Kalikuo Arija

Born on Bajor during the Occupation to Koande and Jiaba, Kali had anything but a normal life. Her parents tried to do their best for the family, keeping their heads down and out of the fighting as much as they could. Living on an isolated farm made it a bit easier for the when Kali was younger, it was several years before the Cardassian Occupation really impacted them. Of course, when it did, it hit them hard. Setting up an outpost nearby the Cardassians decided that the food grown on their farm was now to be used to support the Army when her brother objected they killed him. Even then her father stayed out of it and just accepted things, Kali couldn’t, leaving home to join the Resistance. This caused a rift in her family, messages only coming to her from her mother for years.

Separating from her family was hard but Kali was so angry she almost didn’t notice, diving into her new life full force. It wasn’t an easy transition, but she held up through it all. That was until near the end of the occupation when she was Captured during a raid on a Cardassian Armory. Her cell having garnered a rather… dangerous reputation and thus she was considered a high-value prisoner. Spending over a week in interrogation Kali was eventually sent to a specialist facility. Here she became the personal ‘pet’ project of a pair of Obsidian Order scientists.

They held her for months, the worst of her life; interrogation, humiliation, rape, and experimentation became her daily routine. At first, she resisted, fought back at every turn so sure that she’d soon be rescued. Month after month she held out until her will finally broke. Becoming a ‘willing’ participant in their work, even for a short time is still her biggest shame. When she was finally rescued, Kali was a hollow shell of the strong woman she once was. It took a long time for her to heal up enough to function on her own.

With the occupation over and the Cardassians gone it helped, but that also meant that she had no one to take out her anger upon. Needing to leave Bajor for awhile and get away from all those bad memories, on a whim Kali applied to Starfleet Academy. She didn’t honestly think she’d get in, but exploring deep space sounded like a nice change of scenery. Going into several interviews with recruitment officers Kali did her best but was setting herself up to fail. Strangely enough, they actually accepted her and the next month she was off.

Adjusting to life on Earth was…well next to impossible, it was so incredibly different to Bajor. Looking around Kali had never seen a people or planet with so few scars. It was both infuriating and beautiful to her, seeing places like San Francisco for the first time made her weep. As different as life on Earth was to Bajor life in Starfleet was a whole other level. Never had she been a part of something with so much structure and so much history. She honestly didn’t ever feel up to it.

Kali had been planning to leave after her first year, not sure she could handle it all, until she met one of her fellow Bajorans Talani Riia. Something about the woman drew her in, made her feel…safe, at home. She and Riia became constant companions, sharing classes, meals, leave… Kali was finally coming out of her shell if only a little bit. In a few short months their friendship blossomed into much, much more. Kali had never had a real relationship and she couldn’t have asked for a better first. Talani not only made her feel safe, but valued…Kali would always love her for it. Most of all though Riia helped open her eyes to purpose, to what her life could be in Starfleet.

After graduation the two were assigned to different ships, different theaters of the brewing war. Instead of trying to eek out a long distance relationship during the largest interstellar war seen by the Federation, the couple made a mostly amicable break up and went their separate ways. Kali was assigned to the USS Eclipse an Akira Class cruiser fighting on the frontlines with the 9th fleet. The war was a brutal one for Kali drudging up many old and painful experiences of her youth. At first Riia was able to help her through it over the comm, but they began losing touch more and more.

Kali saw a lot of loss during the war, despite being an Engineer with her combat experience she was quickly attached to the ship’s security forces. The Captain of the Eclipse was a daring man and liked to be in the thick of the fighting; if they weren’t ambushing Jem’hadar ships they were boarding Cardassian stations. By the time the Breen entered the war Kali had been a part of 42 separate engagements. Even with their ships vulnerable to the Breen Energy Weapons the Captain found ways to keep them involved, many of their missions becoming joint operations with the Klingons. The war didn’t last much longer but the damage was done to who Kali had planned to be, she was no longer the idealistic young woman she was just two years beforehand.

With the war over and many of the crew moving on or retiring Kali needed to get away from the bad memories and worse new recruits; many of whom were enamored with stories of the ship and the crew who served aboard her during the war. The Captain wasn’t pleased, but he too understood and even helped her find a positing that had her working with more veterans than raw recruits. Of course had she know it was with one of the experimental Hazard Teams she might have reconsidered.

