Iskander al-Kwaritzmi

Early Life

Iskander al-Kwaritzmi was born in 2365 in the Tau Ceti star system to a human family that traces its origins to Egypt.

He was born on the 200-year-old Kera Fedox Station, orbiting the third planet of the system. This station, representing one of the first joint ventures of the human species with aliens, has a historically high presence of Denobulans and Tellarites, creating a unique cultural mix of large marriage units and abundant insults.

His parents were Adam al-Kwaritzmi, a Starfleet security officer, and Sarah al-Birani, a Starfleet science officer. Their life together was happy, only to be interrupted when Adam was killed by the Borg during the battle of Sector 001. The mother left Starfleet and became a hydroponic botanist on Kera Fedox Station.

Iskander’s youth was underlined by the ongoing wars and conflicts — the Dominion War, which ended when he was 10 years old, first and foremost. He was nevertheless a happy and active child, developing a passion for engineering and helping with the station’s repairs.

The decision to enter Starfleet wasn’t easy but came when, at 20 years of age, the Utopia Planitia Yards were attacked. There would be, after all, a huge need of flesh-and-blood engineers to rebuild the fleet.

The Academy Years

After the grueling admission program, Iskander was admitted at Starfleet Academy at the age of 23, picking a specialization in Quantum Engineering with a minor in Mathematics; he was assigned to Cadet Squadron Nineteen. The Federation was fighting the Sovreignity of Kahless, and the atmosphere at the Academy could be grim; nevertheless those were intense, studious years for Iskander, his only distraction his constant search for par’Mach.

Probably the biggest change he experienced was getting transferred for a year to the Academy at Andoria to study Transport Technology under the half-legendary Professor Kovaxa. While the courses were fascinating, Iskander couldn’t ever adapt to the intense cold of the planet — especially since he had, for most of his life, lived on a climate-controlled starbase.

The Cadet Cruise on board the USS Republic was a success: he took on a project to increase the range of the standard transporter setup, and manage to increase it by 0.7% — only at the cost of burning four deconvolving manifolds.

Assignments before Bravo Fleet

Fresh out of Academy, he applied to the Lisa Meitner Engineering Corps Research Facility, an advanced R&D centre specializing in transporters. Awaiting to be vetted and approved, he was assigned to the Echelon-class USS Stoos, where he served for a couple of months before landing on Ganymede. He served in the Lisa Meitner Facility, working at a prototype transporter buffer capable of using entangled muon beams to substantially increase the penetration of the beam.

At the death of his husband, however, the place started to become unbearable and odious to him. He requested to be reassigned to a more active role on a Starship and was sent to the Fourth Fleet.

Bravo Fleet

Iskander has been assigned as an Engineering Officer to the California-class USS Redding.

During the first mission of importance he took part to, the rescue and assistance to the partially assimilated USS Franscini, Iskander was forced to expose himself to an ion storm to great peril to his own life. For his dedication to the mission he was promoted to Lieutenant.

During the Undercroft crisis, Iskander was forced to spend a month on a Romulan Bird-of-Prey, the Koruba, in order to help with repairs. During this time he started a relationship with the Romulan Sublieutenant Dhae.

After the Redding was damaged in a battle against the Klingons, Iskander was transferred to the Echelon-class USS Sternbach.

Personal Life

Iskander and his future husband, Orsos Lapointe-Salemm, were childhood friends on Kera Fedox Station. For more than ten years they were inseparable companions of engineering and mischief, playing larks such as reprogramming the replicators to spit ice cream on otherwise innocent hungry people.

At the age of thirteen, Orsos’ family moved to the Deneva star system. Iskander and Orsos struggled to keep in touch, but reunited at the Academy as colleagues. They studied together, bunked together, and were unsuccessful at reprogramming the Academy Canteen to spit ice cream at fellow cadets.

Their relationship changed completely when, in 2391, Orsos came out as a man. While it changed nothing to their comradery, it opened the way for a romantic relationship. In 2393, both assigned to the Facility on Ganymede, they married.

Orsos died of a sudden Vitorexian Fever in 2398.

Skills and Weaknesses

Iskander is a very capable and versatile engineer with a slight penchant for theoretical engineering and a mastery of transporter technology. He is very good at maintaining machinery.

He doesn’t really shine at any other Starfleet task. He can pilot shuttles slowly, as if space was filled with bumps; he is lousy with a phaser and slightly phobic of being shot at; he is useless at sciences unless quantum mechanics is involved.