Abena Tau

Early Life

Tau was born on a colony ship headed for the Permian Sector, a remote Federation border region. The colonial project had launched against Starfleet’s recommendation and settled in a system which was resource-rich and abundant in life but also drew the attention of nearby raiders, including the Kzinti. Securing not just a comfortable life for the colonists, but a safe one, included the installation of extensive technological systems, from construction equipment to weather control to warning and defence infrastructure. Abena’s parents were among the colony’s engineers, and so she grew up around this work.

She might have stayed in Permian had her colony not been raided by the Kzinti when she was fourteen. Early warning systems she’d witnessed her parents build warned of the incoming ships quickly enough for a distress call to go out and be answered not long after the Kzinti’s arrival. This answer came from the USS Proteus, a Starfleet ship patrolling the region, which sent the raiders packing and sent down teams to help the colony repair and recover.

This was Abena’s first encounter with Starfleet, after growing up being told by the colonists that the organisation was domineering, nannying, and unnecessary. She instead found officers eager to help, keen to learn about colony life, and tolerant of a gangly teenager who wanted to stick her nose into their repair work. In many cases, with the extent of modifications and adjustments made on local systems, her knowledge of how the equipment actually worked instead of how it was supposed to work meant she could do more than just watch – she could help.

Her parents were not displeased when she later said she wanted to join Starfleet. They did, perhaps, sigh a lot.

Early Career

Tau applied for and was accepted to the prestigious San Francisco Starfleet Academy. The culture shock of moving from a remote colony to one of the most populous hubs of the Federation was significant, and she spent the first semester going from classrooms and labs to effectively hiding to study on her own. The interventions of academic supervisors came to nothing until the teamwork portions of her engineering studies began. This, of course, was something Tau knew – her colony had thrived on working with others, of building personal networks to achieve their goals.

Once she could relate to her classmates through work and cooperation, the rest came naturally. She was not a shy young woman, simply unaccustomed to San Francisco, and the more she settled, the more she came out of her shell. By her second year, she was an assertive, bright, and capable cadet, a natural leader among her peers, who thrived in group work where she could bring out the best in the team to achieve her goals.

Upon graduating, Tau only went from strength to strength. Starship life was a little more like quieter colony life. While she was thoroughly capable in engineering rooms, Tau was among the first to volunteer for away missions, enjoying getting her hands dirty with disparate practical problems, and keen to, as she saw it, return the favour Starfleet had done her. They helped people. She wanted to do that.

Miracle Workers

It did not take her long to reach a posting of Chief Engineer, and begin to develop a reputation as one of Starfleet Engineering’s miracle workers. She was in such a role upon the outbreak of the Dominion War, and was as unwilling a soldier as any in Starfleet. Tau coped with the violence and consistent danger by focusing on her engineering team and her ship, and blocking out the outside world as much as possible. But she also saw ground action, mostly in liberation and rebuilding efforts, including in the Cardassian border systems at the war’s end when Starfleet was needed to get battle-ravaged worlds back on their feet.

Rather than take a position on one of Starfleet’s great explorers, Tau kept herself close to home for the Federation. She thrived even in inauspicious work on utility ships, appreciating seeing the effects of her work even once it was over, instead of moving on to something new. But by the 2390s, Starfleet Command was eager for her to move out of an engine room, despite her great reluctance to move into starship command.

Behind a Desk

In 2392, her ship was slated for a six-month refit. Despite Tau’s desire to oversee it herself, Command jumped on the opportunity to move her elsewhere, and she reluctantly accepted a teaching post at Starfleet Academy. This was expected to last only the six months, but Tau was kept in the position for over two years. On Earth, at least, she could further her connections. This initially took nothing more than the shape of her engaging with colleagues whose work she found interesting, but it presented her with an opportunity in 2394 to take on a project lead position at San Francisco Fleet Yards.

This was where Tau began to thrive. She was a consummate administrator and a lover of starships, but also deeply practically-minded. These skills made her well-suited to the long-term planning such a development role needed, and pleased superiors ear-marked her for future projects quite early. She accepted none for five years.

Avalon

In 2399, the Federation underwent a major policy shift, reopening its borders and returning Starfleet to missions of exploration. This included redirecting the Fourth Fleet to a galaxy-wide mandate, and a slew of new construction orders for appropriate starships. As such, Avalon Fleet Yards underwent a major operational recalibration, which included the assignment of a new command team. Tau jumped at the chance of a transfer, assuming the post of Commander of its Orbital Assets. After two years, she was moved up to Deputy of AFY.