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| Portrayed By | |
| Rank | Lieutenant |
| Position | Chief CONN Officer |
| Station | USS Redemption NCC-80135 |
| Sex | F |
| Species | Andorian |
| Age | 29 |
| Place of Birth | Pima Sheras, Andoria |
| Date of Birth | Feb 02 2351 |
| Height | 5' 8" |
| Weight | 150lbs |
| Family | |
| Significant Other(s) | |
| First Appearance | |
| Last Appearance | |
Character summary.
Character History:
Taila Pah'riin Birev was born to a large, blue-collar lodge in the city of Pima, an old rail hub at a rivermouth in the 'temperate zone' of Sheras, a city divided between the industrial and transport section and the offworld tourist areas nearby. Taila grew up very close to with her brothers, three older, and one younger. she was often outshone by her siblings, and quickly became the comedian of the family, as well as her schools, often called 'Pah'riin the thahiin'. (a tlahiin being an archetype of a jokester/tomboy) Her elder siblings, driven, athletic, and prone to the romance of Sherasan tradition, often pushed her into training for the duel, as well as combat, skills which only became useful on the occasions when Taila inadvertently took her joking too far. Her home city, famous for the boardwalk-like Steampark, built on an old fortification over a natural geothermal site, was the setting for much of the youthful dramas she experienced; mostly colourful rivalries, with a few duels and plain-old fights, many of them to do with her attractive and romantically-misadventurous younger brother Pendar. Her other brothers, Denshan, every bit the leader and athlete, Moreth, traditional and forever concerned Taila might disgrace the family or otherwise fail to live up to the warrior-poet traditions better exemplified by Amishaan, applied to the Andorian Military Institute together, …though Taila was rejected when she attempted to follow, …Taila's own gifts in her younger years largely constituted the performing arts, particularly music and singing; Starfleet, it seemed, had more interest in her than anyone had anticipated, finding her intelligence, broad interests, and social manner good Starfleet material.
Taila arrived at the Academy, then, young and a bit out of her element, particularly lost without her brothers, but due to familiarity with Human tourists in her town, managed to get along without showing it too much, actually… early testing guided her to Flight Control; she simply demonstrated the appropriate excellent spatial awareness and aptitudes for it. Her minors in planetary operations and sciences were decided on similarly off-the-cuff; believing that exploring planets, of course, is what Starfleet *does,* she would say, she was even more motivated by the immediacy of exploring one alien planet in particular: Earth.
In the course of this exploration came the inevitability of marine survival training, …though from a coastal town, Taila had the common Andorian phobia of oceans in spades, …while attempting to overcome this, she was aided and befriended by a dolphin Starfleet navigator named Descartes, who would become one of her recurring friends and confidants during her Academy days, and after the war aboard the _Archer, _ (where they would work together on some missions to aquatic worlds, as well as, of course, navigation,) and later aboard _Redemption._
For the young Andorian cadet, Starfleet discipline came a bit harder at first, but she was already adept at joking about without actually *disrespecting* anyone, thus real problems were few. In fact, her attitude of the Academy as a surrogate family of sorts made her a diligent student, …and here she developed a fondness for old jazz standards, by way of a segue from Andorian blues to Terran to there. Participating in a few extracurricular activities, she joined the third flight team later in her Academy career.
Taila's cadet cruise aboard the USS Cuchulain proved relatively uneventful, though she would begin developing her own musically-based piloting technique: initially noticing, then 'playing' the sound and vibration of the individual thrusters of the ship to achieve a wide variety of signature maneuvers; over time she expanded this sort of 'mental shorthand' to a more-universally-applicable system. As war loomed on the horizon, the Cuchulain and its partrol group became more closely-associated with military traditions and a certain esprit d'corps which would serve it well in the times to come. The Cuchulain's Captain Tiernan, himself something of a wit, kept Taila for his own crew upon her graduation.
The Cuchulain's fleet, the 23rd Mobile, was comprised almost entirely of modern Perimeter Defense Directive vessels; a typical battle group, such as the Cuchulain's own, was composed of a pair of Akira-class vessels, their complement of attack fighters, and four Steamrunner-class vessels, was nicknamed by its crews the 'Mobile Tank Police,' for the preponderance of hastily-added and bulky-looking additional ablative armour; a stopgap countermeasure against the shield-defeating polaron weapons of the Dominion. The 23rd was deployed widely, covering territory against incursions and staging hit-and-run raids at key points with the intent of preventing enemy forces from establishing footholds or consolidating gains: as such, the 23rd avoided some of the staggerring losses incurred by the other fleets, though certain wings were decimated when caught up in full-scale engagements or chance/unavoidable encounters with superior forces. Taila was relatively-often pulled for away team duties.
