Katherine Carter

Katie was born on Mars, Utopia Planetia Shipyard to be precise. Her mother was a senior engineer on the Insignia-project in its initial development process. Her father, Erik, was a lawyer working from home. This meant that Erik was the one who primarily raised Katie. From an early age he tried instilling a clear sense of right and wrong, especially according to the law.

She loved her father dearly, but during her later teenage years the young woman rebelled against her father’s teaching. Starting from minor shoplifting up to eventually sneaking onto a Starfleet Shuttle Depot. Security scooped her up as she was looking over the various types of vessels.

She was charged with trespassing on a military facility. The judge saw a strong-willed young woman who, in school, had earned good grades and a chance for a bright future. He gave her a simple choice, enlist in Starfleet for five years, or have a criminal record and spend half a year under home arrest.

After discussing it with her father Erik, and her mother Allison, Katie chose to enlist. Her mother was the strongest proponent of this route, seeing as she had always fostered hope her daughter would follow in her footsteps.

Bootcamp didn’t sit well with Katie. The freedoms her father had given her after realizing he couldn’t control her were hard fought and even harder to lose. While she generally wasn’t a troublemaker, backtalker or otherwise a problem, her several attempts at sneaking off base lead to washing out of her initial cohort. After being dropped into the following cohort, and being thoroughly humiliated she finally got with the program.

In her second cohort she met a fellow enlistee named David Constance. With him she would form a life-long rivalry. At their first meeting he simply stated he would be the better trainee. David came from a military family, and had been prepared for this his entire life. At first Katie didn’t take him serious, but his beating her during their physical exams frustrated her to such a point she had to escalate. At the end of bootcamp Katherine Carter graduated as the top recruit of her cohort, with David Constance coming in a close second.

After finally completing bootcamp her aptitude tests showed a future in the engineering field. Further testing identified an interest in Warp Engine technology. With opening and need for engine mechanics needed to keep the older ships flying during the war, Katie was entered into the Warp Engine A-School.

Here her interest in the subject allowed her to come to the top her class, coupled with the discipline she finally learned during bootcamp made her an instructor favourite. Especially Senior Chief Aaron Waldorf. The Senior Chief spent extra time with Katie to further instruct her in the concepts skimmed over in A-School. During these times Senior Chief Waldorf started having feelings for Katie, flirting more with her after classes.

This came to a head at the end of A-School, where the two shared a single passionate kiss in a closet. This was broken by Katie, who explained that while she had similar feelings, she didn’t want to risk her career, or hers. Waldorf understood, regretfully.

Her next transfer came to the USS Odin, a Norway-Class ship assigned to the Sixth Fleet, and the defence of the Bolian sectors. The Odin had experienced severe combat during the previous months, getting a beating to her engines. Katie was able to make a name for herself by finding weird ways to patch the systems back together. One favourite way of hers was reroute the diaphragm exhaust into the secondary control chambers to allow for a harmonious warp field for up to an hour of warp 9.8, something the engines weren’t not technically meant to do.

If asked later about this, Katie would swear up and down she had meant to do, but her personal logs would reflect it was a the result of a mistake gone right.

Luckily the Odin’s participation in the Dominion War was relatively short, as the Treaty of Bajor was signed months after her posting. Her post-war time on the shift lead to her continuing work on the Warp drive with her team, until such a time as the Odin would be able to put into dry dock for engine refurbishment.

With the arrival of the Odin at Proxima Maintenance Yard in the Alpha Centauri system, Katie’s shift supervisor as well as her team leader moved her forward for C-School, a more advanced training for Warp Engine Mechanics. She jumped at the chance, her two years on the Odin having given her a taste for the massive machines.

After a shuttle flight to Earth, she arrived back at Starfleet Academy. Her first day, and her first instructor was Senior Chief Petty Officer Waldorf. Katie’s hard spun up hard, those feelings she thought came back with a vengeance. But she had been the one to stave off the relationship last time, and she felt she had to stuck to her decision. This lead to three months of avoiding each other, and bad results in Waldorf’s class.

The pursuing discussion, after Waldorf was able to corner Katie was painful for her. The Senior Chief had found another, had gotten married and found happiness with her. This crushed Katie’s spirits, she had known it couldn’t work out but having the hope and dream being taken away was more painful.

After a month longer of struggling in C-School the warning came. If Katie would not show the promise her supervisors on the Odin saw in her, she would be washing out of the program. Washing out would mean it would take another two years before having a chance at another sot at C-School. With gritted teeth Katie started her work again.

Two weeks later the C-School students were given a 5 day leave. Katie took the opportunity and took a shuttle to Mars, and back to see her family. Long discussions with her father showed him that she had truly found her place, and long discussions with her mother helped her further adjust to the military life, as well as helping her find her way back to finish her school. Five months after her visit Katie graduated fourth in her class of eighty, and was promoted to Petty Officer Third Class.

