Araan Ragez

Araan Ragez was born on the planet Grebnax II, an Alpha Quadrant world on the fringes of Orion dominated space. His mother, Daila Ragez, was sold as a slave to the Orion Merchant Prince Glasz at a comparatively young age. Although she was generally treated well (with luxurious quarters and fine clothing), she was a slave. When her son Araan was born, Daila taught him how to read and write, and passed on some limited knowledge of the Orion home world and it’s culture. In 2350, when Araan was just nine years old, Glasz was arrested by Federation authorities and charged with the trafficking of sentient beings. Seeing her means of escape, Daila asked for asylum within the Federation. She and her son were processed as political refugees and settled on the Federation planet Cestus III.

Although he had been taught how to read and write Orion, Araan spoke very little Federation Standard. He was placed into a specially designed program to bring him up to speed with students his own age. At first, the shy young Araan struggled; after a few months, he began to catch on more quickly and within a year and a half he joined a normal class of ten and eleven year old students at a Federation school. Araan enjoyed learning, especially technical subjects; he became very well versed in computer language early on, and his instructors worked diligently to develop that aptitude.

After five years at the Federation school, Araan was at the top of his class in computer science, and he was doing very well in mathematics and other science courses. The teenaged Orion began expressing interest in Starfleet at this time; two of his teachers, themselves retired Starfleet officers, began assisting Araan in preparation for the Academy Entrance Exam. With three years of preparation under his belt, Araan took the Exam in spring of 2358 and passed on the first attempt. His future was set.

Araan arrived at the Academy in fall of 2358, one of only a few hundred Orions in Starfleet at the time. The transition was a bit rocky in the beginning; Araan was a bit on the shy side, mostly keeping to himself. After a few months in San Francisco, he became more comfortable and began to be more social with his classmates. Araan was particularly close to his roommate, a Human from Texas named Austin Woods. Although they were in different courses of study (Araan was in sciences and Austin was in Helm/Flight Operations), they often studied together and took meals together. The two remained inseparable the entire four years, and as luck would have it were both posted to the Challenger Class USS Independence upon graduation in 2362.

On the Independence, Araan was assigned as a Computer Science Specialist; because of the vessel’s comparatively small crew complement, he did occasional shifts in Engineering as well. With Computer Science being literally one officer for each shift, cross training was encouraged and even expected. After two years, Ensign Ragez was promoted to Beta Shift and served at the Science station on the Bridge. It was also at this time that he enrolled in the Daystrom Institute’s remote access degree program, an endeavor that would earn Araan a Master’s Degree in Computer Science in 2366. Shortly after achieving his Master’s, Araan was promoted to Lieutenant JG and reassigned to the Excelsior class USS Avalon.

The freshly promoted Orion came aboard the Avalon with a brain full of ideas. Although it was an older design, Avalon was fitted with the most current Starfleet computer core; other systems were being updated as well, so there were some hardware compatibility issues that the Science division was tasked with resolving; Araan took the lead on that project, and with his guidance the compatibility problems were resolved within six months. Following that major success, Araan was named Assistant Chief Science Officer. He earned a reputation as someone that was an efficient organizer as well as a reputation for strict professionalism. Three years later (2369) when Avalon’s Chief Science Officer was reassigned to another vessel, Araan was promoted to Lieutenant and named as his replacement. He served as the Avalon’s CSO until the ship was severely damaged by Dominion forces attacking the Seventh Fleet in the Tyra system. Avalon was one of only fourteen ships to make it back to Federation controlled territory; the ship was barely holding together, thanks to some creative thinking on the part of the Chief Engineer and the Chief Science Officer. Upon returning to Starbase 375, the Avalon was deemed unsalvageable because of critical damage to too many of her primary systems and her crew was reassigned. Lieutenant Ragez was chosen as part of a team tasked with upgrading the defensive capabilities and automated defenses of several Federation worlds. Bolarus IX, Bre’el IV and Corvan II all received major computer software upgrades on their defensive grids courtesy of Ragez’s team. Upon completing the project on Corvan, Araan was reassigned to starship duty and was selected as Chief Science Officer of the USS Denver.