Still her time aboard the Furious was good her team doing a little bit of everything from taking out terrorist cells to infiltrating Tal Shiar safehouses. For years she did this ignoring her better angels and her need to heal. It was a trip to Risa, a job off and the return of her hold love to set her on the right path. A conspiracy was brewing in the Federation, and a team was being put together to keep things from falling apart. Riia all these years later came to find her, giving her name to the team leaders of their engineering specialist.

Her time with Spectre was difficult, the work they did murky at best and none of it easy. But it was good for her, it revitalized her, gave Kali purpose again. But more than that it gave her Riia back. Once again the woman was her rock, jump starting the healing process like the last nine years hadn’t happened. They still had to figure each other out again both trying to figure out where they sat. At first things were friendly of course, both settling into old patterns. But with those patterns came feelings, ones which neither of them knew what exactly to do with.

At first it caused some confusion and put some stress on their friendship. But after a couple of months of harrowing missions and life and death circumstances that were closer calls than either of them wanted to admit; neither could ignore things anymore. Neither had really planned it but for Kali rekindling their budding romance was the best thing that could have happened to her. It also helped with integrating Kali into the team. Having someone to care about was great for her normally surly disposition. At least in that she didn’t immediately want to run off anyone who talked to her.

After several months of work the team was finally working together like a well oiled machine and they were really able to make a dent into the conspiracy. It took another year and half they finally were able to take the ring down. Exposing several high ranking members of command and even the Federation council as traitors no one on the team thought they got everyone. But their mission was over, it had been a success

Leaving Spectre was one of the hardest things she ever had to do, but with things finished Starfleet Command wanted the team disbanded and its prominent members separated, at least in part. It was alright, Kali had a new energy and direction, and most of all she had Talani. With the help of Alex Night and Jack Lashmore, they were reassigned to the same Intelligence department.

It was a hard transition, becoming a true Intelligence Officer. But Kali was persistent, seeing it as a new challenge. The hardest part was learning to become someone else entirely, taking on a new name and new life for a mission. Still Kali showed a certain talent for it eventually garnering a bit of a reputation in the intelligence community. Eventually leading a team out of the Romulan section. For awhile things were pretty status quo until a they were coming back from a reconnaissance mission when she found out that Riia’s own team had been compromised and captured. Left alive as bait for another team, Command quickly recognized the play and ordered all teams to stay away. Kali objected…strenuously, earning herself a reprimand in the process. This of course didn’t deter her, this was Riia after all.

Disobeying orders to return to base, Kali instead took her team to rescue Riia, risking their own capture and exposure. It was a messy rescue to say the least nearly losing two members of her own team and being wounded in the process they got everyone out. The rescue’s success of course didn’t mean anything to Command; Kali had not only disobeyed orders but she’d done it for personal reasons and brought her team in on it. This wasn’t something they could ignore, it was also not something they could court martial her over either. There are rules and regulations to things of course, but there’s also the grey area of intelligence work, you couldn’t exactly throw someone to the curb for doing the right thing…usually. So instead they ‘compromised,’ Kali had been up for a third pip at the time, but instead was passed over and put on some serious probation. Once more it was only Alex’s influence that kept her in the section.

Keeping her head down after so many years of playing things loose was another difficult adjustment. In a way though it was good, just not what she wanted. It gave her a chance to grow in the role, up till then she’d been treating the team as too much of an extension of her Hazard and Spectre days. Now she had to respect the profession as its own identity. It took some time but Kali eventually worked her way back up, although she was constantly reminded that she wouldn’t be leading her own team again for awhile. Focusing more on undercover work, she was finally given a mission that could be her redemption.

Of course with her luck it didn’t go as planned. Instead of being her career maker it nearly destroyed her both professionally and personally… not to mention cost a good man his life. For some reason Command came down on her hard, removing Kali from field work and the section entirely. Kali had never felt like more of a failure; her career in shambles, friend dead and separated from Riia…. It hit Kali pretty hard. Transferred to an Intelligence base as the Research and Design director while her case was under review Kali has more time on her hands to think than she ever wanted.

What she doesn’t know of course is that she’s been ankle deep in a conspiracy much larger than just her days at Spectre or one failed operation.