Alue
| Prina Alue | |
| File:Alue.jpg | |
| Full Name: | Prina Alue |
|---|---|
| Nickname: | "" |
| Species: | Betazoid |
| Gender: | female |
| Birthplace: | The Nocturne, Orion casino/pleasure ship |
| Birthdate: | May 17, 2433 |
| Empire: | United Federation of Planets |
| Organization: | Starfleet |
| Assignment: | USS Phoenix NCC-170100-A |
| Billet: | Junior Mission Ops Officer |
| Rank: | Lieutenant |
Prina Alue is a Lieutenant in Starfleet, serving aboard the USS Phoenix NCC-170100-A as the Junior Mission Ops Officer.
Description
The long black hair and green skin of this woman are traits that instantly jump out at anyone familiar with them as being distinctly Orion. A little shorter than the average human adult female, her frame is a bit more slight than might otherwise be expected. It might best be described as a ballerina's build, very narrow and lightly muscled with small breasts. Although her muscles aren't even close to buldging, they're toned enough to suggest, rather than indicate, regular exercise. Her arms, legs, hands, and feet are all long and thin, which gives her the impression, (at least from a distance), of being taller than she actually is. She has a longish oval face with high cheekbones and a small, pointed nose. Thin, dark brows frame large eyes with a distinctive black-on-black coloring that some find unsettling, but most find rather exotic and appealing. Her hair is kept in a high braid so wide that it covers nearly the entire back of her head, but then splits into a pair of twin braids just above the shoulders that trail down both sides of her back. These are much skinnier than the wide one at the top, and are so long that she often has to make sure to move them out of the way before she sits down.
Biography
Prina Alue was born on May 17, 2433. Her father Jensae was a mining engineer from Betazed, and her mother an Orion showgirl and private hospitality specialist aboard a casino ship. That ship, The Nocturne, operated in an area along the Klingon border that included the Dorala system where Prina's father was working. The Nocturne's visits to the system were one of the very few distractions from the monotony of mining work, and Jensae occasionally indulged in the available entertainments.
One particularly overindulgent evening resulted in the conception of a baby girl. The Nocturne's Captain demanded that Jensae pay for the loss of income that would occur when the mother's pregnancy began to prevent her from fulfilling her occupational obligations to the ship, even going so far as to insist that he purchase the Orion woman as damaged goods. When Jensae refused, the Captain became violent. The fight was quickly broken up by the other mine workers and counterproposals were made. In the end, Jensae agreed to purchase not the mother, but the baby, but at a price that would more than cover the expected deficit. Some few months later, The Nocturne returned to the Dorala system on her scheduled visit. A pair of casino employees brought Jensae the baby he had both fathered and purchased, informing him that her mother had named her Prina, which was the stage name that the mother herself used in her work aboard the casino ship. It was made clear that Jensae was no longer welcome aboard The Nocturne. He never saw Prina's mother again, nor did he ever learn her real name.
With a new baby daughter to care for, Jensae decided to leave the mining job and return to Betazed. He had no idea how to be a single father, but luckily he had many friends and a supportive family back home to help guide him. He drew on many resources, both public and private, learning to be a parent as quickly as he could. It turned out to be much easier than he expected. He found that simply drawing on his own experiences as a child, using his own parents as models, provided him with the best lessons on parenting that he could ever hope to have.
Prina's childhood was a series of pitfalls, especially in her interactions with other children. Jensae tried to instill all of the best Betazoid values into his daughter, but sometimes her Orion nature would assert itself in unfortunate ways. The sharing of toys with the other kids would often result in open displays of jealousy and possessiveness that were uncommon among, and frankly uncomfortable for, the much more open fully Betazoid children. As she got older she learned how to get a handle on her reactions to those feelings. But when you live on a planet full of telepaths and impaths, those emotions are impossible to hide from others. She herself could sense how other people felt, and could tell when her own feelings were affecting them. She began to experience frustration and shame on top of everything else.
The awakening of her sexual urges in her teenage years added a whole new spin on the struggle to fit in with her piers. Her jealousy and possessiveness increased, and the selfcontrol she had worked so hard on began to slip. She found herself manipulating people and situations in order to achieve her goals, even if that goal was something as simple as arranging to be the only one available to spend time with a friend. She might see that other friends failed to get the message to confirm group lunch plans, or cause a school project to be deleted so others were too busy working on recovering or replacing it to join. Any time there was unwanted competition in any situation, she found herself instinctively plotting to eliminate that competition.
The breaking point came when she orchestrated a fight between two other girls who were competing with her for a spot in a school drama production. Knowing that any lie she told would be detected immediately, she managed to mislead them both without saying a single word that wasn't true. She simply omitted small, but very important bits of information here and there, guiding them to false conclusions without telling a single lie. When the situation came to a very public head, Prina was there to see the fruits of her labors in person. This turned out to be her downfall. The self-satisfaction she felt as the girls went at each other was so strong that everyone present felt it. Suspicions were raised, questions were asked, and her manipulation of the situation was quickly revealed.
