Kestra Pren
From Star Trek: Theurgy Wiki
Character Draft Awaiting Approval
Kestra Prem Was an elite security officer serving under various commands for Starfleet. After investigating the incident at Tactical Conn Station OMEGA, Kestra learned of her genetic twin, the truth of her own history. As a result, she defected to the U.S.S. Theurgy to aid in the opposition against the Parasite infestation of Starfleet Command at the end of the 24th century.
Biography
Early Life
Born July 7, 2349 on Rigel III to a Betazoid mother and a Trill father, both of whom were civilians, Kestra was not one to dream about joining Starfleet and going off to explore strange new worlds. Far from it. As a child, young Kestra was blessed with a vivid imagination and curiosity but the concept of space travel did not capture her imagination. Neither she nor her family were naïve to universe around them, nor were they luddites by any sense of the word, but they were content to live and remain on Rigel III, and only occasionally travel to other worlds as vacation or if circumstances required.
In that regard she had a fairly normal childhood, attending elementary and then middle school, making friends, having a social life as was appropriate for her age and the like. She was content to remain a civilian and make a life for herself on Rigel.
That all changed during the summer of 2353. Kestra and her friend Tess, a Bajoran/Human hybrid were abducted by an unknown assailant and exposed to genetic experimentation. Kestra was forced to watch as Tess and others who had been abducted where experimented on. She watched the aftermath of their deformities and eventual deaths when the procedures failed to yield desired results. Then it was her turn..
Kestra would never remember the procedure itself, but she was lucky and the experimentation on her was successful. She woke to find herself in the place where she had been abducted and was shocked…and frightened to find herself a full Trill, her Betazoid half excised.
What Kestra did not know, could not know at the time was that her abductors had been Savi scientists, working on a procedure they called "The Correction". The procedure had been successful but instead of destroying the unused Genetics, they were used to spawn an exobiological clone, a full Betazoid genetic 'twin' who would grow up to become Reggiene Suder.
For as traumatic as the senseless murder of Tess would have been for any six year old, it had an even more startling impact on Kestra as she realize just how powerless and victimized she had been. With that on her mind, Kestra made a vow to herself, a vow not of revenge but of preparedness. Never again would she allow herself to be caught off guard, to never be defenseless, to never be helpless again. And so she trained. She took up self defense, the martial arts, and began training. Against her parents wishes, she learned how to properly wield various weapons and she continued to train.
But protecting herself was not enough for Kestra and as she grew, the memory of Tess’s death and her own assault continued to drive her and even as she continued to train, she found herself driven to protect others. At first she thought that serving on the Rigelliean police force was the answer for her, but when a Starfleet recruiter showed up at her high school, she knew there was a better place for her. Her grades were strong enough to graduate high school early, her test scores were strong enough for early entrance and with her parents consent, 17 year old Kestra Pren left Rigel III for Starfleet Academy
The Academy
It came as no surprise to the young cadet that she went into security. While she was encouraged to cross train as a tactical officer, the tactical officer role felt too passive for her. She was not nor would she be content to stand by and watch passively while others did the dirty work. No. She knew that if she was supposed to be a protector of others, then she needed to be one of the boots on the ground and in the thick of it. As such she continued to study the martial arts, learning forms of both armed and unarmed combat.
With tensions between the Federation and the Dominion at an all time high and continuing to rise, Starfleet reluctantly rolled out a series of advanced battlefield tactic courses designed to train elite cadets in more complex tactics, higher standards of excellence, and mold them into a force that could supplement existing security forces and fight toe to toe with the Jem’Hadar. Immediately following her graduation from the Academy, Ensign Pren enrolled in the pilot program and remained at the academy for another two years as she pursued her training, eventually to graduate at the top of her class.
By the time she finished her training, the Dominion War had broken out. Kestra reported for her first shipboard assignment on board the U.S.S. Wellington. During one of it's earliest engagements, the Wellington ambushed and boarded by Jem'Hadar. The crew was quickly overwhelmed and put on the defensive. During the fight, Kestra rallied her shipmates and, utilizing the tactics she had learned at advanced training, led a consolidated force that was credited with ending the Jem'Hadar threat and saving the ship. Her team was credited with securing the Main Engineering section and manually executing a warp burst that not only removed the ship from the ambush, but also cut the Jem'Hadar off from their reinforcements. What proceeded was an hours long siege of the ship wherein Kestra's unit, operating mostly on their own, proved instrumental in stopping the boarders aboard ship. For her actions, she was awarded the Christopher Pike Medal of Valor and received an early promotion to Lieutenant.
In the aftermath of that attack, the Wellington's Commanding Officer and Security Officer put their heads together and approached Kestra with a proposal. They wanted her to organize and build a Rapid Response Team aboard ship. Under their guidance, Kestra was to train a selection of the crew and teach them to be elite first responders who would also serve as the vanguard on any frontline action the ship, or it's crew saw. The model worked, and for the next year and a half Kestra's RRT saw considerable action, until her entire team was transferred to the U.S.S. Veracruz at Starbase 371
The Wellington and Veracruz ware in station together, when word came that an emergency mission to resupply and reinforce AR-558, a communications array erected and then abandoned by the Dominion in the Chin'Toka system. The Veracruz met up with the Defiant and together the dropped off relief while rotating out personnel.
Although the crew of the Defiant had successfully repelled the Jem'Hadar ground forces, and removed the threat of the Houdini mines, AR-558 was no more safe than it had been. Even without their tactical advantages, the Dominion continued to press the attack to reclaim their communication array and Kestra's Rapid Response Team was pressed into combat more times than she cared to count. In one pitched battle, Starfleet engineers came up with a method to neutralize the Jem'Hadar's ability to shroud. Kestra did not fully understand the science of it, but she knew her team needed to deploy a series of scanners and emitters in the no mans land between the Starfleet and Dominion bases of operations.
As they did this, they came under heavy fire from Dominion forces which forced Starfleet personnel to retreat back to the array. Kestra's team held the line, defending the retreat.
Kestra found Suder’s records sealed. She made inquiries into Command but was stonewalled. She even returned to San Francisco to bang on Admiral’s doors to demand answers, but she never made it inside before Starfleet Security took her into custody. She found herself in the office of an Admiral Anderson who told her she was making too much noise for her own good and that of her twin. This was the first anyone had ever acknowledged Suders existence to Kestra.
A deal was struck. Anderson had answers for her, answers she might not like. He was willing to share those answers. But if she accepted his offer, she would also have to unconditionally accept reassignment to a posting of his choosing. No. She could not know what the assignment was, that knowing the assignment meant taking the assignment. Between the desire to know who and what this Reggiene Suder is and her sense that Anderson was about to send her somewhere that needed her skills and protection badly, she eagerly made the deal.
Personality Profile
Kestra was a protector and a fighter. Having been victimized at a young age not once, but twice, Kestra decided that she would be a victim no more and dedicated her life to the protection of those around her. She was tough as nails, well versed in many forms of both armed and unarmed combat and took her job extremely seriously.
Off duty, Kestra was a warm, caring, and compassionate individual. She enjoyed her leisure time, though she was not frivolous. She was more than happy to go to a party and have a good time, but was never the party animal, choosing instead to enjoy herself, be social, have a drink or two and make sure that she keeps her wits about her so that she can be there to ensure things go well for all involved. Even in her social gatherings, the need to protect never turned off.
Physical Profile
Physical Profile Forthcoming
Reference Images
Already submitted
Special Notes (Optional)
Notes Forthcoming