Kefira Ben-Ami

Political Information

• Affiliation: Starfleet, United Earth Commonwealth

Family

• Mother: Ranana Ben-Ami
• Father: Barak Ben-Ami
• Brother: Ezra Ben-Ami (Deceased)
• Sister: Tamara Cohen
• Spouse: Avram Cohen (Deceased)
• Daughter: Zivah Cohen (Deceased)

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Biography

Early Life

Kefira Ben-Ami was in Tel Aviv in 2116, the middle child of Barak Ben-Ami, a noted Psychiatrist and his wife Ranana Ben-Ami, an Aluf (General) in the Israel Defence Forces. Her childhood was relatively normal until the age of 14 when her brother Ezra was killed in a border skirmish with the Unified Arab League, a rebel faction that did not agree with the sixty year peace between Israel and her neighbouring Arab countries. His death greatly angered her, and feeling that he would not achieve his dream of going to university, she focused her attention on her studies and at the age of 18 was accepted to the University of Tel Aviv to study medicine. She qualified as a medical doctor with the degree MB ChB and later gained an MSc degree. As with all young people in Israel, Kefira was expected to complete national service, and she did so once completing her medical degree which was sponsored by the IDF, this extended her service to the IDF to three years.

Starfleet Career

Early Career

In 2138 Kefira graduated from medical school and began her service in the IDF, serving as a Medical Officer with the rank of Segen (Lieutenant). She chose a dual specialisation in General Surgery and Psychiatry, going on to complete training in both fields and becoming a Fellow of both the Unified Earth College of Surgeons and the United Earth College of Psychiatrists. With this specialist training came a promotion to the rank of Seren (Captain). It was in 2139 that she met and married Aluf Mishneh (Colonel) Avram Cohen. Avram served in the engineering branch of the IDF In 2141 she left the IDF on the completion of her service commission and applied and was accepted to study for a Doctor of Psychology at the University of Oxford in Clinical and Forensic Psychology. Avram had also come to the end of his agreed service with the IDF and took a job based in London as an advisor to a mining company.

During her three years at Oxford Kefira worked as a consultant criminal profiler for several law enforcement agencies as well as starting a private practice in London. It was this experience in criminal profiling and forensic psychology that led to Kefira being approached by the Interspecies Medical Exchange where she worked as the lead of Forensic Psychiatry; it was with the IME that she completed a PhD in Xenobiology and Xenopsychlogy. One of the most serious cases she worked on was in 2145 when she was charged with profiling a non-Human serial murderer in Cape Breton. She successfully profiled the killer which resulted in his eventual capture and punishment.

In 2148 Kefira left the IME at the request of Avram who wanted to start a family on Earth and used emotional blackmail to get Kefira to take up a post at St Bartholemew’s Hospital London where she worked her time fifty-fifty as a Consultant Surgeon and Consultant Psychiatrist. After settling in London, Kefira and Avram argued as he was offered re-assignment to the Martian Colonies. In 2149 they moved to Mars, where Kefira worked at the main Olympus Mons Hospital. She gave birth to Zivah Cohen in 2150. Her small family lived a peaceful life on Mars until 2152 when the building in which Zivah was in nursery collapsed due to structural instability. Kefira blamed herself for her daughter’s death as she was supposed to be home with her that day, but agreed to go in for emergency surgery.

Kefira and Avram’s relationship disintegrated after the death of Zivah, with Avram alternating between blaming his wife and the Denobulan company that built the building. He began to drink and eventually lost his job because of this, Kefira came to terms with her daughter’s death but her husband could not. They separated in 2153, and shortly afterwards Kefira applied and was accepted to join Starfleet Training Program accelerated course due to her multitude of qualifications and years of experience in various fields. She wanted to get as far away from the Earth solar system as she could and the best way to do this was on a starship. Kefira didn’t keep in touch with Avram, but was informed by a mutual friend that he finally found a job in 2154 at the Orpheus Mining Colony on Lunar, and shortly after her graduating she discovered that Avram had been involved with Terra Prime and died in the incident.

Yorktown NR-01

Because of her extensive medical background Kefira was given the rank of lieutenant junior grade shortly after her graduation from Starfleet Training Command. She was assigned to the Yorktown (NR-01) in 2153 as its Assistant Chief Medical Officer. This posting was meant to be a short-term one as Starfleet was keen to assign her to one of the NX-class ships that were being built. However, Captain Ketai Shosetsu requested for Kefira to remain on the Yorktown when its Chief Medical Officer un-expectantly resigned to return to civilian life. Starfleet approved Shosetsu’s request and Kefira was appointed. She remained on the Yorktown for the next two years, gaining valuable field experience. Captain Shosetsu found Kefira’s insight on many mission useful and soon she became one of the captain’s valued counsels and friends.

