Born in East Los Angeles, California, United States on April 5, 1964. Lived in West LA until he was twelve, when his parents moved forty miles south to Orange in 1982. Moved 60 miles east to Riverside County in 2001. Attended Cal State Fullerton from 1982-1986 but then lost interest and failed to graduate. It was during this time that he first became interested in computers and proceeded to teach himself programming. During the Nineties and into the first few years of the Twenty-first century, he worked for a major engineering firm as a network administrator and programmer.

In 2001, he became aware of the existence of a spaceship from the future that had crashed in Florida. A covert government agency under the control of the alien Kullinari attempted to kidnap him to keep this knowledge secret, but he was saved by the timely intervention of the USS Virgo, another ship from the future.

With the aid of the crew of the Virgo, the Space Defense Force was established to safeguard the Earth from more alien incursions, and because of his involvement up to this point, Rick Merk was invited to join. His education in computer science was broadened to include the new duotronic computer systems and artificial intelligence reverse-engineered from the SDF's captured alien craft, and supplemented with knowledge from many other branches of science ranging from geology to microbiology.

In 2008, he was assigned to the Sagan Base on Titan, which had the dual role of studying the tholin marshes and watching the skies for alien ships.

Unmarried. Both parents and two brothers and their families living in Southern California; one sister and her family living west of Portland, Oregon. Usually quiet and introspective; a very private person. Cool and level-headed; never gives in to emotional displays. Tries to look at the 'big picture' instead of the short-term view. Has a tendency to become obsessed and completely absorbed in his work if he's involved in a particularly interesting project. It is very hard to get to know the 'real' Rick Merk; he covers his true feelings with jovial bluster and jokes in social settings. Has an almost 'spooky' ability to intuitively understand computer systems and technology. His great weakness is anything alleged to be alien; he'll want to study it at the cost of everything else.

An activity that brings him great pleasure is exporing the world around him. Any idle afternoon can find him behind the wheel of his car rumbling down some back road somewhere, and vacations from work invariably consisted of long road trips to interesting places. This need to explore new places was one reason he joined the SDF.

Average height and average build. Fairly good physical shape, especially considering the fact he's not in the military and has had a desk job on a low-gravity moon for the last five years. Likes to call himself 'ruggedly handsome'.