Makayla Perin

Born in Leran Manev, the capitol city of Trill, Makayla is the eldest of two sisters by fifteen minutes. Kayla didn’t see much of her father for most of her childhood as he was a representative of Trill at their embassy on Earth. Thus, she and her sister Maritza were raised by their mother, a professor at the Trill Science Institute. Always demanding the best from her daughters, Kayla took this as a challenge but her attitude led to a rift between them that would last for many years. As children Makayla and Maritza would often try and play “twin” pranks on everyone they met, completely disregarding the fact that they weren’t identical but fraternal twins. This didn’t stop the pair, believing that if they said it enough it would be true.

Eventually the whole family moved to San Francisco on Earth where her father was stationed at the Trill Embassy. Kayla loved it; for years she had heard stories from her father so it was kind of like a dream. Coming to Earth was a blessing but also a bit of a curse. It was here that Kayla saw her first Starfleet Officer; Lieutenant Commander Emmanuel Sukuna. Even though they were in her father’s office it was clear Sukuna commanded the room. At first Kayla was intimidated by the Officer and sat quietly in the corner while he spoke with her father. When the meeting was over she finally worked up the courage to say something. Although Kayla introduced herself as any seven and half year old girl would, Sukuna did not treat her like a child. He got down to her eye level, called her ma’am and answered each of her questions fully and explained what he could. Kayla didn’t understand a whole lot of what Sukuna was talking about but she was determined to learn. It was from this conversation that Kayla discovered her passion for technology and Engineering, warp field theory in particular. As she grew up and learned more and more about Engineering and Starships she began to develop what her parents called a rebellious streak; bringing technology home from school and tinkering with it. Although her attentions could sometimes become destructive her parents were able to keep things from getting out of hand by enrolling her in some AP engineering courses at the local high school.

While Kayla had her head in a miniature warp core, Maritza hadn’t been sitting idly by herself. At the top of everything she did, if Kayla was considered smart, Martiza was a genius. When Maritza announced that she had been accepted by the Symbiosis Institute for initiate training, Kayla was devastated. She couldn’t bear the thought of being separated from her sister so she applied and made it in by the skin of her teeth. In 2372, as the training came to an end, there were rumors flying around that war with the Dominion was coming. Kayla, wanting to do what she could and put her engineering skills to good use, returned to Earth and joined Starfleet’s Enlisted Training Program. Although there was some suggestion early on in her training that she might be a good officer candidate, Kayla was too impatient for a four-year program. This was not a decision her parents agreed with but Kayla would not be swayed.

Early Career & USS Trident

Unsure at first at how she would handle a highly structured environment such as Starfleet, Kayla’s fears were put to rest after the first several weeks of training. Kayla actually ended up excelling in basic and kept improving when they started specialized training. Her practiced engineering skills coupled with her growing leadership abilities made her standout among her training platoon. At the end of the six month training Kayla graduated a Crewman and was assigned to the USS Trident.

Her first few months aboard ship were relatively uneventful, that is until the conflict with the Klingons. Trident fought in a fair number of battles but Kayla never got to see the action up close. Mostly she was assigned to damage control down below decks. During this time she started dating fellow engineer Johanna Lin. It was a rocky relationship and Kayla wasn’t anywhere near ready to think about it becoming serious but she couldn’t deny that they had fun. When the war started Kayla thought she was prepared. After all, she had joined up because everyone said there was war brewing and she wanted to do her part. And she had made it through combat with the Klingons relatively unscathed. She couldn’t have been more wrong. Right from the start Trident and the rest of the 7th Fleet were tossed straight into the action; first at Torros III, Rumarda and a few months later at Tyra. Tyra, that’s when things started to come into perspective for Kayla. Despite their earlier losses and how awful she felt each time she read a casualty list, Tyra was like nothing she had ever experienced. The 7th was hit hard, losing ships and experienced crew rapidly in just the first few hours. Trident herself took heavy damage and losses especially in the Engineering section. During the battle Kayla was forced to take over what was left of her damage control team. When the remaining fourteen ships of the fleet were forced to retreat, that’s when everything hit her. In just a few hours they had lost ninety eight of one hundred and twelve ships, suffered twenty four thousand casualties. Her own mortality was suddenly staring her in the face and she didn’t know how to deal with it. How to get a grip on the idea that one torpedo in the right place at the right time and that was it. Burying herself in the work seemed her only option and as the war went on things only got worse. Johanna did what she could to pull Kayla out of it, but the more Joanna reached out to her, the more Kayla folded into herself.

