Character Profile - Kalahaeia t'Leiya

Kali2

Kalahaeia t’Leiya
Romulan Female

Place of Origin: Boston, Earth; Born June 6, 2353

Physical Description

Height: 5’2″
Weight: 127 lbs
Hair Color: Black/Brown
Eye Color: Black/Brown

Tiny and wiry, unusually petite for her species; to look at her one would guess she weighs a fair amount less than she actually does. Stronger and with better endurance than the average human, despite her small size, but generally less durable and with less endurance than the average Romulan thanks to a dicey prenatal and early life medical history. Amazing reflexes by the standards of either species.

Personality Profile

A Federation-raised Romulan and former Starfleet officer who by this point in life has a chip on her shoulder the size of Jupiter, depending; a poorly controlled temper; and a desperate desire to belong somewhere, which she doubts all the moreso as her life goes on that she will ever be able to fulfill.

Strengths & Weaknesses:

+Extremely fast reflexes
+Good sense of humor
+Strong overall sense of justice
+Very loyal to those she feels deserve it or those who have shown the same to her

+/- Unique mix and enmeshing of both Earth and Romulan culture, beliefs, behavior standards, etc. Can sometimes grasp or help bridge understanding between both, but just as often this mix leads to both sides deciding she’s absolutely bizarre, and her feeling as if she is an alien to both.
+/- General embodiment in much of her behavior and mannerisms of the saying “Do Not Start With Me; You Will Not Win”

– Bad at controlling her temper
– History of acting without thinking sometimes
– General feeling that she doesn’t really belong anywhere
– Sometimes a walking contradiction in terms

Ambitions: At one time, a great many, personally and professionally alike. The last decade or so, not nearly so much; some might describe a large part of her existence during that time as constituting mostly of being a “tiny ball of righteous rage and fury”, combined with an even deeper than prior realization that in the grand scheme of things, she really does not “fit” anywhere.

Hobbies & Interests: Anything fast and maneuverable–small flight craft, hoverbikes, etc.; a variety of card games; gambling in general; waterskiing; parrises squares; cheating Ferengi who are cheating others; and smacking people who deserve it.

Language(s) Spoken: Federation Standard; English; Romulan; Vulcan; Klingon; some Ferengi and Cardassian.

Early years Biography

Kalahaiea–“Kali” to basically everyone except her parents and more recently also her aunt–began her life in a relatively inauspicious manner. Her mother and father, at the time fairly young members of powerful Romulan great houses expected to one day be senators, chose to leave the Empire near the height of its isolation, not out of any lack of loyalty overall but as a protest (some might argue an entirely ineffective one made with the rashness of youth) against what they observed as the growing power of the Tal’Shiar over the prior decades. Knowing the journey would be impossible to make with an infant or young child, they left while her mother was pregnant; a decision that would leave its own lifelong impacts on their eldest child; between the restrictions in Romulan space, in crossing the Neutral Zone, and in trying to pass undetected in their initial time in Federation space, the pair faced a variety dangers including not only the threat of pursuit or discovery, but also the caliber – or lack thereof – of the ships they were forced to book passage on and their often poorly tuned warp cores, radiation shielding, and safety standards; not to mention stress, deprivation, and lack of resources. A medical officer reviewing the data, were it all actually available, would probably find it reasonably impressive Kali survived to be born; and possibly more so that she survived her subsequent premature birth in a cheap Boston motel room with no medical assistance present. These factors are likely the primary reasons she is a fair amount shorter than either of her parents or even than some of her still-growing much younger sisters.

She had a relatively bizarre childhood by human or Romulan standards alike; her parents credible fear of Tal’Shiar assassins coming after them (and a variety of instances of such happening) meant they tried to keep a low profile even once officially known to Federation officials and granted asylum on Earth; but they grudgingly (and possibly in calculation that she might be safer there than near them) allowed their Federation-citizen child to attend school on Earth alongside her agemates, leaving young Kali to grow up with the sort of heavily amalgamated nature and standards common to many children of first-generation immigrants between most any two cultures (there may in fact even be a photo of her in her early primary school years, wearing a human style sparkling pink tiara and bunny ears headband while clutching a small knife).

