Verena Pax

Personnel File
Name:	Verena Pax
Rank:	Lieutenant
Position:	Chief Surgeon
Species:	Trill (Joined)
Age:	37
Gender:	Female
Orientation:	Bisexual
Birthplace:	Trill
Height:	5ft 5in / 1.65m
Weight:	120lbs / 55kg
Hair:	Red
Eye color:	Blue
Played by:	Lotte Verbeek
Writer:	Galaxymind
Interests
Reading Painting Plants Puzzles Yoga Martial Arts
Education
2362-2364: Starfleet Entrance exam preparatory course 2365-2369: Starfleet Academy Medical Track
Service Record
2370-2375: Ensign, Surgeon, USS Lawson 2375-2380: Lt JG, Surgeon, starbase 226 2380- : Lieutenant, Chief Surgeon, USS Theurgy
Decorations
None

Character Draft Awaiting Approval

Verena Pax was the chief surgeon on the USS Theurgy before being placed in stasis after sustaining life-threatening injuries during the initial fight with starfleet. She was operated on by V-Nine to repair her injuries and get her back to good health. Verena aided the opposition against the parasites that compromised starfleet command at the end of the 24th century.

Biography

Born in 2344 to a pair of scientists, Mirah and Jorzal Luzir. Verena was the youngest of five children, Ilum, Norva, Jeril, and Tomlan. She was doted on by both her parents and siblings alike, as there was a large age gap between her and her siblings. Despite the age gap between her and her siblings (or perhaps because of it), She was quite fond of them. They all had their own lives, but still made time to be a part of hers. Her sister Norva was the eldest, and would often take time for walks along the trails near their home, or take her into town with her and make a day of it. While her brother Ilum would let her help him while he tinkered away on his latest project. She mostly swept and handed him things, but she loved to listen as he explained what he was doing. Even if her young mind didn’t quite understand what he was talking about, it still meant something to her. Norva and Ilum were both accepted into starfleet academy when Verena was about twelve and they left home to attend the academy, that was when her interest in starfleet really took off. Verena had always had a fascination with going to space, and seeing the stars. And so she threw herself further into her studies. She had already been a good student before, but her determination earned her a spot in a prestigious secondary school. There her gift for the sciences revealed itself, which wasn’t entirely surprising considering the profession of both of her parents. But she didn’t want to pursue a scientific discipline, she wanted to help people. So she was drawn to medicine, and began to focus her studies towards entering the starfleet medical track. Slowly over time she had begun to hold herself to a higher standard, putting pressure on herself to excel in all areas of her education and study. At eighteen she applied to the symbiosis commission as a potential host, if she was going to stand amongst the stars she wanted her journey to be remembered. She was declined initially due to her age, so her next course of action was to apply to a preparatory program for the starfleet academy entrance exams. For two years she studied hard and volunteered within the medical system to gain experience needed to pass her entrance exam. At 20 she reapplied to the commission, and sent her application to the academy. Both acceptance messages reached her within days of each other. Her perfectionistic ways served her well through the rigorous training that all host applicants went through, she practised and memorised until the things being taught became second nature. Finally she was placed with a field docent. However he was very hesitant and very nearly cut her from the program, he was worried Verena would crash and burn out if she were joined with a symbiont. Or be overwhelmed by the symbiont itself. But over time she proved herself to be stable despite her constant work and learning, and one upping of herself. Her years in the academy were once more spent with her nose in her textbooks and at the top of her class, she wasn’t terribly social in her time at the academy as she viewed it as time for preparing herself for starfleet and not time for making friends and going to parties. Her graduation at 24 was bittersweet as Verena didn’t like the lack of a consistent goal. But her future was bright, and she was excited to see what waited for her. Verena’s first posting was as a physician on a patrol vessel, and her melancholy about leaving the academy certainly didn’t last long once they were underway. The crew of the Lawson routinely joked they were cursed, because someone was forever needing to be treated for anything ranging from appendicitis to broken bones after taking a bad fall. Verena was there to pick up the pieces and Verena got on well with the crew and made the most of the first two years she served on the vessel with relative normalcy.

Then the dominion war began. And the USS Lawson was called to assist in the war effort by acting as an escort vessel. Which meant the crew of the Lawson saw plenty of action during the war, Verena quickly was forced to become a capable surgeon when it came to battle wounds and mass casualty events. The USS Lawson was present at the battle of Cardassia, as assisted the federation.

In 2373 Verena met another trill who was transferred to the USS Lawon to fill in some crew vacancies in their engineering department. His name was Arad Dosim, and he and Verena quickly became friends and then something more.