It was at the First Battle of Chin’toka that Kayla saw the brutality of the war up close. When Trident broke through the Dominion lines and discovered a Dominion Communications Array, Captain Deluca assigned Kayla’s and Chief Crocker’s Engineering teams to the Allied force being deployed to the planet. It was their job to get the relay up and running, allowing the Federation to tap into enemy comm traffic all over the sector. It seemed simple enough; Kayla thought they would have the Comm Array working inside of a week. What would become known as the Siege of AR-558 was a sobering experience for Kayla. Within the first 36 hours on planet their position was attacked repeatedly by the Jem’Hadar. The attacks were so frequent and aggressive that Kayla and her team had to stop work on the Array and fight on the line. The next five months were probably the worst of her life. In that time she killed what had to have been dozens of Jem’Hadar and saw most of her friends killed and all the while making no progress on the Array. In the end she was in awe of how skilled Captain Sisko’s officers were; without them she knew they might never have gotten out of there alive, let alone with the Array working. Although their mission was a success and she had gotten out of there relatively unscathed, Kayla was a different person.

After being treated at Starbase 374 for her minor injuries, Kayla and the remaining engineers returned to Trident. Ideally, they would have had time to recover and seek counseling for their ordeal, but once again Trident had found herself short staffed. Kayla being the most senior surviving engineer was promoted, becoming a Chief Petty Officer. Adjusting to her new position under normal circumstances would be hard enough, but trying to deal with AR558 at the same time made it near impossible to make any progress either way. At times struggling to do her job, Kayla was eventually required to see a counselor twice a week. It took some time but eventually Kayla was able to recover, at least to the point where her job was no longer affected. She was, however, much more withdrawn from her friends aboard ship and even broke things off with Johanna. Kayla put her total focus on her duties, while pushing what was left of her social life to the side. The Trident continued to fight on the front lines of the war for the next several months, right up to the end of the war. Although she didn’t see ground combat again, each battle now had a different effect on her than before. It was all so much more personal than, each ship lost was far more than a hull with a number.

When the war was finally over (major) changes came to Trident. With Deluca being promoted and the ship getting a new commander many of the crew were taking chances to move on. Kayla was having trouble deciding; with all that she had been through the last year it would have been understandable if she wanted to leave and never look back. But at the same time she remembered what she had seen of the Officers she had served with; she wanted something like that. Believing that becoming an Officer, making a career out of Starfleet could be a good fresh start.

Starfleet Academy

With a recommendation from now Admiral Deluca in combination with her service record, Kayla was enrolled in the class of 2380. At the time Starfleet was desperately trying to replenish their numbers so many of the cadets of the time could be separated up into two distinct groups; those like Kayla who had previously been enlisted and those who were fresh out of high school. It was a strange dynamic for the upper classmen who were used to dealing with Cadets with little to no experience; instead they were faced with several hundred war veterans. Kayla’s time at the Academy was a somewhat stressful one because it was such a dramatic change from serving on a starship. Instead of spending a shift at her duty station, she spent most of her day in classrooms or labs. But Kayla quickly adapted and embraced academy life, making a few friends here and there and even joining a few of the athletic teams. Because she was not exactly sure what she wanted to specialize in, many of her classes in her first two years were all over the map. Kayla endeavored to study everything from Xenolinguistics to Stellar Cartography and even Tactical Analysis. One of her favorite courses had been an elective sociology course looking at 20th century humanity and their outlook on the future. Kayla enjoyed this course because of the use of Captain Proton as the study medium. Eventually Kayla settled into majoring in Engineering and Sciences but would continue to take her elective courses during the summer session. Despite Kayla’s academic accomplishments one of her proudest moments was in her third year when she managed to take first in the Academies 200-meter sprint. Although having the chance to speak with and get her picture taken with the legendary Boothby a week later greatly overshadowed this win. By her fourth year Kayla was a top student excelling in both her academics and athletics. After four long years she graduated with degrees in Starship Engineering/Design and Astrosciences. After graduation Kayla took her first leave in close to six years and went back to Trill to visit her family.

