Louwanna Horin

Political Information

• Affiliation: Starfleet, United Federation of Planets

Family

• Mother: Vxivanna Horin, Federation Emissary
• Father: Darrexxa Horin, Starfleet Admiral (retired)
• Fiancé: Trent Hunsen, Starfleet Commander
• Daughter: Jaxerlynne Horin-Hunsen
• Brother: Jaxxon Horin, Starfleet Captain 
• Sister-in-law: Anizza Horin, Starfleet Commander – married to Jaxxon.
• Nephew:  Tateumm Horin, Starfleet Ensign
• Imzadi: Tremt Hunsen, Starfleet Commander of the USS Odyssey (NCC-80000)
• Son: Eddim Horin

Biography

Early Life

Born to the Horin family on Mellstoxx III, Louwanna Horin was the youngest daughter of a Starfleet commander and a member of the Betazoid government. Her father, a Starfleet officer, was one of the liaison officers assigned to the colony, and her mother worked in the diplomatic services. Growing up in the family’s estate in the northern hemisphere, the Horin family was part of the Fourth House of Betazed. As such, they were pretty high up in Betazoid society. A member of the aristocratic society, Louwanna was cared for by a range of nannies and childminders, just like her slightly older brother Jaxxon. 

The two children were fortunate to have a nanny who provided them with a well-rounded informal education and ensured they didn’t have a privileged upbringing. The nanny’s progressive views exposed the children to different ways of life and influenced their perspectives. She instilled strong values and principles, sometimes conflicting with their parents’ views. Eventually, the children understood their parents’ perspectives. As they grew older, they both attended private boarding schools. 

Attending her boarding school, Louwanna’s interest in helping others grew. From enjoying her biology, history, and sociology lessons and, later on, early psychology, Horin was intrigued to know more and learn more. Deciding to join Starfleet Academy felt right, and she was heavily influenced by the presence of Starfleet on her homeworld. Fully supporting their daughter (just like they did with her brother), Louwanna’s application was successful. 

Starfleet Career

Starfleet Academy

Completing her entrance exam at the Mellstoxx campus, Louwanna found herself at the heart of one the most sophisticated training centres outside of Earth. Her eight years on the Mellstoxx Campus gave her a chance to explore her abilities as a counsellor, the career she had chosen at the start of her time at the academy, and thanks to some of her instructors being Betazoid themselves; she was able to learn from them how she could use her empathic and telepathic abilities to help her patients. 

Though she had the opportunity to undertake the additional option to specialise in advanced starship operations during her third and fourth years, Louwanna opted to do something other than this. She wanted to focus on counselling, making her the valedictorian of her class.

While at the Academy, her family’s attempts to enforce her marriage to a fellow Betazoid (who was also at the academy) were revoked. Though she had been dating someone else, someone her mother had never met, she was relieved that she didn’t marry the son of the Eleventh House of Betazed, Cadet Tremt Hunsen. Instead, her relationship with her classmate, Max Duncan, was one she preferred, but she would eventually end their relationship as she decided she wanted to focus on her studies instead.  

Deep Space Four

After joining the counselling department at Deep Space Four as assistant chief counsellor, Louwanna enjoyed her time on the Federation starbase. Here, she enjoyed being involved in her general practice and developing the community further on D-S-5.

While attending a symposium on Earth in 2385, she joined everyone else in the sheer horror that took place when synthetic beings turned on the Federation and attacked Mars. Volunteering to join one of the many relief efforts, Horin found her team assigned to the USS Westminster, and her time on Deep Space Five ended after she was permanently placed on the Parliament-class ship. 

USS Westminster (NCC-70499)

Being made the ship’s chief counsellor under its new captain, one Zack Marshall-Bennet, Horin’s initial rejection of wanting ever to be starship based soon disappeared. Though their first mission together as a crew was to assist with relief operations after the attack on Mars, eventually, the ship was sent on other missions in and around the Federation.

Remaining on the ship for the next eight years, Horin was instrumental in helping the crew come to terms with the tragedy on Mars and assisting Captain Bennet in bringing the crew together as a community. Bennet warmly received her thoughtful insights and advice, and she became one of his closest advisors and confidants. She considered him a strong mentor in what was expected of a good officer.

