Captain Shimbo was born Fara Rosa Tumbarello to a very large family in Giarre, Sicily. The family was forced to leave after the catastrophic eruption of Mt. Etna in 2260, which destroyed the city and of much of Sicily’s eastern coastline. They settled in what was to become “Little Sicily,” Brooklyn, NY; Shimbo was seven at the time.

Always a precocious and independent (that is to say, stubborn) child, she joined the Academy’s astro-zoology program immediately after high school, winning small amounts of praise for her work and raising a good many eyebrows along the way.

Her abilities to almost immediately establish a rapport with any and all animals, regardless of their planet of origin, stood her in good stead, and led to her becoming one of the leading experts in the evolution of color and patterns across animal species of all planets, and their relevance to behavior.

Along the way, her ability to collect good people and keep them interested and engaged as a team, honed from being the oldest of a good many siblings and dozens of cousins, began to show. Because of this, she rose through the ranks, although at a sedate pace—mainly due to not wanting to rise at all.

While working on her PhD dissertation, she became very active in science-fiction fandom, and met then First Lieutenant Robert Shimbo at the 42^nd Off-WorldCon. They were married two years later.

Shimbo was assigned to several small research ships before finally being promoted to Captain, upon completion of the USS Trouble, an experimental vessel, in 2234. She insisted that at least half the crew not be humanoids, intending to add as much varied experience as possible to the complement.

The Captain's "command style" has often been said to be "loose" or without discipline. She says: "This isn't a military ship. I am determined to keep it that way. So, so long as everyone does their job, well and in a timely manner, you can show up on the bridge in your approved UFP Bunny Slippers if you want. Hungry? Bring your lunch, just clean up after yourself and don't leave stuff lying around. You can be old, you can be fat, you can be covered in ink, I don't care. All I ask is that you respect the other members of the crew, whether you like them or not, and do your job." Despite this, Shimbo has a widely-known and well-earned reputation as someone you really do not want to cross.

Captain Shimbo is often found with her “dog,” Vinny van Gogh, and nearly always found with one of her cats, particularly a large, black long-haired cat named Harry.

Although she calls the Trouble "home” at this point, she does maintain a pied a terre in the old neighborhood in Brooklyn, and loves to spend an afternoon “haunting” Prospect Park and what remains of Coney Island.

She is a baseball player of some small renown, holding a record for stolen bases in a 60-game season. She is also an expert horsewoman.

She still wears a blue jacket instead of command gold, because she says the gold itches and besides, she dares anyone to try to stop her.

The captain has been great friends with the Senior Medical Officer for many years (after the captain broke a collar-bone when she went over a jump and the horse she was riding didn’t). They call each other “Ratty” and “Fatty” and always have a (somewhat) witty greeting for each other.

It should be pointed out that Shimbo is "on the spectrum," and, between that and being from Brooklyn, she is never subtle and has little tolerance for smalltalk, "polite prevarication" and not saying exactly what one means.

The “CPN” stands for Certified Public Nuisance, a title she was given at the Academy.