Starfleet Corps of Engineers – USS T’Pora

Kayla’s first assignment out of the Academy was a position with the Starfleet Corps of Engineers detachment at the Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards under now Captain Sukuna – Director of Starfleet Research and Development. The yards were a Starship Engineer’s dream, Kayla had the opportunity to tinker with every new piece of tech developed or planned in every ship there. She especially liked the newer designed starships that had an emphasis for modular design; this gave the SCE teams a chance to really run wild with their imaginations. Implementation of those imaginings wasn’t as much fun because of their tendency to go overboard. Unfortunately the yards weren’t all fun and games Kayla also spent a lot of time on aid projects for those planets ravaged by the war. Eventually however Kayla got bored just sitting around the yards designing the ships…she wanted to be on one. Speaking with Sukuna was difficult but he eventually understood and got her a transfer to one of the SCE’s attached ships. Assignment to the T’Pora was a welcoming experience for Kayla, once again being on a starship. The T’Pora never seemed to stay in one place too long, always heading off for the next crisis or mystery. This also gave her the opportunity to visit a new planet almost every week. The experience of seeing so many different cultures was very rewarding experience for Kayla, although she would have preferred to spend more time on each planet.

On one mission, however, Kayla got far more than she bargained for. While investigating the ruins of a dead society Kayla and her away team were infected by some strange disease. Affecting the nervous system of the victims the members of the away team began to simple shut down one by one. At first the crew seemed helpless to do anything but make Kayla and the others as comfortable as possible. The crew’s faith that they would be able to find a cure was further dashed when they discovered that the dead civilization they were investigating was wiped out by the very same illness. Three of the infected died before the crew was able to come up with a cure of the plague. As a Trill Kayla had always been wary of getting sick; but her experiences during this mission left her with a severe case of pathophobia which she still struggles with.

In mid-2385, after four years on the T’Pora, Kayla took a couple of weeks to visit Trill for her sister’s wedding. While she enjoyed being back home and being with her family, Kayla couldn’t help but be a bit envious. Maritza was moving ahead with her life, and Kayla felt stalled. She had been out of the Academy for five years and was still basically doing the same job she had been doing before attending. For a short time Kayla felt like she was wasting her time, and once again retreated into herself. Maritza would have none of it; taking her sister aside she berated Kayla like a veteran drill instructor. Maritza helped her realize that becoming an Officer wasn’t her goal, her dream; it was just another step along the way. That she was ready to take the next step moving upwards and onwards with her career. After leaving her family on better terms than when she arrived, Kayla returned to the T’Pora and put in a transfer out of the SCE. Both Captain Zilssom and Commander Henderick tried to convince Kayla to change her mind but she was set in her decision. Within three weeks Kayla had changed from Engineering to Operations with a position on the USS Sugihara.

USS Sugihara

Kayla’s time aboard the Insignia class Sugihara was another drastic change in her life. Not only was she in a completely different field, but for the first time since the Academy Kayla was again part of the standard chain of command. This adjustment was easy enough for her, what was most difficult was fitting into the Operations Department. As an engineer for almost her entire adult life Kayla was used to dealing with technical issues but now she was dealing with scheduling issues and the day to day operations of a Starship. But is wasn’t long before Kayla settled into her new role and learn from it. The Sugihara’s missions were also quite different from those of the T’Pora; instead of being primarily problem solvers the Sugihara endeavored to be a ship of exploration. Striking out beyond the boarders of the Federation in the Alpha Quadrant was the first time Kayla had the chance to serve on a ship fulfilling Starfleet’s mission.

Soon after arriving aboard the Sugihara Kayla met the head of Stellar Sciences; a Bajoran woman named Neydani Velia. Velia introduced herself and her intentions in the same way on their first encounter; she sat down at Kayla’s lone table in the mess hall and declared herself the Trill’s ‘new best friend.’ At first Kayla was less than enthusiastic and resisted the Bajoran, but Velia just would not leave her alone. She ended up poking, prodding, needling and generally annoying Kayla into spending time together. In time Kayla actually liked having the Bajoran around and they began to spend most of their waking hours together. Kayla hadn’t had someone other than her sister take so much of an interest in her will being. In early 2386 it was starting to become apparent that there was more going on between them than just a simple friendship.

