Sashenka Kreshkova

Personnel File
Name:	Sashenka Kreshkova
Rank:	Ensign
Position:	Tactical CONN
Callsign:	TBD
Species:	Human
Age:	21
Gender:	Female
Orientation:	Heterosexual / Bi-Curious
Birthplace:	Astrakhan, Russia
Height:	5ft 0in / 1.52m
Weight:	105 lbs.
Hair:	Green or Brunette
Eye color:	Blue
Played by:	Jodelle Ferland
Writer:	Dree
Interests
Sailing Flying Listening to Music Dancing Speaking Klingon Springball
Education
2365 - 2371 Primary School - Virtual Academy 2371 - 2377 Secondary School - Virtual Academy 2377 - 2381 - Starfleet Academy - Flight
Service Record
2381 - Tactical CONN Academy
Decorations
2380 - Nova Squadron Commander

Ensign Sashenka Kreshkova graduated from the Academy, but before she could begin her next assignment - Tactical Conn Academy, she was kidnapped and held by the Tal Shiar before being rescued by the USS Cayuga. But that was short-lived as the Cayuga was captured by the Infested. Ensign Kreshkova aided the Theurgy in their opposition against The Infested parasites.

Biography

Early Life

Sashenka Kreshkova was the oldest daughter of Katya and (then) Captain Dmitri Kreshkova. Sash, as her siblings referred to her, grew up in Astrakhan, Russia on the Caspian sea. Her siblings included Alexi, Eva, Ivan, and Luka.

Sash was only thirteen months older than Alexi, three years older than Eva, and five years older than Ivan and Luka - fraternal twins. Sash’s early years were very much split between the tenderness and overt fondness of her mother and her father’s more exacting nature. Her mother brought laughter into the home and her father, when he was planet side ensured discipline. Despite his commitment to be home as much as possible during the years his children were growing up, twice during her formative years, for several years at a stretch Dmitri was assigned classified deep space duties. His first stint away from earth after having children was as Captain of the USS Horus which earned him a promotion to Commodore. At the end of his second deep space assignment, he was promoted to Rear Admiral.

During these years away, Sash grew to resent her father's leaving. She watched her mother hold the family together while her father was off who knew where, doing who knew what. Children were children and could be unruly and with her father gone, as the oldest child, Sash had to pick up much of the slack.

But each time after her father returned, everything seemed to fall back into place. Sash vacillated between being angry at her father and admiring him. When he was home, after work hours, he was not just physically present, but emotionally present and available - no matter what cares he shouldered because of his rank and position. And while the girl wanted to hate him for putting her mother and even herself in the difficult position of him being gone, something in her couldn't quite bring herself to hate him.

When he was home, family activities centered around their 40-foot sailing boat - where they spent many of their weekends when her father was planetside. Sash loved the freedom that came along with being in the middle of the sea. Theirs was often the only family in visual range while they were sailing, and Sashenka loved that feeling. Their times on the water taught her so much. She learned to make split-second decisions in a squall. She needed agility to help maneuver the sail and rigging. She never knew if any given weekend would be smooth sailing or dangerous seas. It kept her guessing. She loved having to be on her toes. It was probably the most formative experience in shaping her love of flying - the adrenaline, the solitude, the skill, the agility, and the mental capacity to make split-second decisions that would mean life or death.

Preparation for Starfleet

When Sash finished primary school, she approached her dad about wanting to go into Starfleet herself. Her father had just been promoted to Admiral over Tacconn where he got to manage the part of Starfleet that he loved the most. Interestingly enough, this effectively grounded him and kept him earthbound which suited Sash just fine.

Once her dad knew that she wished to join Starfleet, together they began exploring different departments that she might like to focus on. During this time, his exacting nature began to take its toll on Sash. He pushed her like he would push one of his subordinate - always expecting her to give everything she had, to excel at everything she put her hand to. It was then that she learned to keep her head down and focus everything she had on the work her father gave her. She wouldn't allow herself to show any weakness or to wallow in internal grumbling. If she wanted Starfleet, she would take whatever her father threw at her - and depending on the day or the quarter in her schooling, that would have overwhelmed most teens.

