L'Nari

Personnel File
Name:	L'Nari
Rank:	Ensign
Position:	Diplomatic Attaché
Species:	Caitian
Age:	24
Gender:	Female
Orientation:	Unknown
Birthplace:	Caitia Prime
Height:	5ft 8in / 1.73m
Weight:	138lbs / 63kg
Hair:	Black
Eye color:	Green
Played by:	Ella Balinska
Writer:	Available Character
Interests
Diplomacy & Mediation Languages Reading Plants Chess (Terran and Tri-Dimensional) Kal-toh Old Earth Music
Education
2374-2377: Starfleet Academy 2377-2378: Starfleet Diplomatic Annex
Service Record
2378-2380: Ensign, Diplomatic Attaché, Lakarian City, Cardassia Prime 2380-2381: Ensign, Diplomatic Attaché, UFP Embassy, Paris, Earth 2381: Ensign, Diplomatic Attaché, Granted Bereavement Leave on Caitia Prime
Decorations
None

Ensign L’Nari was the Diplomatic Attaché sent to the USS Theurgy by Admiral Andersson to aid in the opposition against the parasites that compromised Starfleet Command in the end of the 24^th century.

Biography

Early Years: Caitia Prime and Vulcan

L’Nari was born in the jungle region of Caitia Prime in 2357. L’Nari’s father was a Starfleet Diplomatic officer, and was assigned to various starships throughout L’Nari’s childhood. As such, L’Nari, along with her two siblings, was predominantly raised by her mother, a former Starfleet officer who had left her position to start their family, and her grandparents.

Growing up on Caitia Prime, L’Nari learned both Cait and Federation Standard, as well as taking Vulcan as an elective course at school, her interest in the language brought about by her father being posted to Vulcan on a diplomatic assignment. Some years later L’Nari got a chance to practice her Vulcan, L’Nari having decided to go stay with her father when her mother decided to resume her career as an Engineer with Starfleet, her children being teenagers and thus less dependent on her. L’Nari’s siblings chose to stay on Caitia Prime, remaining with their grandparents. After a tearful farewell, L’Nari departed Catia Prime, the young Caitian feeling both nervous and thrilled to be heading off into the stars for the first time.

Her arrival on Vulcan at the age of 14 proved to be a series of shocks for L’Nari, the culture, attitude, people and environment all being drastically different than what she was used to. Her father, ever the diplomat, encouraged L’Nari to try and adapt, to embrace the new culture that she found herself immersed in. L’Nari tried to do just that, though the emotional and often touchy-feely teenage Caitian often found herself alone, even amongst her fellow students at the school she attended. She missed the jungles where she had grown up, missed her friends and family back home. Even going to a school along with other children of the various diplomatic envoys, being the only Caitian in her school left L’Nari with a feeling of alienation, at least as first.

She did, however, get to practice her understanding of the Vulcan language, quickly becoming fluent. She dealt with the loneliness of her environment by throwing herself into her studies, pushing herself to learn another language as she worked, this time deciding on Klingon. Despite her lack of many friends or social life on Vulcan, L’Nari found her time there to be a positive experience. She did manage to befriend one classmate, a female Vulcan named T’Rel who was less adherent to the stoic Vulcan logic. The two would often play chess and Kal-toh, T’Rel having taught L’Nari the games. L’Nari proved a quick learner and rather adept at chess, though not as successful at Kal-toh. Regardless, she enjoyed the games, and the time spent with T’Rel.

She also grew much closer to her father in the years spent on Vulcan, something she had never managed to do before with his long stints he spent away from their homeworld in the course of his duties. Aside from the strengthening of their bond, L’Nari also gained an appreciation for the work he did and why he felt his role as a diplomat was worth spending so much time far from home and his family.

Another benefit of her time on Vulcan was her dedication to her studies which, over the next few years, earned L’Nari an early admission to Starfleet Academy at the age of 17, an achievement which made L’Nari’s father a very proud Cait. After seeing what her father did and the benefits of his department, L’Nari was determined to follow in her father’s footsteps, her goal to get into Starfleet’s Diplomatic Corps.