After only a few short months aboard Sugihara there was no way for her to deny it; Kayla had tasted exploration and had caught it like a case of Thelusian Flu. It was very exciting for her when they were able to make first contact with a new species or make some new discovery. Unfortunately for Kayla, the Sugihara’s mission was cut short in early 2386. While studying a J Class nebula the Sugihara struck a Quantum Filament that nearly destroyed the ship. Having suffered severe damage and as many casualties they had no choice but to return to Federation space. While they limped back home, just about everyone in the engineering department agreed that, because of the damage taken and the constant repairs they were making just to return to Federations space, it would be quite awhile before the Sugihara left space dock again. Many of the crew, including Kayla, were looking for alternate assignments instead of just sitting around Earth waiting for repairs to be completed. Luckily for Kayla she was informed about an opening aboard the USS Triton for a Chief Operations Officer. At first she felt guilty about abandoning a ship and crew she had come to care for, but the friends she had made understood and eventually agreed with her decision.

USS Triton

Within an hour Kayla had boarded the USS Justicia an Olympic class Medical Frigate enroute to assist Triton in evacuating Olbari II, a thriving Bajoran colony. Several hours behind Triton, Kayla’s primary contact with her new ship and crew was through data bursts. As she studied these periodic updates, Kayla recognized a potential flaw in the rescue plan. The evacuation relied heavily on the use of Triton’s transporters, but as time went on, however, they would become less effective. Coordinating with Triton’s Chief Engineer Commander Dawson and her Assistant Chief Ensign Den; Kayla came up with a plan to use a network of probes on and around the planet to act as a Transporter Enhancing Network. Arriving on Triton several hours later, Kayla was immediately put to work splitting her time between the ship and the refugee camps. The work was incredibly tiring; keeping the ships engineering and operations teams working around the clock. Kayla, however, simply enjoyed the challenge. Not everything went as smoothly as building the refugee camps; almost the instant she came aboard she was butting heads with Dawson. It didn’t seem to matter the subject, they were just incapable of coming to a consensus. Things finally came to a head over the assignment of one of the ship’s engineering teams. Luckily before things could be taken too far, their argument was interrupted by the Captain had assigning Kayla to an away mission with Commander Reyas and Doctor Tysis. Their job was to travel to the Coastal Region of Olbari II in an attempt to find the cause of and hopefully a cure to the plague that had begun to sweep across the Bajoran Colonists. Kayla was nervous to say the least; Trill were not known for their strong immune systems, coupled with her pathophobia and the fact that they were heading to the middle of a plague zone just seemed to be on the far side of crazy. But with some reassurance from her fellow officers and a bit of time on the way down to the planet she was able to push past some of her worries. Once on planet she assisted (albeit in a somewhat limited role) the others in finding and developing a cure for the mutagenic virus ravaging the colony.

With the plague cured, and the remnants of the colony saved, Triton’s crew turned their attention to helping the Bajoran’s rebuild. Once again Kayla was forced to assist Commander Dawson in erecting the temporary refugee domes and rebuilding the colony’s infrastructure. Amazingly after several weeks the pair actually started to get along; not that either of them were eager to admit it. During the extended period working with the crew to help the Bajoran’s rebuild, Kayla began to feel a real connection to the people around her. Maybe it was the emotional letdown of coming off of the Sugihara disaster into the Olbari II situation and finally having a chance to breathe but Kayla thought it was more than that. She genuinely enjoyed working with the people around her. With the work on Olbari II all but finished, Kayla actually found herself a bit sorry to see some of the crew she had become close to leave the ship. She even found she was going to miss her arguments with Dawson.

Velia’s sudden arrival aboard Triton threw Kayla for a bit of a loop. They had been talking regularly over subspace since she left the Sugihara but there had been no hint at all that Velia was planning on transferring. With the Bajoran suddenly back in her life, Kayla was forced to confront feelings she had left in a rush almost six months before. Kayla ended up reacting out of instinct, with lots of sarcasm and wit but not a whole lot of thinking. A few times she managed to put her foot squarely in her mouth as she tried to sort out everything. Eventually Velia did what she always did; annoyed Kayla until she had to face the Bajoran. While she hadn’t been sure what was the better way to go, Kayla has been comforted that following her heart turned out far better than she could have imagined.

