Lieutenant Commander Valerie Novis
Name Valerie Grace Novis
Position First Officer
Second Position Chief Tactical Officer
Rank Lieutenant Commander
Character Information
| Gender | Female | |
| Species | Trill (Joined, but doesn't mention it) | |
| Age | 33(245) |
Physical Appearance
| Height | 5'5" | |
| Weight | 122 | |
| Hair Color | Reddish | |
| Eye Color | Green | |
| Physical Description | Valerie is a shorter redhead who wears her hair loose down her back, sometimes pulled up into a ponytail when she feels threatened. She has dark spots that are in a line across her forehead and down both sides and go all the way down. She has a scar on her neck from where she claims she was attacked as a teenager. |
Family
| Spouse | None | |
| Children | Teressa Gerala (Biological child, given up for adoption) | |
| Father | Junai Herella | |
| Mother | Lorea Herella | |
| Brother(s) | None | |
| Sister(s) | None | |
| Other Family | None |
Personality & Traits
| General Overview | Valerie has two sides to her personality, one being an outgoing and social person and only ever seen when off duty, living life for TODAY, not worrying about tomorrow. The other side being cold and analytical and not allowing much emotion to be seen which is when she's on duty. When in a high-stress position she tends to speak as little as possible, sometimes the words seeming to be choked out of her. | |
| Strengths & Weaknesses | +Mental stability due to the Novis Symbiont (4 prior lives) +Steep learning curve +Hand to hand combat +Knife Fighting +Natural tactician +Situational Awareness -Not a true strategist -Bad long term decision making -Doesn't really care about her own life |
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| Hobbies & Interests | -Gunnery -Hand to hand combat practice -Swimming (In as little as possible) -Playing pool -Poker -Movies |
| Personal History | Valerie Grace Herella was named after two of her mother's best friends when she was born on November 4th, 2256. Her mother, Lorea, was a Geologist and her father, Junai, was a well known doctor, but neither of them were around to raise her after a few months, almost as if they were bored with her, or at least too busy to deal with her. She was raised by a dedicated nanny for her first twelve years, her parents occasionally visiting, mostly to reprimand her for getting in trouble or for bad grades in school. Shortly after she turned twelve, her nanny was dismissed abruptly as Valerie was informed that she was now old enough to take care of herself in her parent's absences. The apparently unloved child struck out, her parents visiting less and less, so she turned to the closest type of social interaction she could find, joining a gang in the heart of the city she lived in, returning home many nights to make sure she was there if her parents showed up. The gang became more of a family than her own parents. Valerie became pregnant at the age of fourteen, giving birth to a daughter naming her Teressa and holding her only twice before giving her up for adoption, fearing the reaction of her parents if they'd discovered the situation (they hadn't realized she was pregnant, merely telling her she needed to lose weight). During a scuffle with a rival gang, her best friend, the father of her child, was killed when she was sixteen. After attempting and failing to cut her own throat, she left the gang and decided to go back to school. She focused on her studies, burying her past as deep as she could before applying for the Symbiosis Commission even as she completed her own education. They discovered that she was an excellent candidate for compatibility with Joining when she applied for Starfleet Academy and was accepted. She went into the Tactical track upon entry into the Academy in 2275, one of the first few classes after the Trill people had joined the Federation, then was recruited into the Intelligence division during her Sophomore year. Most of her time at the Academy was uneventful, despite the expansion in the Fleet. Her mentor at the Academy, Commander Crysta Rori, made sure that she was well taken care of during her time at the Academy, teaching her in one of the more obscure martial arts from Trillius Prime, their homeworld. Valerie graduated 7th in her class and was assigned to the Federation Embassy on Romulus after her graduation, in part because she was compatible for Joining and while they remained a secret from everyone they could, every symbiont had a 'backup' in place given their scarcity and one of the 'Diplomatic Attaches' assigned there had been Joined. She got a call from her parents over six weeks after she tried to tell them she graduated, only to be ranted at for 'only' being 7th, not being THE best in her graduating class. That was the last time she talked to her parents. During her time on Romulus, Valerie not only guarded the building in her role as a Tactical officer, but also acted in a counter-Intelligence role in addition to serving as an analyst for the information that came in. Additionally, she assisted in some more of the mundane tasks, like setting marker signals and picking up dead drops and the like. She spent two and a half years on Embassy duty, being promoted in 2381 before the Trill that she'd been the 'backup host' for was attacked while on their duties for Starfleet Intelligence, Kyra Novis, was stabbed and fatally wounded. In a rushed operation with a wounded symbiont, Valerie was joined with the Novis symbiont and transferred to Trill for recovery and acclimatizing to the new experience, trying to meld with four new lives, though her file indicated she had been severely wounded in the same incident as Kyra. Her file was altered to show that she had been married and taken the last name of her 'husband' of Novis. In early 2283, she was reassigned to the USS Carnarvon, a Miranda-class starship that patrolled inside Federation space. She served with as much distinction as could be on the ship, gaining a promotion to Lieutenant in mid-2285, rising in position to Chief Tactical Officer at the same time. At December of 2288, Carnarvon was ordered to the Utopia Planetia Shipyards for a long overdue refit that was expected to take nearly five months to upgrade her systems and install a new computer core that would increase her capabilities by about thirty percent. Due to that, a significant portion of her crew was reassigned to other stations and ships, including Valerie. She was assigned to Starbase 33, one of the largest starbases of the time where she was the Chief Tactical Officer with the promotion to Lieutenant Commander, also taking more of a hand in the analyst portion of Intelligence as the advanced technology of the newer Starbase made it a logical hub for all Intelligence activities. While serving on the Starbase didn't exercise her tactical talents very much, she found that she was very good at coordinating the movements of sector's Fleet traffic as well as merchant traffic, uncovering one smuggling ring that specialized in drug transport as well as busting some traffickers who were transporting Orions and Humans as de-facto slaves. Her performance was standout in the region and she was enrolled in additional courses in late 2389 to bring her into line for Command. In 2390 she was given her chance as she was transferred to the USS Ark Royal, a refit Constitution-class starship. |
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| Service Record | 2275-2279- Starfleet Academy 2279-2283- Federation Embassy, Romulus 2283-2284- Medical Leave: Trillius Prime 2284-2288- USS Carnarvon 2288-2290- Starbase 33 2290-Pres.- USS Ark Royal Previous Lives of Novis: 1st- Devlin - Astrophysicist, had a part in the development of the Trill warp project 2nd- Talia - Security Service hostage negotiator 3rd- Tremaine - pilot, carefree, ladies man, loved flying old air-breathing turbine engine aircraft 4th (most recent) - Kyra - decorated Intelligence Officer, stabbed on Romulus but survived long enough to get back to the embassy, memories from this host have been somewhat corrupted due to the trauma, symbionts transferred to Valerie due to her being only ‘qualified’ potential host on-planet |