Admiral Kreshkova had Sash work through tactical exercises. She did well enough. She could shoot, strategize, and handle herself well enough, but to his chagrin, she never overtly excelled. Her father suggested that she consider the diplomatic corps, but understanding the various intricacies of the species interrelations frustrated her and bored her at the same time. Knowing their time was limited, the Admiral grudgingly moved her on to another Starfleet discipline. Science was a disaster from the beginning. But once her father put her into a flight simulator, it was as if she were a fish to water.

If her father had let the young teen, she would have spent ten hours a day in the simulator. Each lesson taught her something new that fascinated, intrigued, or frustrated the snot outta her. And it was all glorious - each and every irritation, each triumph, each hard knock she received. And even her father's stringent nature couldn't deflate her spirit when she was in the simulator. But what did frustrate her was the limitations that he placed on her time in the simulator - no more than 2 hours a day. She was still required to attend her virtual school, keep up her instrument, and practice her Klingon. Oh, how she hated reading MacBeth in Klingon.

As her second year of secondary education neared its close, her father stepped in with - for the first time in a long time - a pleasant surprise - being the Starfleet Admiral of the Tactical CONN Academy had its perks. Once a week for six weeks, he had an Academy flight instructor take her up in different fighters so that she could get a feel for the real thing and decide which type of fighter she wanted to focus on for her remaining. During that time, she came to love flying in her Mark I Valkyrie. From then on out her simulator time was focused on that one ship alone.

Academy Years

Because of her father’s attention-to-detail attitude and the ever-present push Sash felt from him, she applied for the Academy at 16 and was accepted. She started just after she turned 17 years old. It was here, really for the first time in her life, that she felt singled out. It wasn’t just that she was younger, but that she had a ‘famous’ father. Admiral Kreshkova was well-known at the Academy and as soon as someone heard her name - if they had ever seen her father, it wasn’t a long leap to realize just who she was. And she hated it.

Sash felt the pressure to be the best that she could be at everything - to outperform everyone else - to work harder, longer, and with more tenacity than anyone else could muster because of her name. But what made matters worse was that if she did succeed, everyone around her assumed that her father had a hand in everything - whether in her grades or in any in-class positions she was awarded. Any accolades were never attributed to her hard work - but always to her father’s position. But because of not wanting to give any credence to the rumors, she refused to tell her parents - especially her father.

Her first year at the Academy, while she excelled on her own merit and effort, it took its toll on her emotionally. Throughout her plebe year, one of the upperclassmen, Armand Delecroix scrupulously watched her. He noted that despite her short stature, she had a resolve and a tenacity that wasn’t rivaled by anyone else in her fighter class. At the same time, he heard the jibs; he saw the cold shoulders, he watched the Freshman put her head down and push into the wind that was being blown back into her face.

At the end of her freshman year, after her last final had been taken, and the year’s scores had been posted, the pilot in training was about at the end of her rope. Even as she walked off campus toward the bay, she heard the barbs and underhanded comments. And while, outwardly, she never responded to them, inside they were eating her up. The walk to the cliffs overlooking the bay wasn’t too far, and as lost in thought as she was, she was there almost without realizing it.

The upcoming Sophomore stood overlooking the rocks below as the waves hit the wall of rock and the spray vaulted up to hit her square in the face, but she didn’t move, just closed her eyes hoping that the mist would cool her emotions as much as it did her body. Thoughts of how easy it would be to ‘slip’ and for the constant ache she had felt all year - in a split second - be gone crossed her mind. She didn’t want to slip or walk off the edge or jump, but she needed the pain to be gone. She needed someone who understood her. Someone who would stand with her. That person was Armand Delacroix who followed her to the bay.

He both startled her and kept her from tumbling over the cliff. He informed Sash that he had been watching her and he liked what he saw. Despite the rumors she seemed to stand on her own two feet. She worked hard; she didn’t complain. He told her that she seemed to need an ally and that he wanted to be that for her. He also told her that he had asked and received approval for her to join Nova Squadron for her second and subsequent years at the Academy.

Nova Squadron

Once Armand took Sash under his wing and she started training with Nova Squadron, she found a family at the Academy. Nova squad took a while to fully embrace the Admiral’s daughter, but once they realized that he wasn’t a part of the vetting process and that Sasch deserved to be there solely on her own merit, that group became the family that she had both needed and longed for her freshman year. She was still the youngest of the group - both in age and in year, but they brought her along, and taught her their tricks of the trade.