Arad was killed by an explosion in main engineering when they came under attack while escorting vital supplies, in his quarters notes on how he should ask Verena to marry him. She would have said yes if he had just asked her, but Arad wanted to do something special for her. After his death in 2375, Verena began to keep people at arms length, not wanting to experience the pain of loss like that again.

After the battle of Cardassian, Verena received a promotion to Lieutenant Junior Grade for her work on the USS Lawson. Though it was shortly after her promotion she applied for a transfer, she needed to get away from the things she had seen during the war. And the memories of her and Arad that haunted her on the Lawson.

Her second posting was interrupted almost as soon as it began, three days after she boarded she was put on leave with her being urgently recalled to Trill to receive her symbiont. Her joining was rough initially, the sudden death of the host that had come before her had occurred two hours before her arrival at the centre that was to perform the joining. So the symbiont was weak and needed to lean heavily on her body at first in order to regain its strength. There were concerns whether it would be a successful joining at all, as Verena’s health began to fail during the process. It took several days for things to come to an equilibrium and for Verena to improve again. By then her post had been assigned to someone else and the commission was nervous about sending her too far from Trill after such a rough joining.

So after a short medical leave she was assigned to a post on a starfleet starbase. She stayed at the station for five years learning from the other surgeons present, and even teaching some of the younger surgeons who arrived after her. She hated it, she wanted to be out amongst the stars but not stuck in one place. She had to practically beg for a transfer as she had become invaluable to the station as an excellent surgeon and teacher of fresh graduates. But her misery was evident, though it was still some months before being transferred to the Theurgy as the chief surgeon, which came with a promotion to Lieutenant.

During the attack by starfleet, she sustained severe injuries involving her symbiont and several of her own internal organs when she pushed a nurse out of the way of an overloaded console. The ship rocked and Verena fell against it, just as the console overheated and spat out hot shrapnel in a small explosion, throwing Verena back into and filling her with shrapnel. The team rushed to at least try and stop the bleeding but they were overwhelmed with one of their own being downed, and with injured parties being rushed into their care. The Pax symbiont was dying, and so was Verena. It was decided that to save both of their lives they would put Verena in stasis and deal with her severe injuries in a lengthy surgery to repair the damage done to her organs as well as her spine and brain.

As things settled, the Savi android V-Nine was able to take on Verena’s case. First order of business was to surgically repair the damaged connection and injured organs in order to restore Verena to health. There were concerns with how her joining would be affected, due to the symbiont itself being damaged. But by some stroke of luck, the bond remained intact and Verena was able to successfully be healed.

Personality Profile

Upon initially meeting Verena, she was often described by others as somewhat aloof or even disinterested. In truth she was probably lost in thought at the moment of the meeting and hadn’t intended to come across like that. At her core Verena was warm and kind, something her patients had seen from the beginning of their interactions. She did everything she could to ensure the comfort and confidence of those in her care, as she viewed the relationship between doctor and patient to be just as important as the skill of the physician when considering treatment. When not at work in the sickbay, she could often be found looking out at the stars with a good book, or in her quarters tending to her bonsai trees, and occasionally in the gym practising yoga or various martial arts. Despite her warm and kind nature her temper was a frightening thing to experience on the rare occasion it reared its head. Gone was the kind doctor and in her place is a sharp tongued and reckless replacement. She would not stand for cruelty, especially not towards those who were not able to defend themselves. Her work life often bled over into her personal life, as surgeons rarely operate within typical hours. And Verena preferred to supervise some operations personally. So she could often be found in the sickbay, even when she was theoretically off duty. This need for closely supervising the operations occurring in sickbay likely came about because of her own perfectionistic tendencies and her tendency to blame herself for things going wrong. Once her mind was made up, it was like moving a rooted tree to change her mind. And she despised admitting she was wrong, it felt like failure to her. So it was to be avoided at all costs, especially after her joining. Verena enjoyed painting as a way to unwind and especially preferred oil paints. Which often drew her to the holodeck as it wasn’t safe nor practical to have the supplies in her quarters.

Physical Profile

Verena Stood at an average height for a female trill, with a lean and slender build. Her skin was fair and her hair long and red. She often wore it up while at work, but off duty it was typically falling loose around her shoulders. She had a warmth and openness to her as long as she wasn’t lost in thought or busy with some task. Her smile was bright enough to light up the room, though one would have to work to draw it out. Her blue eyes could be as inviting as a warm summer sky, or as cold as the arctic ocean. She wasn’t terribly expressive as a person, but her eyes were always a dead giveaway.

Reference Images

Rae has them :)

Special Notes (Optional)

Verena was a Joined trill making her incredibly sensitive to insect bites, to the point where it was life threatening.