Orunë Ixabi

Family & Childhood

Near the northern cliffs of Betazed’s Valley of Song, a popular place for scattering ashes, lies a modest estate belonging to the Ixabi family. For generations, they’ve been undertakers at this revered location. Though never considered an outcast occupation on Betazed, the family’s long association with death does leave their position in the hierarchy of nobility somewhat murky.

Orunë Ixabi is what is known to Betazoids as a “Phase Baby”, born to older parents with nearly grown children. The pregnancy was planned, but existential dread and denial on the part of her parents regarding the looming threat of war may have played a greater part in this than common sense.

Orunë has no direct memories of the occupation of Betazed during the Dominion War, but the vivid flashbacks she’s picked up from her family members over the years tell part of the harrowing ordeal. Their estate was used to house a number of mid-rank Dominion officials, and the family was largely tasked with the same duties they’d always performed, but without the ceremony and with much higher frequency. “We didn’t have it as bad as some others,” and “It could have been much worse,” are the two quotes most commonly used by the Ixabi family to underplay the trauma of their experience.

After the War

The role the Ixabi family were able to play in helping their community and their people at large heal after the end of the war helped to reaffirm their dedication to their traditional vocation. Or rather, it did for Orunë’s parents and her two older sisters. Orunë herself was already a world apart, being the only one in her family who couldn’t remember the occupation, and although there would always be a place for her at the Ixabi columbarium, it was generally expected and even assumed that she’d find her own path.

As she got older, she and her age-mates found that they were forbidden from engaging with any overtly violent stories or media, like many youth the galaxy over. In this case, however, the restrictions were not just for their own sake, but also for the mental health of their elders: they were frequently warned against triggering painful war memories and flashbacks with their thoughts.

Orunë was already a very sensitive child, and she took the edict very seriously. She became so preoccupied with creating a pleasant mindscape for those around her that her parents and siblings took notice and stepped in to tell her that she was putting too much pressure on herself. After years of repeated reassurances, they eventually realized that it would require more effort to assuage her compulsions, and she started therapy in her early teens. The therapy helped somewhat, but she was still left with a high current of anxiety and a need to diminish negative thoughts that still dogs her to this day.

Higher Education

Ixabi continued her studies after secondary school in an attempt to find some direction for her life. She knew that she wanted to get away from her family estate for the sake of her mental health, and pondered leaving Betazed altogether. One particularly fascinating class on Betazed art history led to another class on interstellar art history, which eventually led her to the Australian National University on Earth, where she could follow her newfound passion in a place with far fewer telepaths to make her self-conscious about her mindscape.

She completed her degree, as well as postgraduate studies on semiotics and applied ontology. She was thinking of applying for a position with the Federation Archaeology Survey, but some lingering existential fear, some imprint from her family’s memories of the Dominion War, pushed her towards Starfleet instead. Despite–or perhaps because of–the Federation’s isolationist turn, the idea of being part of the Federation’s vanguard of diplomacy and exploration made her feel empowered.

Starfleet

Since she already had a degree and a couple of papers under her belt, Ixabi felt compelled to broaden her knowledge in other areas during her time at the Academy. She took extra coursework on starship operations, imagining herself as a self-actualized archaeology and anthropology officer managing the resources for her own away-missions.

The Babylon was her first posting after the Academy, and though she was in fact onboarded as the ship’s A&A officer, her position was quickly shifted to “operations officer” once Captain Najma Banoub was placed in command and their overall mission parameters changed to focus on stellar surveys. Not wanting to rock the boat on her very first assignment, Ixabi decided to just go with the flow and focus on acclimating to the Starfleet experience.

Although it wasn’t what she’d expected professionally, she made strides socially in the new environment. Her obsession with positive thinking continued to ease gradually, and she became especially enamored of her crewmates Robin Szarka and Odalys Zamora (two people who couldn’t be less concerned with cultivating a positive mindscape), as well as Qsshrr (a Horta).

Recent Developments

In February of 2401, she was promoted to Lieutenant Junior Grade and made the Chief Operations Officer onboard the Babylon.

In March, with the retirement of Captain Banoub and the death (from natural causes) of their executive officer, the Babylon took on a new commanding officer AND a new executive officer right on the brink of the return of the Lost Fleet. During the crisis, they were ordered to locate a spaceborne lifeform that had been spotted attacking and fleeing from Dominion ships. Ixabi used her telepathic abilities to help locate and make contact with the lifeform, though true communication was difficult until she enlisted the help of her Horta crewmate Qsshrr. Together, they convinced the lifeform to accompany the Babylon back to a Federation base where it would be safer, and where the two cultures might learn more about each other. [Mission 1: In Leviathan’s Wake]