One of the more colourful aspects of her wartime career occurred after a shortage of trained pilots in the task force induced several junior CONN and tactical officers from the fleet to organize the ad-hoc 898th 'Hat in the Ring' Fighter Squadron, using a surplus of ten or so planes 'orphaned' by lost starships, adding support to the Fleet's fighter squadrons, but more than that, improving morale among most of the fleet. A notable exception to this was the XO of the 178th Squadron; a Lieutenant Tsija Prell, from the rival Flight Team Alpha during her Academy days, and who considered the volunteer squadron upstarts. Taila, for her part, would quickly be given the callsign "AJ," (this stood for Aunt Jemima,) which she'd already been dubbed by the squadrons for the way she would flip the Cuchulain like a pancake in many manuevers. would participate in several actions with the Squadron, earning four confirmed solo kills in fighter combat by war's end. The squadron was known for its flamboyance and unorthodox annoyance tactics, often jamming enemy communications with music instead of static, (various covers of Ballroom Blitz were a favourite of Taila's weapons officer.) The squadron would be awarded a unit citation at the end of the war.
Taila would be made chief CONN officer of the Cuchulain, and her participation in the squadron would decrease accordingly, but the task force would be charged with a solemn duty: Reprisals against the Breen force that attacked Earth. In hopes of capitalizing on possible divisions within the Confederacy and of discouraging future planetary attacks, The 23rd would ruthlessly destroy the Breen fleet's resupply bases and mercilessly attack any stragglers it could find of the force, now depleted of much of its heavy ordinance by the attacks, and the Hat-in-the-Ring squadron would be a recurring thorn in the side of those factions. Little would Taila know just how much certain elements of the Breen would remember the squadron's distinctive logo.
Taila would be seriously wounded in the liberation of Benzar, where her team was engaged in retaking the Benzar VI defense outpost from the Jem'hadar, necessitating the replacement of a kidney with cloned tissue. When she recovered, she would serve out her tour as chief CONN officer of the Cuchulain, through reconstruction at the end of the war, eventually being reposted to the Archer itself, which was refit for Exploration cruiser duty, to be taken command of by Captain Smythe; she was quickly promoted to Lieutenant and was a staple of that crew for that vessel's many adventures. As the Federation recovered from the war, two aspects of Taila's life developed: the spiritual, —-though a traditional Emashan since childhood, she discovered an affinity for the philosophies of Umarin, thinking that the Terrans in particular were in danger of losing heart after a war that nearly brought their ideals and innocence to ruin. Also, there was her romantic life: as the _Archer_ began pursuing the ideals of a family ship more closely, she fell in with a Chaani Thika, as well as a pair of propsective mates for them both, …the two are engaged, though the whole marriage is something being worked on… Taila being unsure of the committment. (leaving this a bit open in case IC romances can be RPed) As Taila and Chaani transfer together with Captain Smythe to the new ship, thoughts of settling down and raising a family, however, are close on Taila's mind. As it stands, Taila is an experienced officer, on comfortable terms with her captain, and has developed a reputation for her flying skills, as well as ability to command when occasion arises. Her musical talents make up much of her extracurricular time, and when in the Sol sector, she often sits in at Riik's Andorian Cafe on Mars, a terran/Andorian blues club with a Casablanca theme in New New Delhi on Argrye Planitia. As well, she promises to once again participate in shipboard sports teams, gillpack diving with Descartes on the holodeck, and the ever-popular combat training; and she's always interested in increasing her understanding of human culture, Her new assignment comes with a certain amount of pride, both from her family and hometown in general; certainly her beshi, Sirius is, but he's known to be easy to please.
Personality Profile
Starfleet Information
46580.8 Entered Starfleet Academy, San Francisco, Earth - Bridge Operations (Major), Planetary Operation and Sciences (Minors)
47580.8 Joined Academy Flight Team Charlie
49580.8 Cadet Cruise, USS Cuchulain, Steamrunner Class
50452.1 Graduated Starfleet Academy
50452.2 PROMOTION: Ensign
50479.5 Assigned USS Cuchulain, Steamrunner Class, CONN Officer
51166.9 PROMOTION: Lieutenant Junior Grade
51167.1 Lt.Jg Taila, under the callsign "AJ," is part of the formation of an adhoc fighter squadron composed of junior officers from the 23rd fleet, flying fighters for whom no replacement pilots were available… the 898th "Hat in the Ring" squadron adds its firepower to several engagements before war's end, largely in a support role, but is conspicuously part of draconian reprisals against the withdrawing Breen fleet that attacked Earth and Starfleet Academy.
52246.6 Taila is wounded in 'ground action' the liberation of the Benzar VI outpost on the "April Fool's Day" raid setting up the liberation of that world. She receives a cloned kidney for treatment and is promoted to Chief of CONN on the Cuchulain, serving out most of the rest of the war from the bridge of that starship.
52246.7 PROMOTION: Chief CONN Officer
52980.8 The 23rd Fleet is assigned to reconstruction and patrol duties in the aftermath of the Dominion War.
53328.8 Taila is reassigned to the Akira_class USS Archer, as assistant Chief Conn officer, shortly thereafter promoted to full Lieutenant and Chief CONN officer by Captain Darren Smythe. _Archer_ is assigned to exploration-cruiser duties for the next three years
57328.9 Posted to Redemption class USS Redemption, CPT Darren Smythe cmding, as Chief CONN officer.