When Bennet’s time at Westminster ended, he was offered command of the USS Destiny and offered her the chance to join him. Deciding to decline the offer, she instead applied to become a professor at Starfleet Academy. Able to return home to Mellstoxx, she took up a teaching position there.

Starfleet Academy – Mellstoxx Campus    

Her time as a professor was one she enjoyed the most. Teaching young cadets and sharing her knowledge from her time on Deep Space Five and the Westminster gave her a chance to give back and prepare the next generation of Starfleet counsellors. Working through various classes, she became a faculty head and remained an active counsellor. She provided support not only to her students who required it but also to her colleagues. 

Ultimately, her superiors approached her to consider expanding her abilities and experience by further training herself. This was in the form of the advanced starship operations module she opted not to do during her time at the academy and later the bridge officer’s exam. Excelling in these areas, she felt it would be appropriate to continue her studies while teaching. Expanding her knowledge further, she took courses in advanced diplomacy and politics, thus allowing her to serve in a diplomatic function. 

While at the academy, she led small units in training for short-term missions. Some of them included taking teams to the refugee camps that had been set up to assist those Romulans who had escaped from the collapse of their government after the destruction of their homeworld in 2387. Helping those suffering from long-term side effects of losing their home was work she found inspiring and worthwhile. This was something she instilled in all of her students.  

By 2395, she was requested to join another ship heading into Romulan Republic territory to assist in developing further relations with them. Unable to turn down the offer, she would be on a two-year mission and eventually be allowed to return to her teaching on Mellstoxx. 

USS Fibonacci (NCC-83007)

Assigned as Chief Counsellor and Chief Diplomatic Officer to the Obena-class emissary, USS Fibonacci was another highlight for Horin’s career. Not long was she involved in almost every away mission, every negotiation and interaction with the people of the Romulan Republic, but she was appointed second officer in the ship’s second year. 

When the mission ended, she struggled to decide whether to remain or return to Mellstoxx III. Eventually, she returned home and used what she had learned to inspire more cadets.

Starfleet Academy – Mellstoxx Campus    

Though returning home was a joyful moment for her, Horin requested from her superiors the chance to do more than just teach more eager counsellors-in-training. She had the opportunity to mentor and coach those officers visiting the campus to undertake other training. 

By the end of 2399, her former commanding officer, Zack Marshall-Bennet, had been promoted to rear admiral and was now made the Chief of Staff of the Fourth Fleet. He sought her out and attempted to recruit her to join his staff as his chief of staff. She turned him down, but the two remained in constant communication, often seeing one another weekly for a meal. 

At the start of 2400, Bennet pulled some strings to have Horin spearhead the effort to assess the crew of the USS Odyssey after its crew escaped two months of incarceration on an alien ship in the Delta Quadrant. Her orders were to determine if their time away caused any concern for the crew, including its civilian population, on their ability to undertake their duties and assess their short-term and long-term effects on everyone’s wellbeing. 

Though her large team was able to see almost all of the crew within a space of a week, it was clear from the onset that the two months away under duress caused significant harm to the mental well-being of the crew on various levels. Horin recommended that everyone participate in therapy to help them deal with what happened and move forward. Unfortunately, the Century Storm appeared in the Paulson Nebula. With insufficient people to crew the ship, Bennet was forced to reinstate the Odyssey crew into active status to assist with the relief efforts in the nebula. However, this order came with one huge caveat: Horin would be assigned as the ship’s chief counsellor, and several of her colleagues would join the ship to continue their work. Her appointment to the vessel saw her taking over the duties of one of her former students (Lieutenant Samris, who had been assigned as the ship’s chief counsellor only months before). 

USS Odyssey (NCC-80000)

Finding the transition to the Odyssey one of the most awkward postings she ever had, Horin’s attempts to work with the crew started with some resistance due to Samris’ demotion. However, she had been able to rekindle her friendship with its chief engineer, her former betrothed, Commander Tremt Hunsen. To add to the awkwardness, the first officer and former chief counsellor was her boyfriend from her academy days, Max Duncan. She got on well with Max and found a good friend in him.   

Though Horin’s efforts significantly helped the crew deal with the trauma from their imprisonment, the impact of the Century Storm crisis, only days after she was assigned to the ship, would require her talents and skills once more. Horin counselled Captain McCallister and his sons after the loss of their mother and wife (respectively). 