Sash’s second year at the Academy was marked with a more genial spirit in the young woman, but her efforts never flagged. More determined than ever to make sure that she was worthy of the honor that she was bestowed, she worked harder than before - if that were possible.

But at the end of her second year, Armand graduated. It was a loss she felt very deeply, but her family pulled together even more. Her third year at the Academy was a growing year for her. Studies were harder, while the squad was a cohesive unit, she felt the loss of her biggest proponent. But during that time, her father had a cardiac event. While she kept up with her studies, she split more of her time between transporting home in the evenings and staying on campus at the Academy. It was two months before her father - who was given an artificial heart - was able to return to work.

After the ceremony for the current graduating class, underclassman accolades were handed out as always. At the ceremony, Sash was named Nova Squadron Commander for her senior year, and to her surprise, the majority of the student body erupted in applause. The young woman had come so far in her three years at the Academy. Granted, Armand had a lot to do with other people giving her a chance and judging her on her own merits or demerits, but Sash had risen to the occasion.

Her last year at the Academy was her stellar year. The young woman distinguished herself in her studies, taking first in her class for flight training as well as leading Nova Squad. It had taken three years of fighting to finally get herself into the position where she was seen for who she was, not who her father was. This year, cemented her place as - if not the brightest cadet - certainly one of them. And before seh knew it, the year had come and gone.

Post Graduation

Sash was assigned to Tac Conn Academy for her first post-graduation assignment, but because it ran on the same schedule as the Academy, Sash had a summer between graduation and starting at Tac Conn. Her parents gave her and her closest friend - an unjoined Trill named Tria Nellis a trip to Vulcan as her graduation gift. The pair spent over a month on Vulcan seeing all the sights, learning new meditation techniques, and getting a headstart on some of their studies that they knew they would experience at Tac CONN|Conn.

The morning of the day the pair were supposed to take a transport back to Earth, Sash told her friend that she was going to pick up one more gift for one of her brothers and that she would be back in plenty of time to meet the transport. But Sash never showed.

A group of Tal-Shiar had been sent to kidnap the Ensign and hold her for ransom in exchange for intel on a new fighter that they believed was in development by Starfleet. Communications were sent back to Earth, but at those distances, nothing moves incredibly fast. Sash was held captive by the Romulans during the interim. Admiral Kreshkova sent the ransom with a traceable packet and ordered the Cayuga after the mercs. Captain Zeigler was able to trace the funds and found the ship that the Tal Shiar was using. After a scuffle between the two vessels, Sash, emaciated, bruised, and with several broken bones, was brought aboard the Cayuga.

But what she thought was a blessing and immense good fortune turned out to have been a curse in disguise because only days later the Cayuga was caught by the Infested. Those of the ship had been corralled into several large rooms and one by one taken away to never return. Sash was one of the few still left in the hold.

Personality Profile

Being the oldest of her parents' children, Sash was a classic overachiever and fell in line with her parents' desires. While she loved her parents, sometimes she felt that she had to earn their love - and that was a lot of what pushed her to be as good as she could be. She was known for going over and above what was necessary for any task from her studies to her chores. She was hard on herself and, while it could be said that, especially, her father pushed her, she got to the point that she pushed herself more than he pushed her. She was generally kind to her siblings - of whom she had many. She was a good judge of character having an uncanny ability to tell if someone was trustworthy or telling her the truth, but that meant that she could be cocky because of her trust in that ability.

When she got to the Academy, she refused any help from her father because most people believed that she only got as far as she did because her father was an Admiral. She worked harder than anyone else and always exhibited a ‘can do’ attitude.

But her two weeks captive aboard the TalShiar vessel followed by her time as a prisoner aboard the Cayuga took its toll on her emotionally.

Physical Profile

Sash was always one of the shortest and yet most energetic children of her age. Because of the way she was raised, she was always physically fit. The saying ‘big things come in small packages,’ was very apropos to her.

Her physicals were all within normal parameters. Her only identifying mark was a small red birthmark on her upper left thigh.

Appearances

Directors Cut

• The Falcon and the Kite

What If...?

• The Assassin in Agra Fort