In 2387 with an all new confidence largely built out of her new relationship Kayla began to excel in her duties. Recognizing this improvement, Captain McCallister promoted Kayla to Lieutenant Commander; for which Velia feels she deserves a large amount of credit. Taking on the additional responsibilities of her new rank and status in the crew has been really good for Kayla setting her more firmly on the path to the center chair. One of these additional responsibilities was replacing Lieutenant Afex as Chief Engineer (albeit temporarily and in addition to her duties as Chief Operations Officer). As Chief Engineer of a Starship, Kayla was joining an elite club she should have enjoyed it but for the most part she felt guilty, like she was walking through the man’s grave before he was in it. But with some coaxing Kayla was able to put these feelings aside and played a key role in getting Triton underway again.

It is ironic that this mission, Triton’s first exploratory mission in the Gavarian Corridor, would be her last aboard ship. Long range probes had detected a civilization with technology comparable to Earth’s during the 22nd century yet they never developed warp drive. Kayla was extremely excited for the ship to be finally undertaking an actual scientific mission. The Iyari (as they would learn) were an amazing culture. Almost all recorded species were warp capable well before reaching this level of technology. Unfortunately their observations were cut short by the arrival of the Cardassians who were intending to “tap” into the natural resources of Iyari and its moons. This would have relegated the Iyari to a slave class on their own world. Two camps quickly developed on the ship–those who believed that because of the prime directive they had no right to interfere and those who believed they had an obligation to stop the Cardassians from enslaving a whole species for a second time.

Kayla was torn; on the one hand her training and upbringing told her that interfering like this could have far reaching and dangerous consequences that she couldn’t begin to comprehend, not to mention the morally ambiguous ground of imposing a decision on of another culture. But at the same time she couldn’t morally justify the enslavement of a whole culture. Needless to say Velia was not at all happy with Kayla’s indecision. Their near constant arguing created a significant rift between them. By the time Kayla came around to Velia’s point of view, most of the damage had already been done. It took a bit of time before they could be in the same room together and begin to work things out. This time apart actually worked in Kayla’s favor as it gave time for Velia to cool down. Velia, still seething from their last mission, gave Kayla an ultimatum; either they left Triton together or she would leave Kayla. It wasn’t a hard decision; her transfer request was in before alpha shift came on duty. Kayla was, however, able to get a small concession; she got to pick their assignment.

Deep Space 10

Within days of her transfer request being processed, Kayla was contacted by Captain Sukuna about rejoining the SCE. With the ever increasing importance of the Gavarian Corridor, Starfleet was quickly increasing their presence in the area. The Corps of Engineers had been tasked with setting up a permanent presence aboard Starfleet’s jumping off point for operations in the Corridor: Deep Space 10 and Sukuna was offering her command of the Team. At first Kayla was hesitant to take the posting, considering the proximity to Cardassian Space. But after thinking about it, Kayla realized this might be a good opportunity to force Velia to deal with at least some of her issues with the Cardassians. Kayla accepted the position and was able to pull some strings and get Velia a position in the Science Department.

Things did not go as well as Kayla hoped, in fact they couldn’t have backfired more if she had tried. Once Velia learned of the assignment Kayla had picked, all their problems came rushing back to the surface. Despite Lia’s reluctant acceptance that she would be assigned to this Cardassian monstrosity, she was still angry with Kayla. The Trill would have liked to focus her whole attention on their relationship but, pretty much from the word go, the Station had been thrown into the fire. The crew’s first major assignment had been to prepare for the resettlement of the Ash’voro a displaced people to the planet Trivas II. Kayla and the rest of the SCE contingent were focused on producing and procuring all the supplies the Ash’voro were going to need. However, before they could get things underway Kayla and half her team were assigned to a covert mission aboard the USS Mikhail Kalashnikov. Apparently the Cardassian Terrorist organization the Order of Twelve had set up a base in the Turlix system, a base Starfleet had been asked to investigate. When they arrived at the coordinates the Captain along with Commander Zilth and Lieutenant Durol took shuttle to the surface. Kayla had been left in command of the Micky K. This was a big moment for Kayla, up to this point in her career she had only been left in command of a designated shift. Sitting in the big chair during a mission like this was a whole other experience. For her part of the mission things were relatively uneventful, thanks to the EPS modifications made to disguise the ship as a Cardassian Cruiser.

