Kejal Buris


Kejal is a Starfleet officer currently serving as the Commanding Officer of the USS Dauntless

Kejal-buris.jpg
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Basic information
Assignment



Physical Description

He seems a bit non-descript in a crowd, typically 'tall, dark, and handsome'. He's just muscular enough to be attractive, but he doesn't flaunt it. In fact, he seems a little oblivious to the fact that he could probably have had more women than he's ever been interested in. But when he's in civvies, most people would never guess him for an Engineer, instead expecting a soldier-type. Old habits and the way you learn to carry yourself do, after all, die hard.

Personality & Traits

General Overview

Buris has spent the last 20 years of his life trying to gradually edge away from the Bajoran faith and lifestyle. As a child, he was a member of the resistance in the end days of the Occupation, but he left the moment that the Federation accepted Bajor as a protectorate, inspired by the stories of Ro Laren and a few others. It was expected that he would either enlist or test for Security, but when he passed the Engineering exam, it was met with surprise, and great hope for the young man. On that day, he removed the D'jarra earring and formally renounced his faith in the Prophets and the Pah-Wraiths.

He holds Starfleet in the highest regard, and would not hesitate to die for its ideals. Some people wonder if he's merely traded one faith for another. They've never voiced this to him, for fear of what it might make him do - and how much he would regret it.

At his heart, he is a soldier, because that is how he was raised. He desperately wishes to be an explorer or a scientist and to create, but his instinctive reactions are often the most militaristic. Every day he walks the tightrope between the two extremes, and while after many years he's been able to control it, there is still, and always will be, that conflict in him between the desire to create and the urge to destroy. He doesn't open up easily to others, but there is a difference between talking in private and opening up.

Strengths & Weaknesses

Artistic: Bajoran society, even during the Occupation, stressed the importance of artwork to preserve the continuity of belief and civilization. And while it is extremely hard to 'train' someone to be creative, it certainly can be nurtured, and in an environment where a split-second decision can literally spell life or death, sometimes being able to come to a creative, effective, solution quickly is the one skill you need to survive. However, this is one of many things that often disappears when he feels threatened, as the 'soldier' part of his personality takes over, and he becomes very direct.

Inventive: When you're the smallest member of a Resistance cell, you're often the one called on to repair the Raiders mid-flight, and so he learned the very meaning of jury-rigging early on. Never ask him to just 'fix' something, because it will work, but the Great Bird help you try and figure out exactly how.

Faithful: Like it or not, he's a Bajoran. His life is organized around the things he's faithful to - To Starfleet, to his ship, to his captain, to the ideals of the Federation. This is a strength as it allows him to be a great leader, dedicated to the faith he has in those around him. Unlike the commanders who can make catastrophic events into minor inconveniences, Kejal's strength is that even if the person disbelieves in themselves, he will never lose his faith in them. This can become a distinct weakness if he feels betrayed by another crewman, as there is little worse than a truly faithful and hopeful man betrayed.

Blunt: In the Resistance, there was no room for guile or deception. You either told someone what you were going to tell them, or you told whoever was performing the interrogation that you weren't going to talk. Of all the soldiery traits he has held, this is the one that he still keeps close to his heart - he never lies, and when the truth is to be told, he tells all of it. This can become a distinct weakness, as he very rarely cuts corners in telling junior officers and subordinates just how bad a job they did and reminding them forcefully of the number of lives which could potentially rest on their shoulders for a screwup.

Tactically Minded: Another double-edged sword, the experience of growing up in the Resistance made him think like everything in life is a contest or a battle. While it makes him second-to-none in tactical and strategic planning, it often leaves him out in the cold when the peacetime hits. On Shore Leave, he never knows quite what to do with himself. He has been trying to 'get over' this, but every space battle he's in convinces him it's a necessary trait.

Disbelief: Belief and Faith are two different things. The revelation that the Celestial Temple brought the Dominion to Bajor, and that the Prophets were helpless to stop them (perhaps even encouraged the Dominion War), as well as the nature of the Prophets as simply older life-forms, changed Buris. As such, while he can be tolerant of faith and the faithful, he has no respect for beings that claim themselves to be deities. When the crew encounters them, he will be the first denier, the first to try and display the sham for what it is - completely regardless of the Prime Directive.

Ambitions

Conscious: To earn command of a starship and respect for its crew. Unconscious: To meet directly with the Prophets, and ask them some very hard questions about Bajor, the Bajorans, and himself.

Hobbies & Interests

Painting, tinkering with various technologies, Wargames, Parrises' Squares, the occasional hasperat.

