Vanya

Personnel File
Name:	Vanya
Rank:	Lieutenant
Position:	Chief Science Officer
Species:	Android (Romulan Model)
Age:	29
Gender:	Female
Orientation:	Bisexual
Birthplace:	Romulus
Height:	6ft 2in / 1.88m
Weight:	180lbs / 82kg
Hair:	Black
Eye color:	Blue
Played by:	Paige
Writer:	Veridian
Interests
Cybernetics Federation History Swimming
Education
2356-2357: Creation and testing programme, Romulus 2372-2376: Starfleet Academy
Service Record
2376-2378: Ensign, Data Analyst, Science, Morska Array 2378-2380: Lieutenant Junior Grade, Science Officer USS Cayuga 2380-Present: Chief Science officer, USS Cayuga
Decorations
2375: Starfleet Academy Graduating class 2378: Starfleet Medal of Commendation

Lieutenant Vanya was an Android from a botched Romulan infiltration program, who was granted amnesty and rights by Starfleet. After thorough screening and trials, she chose to join Starfleet, advancing in a career as a Science Officer. As of March 2381, Lieutenant Vanya was the Chief Science Officer aboard the USS Cayuga and might later join the crew of the USS Theurgy in it's battles against a corrupted Starfleet Command in the late 24th century.

Biography

Vanya was an android developed by the Romulan Star Empire in the mid-24th century. She was to have been the first in an army of thousands of androids, capable of infiltrating enemies of the Empire and performing acts of espionage and sabotage.

Created in 2356, the Androids of Project Vanya were commissioned by the Tal Shiar in order to provide a deep cover espionage force for the Romulans. Vanya 01, the first of her kind, was supposed to alter her appearance to appear as any Romulan female. She spent a year in testing and monitoring under the observation of her creator, T’Vrella, before going out on her first successful mission. She gathered detailed files and performed acts of sabotage on an influential Romulan progressive movement. Other androids soon followed, but out of 800 attempts, only 17 others proved viable. The Androids proved to be highly limited to what had been pitched to the heads of the Tal Shiar. They were incapable of impersonating non-Romulans. Even Vulcans weren’t suitable subjects due to their touch-telepathy, which technology could not emulate.

Nevertheless, plans were afoot to start upgrading the project, and to help, Vanya-01 was assigned to start researching the Federation. Unlike her brothers and sisters, she showed a natural curiosity for the Federation, often reading about them outside of “allotted hours”. Indeed, in private conversations with T’Vrella, she began to express admiration and preference for the Federation model of government, as opposed to the Romulan one. T’Vrella discouraged her from expressing these thoughts due to the threat to them both.

Bigger problems soon rendered themselves. A power shift in the Tal Shiar decided that the resources used to create 18 androids could have been used to train 36 normal undercover agents, each with two handlers, and still have funds left over. With the ability to impersonate Federation species still seemingly out of their grasp, and rumours of a Federation android that was far more advanced, the project was shelved.

One day, during training drills, Vanya’s fellow Androids all shut down. T’Vrella moved into action quickly. She took Vanya from the compound to a landing pad. She then explained to Vanya that her mother was a cyberneticist. She intercepted intelligence from the Federation about Richard Daystrom’s M5 unit. Although the Federation gave up on the idea after it proved disastrous, T’Vrella’s mother dedicated herself to the project. However, the Tal Shiar had withdrawn support when testing proved as problematic as Daystrom’s work. Nevertheless, her mother had continued the project, believing that she could create an artificial life form. T’Vrella had inherited her mother’s work, and she had taken it back to the military, pitching it as the Vanya Project. She had, however, falsified reports, and she hadn't installed the kill switch in Vanya, and the Romulan directives that were in her programming weren’t at the core like the others. Instead, they were secondary protocols that could be deactivated. Furthermore, much of Vanya’s personality was copied from T’Vrella. Before Vanya could to terms with this further, she was deactivated.

Vanya was reactivated in 2371, in Federation space. She found herself struggling to come to terms with her situation, and the true nature of her existence. She was taken to the Daystrom Institute. Starfleet initially wanted her dismantled and analysed, but Commander Bruce Maddox refused to carry out the procedure, feeling that she was an independent being. A hearing of the Judge Advocate general was held. The prosecution argued that Vanya was a lethal weapon, designed by her own admission to infiltrate enemies of Romulus. The defence argued that she was secretly designed to be a being to explore and develop her full potential, with the military aspects being easily deactivated, and Maddox was confident they could be removed completely

Despite Maddox’s defence, things seemed bleak in the courtroom, until an old friend turned up to help. Lieutenant Commander Data, of the recently destroyed Enterprise D, offered his expert analysis of Vanya’s neural net. He analysed a copy of every file in her core matrix. 67% of her programming was concerned with managing her systems. 20% of her files dealt with memories, and the remaining 13% was her personality. None of those files compelled her to do anything in favour of the Romulan Star Empire.