Unfortunately things didn’t go as smoothly for the rest of the crew. On the surface, the away team discovered a woman claiming to be Commodore Walshe; who they all believed was back on the station. Despite racing back, they were too late. The Ash’voro colony ship had been destroyed along with one of the station’s upper pylons. At first Kayla’s only priority was whether Lia was all right. She obsessed over all the different possibilities until they were able to regain communications with the station. Once they did, Kayla had been filled with relief for all of five minutes; then they learned what happened. The colonists were dead along with the stations doctor Beani’a and Arjin Neprem the stations joined Trill. Kayla couldn’t help but feel guilty when she learned that the symbiont had to be implanted to into Commander Dalma, the only other viable host on the station. Kayla felt she should have been there to offer the Neprem symbiont another option than the local guardian;, these feelings plagued her for months after the incident.

USS Venture

Before things on the station could return to anything resembling normalcy, the senior staff was called to Starbase 565 for a debriefing. By the time they reached the Starbase, crew morale seemed to be at an all-time low. Kayla was definitely feeling the strain of the last week. She did her best once they arrived to get herself centered and back on track, but she didn’t have a lot of luck. Things actually came to a head during a staff briefing. Emotions had been running high during the briefing and when the Captain announced that the crew was being transferred to the USS Venture. When Lieutenant Summers objected to the move and how she perceived the crew was being treated, the Captain’s response was extreme and in Kayla’s eyes rather callous. And when Hunter opened the floor to speak, Kayla just couldn’t stop herself. Before she knew it she had jeopardized her position, career and standing with the crew all in the space of about a minute. Through some quirk of the universe Kayla managed not to lose her job, although it did feel as if she was in the dog house for a while.

Feeling the need to ‘redeem’ her reputation, Kayla threw herself into the ship’s ongoing refits. The Venture, having been commissioned in the late 2360s, had seen a lot in the last twenty years. Between the missions, the wars and a plethora of special anomalies, Venture had incurred quite a bit of damage. Damage that generally wasn’t repaired at a Starbase; instead Venture’s engineers had created something of a tradition of using improvised repairs in the field rather than bother with dry-docking the ship. While this practice was normal throughout the deep space exploration fleet (Kayla herself had engaged in the practice more than once), Venture’s crew had taken this tradition to a whole other level. Instead of restricting their repairs to the non-critical secondary and auxiliary systems, they had over time begun to integrate their repairs into some of the primary systems. Not to say that their repairs weren’t innovative but to use them on such important systems was going a bit too far. Kayla spent most of her first few weeks aboard Venture crawling through Jefferies tubes doing an inventory for the various repairs.

It wasn’t long before things once again got interesting for the crew. While on their first cruise out of Stardock, Venture ended up nearly running into an antimatter minefield. They had detected a strange energy reading near their position. When they moved into investigate, the mine’s malfunctioning cloaking device started playing havoc with the ship’s cobbled together systems. Recognizing the mine as similar to the smaller swarming-self-replicating mines used by Starfleet during the Dominion War, the Captain ordered Kayla to find out if they had the self-replication technology installed. Unfortunately, Kayla was unable to complete this task using the ship’s sensors. Unable to risk detonating the minefield without learning more about the mines Kayla volunteered to inspect the mine up-close. Shuttled out into the minefield by Ensign Corsair, Kayla began her examination of the mine during EVA. While Kayla discovered the mines lacked the Starfleet developed replication technology, she also found that the internal components for the mines seemed to have been cobbled together from technology from several different powers. Before their investigation could continue, the Venture received a distress call from a civilian freighter. Deciding that she had earned all she could up to this point, Kayla opted to return to Venture rather than be left in the middle of a minefield.

Finally returning to Venture, Kayla was met by a rather unhappy Velia. Since the bombing of DS10 the problems between them seemed to have been mostly forgotten and while things weren’t back to where they were aboard Triton, their interactions up to this point were no longer hostile. Kayla thought it was strange that all it had taken to rekindle things was the threat of imminent death hanging over their heads. While not as long, not as in depth and not as romantic as either of them had been hoping for, both women were able to let the other know that they were still invested in their relationship.

