Day 2-About your Tour Guide
"Hello and welcome! I am Ensign Shae, Chief Navigator of the United Federation of Planets starship USS Prosperity. On behalf of Starfleet Command and the UFP Council, I am honored to take you on this guided tour of Sectors X and Y in the Milky Way Galaxy's Beta Quadrant.
My commanding officer, Captain Ann Fletcher, has charged me with this task and I consider it a privilege to be able to assist visitors in better understanding this area of space.
Let's see what's out there!"
Ensign Shae of Cheron
Chief Navigator, USS Prosperity, NCC-1587
Starfleet, United Federation of Planets
Stardate 7690.2
Shae is an NPC first introduced into our campaign in an advenure in Season 4, around 2018 I believe, entitled 'The Battlefield That Time Forgot'. She is, as you can see, a Cheronian, the visually distinctive aliens from the original Star Trek Season 3 episode, 'Let This Be Our Last Battlefield'.
Well before the events depicted in 'Let This Be Our Last Battlefield', Shae's parents were murdered by the Cheron Commission on Political Traitors as criminal dissidents. Shae was able to steal a small spacecraft and escape the planet, living on the run from that point until meeting the crew of the Prosperity.
The Prosperity was investigating a Time/Space Anomaly when they found a single lifeform living on the moon of a planet in the star system. It turned out to be Shae, having survived on her own for a number of years, traveling from planet to planet, hiding out when Commission Officers from Cheron came looking.
Unfortunately, her latest makeshift abode came under attack from large, very strange aliens of previously unknown origin who were searching for a relic Shae had discovered. She was trying to figure out what it was when the PCs discovered her. Moments later, the aliens attacked and the PCs teamed up with Shae to fend them off. (Season 4, Episode 7, 'The Battlefield That Time Forgot').
This was the first part of a three part 'arc' which reveals much about the hostile aliens, their connections to a time lost Romulan ship, and the PCs being able to close the paradox loop thanks to help from Shae's knowledge of the region, as well as her expert Stellar Cartography and Navigation skills.
Shae remains with the Prosperity as it travels back into Federation space in hopes of learning more about Starfleet and the UFPs culture. She and one of the PCs, the Andorian Chief Engineer Lt. Commander Bhoth, enter the beginning of a romantic relationship (subplot).
A few episodes later, while taking Shae back with them to Starbase 25, other Cheronian survivors show up and demand she be turned over to them. According to their leader, Commissioner Modei (pronounced Mo-Dee), they require her presence as they are a species facing extinction and she's got, um, fully functional plumbing. This doesn't sit well with Shae (surprise, surprise), nor Captain Ann Fletcher. After some conflict between the two parties, both physical and verbal, Capt. Fletcher and Lt. Commander Bhoth give her the option of Political Asylum. She takes it and essentially 'defects' to the UFP.
Instead of being dropped off at the starbase however, Shae requests she stay on and enlist in Starfleet, taking courses to catch er up on Starfleet protocols, technology, etc. After a season or two she is Crewman Shae and then later still Ensign Shae, having completed the proper Starfleet Academy graduction requirements. Finally she gets Bridge Certification and becomes the Prosperity's Chief Navigator (like Chekov in the original series).
Bhoth and Shae eventually break-up, a mutual decision based on wanting and needing different things in life. They remain very close friends however and have a strong connection that continues to the current 'episodes'. She interacts with the other PCs more often now and has friends about the rest of the supporting NPCs.
Our most recent adventure (as of this post), Season 9 Episode 3, 'A Battlefield Worth Dying On', sees the PCs and their ship invited to the struggling colony of 'New Cheron' to discuss giving them aid in exchange for them sharing their advanced technological knowledge. Shae is asked to come along by the Captain and has moments with each of the PCs who let her know they 'have her back' and stand with her given her previous negative experiences with her own people. New leadership on the colony gives the Prosperity's crew hope, though Shae remained suspicious.
In the end, after action, adventure, and an exploration of madness and nihilism, she asserted that she got a brand new lease on life aboard the Prosperity; she is looking at the possibilities of future and not her tragic past. The Cheronians should, regardless of past sins, be given the same opportunity. "Make the most out of it. Do better."
Ensign Shae's Character Sheet:
"I look forward to showing you around Sectors T8 and T9. It's a interesting area of space with its own unique character. Ah, our Scout Ship has arrived! All aboard!
Are you ready to 'go boldly'?"
AD
Barking Alien
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