Her experience in the Dominion War aboard the USS Odin, and her completing of C-School put her aboard the USS Shran, a Steamrunner-class posted to the Briar Patch for a deep survey mission.

The unique anomalies of the Briar Patch gave Katie interesting problems to solve. The engines regularly had issues, due to both the poor design of the Steamrunner’s warp engines as well as the problems the Briar Patch created. She became intimately acquainted with the inner workings of it.

It was also during her time on the Shran that she met Lieutenant James Dougal, a science officer. The two dove deeply into the romantic feelings. The two years they spent together on the Shran were, in Katie’s eyes, the best she ever had. It was therefore so painful to Katie that she discovered Dougal was married, and had a wife back on Betazed. The betrayal struck her hard. Instead of letting her work suffer under it, she buried herself into it, it leading to the point where she was promoted to the Shift Supervisor.

It was in that position Katie’s leadership skilled started shining through. She set a strong example for her staff, working long hours, but also setting clear and concise deadlines. She knew how long the work would take, and would promise on-time delivery. In the two years as Shift Supervisor there were only three repair jobs she turned in behind schedule. One of those was due to being fired upon by smugglers, and twice due to the spacial topography of the Patch nearly melting her engines.

As the Shran returned to her home base, an opening on the Galaxy-Class USS Regal opened up as a Shift Supervisor. She took the chance, with the support of Commander Baza, her current Chief Engineer on the Shran.

It was on the Regal, working closely with Lieutenant Commander Roberts that the discussion of her future came up. Roberts saw the potential Katie had, both with her leadership skills as well as her technical aptitude. She explained to Katie that Starfleet had the option of attending a Civilian University remotely while serving her time on the Regal. It would take a sizeable time commitment from Katie, but Roberts would be willing to assist and tutor her. It was also mean her shoreleave time would be mostly used up going to the campus for on-site testing.

Katie decided to take the opportunity given to her, choosing the University of Bolarus, famous for its Warp Technology department. For the next four years Katie’s on-shift time was filled with training her younger crewmembers, guiding her team leaders to where she wanted them, and smoothing out the work time. During this she constantly enforced a realistic work ethic, do what you can, when you can, how best you can. One of her favourite sayings was ‘Don’t give me shit, give me answers to my questions, or questions I can answer.’

With her Bachelor in Warpfield Mechanics successfully attained, Roberts had enrolled her in Officer Candidate School. The long discussions had shown Katie that she could run an engine room like she could run her team leaders.

Her time at OCS was uneventful, she kept her head down, worked hard, and graduated second in her class, earning her the rank of Ensign, as well as a choice of postings. The Insignia-Class USS Zanzibar.

The Zanzibar’s third mission was into the Badlands, where reports of heavy pirate activity had forced Starfleet’s hand to enforce law. Together with the USS Rothfuss, a Ronin-Class, the two ships entered the Badlands, following trails and information they had procured before. Sadly, what they found was worse, sixteen pirate cutters had lured the two Starfleet behemoths into a trap. The Zanzibar’s broad weaponssuite allowed it to defend itself admirably, together with the Rothfuss’ large phaser canon.

It was the last of the pirate cutters that rammed itself into the belly of the Zanzibar, pushing through its weakened shields that was the death knelt for the ship. The warp core held, barely. The general alert sounded, and just under 90 per cent of the crew was able to evacuate. Commander George de Lano went down with his ship. Katie was one of the last off the ship, using her expertise as the former warp core specialist to buy more time until she was grabbed and dragged off the ship by her Chief Engineer.

After two months of leave to recover and undergo counseling, Katie was transferred to the Steadfast. The long journey to the access point to the Delta Quadrant was filled with writing her letter of resignation. She felt she had done her duty, and was ready to muster out and build a life as a civilian as soon as she could.

2357 – Born
2374 – Enlisted in Starfleet
2374 – Crewman Third Class
2374 – A-School – Warp Engine Mechanic
2374 – Crewman Second Class
2374 – USS Odin – Junior Warp Engine Mechanic
2375 – Crewman First Class
2376 – C-School – Warp Engine Mechanic
2376 – Petty Officer Third Class
2376 – USS Shran – Senior Engine Mechanic
2378 – USS Shran – Warp Engine Mechanic Team Leader
2378 – Petty Officer Second Class
2380 – USS Regal – Warp Engine Mechanic Shift Supervisor
2381 – Petty Officer First Class
2381 – University of Bolarus – Warpfield Mechanics
2385 – Graduated Starfleet Officer Candidate School
2385 – Ensign
2385 – USS Zanzibar – Warp Engine Department Supervisor
2388 – Lieutenant j.g.
2388 – USS Zanzibar – Assistant Chief Engineer
2389 – USS Steadfast – Chief Engineer