Prina's mortification at what she had done devistated her. She decided that maybe she wasn't fit to live among the good, pleasant, understanding, open people who had raised her. Maybe her Orion nature was just too strong. Maybe, just maybe, she would fit in better with other Orions. Instead of going home from the school that day, she lost herself in the city. She visited libraries and museums, anywhere she thought she might figure out a way to leave Betazed and find some Orions that might take her. She refused to go home, and her father began to worry. But a young Orion girl doesn't really go unnoticed on Betazed, and it wasn't long before she was found and returned to him.
When Prina admitted to Jensae what she had done, not only to the girls in the drama production but the other manipulative things as well, she was shocked at his reaction.
"Yes, I know," he told her. "Everyone who's close to you knows. We've known for years."
Looking through her tear-filled eyes at her father's smiling face, Prina couldn't understand what was happening, or how he could be smiling and looking so pleased. In fact, she could sense it from him. He wasn't just pleased, he was experiencing actual joy. How could he possibly be that happy at her misery, deception, and inexcusable behavior? For a moment her despair was replaced with profound confusion.
Jensae sat on the floor with his daughter and leaned back against her wardrobe. "I've always tried to teach you to be accepting of other people," he said. "Everybody's different, with their own personalities, habits, vices, vertues, strengths, and weaknesses. I can't teach you something unless I believe in it myself. Those of us who know you best already know and accept these things about you. We accept you for who you are. We love you, Prina. Not despite these things, but because of them. They are part of what makes you the unique, wonderful person you are. You're not an evil, malicious person who wishes only harm on the people around you. You're a young girl who's finding herself, and finding things within herself that she's struggling to understand. You're not alone. Although everyone's experience is different, we all go through it."
"How can you be so happy when you see me hurting so badly?" Prina asked him through her continuing sobs and sniffles.
Jensae's smile returned. "Because you're recognizing in yourself something that you want to change. That, my beloved daughter," he said as he took her hand in his. "Is growth. It's not always easy. In fact, sometimes it hurts like hell. But I know you. You're one of the strongest willed, determined people I know. I have no doubt that you'll find a way to channel this experience, this pain, into something productive."
That was the turning point for Prina. She began to realize that even with all of her bad behavior, she still had close friends who undoubtedly sensed her manipulation and deception far more often than she had known before. Yet, these people chose to maintain their friendships with her, even knowing those things that Prina thought she was keeping to herself as deep, dark secrets. They accepted her for who and what she was. She started to understand that she had to do the same thing. She had to accept herself, just as they did. It wasn't easy, but she was surprised to see how quickly the shame over her behavior, if not the frustration, began to fall away. She found over time that accepting those parts of her that instictively wanted to manipulate and deceive allowed her to more easily control those compulsions. She could never be rid of the urges to do those things. But by the time she reached her majority, she was usually able to resist acting upon those urges, though not always.
One day, Prina came home to find that her father was hosting a visitor. The two were sitting on the small dock behind Jensae's house, in deep conversation. Prina went to meet the man she had never seen before, and saw as she got close that the man was wearing a Starfleet uniform. Her father introduced him to her as Peyton Kemper. Prina recognized the Kemper name as a family that had been connected with the Alues for many, many generations. She thought that the Kempers and the Alues might even be very distantly related, but she wasn't sure.
Peyton told Prina that her father had asked him to talk with her about the possibility of her joining Starfleet. It wasn't something that she had considered before, and she didn't know how to feel about it. Peyton told her that there were many opportunities available in Starfleet, and that her unique circumstances might offer even more opportunities than others. This got her attention, and she began to show real interest. Peyton explained that Prina's drive to do whatever is necessary to achieve her goals would serve her very well as a Starfleet officer. Furthermore, her instincts for manipulating people and situations could be put to constructive use in the intelligence branch. Prina was amazed. She had always viewed those qualities as ones that needed to be suppressed. It never occured to her that they could be harnessed and channeled into something constructive. For the next few weeks, Prina thought about what Peyton had said. She spoke with her father about it repeatedly, and then finally decided to take the plunge. She submitted her application to Starfleet Academy on Earth, with an attached letter of recommendation from Admiral Samuel Peyton Kemper, and was accepted.
Prina found her time at the academy to be very challenging, though not in the ways she had expected. Peyton was right about her natural skills and instincts serving her well. She did well in all of her academic classes, and she tested high in all of her subjects... except for the physical ones. The one thing that worked against her most was the dancer's physical stature she had inherited from her mother. Although her muscles were well-toned, her delicate frame and natural inability to bulk up nearly disqualified her from Starfleet. She was always at the bottom of the class in tests of strength and endurance, and her place in the academy was threatened more than once on those grounds. But through what sometimes seemed pure force of will, she managed to score just high enough in the physical tests to keep her career going.
In the end, Prina successfully graduated from the academy with a double major in operations and intelligence. She often wondered whether Peyton's backing had anything to do with her ultimate success. Maybe one day she would find out. But for now, she decided not to question her good fortune too much. She collected her certificates, accepted her commission as a Starfleet Ensign, and awaited her first assignment with a healthy mix of pride in her accomplishment and nervous anticipation.