Robert Zhou

Robert Zhou was a human freighter captain in the late 24th century. He owned and operated the SS Walkabout. 

History
When Robert was born, his parents had high hopes that he would grow up to be a smart, intelligent and kind young man, working to help his family and the people around him. This however did not turn out quite as planned. Robert had always felt like the child left out, and in the shadow of his prodigy older brother Yui, Robert felt not only smaller, but he also started to gather feelings of hatred for his own family.

As a young boy, instead of paying attention to his studies, Robert joined a gang. This gang was not quite as serious as it could have been, but they were still known as a nuisance around several neighbourhoods in downtown Shanghai. His parents ashamed of him, they tried to talk to their son who was soon distancing himself from not only his home, but also his family.

Robert left home at a very young age of 13, leaving to live with his Gang in the gang's headquarters. Feeling more at home with his friends than he did his own blood, Robert soon became well versed in the shady dealings of the Shanghai Underground, and so Robert began his criminal career.

For the next 5 years Robert was privy to criminal acts such as theft, bodily harm, endangerment to the general public, and a whole list of other charges which he was finally tried and convicted of in 2368, when he was sent to the Sydney Penal Colony to serve a 6 year sentence.

Robert then learned a hard lesson in life being in the Penal Colony. The wake up call occurred, and Robert spent the next 6 years of his life reassessing who he was, what he had done, and the downward spiral he would continue in if he did not change. It was here in the Penal Colony that Robert learned about Bounty Hunting. From another prisoner to another, Robert learned that Bounty Hunting was not exactly illegal, but it was certainly shunned in the public eye.

Robert worked hard to improve himself physically and mentally in the Penal Colony with a new idea of life in mind: To be a bounty hunter. As soon as his release was filed after serving all of his time in 2374, Robert found his secret stash of credits that he had earned during his time in the Underground, and bought himself a small one man ship.

For many years Robert worked his way into the bounty hunting endevours, gaining contacts, making enemies and friends alike, and also handing in bounties when he could, if not for the payment, simply for the competition and the challenge and the experience.

The thrill of the chase, as well the stalking of the bounty, learning their movements to find the opportune moment to strike, soon settled into Robert as second nature, and coupled with his Martial Arts training, he became to be known as 'an okay' bounty hunter through most of the popular places for the scourge of the galaxy to hang out.

And yet for all his success and reputation, Robert simply could not live on bounties alone. He found he was letting 70% of his captured bounties go instead of handing them in for imminent death, or marriage, or whatever it was they were being hunted for. Robert had a bad habit of getting too close to his bounties, and despite his years of hatred and anger, his Zhou inbreed kindness could not see him handing in the guiltless without a guilt of his own.

From this, Robert decided to go into the Cargo business. It was easy money, since there were outer quadrant planets which were always needing supplies shipped to them, and from what he heard, many bounty hunters were already hiding under the guise of Cargo captains or other worldly visitors. The Cardassian government had been decommisioning Cardassian Freighters at the time after the Dominion War, and after a swift purchase, Robert found himself a makeshift crew to help him run the bucket of bolts, and renamed her the Walkabout.

For many years Robert found that operating a Cargo Ship was, sometimes, more dangerous than being a bounty hunter. With pirates, Starfleet Patrols looking for reasons to arrest simple Cargo Captains, and even the occasional revolutionary revolt looking for ships to cargo supplies from one place to another, it wasn't the quite life Robert had imagined. Especially when Robert, during his travels, met the enigmatic and magnetic Dorothy Kinney for the first time all those years ago. Little did he know that Dot would come back to the SS Walkabout...

Personality
Robert is a very closed person to people he doesn't know. And even to his friends he is not quite so talkative. A quiet type who now, unlike his youth days, spends his time in quiet contemplation, meditation, and even knitting. In recent days, he has taken to smiling, but only when Sam is around, otherwise, he is business, or rolling his eyes, or being quiet.

Physical features
Robert has small Chinese characters tattooed on his left fore-arm, the elbow end. These are usually almost always covered by clothing, however.


 * Salvaged from the now-defunct Walkabout wikisite and reprinted here for the purposes of historical preservation.