Ainsley was born the second daughter of Emily and Peter Chambers, two university professors in Rome. Ainsley and her older sister Alison spent a great deal of time on the university campus while they were growing up and were raised with a love of learning. They were constantly encouraged by their parents to try learning about a new culture, a new skill, or a new language.

Their mother taught ancient Terran civilizations and Ainsley loved to look through her books and read up on the history of the city that she lived in and the surrounding country. She spent many hours of her youth walking through the local art galleries or just sitting in the coliseum café reading and dreaming about gladiators and ancient gods.

Alison, being two years older than her sister, moved to London to attend medical school while Ainsley was still in secondary school. They saw each other as often as they could but Ainsley still missed her sister greatly. Two years later ,when Ainsley was trying to decide where to go to university, Alison persuaded her to come to London and live with her while she studied. So when she was eighteen she enrolled in the School of Archaeology at the University of London.

It did not take her long to realize that, although she loved studying ancient cultures, she preferred to study those civilizations in books not in the dirt and grime of an archaeological dig site. After her first term she transferred over to the department of her second choice: philosophy. She enjoyed these studies immensely and studied right through her first summer break to ensure that she would still graduate when she was supposed to.

Halfway through Ainsley's university career her sister left her again. This time Alison was off to San Francisco and Starfleet Academy. She told Ainsley that all she could think of was going out into space on a ship and practicing medicine. Again Ainsley was sad to see her sister leave but knew that she had to follow her dreams.

When Ainsley did graduate from university she was not quite sure what she wanted to do next. She had an offer to join her father as an assistant professor back in Rome but that didn't really appeal to her. She felt like she needed to get away from earth for awhile and find herself. She had always been interested in Bajor and the Bajoran people so that was her first stop. She spent well over a year there. There was so much history on that planet that she could have remained longer, just looking through the museums, galleries, and libraries. Eventually though she began to miss her family so she returned to Terra and spent some time in Rome visiting all her old favourite places and just spending time with her mom and dad. Her dad offered her that position again but she told him that she wasn't ready and that while she was away she had decided what she would like to do.

After about a month in Rome she went to San Francisco to see Alison, who only had a month left before she graduated from the Academy. They had a long talk. Ainsley asked her sister how she was enjoying the Academy and Starfleet. When Alison answered enthusiastically that she was loving it, Ainsley told her that she was thinking of joining as well, perhaps in the counseling stream. Alison was overjoyed.

Ainsley joined the Academy at the beginning of the next term. She did well in her courses and made many friends. Some of her closest friends were daredevils of a sort and participated in many extreme sports. Most of the time Ainsley would just sit back, watch and cringe, but for some of the tamer things she allowed them to talk her into participating. She learned to ski, SCUBA dive and skydive from those friends.

She had the time of her life while in the academy and the four years seemed to fly by. Upon graduation she was posted to the USS Ranger. She spent a fairly uneventful year on the *Ranger* and then was posted to the USS Sulu.