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, in particular chemistry. 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 experimenting and mixing with Cal in his lab which she found an excellent release and it was soon apparent that she had a natural gift for science.

When Iliana was old enough she began to study science seriously and devoted her life to learning all that she could. She still had a bit of a Bajoran temper at times but science became her passion. At the age of 20, she enrolled in star-fleet and went through the academy, excelling particularly in advanced chemistry and astrophysics. 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 astrophysics 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 and found that it suited her much better being a smaller ship, but after nearly 10 years she knew she had advanced as far as she could and began to feel as though she wasn’t living up to her potential. When the posting opened up on the (ship name), Iliana was initial hesistant despite being encouraged to apply by her DH, Lt Jatal, as she was so settled on the Winchester and was unsure being on a larger ship again 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 2382 - Iliana joins starfleet academy majoring in science
July 2385 - graduated 5th in her class and assigned to USS Winchester as junior engineer
2389 - promoted to shift supervisor and established as astrophysics specialist
2394 - reassigned to USS Concorde as assistant chief and promoted to Lt (jg)
2401 - reassigned to USS xx