In the August of 2153 Yorktown was assigned to Gault, one of the first Human farming colonies that had been established shortly after First Contact in 2063. The ship’s mission was to work with the colonists in upgrading a number of its economic infrastructures as well as defence systems. Kefira was assigned the duty of working with the colony’s leaders in improving its medical services, which included overseeing the construction of two new hospitals. Yorktown was at Gault for almost seven months undertaking this task. Because of her high level of professionalism and high calibre of effort with the various projects she led while they were at Gault, Captain Shosetsu promoted Kefira to the rank of lieutenant. The ship was then assigned the duty of convoy duty to protect vital cargo lanes between the United Earth Commonwealth and Denobula. By the end of 2154 the ship was recalled to Alpha Centauri for a repairs and refits. Kefira took some leave and was persuaded by Captain Shosetsu to accept Starfleet’s offer to become the CMO on board the Challenger.

Challenger NX-03

Kefira was ordered to join the Challengerafter its own Chief Medical Officer resigned after the death of Captain Karim. Kefira joined the ship in its final days prior to its launch. During the ship’s first mission a number of the crew were kidnapped by the Orions. This happened while they were ferrying Earth diplomats to an important conference with the Denobulans. Kefira was involved in caring for the crew once they were rescued. She devised a process that removed the electronic tags placed on them by the Orions. She diagnosed a number of those kidnapped with post-traumatic syndrome and organised a number of therapy sessions with them. In particular Ensign Ezrah Alcott, the ship’s pilot who was severely tortured. Ezrah had opened up to their chief engineer, Commander Stanton, and shared that he had been sexually assaulted by the Orions. She met daily with him, providing him with the support he needed to deal with the nightmares he was trying to face. Even though Challenger’s first mission had been a diplomatic one (the ship had been assigned the duty of escorting a number of Coalition delegates to Denobula to convince the Denobulan government to join their alliance) and her involvement may have not been required, Kefira’s work in rallying and supporting a number of the inexperienced junior crew was invaluable to Captain Burton in succeeding in his first mission. Kefira soon developed a fond friendship with Major Yu and Ensign Hennessey, the MACO Commander and Chief Communications Officer – respectively. The three of them were almost the oldest members of the crew (in fact Kefira was the oldest officer on board) and formed a close friendship group. They were often seen sharing a meal in the crew’s mess hall.  Kefira also developed a close relationship with her senior nurse and medical assistant, Ensign Niall Stewart. She found the younger man to be eager with his career and extremely skilful at his job. She took him under her wings as her protégé and designed a program to train him further in exo-biology.

While in orbit of the Denobulan homeworld the ship received a distress call from Earth colony ships heading to the Archer system. Kefira, with the rest of the crew, would engage the Romulans for the first time. During the battle Ensign Alcott was injured when the helm exploded from an overload. Kefira performed surgery on the pilot and was quick enough to save his life as well as many others who had been badly injured. She went on to provide treatment for those on the colony ships that were hurt. The ship escorted the colony ships to the Archer system, but prior to their arrival they discovered the new Earth colony was about to come under Romulan siege. Again they won the battle but the ship was heavily damaged during the process. Fortunately the ship didn’t receive too many injuries this time. Kefira made a request to Major Yu to allow her to train up Private Liam Jenkins, one of her soldiers, to become a field medic. She did this for two reasons, one she noticed how capable he was of becoming a qualified medic but also as a personal favour to Ensign Stewart who had romantic feelings for the soldier. Yu agreed to the request and Kefira began training Jenkins too. She played the Cupid for Jenkins and Stewart and eventually encouraged them to begin dating one another.

When Challenger was invited to Andoria by its new chancellor, Kefira used the time to refresh her knowledge on the Andorian anatomy.  After the ship joined an Andorian task force to provide relief aid to one of their colonies was attacked, Kefira had to prepare the ship to deal with more mass traumas. She oversaw the crew’s efforts to prepare one of the cargo bays to receive casualties.  The task force was crippled when it entered a minefield laid out by the attackers: a combined armada of private mercenaries of Malurian and Nausicaan origin.  Kefira’s preparations went in to full swing when the ship engaged in rescue efforts of the damaged Andorian ships. Her entire medical staff and those with reasonable medical qualifications aided in helping those injured. Kefira never stopped during the entire mission in dealing with the Andorian causalities that were constantly entering her sickbay. She ended up creating new emergency trauma protocols to ensure efficiency as well as effective patient treatment. When Docana, the world they were trying to save, was finally liberated she helped in treating those colonists that were now refugees, particular as so many were ill with radiation sickness inflicted on them after their world was attacked with nuclear warheads. After this incident Commander Levesque praised Kefira with her consistent effort in dealing with so many casualties and calming leading those from the crew during the incident. Levesque recognised that Kefira had true potential in going further with her career, as such she convinced Captain Burton to train their doctor in officer-of-the-watch responsibilities.