On a personal note, she and Hunsen started to date again, rekindling a romance they never pursued. 

Before long, the ship was sent into the Velorum Sector to deal with another crisis. After the collapse of the remains of the Romulan Star Empire, the Federation was requested by the provisional government to aid in rebuilding efforts. Sent to help the Romulan colony of Vorash, the crew uncovered a Tal Shiar plot to destroy the settlement. Thankfully, the ship had helped establish it over a decade ago, so they had a familiar knowledge of its inhabitants. Horin was instrumental in helping build a rapport again with the Vorash’s settlers, especially with the Qowat Milat, who had constructed an orphanage. While helping at the orphanage, she felt Hunsen and others attacked by the Reman populace. When a plan was put in place to rescue Hunsen and others from the Remans, Horin joined the away team to assist in finding them. Her strong connection to her Imzadi helped them locate them and bring them back to the Odyssey safely.

After returning to the Delta Quadrant, Horin discovered she was pregnant with Hunsen’s child. Delighted at the prospect of starting a family, Horin eventually moved in with Hunsen. Before the end of 2400, the ship was involved in the Blood Dilithium crisis that affected the Gradin Belt of the Delta Quadrant. At the time, the Odyssey had been helping Brenari refugees settle on a secret colony that others of their own race had established. Horin worked alongside the Brenari and, being a telepath, found interacting with the Brenari a fascinating experience. When the ship went to help others nearby, the telepathic crewmembers were affected by the sudden appearance of Blood Dilithum fragments, except for Horin. Later scans by Slyvexs discovered that Horin’s pregnancy was somehow protecting her. Without knowing, the telepathic members of the crew were also being manipulated by a baby telepathic pitcher plant, who was wounded by Blood Dilithium Crystals. Hunsen and others, under the control of a neurogenic field from the bio-plasmic creature, led a mutiny against Captain McCallister when he refused to help what appeared to be a Brenari convoy of refugee ships pursued by a Devore squadron. It would later turn out to be a ruse set up by the telepathic pitcher plant to get the Odyssey to assist it. Using a device created by Starfleet Science, Horin (the only telepath left not affected by the Blood Dilithium or neurogenic field) could connect with the baby telepathic pitcher plant through telepathy. She was able to help it, help save the Odyssey and its crew. Once the ordeal was over, its mental impact on those coerced into mutiny was significant, especially on Hunsen. He struggled a lot, and even though she tried to help, Horin, for the first time in her career, was unable to help someone. Horin and Hunsen agreed to take a break from each other while he recovered. Their relationship only worsened when he decided to leave the Odyssey and join the USS Themis instead. He asked Horin to join her, but she declined, stating she didn’t think running away from their problems was the right course.

While pregnant, Horin continued to serve as the ship’s chief counsellor and found herself in mid-2400 providing counselling support to a group of Borg drones that the crew had found stranded on a planet in the Delta Quadrant. Now that the Odyssey was leading a squadron, she had several other counsellors to work with in helping these lost souls. Her continued service on the Odyssey only made her one of Fleet Captain McCallister’s closest advisors. During the Dominion Lost Fleet invasion of the Deneb Sector, when McCallister was required to travel on one of the other ships, he made Duncan a captain. He gave him temporary command of the Odyssey. As the next most senior officer on the ship, Horin should have taken over as acting first officer. Being heavily pregnant by this time, Horin declined the offer and requested Flemen to take it instead. She wasn’t keen to call a red alert while dealing with her morning sickness. 

After the Frontier Day disaster, Horin was promoted to captain of counselling for the squadron. She made it clear she was not interested in taking command of a ship, but when Horin saw the need for experienced officers to step up further, she agreed to do it for McCallister. She was now responsible for the mental health of everyone in the Odyssey Squadron.

Eventually, Horin and Hunsen reconciled their romance before she gave birth to their son. They called him Eddim, after her grandfather. Horin would take the next few months off from her duties to take her maternity cover. She spent some time off on board the USS Themis so she, Hunsen and Eddim could be a family. By the time her maternity break ended, she was fortunate to be able to return to the Odyssey as Hunsen had recently been made first officer there under its new captain, Max Duncan.