Kara Iliana

Authored by Emily S.

Character Biography

Iliana was born during the occupation so spent the first few years of her life in Cardassian occupation camps. She learnt from very young that she had to be strong and take care of herself which gave her a fierce independence. Her father was killed before she was born and her mother passed away when she was 7, just before the end of the occupation, so she was taken in by a human family and moved to Earth. She was a very troubled teenager, lashing out and getting into fights as a result of her difficult start in life but her adoptive parents persevered and taught her how to be warm and kind. Her adoptive mother, Maria, was a nurse and she taught helped Iliana find her kinder and calmer side. She related more to her adoptive father, Cal, who had a gift for science and engineering. Iliana found that she didn’t feel as anxious when she had a problem to solve and from a young age she spent every moment she could tinkering with Cal in his workshop which she found an excellent release and it was soon apparent that she had a natural gift for engineering.

When Iliana was old enough she began to study engineering seriously and devoted her life to fixing problems. She still had a bit of a Bajoran temper at times but engineering became her passion. She enrolled in star-fleet and went through the academy, excelling particularly in advanced weapon systems and propulsion. She did briefly consider serving on Deep Space Nine but decided that it would be too painful being so close to Bajor and her past. Given her excellent skills in weaponry and warp field theory it seemed only natural that she would join a starship.

Following the academy she joined the USS Winchester and although she excelled in her role, she found it difficult to socialise with the crew and became quite isolated over time by choice.

She took a transfer to the USS Concorde as assistant chief and found that it suited her much better, being a smaller ship but after a few years she began to feel as though she wasn’t living up to her potential. When the posting opened up on the Manhattan, Iliana was initial hesistant despite being encouraged to apply by her DH, Lt Jatal, as she was unsure being so far away from home but after careful consideration she decided that it was just the new adventure that she needed and applied.

Timeline:

3rd July 2362 - Iliana’s father Tano is killed rescuing 3 men from a mining accident on Bajor
14th September 2362 - Iliana is born to Leela in the Batal labour camp on Bajor
January 2369 - Iliana’s mother Leela died suddenly from an undiagnosed heart condition
March 2369 - Iliana is taken to Earth as a refugee and is adopted by Maria & Cal Hawthorne
September 2380 - Iliana joins starfleet academy majoring in engineering
July 2383 - graduated 5th in her class and assigned to USS Winchester as junior engineer
2385 - promoted to shift supervisor and established as warp core specialist
2389 - reassigned to USS Concorde as assistant chief and promoted to Lt (jg)
2394 - promoted to chief engineer on USS Concorde
2399 - reassigned to USS Manhattan