Bob

Bobaht was born, just like the rest of his species, deep underneath the surface of his homeworld. His ‘childhood’ was spent traversing the endless subterranean  wilderness of his homeworld, swimming through lava pools with his brothers and sisters and braving the dangers of the seismic tremors. Indeed, Bobaht was seven years old before he ever broke the surface and tasted fresh air.

Of course, Bobaht hadn’t lived in isolation. He knew much of the Federation from an early age, and inbetween lava-diving and munching granite, he would often squeeze in next to his siblings to watch the latest FNN broadcast on their specialised systems. When occasional humanoid visitors came into the caves to meet the Horta, Bobaht was always amongst the first to welcome them. Indeed, when the visitor was a Starfleet officer, they would often find themselves badgered by the earnest young Horta with endless questions about the galaxy. It was inevitable that on his eighth birthday, Bobaht immediately applied to Starfleet Academy. His first visit to Earth was wondrous, exploring the both above and below ground, and he passed the Starfleet entrance exam with flying colours.

Once in the Academy, Bobaht found himself surrounded by endless aliens, an experience he adored. While a natural geology expert given his childhood and a gifted mathematician, Bobaht found that his passion did not lie in those areas. Instead (to general bemusement) he directed his energies towards the ‘soft’ sciences, and soon Bobaht was proving himself rather adept in the fields of history and psychology. Soon enough, he made the critical decision to apply his xenophilia and became Starfleet’s first Horta counselor. Considerable additional study was required to acquire his doctorate, especially since Bobaht needed to comprehend the eternally oddities of humanoid species, but in time, he accomplished his goal.

With a classic example of Horta humour, Bobaht came to favour the contraction ‘Bob’ and programmed an old fashioned En glish RP accent into his universal translator. He left the Academy as a brand new Horta, ready to unleash his cheerful compassion on anyone who crossed his path.

As a Starfleet counselor, Bobaht’s career began much like the countless thousands of other counselors in Starfleet. He travelled on starships, stayed on starbases and generally just had fun. It was pure chance that saw Bobaht serving on Starbase 12 in 2368, but when Bobaht saw the USS Enterprise and USS Bozeman coming into dock, he found his calling. The crew of the Bozeman had been unwillingly dragged through a temporal anomaly ninety years out of their own time, and Bobaht was amongst the first counselors to greet the stranded crew. He felt dreadfully sorry for the poor souls, and he poured his energy into helping them readjust to the 24^th century as best he could. Bobaht’s passion for history tied in perfectly, and soon enough, it became plain that the Horta had found his calling. He would later write a groundbreaking paper on Temporal Displacement Syndrome, and along with several other psychiatrists and Bozeman veterans, he would eventually help found the Bozeman Institute on Pacifica, a facility specifically designed to help temporal refugees as well as a number of other patients.

The Dominion War, however, proved to be a dark chapter for Bobaht. Like everyone else in Starfleet, he served on the front lines during the onslaught agaiust the Dominion onslaught, working at various hospitals close to the lines. It was during the siege of a Starbase, as Cardassian soldiers poured into the station, that Bobaht found himself in combat for the first time…to the extreme displeasure of the Cardassians. Their weapons proved useless against his rock hide, and while Bobaht had no limbs to hold a weapon, he had no need; he was the weapon. Through sheer bulk and the acid he could secrete, Bobaht inflicted horrific casualties on the Starbase’s attackers. The Federation won the day, but to Bobaht, it didn’t feel like a victory. Disgusted at himself, and horrified by the violence he’d inflicted, it took the Horta a long time to come to terms with what he’d done.

After the War, Bobaht continued to do his job, finding joy in his work. He would alternate between starship duty, starbase assignments and time spent at the Bozeman Institute, cheerfully going about his job and helping any temporal refugees that came his way. When news reached the Federation of three survivors of the USS Churchill, all three of whom had been frozen in cryostasis for eighty eight years, Bobaht was the first in line to help them.

Now that USS Providence is stranded, an entire Constitution-class starship more than a century out of its own time…well, how could Bobaht resist?