Nilani Prax

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Basic information

Assignment

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Lieutenant Commander Nilani Prax, born Nilani Jorran, is a joined Trill, and the seventh host of the Prax symbiont from 2385 to the present day. She is a Federation Starfleet science officer serving aboard Starbase 332 under the command of Captain Alexander Gunning and additionally serves as the executive officer of the starbase's Excelsior-Refit-class garrison vessel, the USS Carthage.

Before being joined with the Prax symbiont, Nilani was a very reserved individual, preferring to spend her time studying and working hard to prove herself first in Starfleet, and second to the Symbiosis Commission. Since joining with the Prax symbiont however, Nilani has become much more confident within herself, and is very out-going.

Nilani is very driven with her objectives, and often tends to think outside of the box. Drawing on the experience of her prior hosts, she has the ability to be helpful in solving most problems, regardless of the subject area. However, as Nilani is a fairly recent host, she has not yet gone through zhian'tara, and occasionally struggles to distinguish the memories, desires and experiences of the six other hosts within her.

Early Life and Career

Born in 2361 on the Trill homeworld to parents Martath and Juliana Jorran, Nilani was a late bloomer as far as beauty was concerned. Flat chested and freckled until her late teens, she had never been a popular choice for the boys around her growing up. This, coupled with her overwhelming desire to become joined, led to her to quite often keeping to herself, preferring to study or find other ways of bettering herself until the day when she could apply to the Symbiosis Commission for joining.

During her school years, Nilani became intensely interested with the sciences; fascinated with the reasons behind why and how the universe worked the way it did. When she joined Starfleet Academy at the age of 18 in 2378, she gained high distinction degrees in Exobiology, Exoarchaeology, Astrophysics and Molecular Biology, and became known as an excellent all-round scientist. She applied to the Symbiosis Commission immediately upon graduating from the Academy, but in the intervening time whilst she awaited word on whether her application would be progressed into the initiate stage, she was posted to serve aboard the USS Victory as a junior science officer out past the Northern territories of the Federation. In 2384, two years after she had been assigned to the Victory and one year into writing the thesis that would lead to the first of three doctorates, she was notified of her acceptance by the Symbiosis Commission, and had a leave of absence approved from Starfleet in order to travel back home to Trill and begin her training as an initiate, in order to prepare her to receive a symbiont with all its memories and experiences, in addition to receiving an evaluation on whether she was fit to become joined by her field docent.

Nilani was joined with the Prax symbiont just over a year later in 2385, and immediately did away with the shy, reserved nature of her life before the joining. The experiences of the previous six hosts which were now a permanent part of her memories buoyed her up, giving her a new self confidence. She became very socially outgoing, she explained her desires immediately after joining in the post-operation psychology session as wanting to grab life by the horns and run with it. The Commission's medical staff remarked that she had taken to the joining remarkably well, becoming incredibly resilient and alert almost as soon as the joining was complete.

As soon as she was deemed healthy enough to leave the medical ward in the Commission facilities, Nilani Prax decided to return to her career in Starfleet, with a new sense of belief in what the organisation had stood for thanks to the experiences of Torin and Omar. The new knowledge and energy the joining had given her led to the early completion of her first thesis and scientific doctorate.

USS Jackal and Starbase 332

In 2386, a 25 year old Nilani was assigned to duty aboard the Defiant-class starship USS Jackal, under the command of Alexander Gunning, an officer whom Omar Prax had taken a professional interest in to whilst serving aboard the Farragut, and who Nilani felt instantly familiar with. After just one mission together aboard the small starship, Commander Gunning was reassigned, along with the entire crew of the Jackal to Starbase 332, an important Starfleet outpost in the Archanis sector, near the newly re-emergent Ritorian Confederacy. Though many looked upon the assignment to the base which had historically been seen as a stressful assignment due to the issues faced by Starfleet personnel in the region (especially on a stationary and major facility), Nilani took to settling into life on the station with relative ease, thankful for the large promenade full of entertainment to enjoy in her off hours and the much larger and more varied sets of individuals which now surrounded her. As she took up the post of station's chief science officer, she was also offered a promotion to lieutenant to signify the new, more senior role now that she was the most senior science officer on a starbase of several thousand.

