Ishreth Dal

Ishreth was both to the Endiliev clan from the southern plains of Andor. With a fairly uninteresting upbringing, Dal always had an interest in ice running and earned a place in his school’s ice running team when he was 14. As he aged his skills became good enough that coaches asked him if he wanted a job on the ice running rescue squad. This decision prompted a lifelong interest in search and rescue.

He kept up with ice rescue as he moved on to secondary schooling with an emphasis in studying medicine and rescue techniques. Graduating from school and moving up from ice running he was employed with the Andorian snow rescue squad, and later with the Federation rescue corps with specialties in cold weather survival, ice extraction and a variety of first aid and life saving techniques. Getting accolades for his work from co-workers and superiors alike, for a while Dal’s life seemed idyllic. That was until his daughter, Tyva was born.

Tyva Dal was not the average Andorian.

At five years old, her spunky demeanor and friendly attitude has won her many friends – child and adult alike – but few from her father’s race. The first thing outside species see is her ready smile and bright sparkling sapphire eyes. The first thing Ishreth’s family saw was her lack of antennae and slight bifurcated ridge down her face that bespoke of a relationship that was never approved.

In Ishreth’s defense he hadn’t meant for things to end up this way. He had been working search and rescue with a snowbound team trying to extricate a group of scientists from the frozen world of Kalroth VI. It was seven weeks of grueling work, with many setbacks and a mixed outcome that took its toll on the entire team. He had grown close to Anaia, the cheerful Bolian engineer on his team, and when all was said and done the team did what teams do – they had a party and drank too much.

And sometimes you wake up in someone’s bed after parties like that. Usually nothing comes of it. This time something did. Anaia panicked when she found out, and despite trying to make the relationship work long term, she was nearly a decade younger than Ishreth and she ended up running back to Bolarus, leaving Tyva behind. For a time, Ishreth tried it on his own, to no success. SARS manuals sadly didn’t come with instructions on how to take care of babies, even for field medics. In the end, he ended up dropping out of the civilian SARS service and heading back home to beg help from his family.

He returned to highly mixed reactions.

One of his mothers – the one he was closest to – was all too happy to have a grandchild; while the patriarch of the family considered a bastard child an offense to the clan and its name. And there was a gamut of everything in between. In the end the clan decided upon shame instead of outright dismissal. Tyva and Ishreth stayed amidst grumbling and contention for a few slim months before Ishreth headed out to start anew.

Starfleet was a natural choice, if only because it gave him both the support he needed as a single parent and the separation he craved from a judgmental family. A cadet at 32 years old, he was a model student and a solid candidate for any leadership team; and allowed an expedited graduation commensurate with his prior experience. His field medic experience made him gravitate towards the medical field, and he graduated with a teal collar.

But his true skills lie in both tactics and search and rescue. He simply didn’t have the surgical or scientific skills to become a great doctor; but the experience of a decade of work in search and rescue in some of the most inhospitable places in the Federation didn’t go overlooked. The Starfleet hazard teams had been looking to get the reserved Andorian and his rescue skillset onto their teams and offered him a considerable promotion to take a leadership position in the search and rescue squadron of Deep Space 53.

He spent seven years building his leadership skills as Tyva grew into an increasingly independent adolescent.  As the fleet has changed and the need has come for command officers, Dal’s name was put forward.

Finally the time has come to see if Ishreth Dal has the chops for commanding a starship…