Jumping right back into the deep end when the Venture finally arrived at the freighter Rakul’s location, they found her in a bad state. Kayla led an away team including Lieutenant Summers and Doctor Waterhouse and about twenty others aboard the Rakul in an attempt to repair the ship. It was during this mission that she started to notice Hope’s fragile state. Kayla understood better than most what surviving a tragedy like the one on the station felt like. It had taken her a lot of time to get over her feelings of guilt. As much as she had wanted to try and help Hope through what she was feeling, Kayla was forced to focus on the mission. While the repairs to the ship were going to take quite a bit of time that wasn’t what was keeping Kala occupied. Throughout their time on the ship just about every team member ran into things that didn’t add up; the damage, the attack, the missing cargo it all seemed off. By the time they had finally finished repairing the ship, Venture had caught up with the Rakul’s attackers; a crew of Ferengi who had commandeered a Klingon bird of prey. While their methods seemed warped, Kayla never pretended to understand how the Ferengi mind worked when it came to amassing profit.

Before the crew had a chance to take some down time, things in the Corridor escalated rather quickly. The fragile peace between the Romulans and Cardassians had been shattered and the Federation was stuck in the middle. Doing their best to stay neutral, the Venture had been assigned to assist the Cardassian station Senk Nor which had been attacked only a few hours before. Once again Kayla found herself aboard an alien vessel trying to repair battle damage. Senk Nor, however, was far worse off than the Rakul had been. The Romulans had pretty much destroyed the station; from what she could tell the only thing holding it together was a few stem bolts and a lot of luck. If she had more time, Kayla probably would have wanted to find out why they hadn’t bothered to completely destroy the station. Based out of a heavily modified runabout, the repair teams did their best to keep the station operational until the Cardassian could muster a force to take over the repairs. After the fourteen hours on the station, they had managed to get the fusion reactors stable but were recalled before they could do any more.

The Romulans had announced that they were re-annexing Aquorat IV, (home to Starfleet’s Olympus Base – the only planetary base in the Gavarian Corridor) and that Starfleet had only a few hours to evacuate before the Romulans would try to force them out. This was easier said than done. The ship and crew had been going almost non-stop for what felt like weeks now. And with the Romulan’s short window to evacuate the base the crew was again pushed to the limits. During their travel Kayla, along with Hope and Tara, were tasked with finding all the space they could for the evacuees from Olympus. Even after converting cargo bays, holodecks and doubling up on crew quarters they still didn’t have enough room. It was actually Lia who came up with a solution for their space issue; she proposed using the ship’s main shuttle bay as a makeshift camp. It was a bit of a battle to get her plan approved, but eventually she was able to convince the Captain. With her plan approved the Engineering staff went to work modifying the bays, barely finishing before Venture’s arrival at Aquorat.

Somehow despite the sleep deprivation, constant threat of attack and less than ideal conditions Venture was able to complete the evacuation before the deadline. Returning to DS10 with all their systems out of whack and more than a thousand extra people onboard was challenging, to say the least. All the simple everyday logistics of keeping a ship running smoothly were blown completely out of proportion. Thankfully, there were more than enough extra engineers around to help with any ongoing repairs. Despite the convenience of their assistance, Kayla was quite pleased when they arrived at DS10 and were able to unload the evacuees.

With their current mission successful and the Venture once again in friendly territory it was ‘announced’ through the ship’s grapevine that they would soon be in for some extended shore leave. While the Venture would be heading to Earth, Lia had made arrangements for the two of them to spend some time on Bajor. Of course this was not to be; with Venture’s shore leave being reduced down to first, a mere three days, and then just a little over two. Apparently the Romulans had barricaded a planet under consideration for protectorate status and Venture was being sent in to try to find a diplomatic solution. Despite how jarring this whole turn around was, Kayla had ‘problems’ of her own. In addition to all the new developments in the Corridor, the ship underwent some rather drastic changes of its own. With Commander Neprem’s promotion to Captain and the loss of several of the senior staff to DS10, Venture found herself lacking in several key departments. Captain Hunter, recognizing Kayla’s contributions, decided that she would fill Tara’s position of Executive Officer aboard Venture in addition to her duties as Chief Engineer, at least until a replacement could be found. With the Federation teetering on the brink of war, Kayla is now having to learn the ins and outs of her new position on the fly.