She was granted rights as an individual, and asylum in the Federation. With a letter of support from both Maddox and Data, she enrolled in Starfleet Academy, hoping to get a posting to the Daystrom Institute and understand more about androids. Before she enrolled, she made a pass at Data. The android who was new to emotions himself, gently let her down. He felt that as he had studied her “soul” and could completely predict how she would react to any situation. He felt that this would not be fair, and that they could not entertain the possibility of them being together until her matrix had developed further.

Unfortunately, this would not be the end of Vanya’s troubles. Her time at the academy was difficult. The other Cadets were either treated her with suspicion, or made her the butt of cruel pranks and jokes. Some admirals still weren’t convinced that she wasn’t a spy or a threat, so she was denied a fourth year training cruise.

When she did graduate, she was assigned to the Morska array, a series of interconnected modules in the Morska system on the border of Klingon space. Originally a series of listening posts during the Klingon war, they were re-purposed as scientific telescopes. However, they were almost a century out of date, and made very little discoveries. They were a low-end assignment. She was assigned to a single pod, and rarely socialized with the occupants of the other parts of the array.

The work was largely boring, but Vanya did it competently. She would have remained in that post, or similar ones had fate not stepped in. A renegade Klingon faction, opposed to the Federation, attempted an attack on Vanya’s pod in order to destroy the entire array as an act to rally hatred against the Federation. Vanya was able to dispatch her two attackers, and maintain control of her pod She was then able to secure the systems on all of the other pods, and even flood them with neurosene gas that overwhelmed all of the attackers.

She had successfully prevented an attack against the Federation, prevented an anti-Federation force from getting influence in the Empire, and hadn’t spilled a drop of blood. She was awarded the Starfleet medal of commendation, and was transferred to the USS Cayuga.

Life on the Cayuga was slightly better. Following the end of the Dominion War, the ship was on a standard exploration mission. Despite the scepticism from the entire crew that she had become used to, she earned the respect of the Chief Science Officer, Laskey, to the point where he appointed her his deputy in 2379 when his former deputy left for their own CSO posting. They developed a good friendship, Laskey became like a father to her, and despite the mistrust of their crew, his acceptance of her at least earner her their respect.

Sadly, once again this became tinged with sadness as Laskey was killed by a spore on an away mission. The relatively new Captain Ziegler appointed her Chief Science Officer, despite some misgivings, and promoted her to full Lieutenant. During her year as science chief, Vanya was starting to find that the fear and mistrust was replaced with respect and in some cases admiration. She was just starting to come to terms with this when the ship had its fateful encounter with a Borg cube.

Personality Profile

She grew to be deeply resentful of T’Vrella, firstly for giving her emotions and the ability to feel pain, and secondly wondering if her wants and dreams were her own or copied from her creator. Because of this, Vanya was a deeply insecure individual and was constantly questioning what it is to be alive. She was capable of feeling emotions, although these could be deactivated temporarily when lives were at risk and there was no other choice.

The doubt about her own personhood manifested itself in bizarre ways. Her quarters had no art or decoration in them, as she wondered if her aesthetic values are her own or copied into her matrix. The same applied to her clothing. She only wore her uniform, even in the rare off duty occasions she attended social gatherings. Even in her quarters, she was usually completely nude and was not shy of receiving guests in their fashion, particularly when they were new superior officers coming to give her the “I’ve got my eye on you” speech. However, this did lead to her one small vice, as she liked the feeling of her replicated leather sofa and silk bed sheets against her skin. The only other personal possession in her quarters was a bowler hat that had been given to her by Laskey.

She also enjoyed swimming in the holodeck, particularly in simulations of outdoor water environments. She also found an appreciation for sand, both wet and dry. She had to avoid swimming in real water outside of a wet suit, due to the negative effect water had on her systems. Vanya yearned for companionship, male or female, yet was conscious that no one would find her a suitable partner, due to the mistrust her origins instilled in people. She had come to accept this mild mistrust and displayed small acts of rebellion when she encountered it from authority figures, until she discovered that she was starting to become such a figure herself.

Physical Profile

Vanya was not as advanced as a Soong-type Android. Her processing levels were considerably slower yet still fairly fast in comparison to a human. She had twice the strength of a human of her size. She was almost indistinguishable from a regular Romulan and she looked like a well-trained athlete in the prime of her career. She was considered to be attractive, although her looks meant nothing when post people heard of her origins.

Although it was incredibly difficult to damage her with melee or bladed weapons, her joints can could be dislodged with sufficient brute force. Her dutoronium shell was covered with a bioflesh compound, intended to make her more organic looking, and convincing as a being with feelings. As such, this layer reacted to temperature, it bleed, and her tongue was even able to distinguish taste. She even has sexual seduction subroutines. The skin could be completely burned off, and the internal skeleton could continue to function. In such a case the flesh and skin was regenerated via integrated replication and grew back in 24 hours. Less if she had access to medical equipment. She could be stunned with a phaser set at maximum stun, and disintegrated with a its highest kill-setting.

Vanya could survive water. However, if water got into her secondary systems, her body would have low level malfunctions until she was fully dry or drained off.