Starfleet Academy

L’Nari’s arrived at Starfleet Academy in 2374, excited to start the next chapter in her life. The stark contrast in attitude of her fellow cadets compared to her classmates on Vulcan was a bit of a culture shock, the warmth and acceptance she found among her peers refreshing. That wasn’t the case with all her fellow cadets, however, as a rivalry of sorts developed between L’Nari and one of her classmates, a Betazoid named Faye Lintah Eloi-Danvers who apparently also had her sights set on the Starfleet Diplomatic Corps.

Partway through her first year at the Academy, L'Nari befriended a Vulcan cadet named Seren who was two years ahead of her. This friendship surprised L'Nari, the Caitian having had little luck with such things during her time on Vulcan. The two would often play Kal-toh but, as had been the case with T'Rel, L'Nari had little success with the game, holding a genuine belief that Seren spent half of their time playing simply trying to undo the multitude of mistakes she made. Her friendship with Seren was oddly comfortable, the Caitian being content to simply relax in his quarters and study while the Vulcan practiced the Vulcan Lute, though she sometimes felt an annoyance to the man whenever she noticed him picking pieces of her fur off of his garments.

L’Nari quickly threw herself into her studies, taking numerous language courses along with her regular course load with the aim of majoring in Xenolinguistics. She excelled in her courses in Communications, Diplomacy, Interspecies Ethics, Interspecies Protocol, Xenolinguistics, and Politics of the Prime Directive, though proved herself less suited for the more scientific fields of study when she just barely avoided failing her Exochemistry and Temporal Mechanics courses, and completely flunked Quantum Chemistry in her second year.

L’Nari also developed a bit of a stubborn streak during her time at the Academy, and ended up taking the Kobayashi Maru test twice. After her first attempt, during which she had attempted to take a more diplomatic approach when the two Klingon K't'inga-class battle cruisers appeared. She had still been in the middle of her diplomatic speech when the first Klingon torpedo had stuck their ship’s hull. The resulting engagement had been quick and relatively one-sided, the officers running overseeing the test later commending her for her efforts towards a peaceful resolution, though pointing out that when diplomacy failed, it was a commanding officer’s duty to be ready to defend those under their command. The lesson was one L’Nari took to heart, the Caitian having done relatively well in her tactical courses despite her reluctance to apply those lessons. Her second attempt at the Kobayashi Maru test went much better, or as “better” as a no-win scenario can be expected to go, L’Nari having come to accept that diplomacy wouldn’t be able to get her out of every situation she found herself in. That didn’t mean she was going to stop trying, however, nor reconsider her path.

Upon her Graduation from Starfleet Academy in 2377, L’Nari’s specialization in Linguistics, ability to speak multiple languages, and success (mostly) in her studies eventually earned her what she sought after, acceptance into the Starfleet Diplomatic Corps and a spot in the graduate program at the Academy Annex on Babel. There she found herself once again in silent competition with her rival, Faye Lintah Eloi-Danvers, the Betazoid having generally proven herself to have the upper hand during their quiet rivalry at the Academy.

Cardassia Prime

Following the successful completion of her Graduate program, and in part because of her familiarity with the Kardasi language, L’Nari was assigned to the Federation Envoy on Cardassia Prime. She spent the next two years working with the Federation and Cardassian diplomatic departments, working to improve relations between the Federation and the Cardassian Union and helping arrange for aid projects in the ongoing aftermath of the Dominion war, Cardassia Prime still very much showing the fallout of the Dominion Genocide. Her time on Cardassia Prime proved to be extremely educational for L’Nari, both in the workings of Federation and Non-Federation Diplomacy as well as the devastating results which could befall the people they served when diplomacy failed, the suffering of the Cardassian people proving a potent lesson. Even three years after the war, the rebuilding on Cardassian Prime was far from finished, the loss of nearly a billion people still fresh in the collective memories of the planet’s inhabitants. A culture decimated, an infrastructure destroyed, missions of families torn apart.

