A woman who was eager to learn and friendly, but awkward, Niobe managed to become the butt of jokes. She retreated into books and lore and started to build the sarcastic exterior that would remain with her for the rest of her life. While she did make a few friends, for the most part, she reveled in her nerd reputation and studied.
After high school, she went to college and studied history. A good student, she had two interests - the foundation of the Colonies and the start of the Cylon War. She focused her studies on those two issues and even wrote a thesis about how Human Treatment of Cylons Led to The Cylon War. It was not at all a popular paper. Mostly, it was her attempt to be academically rebellious. It's a topic that would haunt her later, after other things were said and done. She also had a small interest in astronomy and took a few classes on the subject.
After graduation, Niobe worked in the Caprica library. It was a quiet life that she enjoyed. She could read all she wanted to and she could keep her own hours. However, it was her study of history that led her to believe that the Cylons certainly weren't done with humanity. The lull was only the eye of the storm. Things were happening that people couldn't even begin to realize. And so, she decided to do something about it. She joined the military. In retrospect it was a stupid idea. She was a historian, a writer, an observer. She was not a jarhead.
It took Niobe about a day to realize that she had made a very bad decision. She was in way over her head and completely out of shape. They didn't have a rank for 'eating sandwiches' nor did they have a historian role. As a college graduate, she didn't think of herself as a Marine, or a Deckhand, or even an Engineer. What she really wanted to do as fly. It seemed like exactly the place for her. She'd always been interested in the stars and the skies and now she could be a part of them. With her good grades from school and a determined attitude - this was before she realized this was a bad idea - she went through OCS and then embarked on Flight School. There, she determined that flying made her ill. Having to pilot a Viper brought nothing but vomit. It was disorienting, exhausting, and nothing like sitting back and watching the stars fly by.
Downtrodden and defeated, Niobe attempted Raptor piloting. The experience was a better one, though it still brought about nausea and fear. The last thing she tried was learning how to be an ECO. Maybe it was because this was the last thing thing she could try in flight school, or maybe she had just finally found her calling, but it just fit. She wasn't a born natural at it - he worked very hard and studied mercilessly - but she had found a place for herself. The learning curve was steep, but she once he found her footing, she took to being an ECO naturally.
After flight school, Niobe bounced around a lot between ships. Always learning, always one of the boys, she attempted to fit in and be a part of the Air Wing. However, she was always the studious one, never quite the 'military' type. There are still things about the military culture that astound her - and she's been involved with it for six years. But, now - more than ever - she thinks that this is exactly the place that she should be. She's making a difference. With the worlds in ruin, there need to be someone who remembers the history, as well as someone to help the pilots preserve their way of life.