In 2387, Nilani was part of the crew on board the USS Thaden - a garrison vessel assigned to the starbase - sent out on a border patrol. Nilani had specifically requested the duty rather than take a shore leave in order to study the Tyyan Expanse, a stellar phenomenon which appeared only three or four times a century. Whilst investigating the anomaly, the crew were pulled back in time to 2291, where they were unable to prevent themselves from becoming involved in the the USS Excelsior's history, eventually becoming pivotal in the events surrounding the eviction of the Ritorians from their occupation of Archa IV.

Upon return to the Station, Gunning informed her that he was promoting her to the rank of lieutenant commander, and in addition to her science duties, he was placing her in command of the station's newest assigned vessel, the Nova-class USS Metis. Though glad of the opportunity, the young commander was privately somewhat overwhelmed by the new responsibilities, and began to draw heavily upon the memories and experiences of Kronat and Omar Prax, who had both been in senior command positions in their own times.

In the Battle of Thane later that year, Nilani was once again in command of the Metis as part of the task group sent to defend the system from a Ritorian invasion which intelligence collected by James Wilson indicated was en-route to the system in a new push to expand Ritorian territory into Federation space. In the ensuing battle against the Sojourners, the Metis was critically damaged, and the survivors amongst her crew were only saved from the warp core breach by the timely intervention of the crew of the USS Vesta. Following the loss of the Metis and the lives of the Starfleet officers aboard her, Nilani was reduced to the position of executive officer on Starbase 332's replacement ship, the Carthage, with Captain Gunning himself taking nominal command of the vessel.

Personal Interests

Nilani's ambition since childhood was to become a host for a Trill symbiont, much the same as many Trill on the homeworld. Once achieving this aim however, Nilani found herself almost at a loss as to where to go in her life - the sudden new rush of memories and desires from her previous hosts made it difficult for her to determine which thoughts were her own and which were mere memories of a former host - an issue which she still has trouble with even years after the joining.

Eventually, Nilani Prax chose to continue her career in Starfleet, and returned to not only her position there, but also her research papers, gaining new insights and thoughts on her thesis thanks to the new symbiont. Since becoming joined, Nilani has completed her first doctorate, as well as gained two more, though she very rarely flaunts the fact that she is a three-time doctor, nor does she use the title when introducing herself.

Nilani has picked up playing the saxophone from a previous host, Torin, who became a fan of the instrument whilst hiding on Earth. Of her own hobbies, her painting is an aspect which has continued in her new life, though the art itself has taken on a distinctly different edge and style since she became a Prax. She also began training in Japanese martial arts, and can often be found in a holodeck simulation with either of these activities when one is available.

Relationships

Friends

Since being reassigned to Starbase 332, Nilani has created many bonds of friendship between herself and her colleagues, the two closest connections being with Captain Gunning and Commander Von. Her friendship with Gunning began a little strangely, as her previous host knew him only as a subordinate; somebody to mentor and mould into the ideal officer, whereas Nilani knew him only as her Captain. Though this merging of two friendships into one has created a much more informal relationship between the two of them, the relationship has grown into a strong bond, and both confide in each other regularly, and can sometimes be seen spending their off-hours together.

Nilani's friendship with Liarra Von began primarily as her gravitating towards another Trill who had undergone the Joining, and she has often gone to her for advice or to voice concerns regarding matters of their culture and the symbiotic relationship; in 2387, shortly before the loss of the Metis, Von advised Nilani to seek out a Guardian and perform the zhian'tara - the ritual whereby a Trill can temporarily separate from each of their hosts, one at a time, in order to meet with each of them, each past host occupying a body of a close friend. As of 2388, Nilani hasn't yet taken up this advice.