Early in her first year on Cardassian Prime she got a first-hand view of the state of things, accompanying her superiors on a tour of an area of Lakarian City which had yet to be slated for rebuilding. The simple fact was that the sheer amount of devastation wrought on the Cardassians by the Dominion forces would mean the rebuilding process would be measures in decades rather than years. To accompany the tour of the area, which included several visiting members of the UFP Diplomatic Corps, a security detail was provided from the USS Twarel, which was in orbit of Cardassia Prime and assisting in the rebuilding process. One member of that security detail, which had been provided due to the high crime rate reported in the area, was Kai Akoni, a Human Lieutenant and a behemoth of a man who L'Nari found quite intimidating, though she found herself unimpressed by the disdain she saw in the man's eyes when dealing with the Cardassians. It would not be the last time she saw that look in the eyes of Starfleet officers who had served in the Dominion War, and L'Nari vowed never to allow that kind of prejudice to worm it's way into her own heart.

A variety of reports would cross L'Nari's desk while on Cardassia, ranging from mundane matters through to alerts about potential Maquis operations in the area and the defection of Starfleet personnel, such as when one Crewman Kireil went AWOL to join the militant group. Another report that stood out amid the constant influx of news, reports, updates, requests and complaints was one sent to her office erroneously, the report addressed to one Lieutenant Commander Jennifer Dewitt at some place L'Nari had never heard of called the Black Opal. L'Nari brought the report to her superior, who promptly told her to forget ever hearing the name before deleting the report from her systems and warning her against talking about the event. Despite the overwhelming curiosity she felt regarding the incident, L'Nari didn't have the nerve to look into any further.

The experiences she had on Cardassia Prime only served to strengthen L’Nari’s belief in her chosen path, the idea that they could prevent such horrific events as those that had befallen the Cardassian people from ever happening again proving to be a strong motivation for the young Caitian.

Return To Earth

In 2380 L’Nari was transferred to the United Federation of Planets HQ in Paris, where she worked as a low level attaché who’s primary tasks were acting as handler and sometimes translator visiting foreign diplomats and acting as a courier for sensitive documents which couldn’t be trusted to comm channels. Returning to Earth after two years spend on Cardassian Prime was a startling transition for L’Nari, the crisp cleanliness of Earth and the lack of rubble, destruction, poverty and despair seeming along strange to her after so long dealing with the aftermath of the Dominion’s murderous and destructive campaign. The idea that the people of Earth lived such happy lives, oblivious to the suffering elsewhere in the universe, left L’Nari feeling almost sad, though she found little sympathy for the Cardassian people among her new departmental fellows, many of whom had served during the Dominion War and held no love for the grey-skinned species. Despite the difference of opinion, L’Nari made friends among her coworkers, several of them being in the habit of dragging L’Nari out to go dancing with them. Despite the Caitian’s avoidance of alcohol, she enjoyed the dancing and generally had fun on such outings.

It was also early in her first year that she had a rather unfortunate run-in with Inej Avirim, a Security officer working with the Embassy’s protective services. While she initially found Inej to be a boastful idiot, a long day spent working together ended up in a date. The date had gone well, she thought, leading her to think her opinion of the man had been unfair. One date turned into several, and L'Nari's feelings towards the man had grown. However, when the asshole suddenly disappeared, never calling her again, she realized that she’d been right in her initial assessment; Inej Avirim was a bastard.

Things for L’Nari seemed to settle into a comfortable routine after that, the Caitian keeping herself closed off romantically following the disappointment at the Risian’s disappearing act. Focusing on her career, L’Nari took pleasure in her work with the Diplomatic Corps, the next year flying by in a blur of diplomatic visits, translating, negotiations, and administrative work, with L’Nari meeting a multitude of high ranking diplomats and Starfleet officers, the experiences sometimes leaving the Ensign’s head spinning.

Everything seemed to grind to a halt when L’Nari received the news that her parents, who had planned their leave together and returned to Cait to visit their family, had been killed in a shuttle accident. Devastated by the news, L’Nari applied for a leave of absence to return home to Cait and mourn with her remaining family.

