Limmi Ovim

Early Life

The sole child of a Betazoid family comprised of an ecologist father and a civil engineer mother, Limmi enjoyed a traveled childhood in which she watched her parents cultivate growth and development throughout the Federation frontier. Her interest in Starfleet arose like that of countless aspirants before her: by witnessing the support it provided for her and others, particularly when her father’s survey team was abducted by a cabal of Cardassian nationalists in 2367. The administering ship—USS Easley—recovered them with assistance from then-adolescent Limmi and her nascent psionic abilities, endearing her to its CO Joab Prisk and his son Samson. Both became pivotal elements in her life: the former would encourage her interest and sponsor her eventual application to Starfleet Academy. Meanwhile, Samson and she provided each other emotional support throughout the ordeal and beyond, becoming friends despite their respective parents’ work keeping them vast distances apart.

Limmi’s parents accepted her interest in Starfleet though in keeping with their people’s ideals, weren’t keen of her interest in tactical studies. They blamed the Prisks, fostering a somewhat begrudging acquaintance. But while Joab did intrigue her with a more comprehensive perspective on warfare, her realization of headstrong militant adversity to the Federation—and her desire to learn how to turn it aside—arose from her family’s earlier crisis.

Starfleet Academy

The Dominion War brought that perspective home, as Betazed fell during her second year. To her dismay, Starfleet’s initial liberation attempts were among the numerous failures definitive of the conflict’s escalation. Rumors of an accelerated curriculum to supplant mounting casualties made Limmi determined to elevate herself into consideration, thrusting her into the notice of Red Squad. Reformed under the aegis of Advanced Training Command after the Leyton coup and the USS Valiant’s loss behind enemy lines induced oversight concerns, the head of said department was none other than her sponsor Joab Prisk. Now a Vice Admiral, his staunch, well-connected support of the Zife Administration led her to suspect it matter of time before Red Squad was used to support the war effort.

Betazed’s liberation the successive year validated her surmise. The Romulans’ declaration of war against the Dominion allowed Starfleet to reallocate personnel and assets from their neutral zone, most of which went straight to the main theater. Red Squad was consequently restored to reserve unit status to staff the reclamation operation on Betazed, and Limmi received a field training post aboard the Excelsior-class Ghibli—one of the patrol ships—as a relief tactical officer. Though not as illustrious as past assignments facilitated by the unit, it was sufficient in that it fulfilled her burning desire to return home.

Once there, she discovered that only her family’s maternal half had survivors. Worse, Limmi’s mother had fallen catatonic from participating in the Resistance’s psionic onslaught against Dominion forces, spurring a meeting with her maternal grandmother thrust into an estranging end by her sensing that her elder had collaborated with the subjugators to gain political power. She then considered dropping out to tend to her mother, yet one of the doctors offered to share a conservatorship, crediting the stricken woman for her survival.

Limmi accepted and progressed to her cadet cruise aboard the Steamrunner-class Iga, assigned to anti-piracy operations in the war-torn trailward regions. Her restraint at tactical didn’t endear her to some of her more zealous colleagues, but her commanding officer was impressed, noting in her performance evaluation that she, “represents the introspection necessary to reclaim ourselves from the abyss of war.” She graduated in the 85th percentile of her class.

Career

2377-2391

She bypassed the menial posts customary of new graduates on account of immediate interest from a familiar venue: the Easley. Joab Prisk retained it as his flagship and wielded his influence to keep the aging Korolev-class cruiser up to date, capably crewed, and thus viable for frontline operations, leaving Limmi little incentive to seek opportunities elsewhere at the onset of her career. By 2383, she was a Lieutenant, the Chief Tactical Officer, and also a frontrunner for Officer of the Watch, a standalone position maintained within the Easley’s unit structure as a more direct transition for command prospects.

It wasn’t to be. Samson Prisk transferred aboard and was given the position to facilitate his more expressed interest in command, irking some of the crew. Yet Limmi peddled his acceptance, evolving their relationship into romance, then marriage following their mutual escape of the Easley’s destruction during the Synth assault on Mars. But instead of joining the surviving core crew aboard the Ambassador-class Libra, she went to the Argonaut-class Bonaventure on a dare of sorts from a former schoolmate.

Initially assigned to support nation-rebuilding initiatives in the familiar trailward regions, Bonaventure was redomiciled to Opaka Outpost in 2386 to perform similar functions in response to the colonization boom kindled by New Bajor’s relative lack of discord. The purposeful optimism Limmi gleaned from reconnecting with the frontier drove her to convince Samson to pursue a comparable assignment for his impending capital command, where they planned to reconverge their careers. However, he perished in the enigmatic raid on Xavier Fleet Yards in 2391 while inspecting the ship’s construction.

2391-present

Rather than take a respite to grieve, she requested a transfer to the Klingon frontier in anticipation of neutralizing the Sovereignty of Kahless—the assumed culprits. Placed aboard the Libra at Vice Admiral Prisk’s behest, she helped the ship perform admirably throughout Operation Gatecrasher and remained aboard until it was recalled for decommissioning in 2395. With no imminent replacement planned, Limmi took her promotion to the USS Niño, the new Vesta-class home of her Bonaventure shipmates.

Tasked with investigating second-party allegations of the Dominion’s decline, Niño‘s subsequent five-year mission in the Gamma Quadrant determined they were indeed receding their reach, creating a power vacuum in many of their former territories. Yet the rise of adversaries closer to the Federation core—sanctioned and rogue—put paid to any notion of supplanting Dominon influence. Even if that weren’t the case, the Federation didn’t want to chance encouraging existential opposition on yet another front. The Niño subsequently returned to New Bajor for resupply, reassignment, and personnel as career ambitions and personnel needs elsewhere leached away crew.

Despite having accrued sufficient experience and accolades to pursue command at this juncture of her career, Limmi requested another long-duration, deep-space assignment and received the Columbia, one of the few vacancies for which her qualifications were well-matched. . .