Kali entered Starfleet Academy at the age of 16 in 2369, intending a career as a pilot; by her senior year in 2372, with war with the Dominion on the horizon, a variety of senior year cadets were sent to complete flight school simultaneously with their final Academy year, and she entered active service in the war shortly after her graduation. She had a reasonably uneventful (inasmuch as such things can be true for either Starfleet officers or pilots) career for years after, though one somewhat marred at times by her intense, ‘creature of extremes’ nature and promotion through the ranks at a pace that perhaps showed a failure among command to grasp just how young she truly still was; until finally giving in in the late 2370s to repeatedly attempts by Starfleet Intelligence, beginning in her cadet years, to convince her to work for them. Though they had originally hoped to use their pointy-eared prize in an undercover capacity, it quickly became clear she was generally unsuited to such, and instead she served in a variety of postings afterwards as an analyst or sector intelligence officer, before her career came to an abrupt and spectacular (in a bad way) end when, while posted to headquarters on Earth, her response to the Federation pulling out of the Romulan rescue effort was to lose her temper and punch several admirals, at least one of whom required surgery on their nose and face afterwards. She avoided prison time for the incident due to a good lawyer and mostly, the recognition among the Starfleet JAG Corps and the senior ranks that taking the case to trial would be extremely bad optics for the fleet at the time given the situation and the parties involved; and took a plea deal (this required a large amount of pleading on behalf of her attorney to her, as she originally was bound and determined to take the case to trial and have her day in court and more saliently, in news coverage) and a discharge. The discharge was later upgraded to an honorable one after agreeing, in a rare moment of pragmatism, to at least be willing to hear out her former employers in occasional offers of work ‘under the table’ in the future, as they apparently felt they had no reason to doubt her loyalty, just her control.

The first of these ‘jobs’ was an attempt to send her quasi-undercover into Romulan space after the collapse of the Empire, but once again she generally proved herself bad enough at fitting in among other Romulans that this idea was abandoned quickly…Though not before giving her yet another reminder that she was as much an alien to Romulans as she was to humans, and vice versa. After that, Kali spent time bouncing around a variety of Federation and non-Federation worlds alike, as well as the occasional one in the former Neutral Zone; and became an excellent gambler, delighting especially in finding Ferengi (or others, but often Ferengi) engaging in cheating schemes and turning the tables on them. More recently, she was approached by her former bosses for another, briefer job: Watching a Romulan delegation aboard a Federation-flagged luxury vessel. Having had relatively lesser luck fleecing Ferengi lately, the free cruise and the pay were hard to pass up, and she accepted, coming aboard the ship as a passenger in a mid-range cabin and generally keeping a low profile full of activities that would place her in a position to observe, while in keeping with her now-possibly-known history as a skilled gambler. Unfortunately for her, the cruise ship met a bad end, along with most of its crew and passengers; after the few survivors were picked up by the Mary Rose crew responding to a distress call, she decided, partially out of weariness finally of constantly living out of hotel rooms, and partially on a whim, to accept the captain’s offer of a position aboard as the flight control lead.

History

Cadet | Starfleet Academy 2369 – 2373
Ensign| 7th Fleet | 2373 – 2375
LT JG| 7th Fleet | 2375 – 2378
Lieutenant| Starfleet Intelligence, Headquarters, Earth | 2378 – 2382
Lieutenant Commander | Sector Intelligence Officer, Starbase 83 | 2382 – 2384
Lieutenant Commander | Starfleet Intelligence, Headquarters, Earth, Romulan Affairs Section | 2384 – 2385
Various Civilian Endeavors | 2386 – Present