A Strange Turn

L’Nari arrived on Cait remembering little of her trip from Sol, seeming to have lived in a daze since receiving the news of her parents’ passing. She spent the next few weeks on Cait, spending time with her siblings and grandparents and visiting her parents’ resting place. It was halfway through her third week on Cait that she received a strange message on her work PADD which she had brought with her, the message encrypted. The message was from an Admiral Andersson’s office, a name she recognized, though she had mostly dealt with his subordinates in the course of her duties, meeting the man only once at an official function which the UFP President and Council had attended. Even more curious, the message directed L’Nari not to return to Earth, instead providing travel arrangements to the Epsilon Mynos system, of all places.

Three days later, she departed from Cait, avoiding the questions of her family regarding her early departure, and spent the journey to Starbase 82 in a private berth aboard the transport shuttle, looking over the data package which had been sent to her over the encrypted channel regarding her new assignment.

What she read in the data files left her mouth dry and her heart pounding. Had the message not come over encrypted channels, the authorization codes authentic, she would not have believed the words displayed on the PADD. Alien parasites, the Borg, an infiltration of the highest levels of the UFP, and the looming threat of war breaking out across the quadrant.

And the USS Theurgy.

She had heard of Jien Ives while she was posted on Cardassia Prime, the Theurgy's current Captain having been a Commander at that time and, if her memory served her correctly, the Diplomatic Officer aboard the USS Vendetta. The occasional report from Ives would cross her desk from time to time, destined for her superiors. Like so many of the names which had crossed her desk at the time, she had never expected to meet Captain Jien Ives, especially not now that the USS Theurgy had gone rogue...

Just what the hell had she gotten herself thrown into?

L’Nari considered turning around once she got to Starbase 82, of boarding another transport, returning to Cait, resigning her commission and forgetting about the whole thing. She considered reporting the information, but who would she report it to? But if the information was accurate, and based on it’s source and the secure means of transmission she had to assume it was, well… visions of Cardassian Prime floated to the surface of her thoughts, the catastrophic destruction, the horrendous loss of life. If the information contained in these reports was accurate, then how could she turn her back on a chance to avoid a repeat of such horrific conflict? Wasn’t that why she had joined the Diplomatic Corps to begin with?

And so, after a short layover at Starbase 82, much of it spent deep in thought and inner turmoil, L’Nari boarded a shuttle destined for the Oceanus system, then on to Epsilon Mynos and Aldea, and whatever waited for her when she got there.

Personality Profile

L’Nari was a kind, caring and curious individual once people took the time to get to know her, confident when it came to professional matters yet much less so when it came to the personal side of things. Her workaholic attitude throughout her time on Vulcan, the Academy and the early part of her career, along with her lack of luck romantically, had left L'Nari shy and somewhat timid in interactions outside of her duties and slow to make friends. When she did manage to make friends she tended to be very loyal and protective of them, and would do anything to help them. While on-duty L’Nari carried herself in a highly professional manner, though off-duty she was far more relaxed and easy going.

As was common of her species, L’Nari had the habit of rolling her “R”s slightly, making it sound akin to a purring noise. She never drank alcohol, having the lack of tolerance for the substance as was typical of her species. L'Nari had developed a sense of homesickness after leaving her homeworld, and began decorating her room with various tropical plants in an attempt to imitate the jungle atmosphere of home, a practice that would follow her throughout the Academy and her career.

Physical Profile

While of average height, L’Nari’s piercing green eyes and jet black fur cut a rather striking figure. The Caitian, though not in a combat-oriented department, kept up with a rigorous training regimen, and maintained a slender and toned physique. She sported a mane of straight black fur which fell to her shoulders, while the fur on the rest of her body was shorter and sleek. While she was perfectly comfortable in her Starfleet uniform, L’Nari preferred loose-fitting clothing while off duty, generally loose fitting pants and hoodies (the latter something she grew fond of while on Earth) and was rarely seen wearing footwear.

Special Notes (Optional)

Languages Spoken: Cait, Federation Standard, Vulcan, Romulan, Klingon, Kardasi

Appearances

Aldea Prime Anthology

• Anxious Arrivals - Day 19 | 1535hrs L'Nari arrives at Aldea to join the USS Theurgy's crew

Director's Cut

• Diplomacy & Deceit L'Nari meets Inej Avirim while working on Earth