Languages

Bajoran, Federation Standard

Family

Father

  • Unknown, presumably deceased

Mother

  • Unknown, presumably deceased

Brothers

  • Unknown

Sisters

  • Unknown

Other Family

  • Rota Tabris and Rota Seela; Adoptive parents, deceased

History

Buris' very early history is unknown, to him and to everyone around him. The earliest that is known is that he was found as an orphan outside a work camp in early 2346, and adopted by two members of the Resistance (and their cell) - given the only appropriate family name they could think of, Kejal, meaning "freedom" in the Bajoran language. He was never a happy child, always understanding that he was the outsider, but this was his family nonetheless. They taught him, they clothed him, they fed him. And most of all, they trained him. His parents died in a raid on a Cardassian food supply convoy when he was 13, and it was then that he officially joined the front line of the Resistance. Two years of direct conflict with the Cardassians as the smallest member of the cell, the one used for both infiltration and repairs, made him aware of just what war really was. When the Cardassians left Bajor, he was too young to join the Militia, but he was old beyond his years, so school wasn't an option. He flitted between the last vestige of the Resistance, the Maquis, and even for a month, the Circle. But he left when he was old enough to do so, and applied to Starfleet Academy on Earth, inspired by the stories of Ro Laren and Sito Jaxa, which had filtered all the way back to Bajor.

He tested high on his Engineering entrance practical exam, though he needed a great many refresher courses on how to do things "right", or according to Federation safety regs. The next four years were the beginning of a new life to him, away from the hell that had been his youth. He stopped wearing the D'jarra earring, stopped praying to the Prophets. But he never stopped being a Bajoran. His faith in the rightness of Starfleet is absolute - a point which his professors noted with dubious pride, as he would be a liability if a ships' captain ever turned rogue. He had some trouble at the Academy with his fellow classmates, as they truly did not understand him. Even after the Dominion War, the other students did not know what it was like to be an orphan, to never know where food was coming from. It angered him and he lashed out a few times, which nearly got him booted out, except for a few professors who demanded he get a second chance, with respect to his odd situation. When he realized just how far gone he was, he swore an oath that he would never disappoint them again.

Leaving the Academy, he served aboard the Niagara-Class vessel Wellington for a full decade, working his way up from Lower Decks to Assistant Chief Engineer. When he received his first promotion, a few comments circulated about Ro Laren and her prior court-martial, and he took a senior officer to task verbally. The ship's Captain later agreed that both parties were wrong, and so both the young Buris and the ship's Chief Engineer received NJPs on their permanent Service Record. In 2373, the ship visited Deep Space 9; an uncomfortable time for him, and despite being given leave to go on the station, he left the ship only once, to spit on the floor of the Cardassian-built station turn his back on it. Outside of that, everything was just fine.

However, there was no chance of unseating the Chief Engineer who had been onboard for over two decades, and despite his desire to stay on the vessel after he was promoted to Lieutenant Commander was somewhat out of the question. He had to request transfer, if he was to go anywhere in his life. He requested the newly-commissioned Titan for early 2379, but was, sadly, declined. Instead, he took Chief Engineer on USS Bellerophon, whose former Engineers (along with the Intrepid's entire Engineering staff), had been transferred to Earth by order of Starfleet Command - Voyager's return brought a new joy to the Federation. Service aboard the Bellerophon was uneventful. He was later transferred by Starfleet Command to the USS Washington when that ship needed a first officer and he was considered the best man for the job.

Service aboard the Washington was not by any means peaceful. Each new mission the ship was sent on seemed to be made more and more disastrous. After a heated discussion over provisions for a what should have been a simple caving expedition, Buris began to look for another ship to serve on, but found none. When he first was approached to command the USS Dauntless, he was almost ready to turn it down. He didn't feel that he was ready for a command, and as such, dragged his feet. This would prove to be a bad decision, for himself, for the Dauntless, and for the Washington's crew. His planning was incomplete and the mission was compromised when the crew down on the surface were kidnapped without appropriate gear.

However, the missions aboard the Dauntless were perhaps even more trying for him, as within the time of that mission, Buris and his command crew had to deal with a deserter to Starfleet, who used the cover of a faulty holodeck training simulation to harm members of the crew and sneak off the ship in a stolen shuttlecraft. After that, a minor brush with an old Federation freighter ended up with the Dauntless damaged by Orion Pirates, many of his crew badly hurt, and his first XO transferring to a command of her own.

Soon, he was left on his ship, alone, without a crew, surrounded by SCE personnel. And it was time to make amends. A friend had been left without a ship at the demand of Starfleet Medical, and it was time to help. It was when he brought T'Stala onboard that he finally began to accept himself as a leader.

And now, with a new crew assigned and the ship ready to sail again, the future seems all the brighter.

Service Record

  • 2363 - 2368: Starfleet Academy, Earth and satellite campuses. Cadet Ranks. Demoted once for extreme aggression in second year. After mandatory anger management counseling, restored to commission with commendation for how fast he genuinely wanted to change.
  • 2368 - 2378: USS Wellington NCC-28473, Niagara Class. Ensign - Lieutenant Commander; Posting: Engineer's Mate, Engineer, Assistant Chief Engineer. No comments about anger issues. Multiple commendations for valor throughout career, one NJP at Lt.JG rank for verbal insubordination - Captain noted that it was resolved by Command arbitration to mutual respect between officers.
  • 2378 - 2384: USS Bellerophon NCC-74705, Intrepid Class. Lieutenant Commander, Field Commendations; Posting: Chief Engineer.
  • 2387-2389: USS Washington, Sovereign Class. Lieuteannt Commander; Posting: First Officer.
  • Current: USS Dauntless, Excelsior Refit Class. Commander; Posting: Commanding Officer