and rocks that washed up on the beaches. Having been taught to dive at an early age, Cinda explored the underwater caves, caught by the fact that no other human eyes had ever seen what she was seeing (as far as she knew).

Schoolwork was secondary to Cinda, until she found her niche and decided to go into geology. After that she pored over everything she could find, but it wasn't enough. Looking at extra-terrestrial photos of strata within the caves of the southern Vulcan deserts, Cinda was struck by the similarities to the underwater caves back on the Thai coast. That did it. She applied for and received a spot in the Academy at San Francisco, and then went on to Jupiter Station to finish her studies.

After finishing, Cinda waited impatiently for a berth on a starship. During that time, she met and married Jad Coussalt, a fellow classmate. The relationship did not last, and after being assigned to the NX-04 Challenger, Cinda divorced him before leaving the Station. It was not an amicable divorce.

Cinda has been on the Challenger for less than a year, but excelled in geology and was promoted to Head Geologist quickly.