Dy Highwater

April 19th, 2339. Dyad Yui Stag Highwater was born by surrogate to Katra and  Troy Highwater, a pair of cargo ship owner-captains who ran the Beta Quadrant runs between Qo’noS, Bolarus, Vulcan and Andoria. He grew up with his older brother, Sol, who was a pilot, in a healthy but chaotic environment. He had a dozen aunts and uncles, all crew members, who were basically family, and was raised by the whole ship.

As soon as he was old enough to take an interest in anything aside from food, sleep and his own toes, Dy was attracted to machines, engines, electronics, computers and all things engineering, By the age of four, he could often be found “helping” his uncles and aunts in the cramped engineering spaces of his parents cargo ships, passing tools, sticking his oft burned fingers wherever his could fit them and generally getting in the way. By the age of twelve, he was the de facto chief engineer of his parents home ship, the Meteor.

September 22nd, 2355. Dy’s parents retired from commercial cargo shipping. His older brother Sol took over the business and Dy was expected to follow, remaining as the fleet engineer. Instead, he did something nobody expected. A plan he’d been nurturing for nearly four years, without anyone’s knowledge. He enlisted in Starfleet. His parents were disappointed, they couldn’t understand why he’d leave the family business, but they were supportive as ever. His brother was not, they had a huge argument which ended with Dy’s right fist over his left side and his brother on the floor. They have not spoken since.

Dy’s test scores at the Charles Tucker III School of Engineering were mixed. Practically, he was an excellent engineer but academically he was lacking in even the most basic theory. He knew perfectly well how things worked, but had little understanding of why they worked. Thus, most of his courses were tailored to theoretical engineering. As a result, Dy had a torrid time at the school. While his results were good, he did not enjoy all the book study. In the fullness of time, he graduated from the school and became a crewman apprentice aboard the USS Hope.

June 1st, 2359. Dy gets his first posting aboard the USS Hope as an engineering assistant. He proves to be a useful addition to the team, often having out-of-the-box ideas and solutions that, while effective, don’t always adhere to Starfleet safety regulations. After two years of working on the Hope and learning to carefully bend the rules instead of outright breaking them, he earned enough respect and credit for a promotion to full engineer and full crewman.

July 27th, 2364. Crewman Highwater became Petty Officer Highwater aboard the USS Feltman. Heavily involved in the Federation-Cardassian war, the Feltman saw continuous action through 2364, 5 and 6. Dy, along with the rest of the engineering crew, had his hands full keeping the old Excelsior class Feltman in working order. His experience of jury-rigging half-broken systems and making do with what’s around stood him in good stead.

January 27th, 2366. The USS Feltman is disabled by a Cardassian Galor class starship and boarded. Over six hours, the crew fought deck-by-deck to secure the ship and eventually drove the Cardassians off with a counter-boarding measure. However, over half the crew including most of the officers were killed or wounded. Dy became temporary chief of engineering. It took the crew two days hiding in an asteroid field to get the ship’s primary systems back online, enabling them to limp home, after which the USS Feltman was declared unsalvageable and scrapped.

March 1st, 2366. Dy was assigned to the USS Pullman, an Ambassador class ship as a tactical systems specialist.  He got along well with the crew of the ship and made many friends. However, just one year later the USS Pullman was heavily damaged in the battle of Wolf 359. Dy was one of only five survivors pulled from the wreckage. Badly wounded, he was awarded the purple heart and the Starfleet decoration for gallantry.

December 2nd, 2367. After four months convalescence, Dy returned to active duty aboard the USS Goodfellow as a tactical systems specialist. He was to spend five of the most valuable years of his career aboard the Goodfellow, making some of his deepest friendships and establishing himself as a reliable, insightful and adaptable engineer. During his time aboard the Goodfellow, he was commended several times and reprimanded once for breaking Starfleet safety protocols. Towards the end of 2372 with the beginning of the Federation-Klingon war, he was promoted to Petty Officer 1st class and reassigned to the Tananda Bay Base on Ajilon Prime.

April 19th, 2373. On Dy’s birthday, the Klingons invade Ajilon Prime. Dy was taken off of engineering duty, given a rifle and assigned to defense. During the attack and subsequent battles, Dy helped to successfully defend the hospital and the survivors until the reinstatement of the Khitomer Accords and the withdrawal of the Klingon forces. He was awarded the purple heart and the Starfleet Medal of Honor with cluster for his actions. After the battle, he continued to serve at Tananda Bay, helping to reconstruct the base and the surrounding settlements.

February 21st, 2375. Due to his combat experience, Dy was assigned to frontline duty to assess, repair and defend the long-range communications array on the planet of AR-558. Shortly after, the Jem’Hadar invaded and begin a campaign to recapture the array. For five months, he took part in a protracted siege of the array, spending half of his time working on the array and the other half helping to defend the Starfleet position. He was severely wounded near the end of the conflict, causing him to require extensive surgery and to be fitted with a bio-organic liver, several replacement ribs and an artificial left arm below the elbow. He was again awarded the purple heart.

August 15th, 2376. After a year of convalescence, Dy was promoted to Chief Petty Officer and assigned to the USS Perlman as a senior engineer. Here, he essentially becomes the assistant chief engineer in all but name, and is, in time, given equal responsibility and respect as the officers aboard the ship. In the eight years he served aboard the Perlman, he spent a lot of time studying, taking courses and preparing for the second half of his career.

May 30th, 2384. With the support and backing of his captain, Dy applied for and was accepted to officer candidate school at Starfleet Academy. As a senior enlisted man with more than fifteen years engineering experience, and having already completed many of the required modules prior to applying, he was put on the fast track program. At 45 years old, he is by far and above the oldest cadet in Starfleet but remains so for only one year.

September 10th, 2385. Ensign Dyad Highwater is assigned to the USS Britain as Assistant Chief Engineer. At first, there is some resistance to an ensign having a senior position such as assistant chief, but due to his age and wealth of experience in Starfleet, 26 years of service, this was quickly overcome. His ship returned him to where he started his career, on the Cardassian border in the Gavarian Frontier.

May 24th, 2388. Dy is promoted to Lieutenant Junior Grade aboard the USS Britain. Two days later, he got the terrible news that his brother, along with his brother’s wife and two children, were killed when their freighter, the Willbourhy, was destroyed by unknown forces. Dy immediately took an extended leave of absence in order to settle his brother’s affairs and deal with the aftermath of his death.

Now, having returned from his ELOA, 50-year-old LT JG Dyad Highwater is ready to resume duties within Starfleet.