During the middle of 2155 the ship was ordered to make official first contact with the Deltan species on behalf of the Earth Commonwealth and its allies in the Coalition of Planets. Initially the first contact went well with both side exchanging ideas peacefully, but the ship was dragged in to an ongoing conflict the Deltans were having with a neighbouring race known as the Carreons. When Commander Stanton was forced to become acting first officer and Sub Commander T’Plau assuming the role of second officer this made Kefira third officer. In fact her medical skills came in to full use when the Carreons began a campaign of attacking the ship on a regular basis. As their weapons weren’t as advanced compared to Starfleet’s the ship received little damaged until they persisted and repeated their attacks almost daily. Once again Kefira found herself dealing with mass triage. Fortunately for them no-one was killed, but many were heavily injured and all the crew were traumatised by the constant attacks.  In their last battle they engaged a Romulan Bird-of-Prey which they discovered was using a telepresence capturing system to control Carreon vessels. They were able to avoid being captured themselves and disabled the craft; unfortunately the Romulans were not prepared to be captured and destroyed their ship. The shockwave from the exploding ship severely damaged Challenger further. Burton told her along with the rest of the senior staff his decision to order the crew to abandon ship when it became heavily damaged and unable to sustain the entire crew. Burton gave Kefira a battlefield promotion to lieutenant commander and ordered her to take command of the crew and lead them to a safe place. It was a Minshara-class world they had detected on long range sensors. The trip took a very long time in escape pods and shuttlepods, eventually they arrived in orbit. When they began their decent her escape pod and Shuttlepod One encountered an alien craft that originated from the world. The vessel opened fire after Kefira attempted to contact them. Their engagement gave the other escape pods time to move out of harm’s way and land on the planet without being hassled, but her own escape pod was damaged and was forced to crash land. She survived the crash and those with her made a small camp within a cave, surviving for several days. While there they encountered some of the planet’s inhabitants in the form of two young humanoid boys who they befriended and ended up caring for. Using their universal translator Kefira was able to communicate with them both and discovered they were brothers who were lost from their mining village. The eldest was named Edro and his younger brother was called Roburn. While they stayed with the Starfleet officers Kefira had discovered that Edro had a medical condition similar to asthma. Without the proper resources at her disposal she was unable to properly treat him. While she was stuck in the cave she became close with her fellow crewmates, in particular Petty Officer Montana Lawson who was Challenger’s chef. Not only did she come closer with them but she also found her survival training kicking in to overdrive and her leadership skills being test in this environment. A situation she never had dreamed of being in. However Kefira found herself in dealing with quite a philosophical issue once they had been rescued by their crewmates and returned to their base camp. She had to decide to either keep both Roburn and Edro with them or send them back to their village, even though it meant they would be forced to return to mining as part of the planet’s child labour force. Many of the crew argued for keeping the boys with them as they felt it was morally wrong to send them back to such bad conditions, especially as both boys had never attended a school and were ill from their mistreatment. Nevertheless Kefira didn’t want to stand in between the boys from ever seeing their parents again. She began to debate the issue of forcing Human values on to alien cultures and found the decision hard to make. She decided to leave the issue for the moment and the doctor inside her told her to care for the boys and return them to good health before dealing with keeping them or trying to find their home. Unfortunately surveillance carried out by the stranded crew of the local area reported that a Carreon vessel had crash landed and destroyed a settlement that met the characteristics of Roburn and Edro’s settlement. As the threat of being detected by the aliens increased, Kefira decided not to expose their position any further by the crew exploring the local area. She gave the order to fortify their position as best as they could. Soon after other missing crew appeared (Ensign Alcott, Ensign Metaxas, Second Lieutenant Trommler and Corporal Jenkins) and informed Kefira and the other survivors about the Ardanans, the species that inhabited the world they had crashed on. The species’ government did not wish to engage in any contact with “off-worlders” in fear that it would change their society. As such the knowledge of alien existence was kept a secret from the general public and only a small number of senior government officials were aware of alien lifeforms from other worlds. Placed in a difficult position, Kefira made the choice to remain with her decision of keeping a low profile on the planet and to avoid any communication with the Ardanans. They soon found out that the Ardanans were quite technologically advanced due to their cloud cities that they had constructed. Nevertheless they also learnt that only the wealthy and privileged could live on these floating palaces. Those that were less fortunate lived in smaller settlements, with many of these being mining communities. This was the case for Roburn and Edro. Eventually the entire crew were rescued when Captain Burton and the others entered orbit of Ardana. They came with help with the Andorians and with a few days of hard work the entire crew were returned to Challenger.  Captain Burton commended Kefira for her leadership and efforts in keeping their people alive and safe. He made her promotion permanent and he recommended that she considered developing her command and leadership abilities further. While Challenger was returning to Earth (in tow with help from the Andorians) Kefira confirmed that Commander Levesque was pregnant and that Captain Burton was the father. Kefira was instrumental in discovering that when their patterns briefly merged in the transporter, somehow Levesque was impregnated. The good doctor went on to support Levesque come to terms with the news and later help her report this to Burton. Kefira spent a large amount of her time researching the pregnancy as it was the first of its kind, she wanted to ensure that the pregnancy would be healthy and the three boys that Levesque would give birth to would not have any abnormalities due to the unusual circumstances behind their conception.