Gnai

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“All you ever were was a little bit of the universe, thinking to itself. Very specific; this bit, here, right now.” Iain M. Banks

USS Artemis-A
Gnai
Position	Science Officer
Rank	Ensign
Species	Galadoran
Gender	None
Pronouns	it/its
DOB	237409.16
Age	27
Birthplace	Anan City, Galador 2
Writer ID	A240102G11

Ensign Gnai (/ɡnaɪː/) is a Galadoran currently serving as a Science Officer aboard the USS Artemis-A.

	Appearance

• Height (outside of suit): Indeterminate blob
• Height (inside suit): 5'0" / 153 cm
• Hair: None
• Eyes: None
• Build: Stocky mechanical suit

	Early Life

Gnai budded off of another Gnaijan Galadoran, like every one of its identical peers, in the clonal domed city of Anan on the northern continent of Galador 2. As a young Galadoran, it had spent time floating about with peers, fascinated by everything that it came upon. It sought out a mentorship with an older Galadoran, an engineer by trade and amateur scientist, and focused its energy more into understanding the universe around it. This Galadoran, who had also gone by the name Gnai when outside the hive city and amongst humanoids, had told it stories of the wider universe, flashing wonder and excitement that Gnai mirrored in its own tendrils.

Pushed on to apply to Starfleet Academy by its mentor, Gnai soon found itself in need of a travel device - a containment suit to propel it outside of the water and interact with the world. It worked under the guidance of its mentor, creating a suit of their joint design.

At the Academy, Gnai studied primarily in the sciences, specializing in astronomy, what had fascinated it initially as a youth. It also obtained a secondary major, specializing in nanotechnology, after its mentor. Sure, it had the same dreams as a lot of Galadorans had, of ever more efficient sources of energy, but it was also practical. Having a better understanding of engineering would mean that it could update and upkeep its suit far better.

	Service

Fresh out of the Academy, the newly minted Ensign Gnai was assigned to the USS Artemis-A... but instead of ending up on the ship, it soon found itself trapped on Romulus with the rest of the main Science staff of the ship (Commander Genkos Adea, Lieutenant Jovenan, and Lieutenant JG. Gila Sadar), abandoned there by the ever-chaotic CloQ . One final wrench in its plans of a normal first assignment - they were trapped on Romulus in 2374. Unbeknownst to them, Captain Benjamin Sisko and Garak's plot for dragging the Romulan Star Empire into the Dominion War had somehow failed to go off. All that they knew was that Senator Vreenak was still unassassinated, and headed back to the Hall of State, the building that housed the Romulan Senate. For the Romulans to join the Dominion War, the team assumed that he would have to die .

One of the first steps that the team took, after Gnai joined it, was to determine how to properly disguise themselves. A Betazoid, an Edo, a Mizarian, and a Galadoran would raise eyebrows - and likely alarms - if spotted milling about the capital city of Ki Baratan. As soon as it had proposed disguising itself as some sort of robot, the group was interrupted by a Romulan civilian, who promptly fled as soon as he had laid eyes upon the gathered officers . The team gave chase, and Lt. JG. Sadar managed to block the Romulan's escape long enough for Cmdr. Adea to knock him out with his cane. Now burdened with an unconscious Romulan, Lt. Jovenan and Gnai hid the body back in a very convenient locker in the room they had first met in. It was during this trip that Gnai learned the reason why they were back in 2374 - the others had just come from an alternate timeline in which Betazed had remained occupied by the Dominion far longer than it should have . Confused, it continued to try and work at accessing the PADD that the Romulan had dropped, before asking what their mission was exactly - a tall order, given that it was unable to read the Romulan language that the PADD was written in .

The next bombshell dropped when Gnai was informed of the true mission - the assassination of Senator Vreenak. It had missed the discussion before, in which the team had decided upon that course of action, and it was only during that brief moment of calm that it thought to ask why they were really there in the first place. Stunned into silence, Gnai pondered the mission, clearly as apprehensive about the whole thing as the rest of the team. It was a lot to ask of an officer fresh out of the Academy. Soon enough, the team of blueshirts found themselves sneaking after a disguised Jovenan - the unconscious Romulan civilian had turned out to be quite a blessing in disguise - as they made their way through the administrative building towards a workshop that Lt. JG. Sadar had found through the PADD. When there, Gnai offered up a suggestion: perhaps they could use some of the tools stored away in this workshop as part of the disguise? It reasoned that civilian engineers might be able to get into military installations, such as the defensive turret that Cmdr. Adea had spotted en route .

As they discussed the strategy for overtaking the turret and using it to shoot down the Senator's shuttle, Gnai focused its efforts on its own disguise. With the help of the replicators in the lab, Gnai created rolls of mirrored foil and paint . Best not to leave any part of it showing. The science blue of its chassis was painted over with a drab Romulan grey by Lt. Jovenan, as it affixed the foil to the tank, turning it into a one-way mirrored surface. To finish off the robotic façade, Gnai attached a few scrounged up metal plates from the lab to the frame holding its tank.

Now fully disguised as two Romulan engineers, followed by a Mizarian and her robot companion, they made their way to the turret. At the entrance to the base of the artillery, a group of Romulan soldiers acted as security, and stopped the officers, demanding to know why they were here and why they had brought an alien to such a sensitive location. Gnai remained silent, trying to emulate some ideal of a robot that it had in its head . Thankfully, some quick thinking from the others rescued this attempt, and they found themselves in the base of a large Romulan turret. Cmdr. Adea ordered Gnai and Lt. JG. Sadar to work on framing the Dominion for this attack - discarding various replicated ketracel white tubes and a strange prosthetic face mask of the Commander himself - as he and Lt. Jovenan worked on the firing controls. Frazzled, they tried their best .

Soon after they had finished their haphazard frame job, the Senator's shuttle entered targeting range. With seconds to go, Gnai expressed its regrets about the mission to Lt. JG. Sadar, who echoed them. The shuttle was hit, and it careened into the turret, crumpling the building into a mess of metal and fire, killing the team instantly . Unbeknownst to the team, this had been all a massive mistake - by trying to recreate Sisko's plans, they had inadvertently started a war with the Romulans, forcing the Federation to fight on two fronts during one of its most dire moments. And like dominoes, one act lead to another, eventually ending with a Betazoid coup and the subjugation of the Federation under the heel of Empress Tevet Elain. CloQ rewound time just a fraction of a second before they all perished, and dropped Gnai into yet another stressful circumstance - the courtyard of a Betazoid prison colony .

In a flash of white light, Gnai found itself unadorned with mirrors and staring up at the snow falling from an open sky onto the austere grey walls of some sort of prison complex. Much to its delight, Captain Addison MacKenzie of the USS Artemis-A was nearby - it had recognized her from the PADD that had displayed its deployment orders as it left the Academy - as well as the two Vulcans: Ensign Savel and Lieutenant Commander Salkath. Trying to get ahead of any future questions, it announced itself to the captain, and rattled off the details of the mission that it had just abruptly departed. This was met with the first of what would likely be many eyebrow-raises from Ens. Savel . Introductions were short, if they happened at all, and the group of Starfleet officers shortly found out that they were in fact personae non gratae at the complex. A Betazoid woman reacted negatively to any attempts at contact, and soon they found themselves staring down a brutish jailer and his four guards. Gnai was absolutely terrified, and found itself clamming up once again .

The guards restrained the officers, dragging them away for an unclear 'further processing', into the drab and monotonous interior of the prison. When they finally stopped, the jailer informed them that they were being charged with "High Crimes against the Dominion" - terrorism and conspiracy - which would be punished with hard labor. Gnai was worried, immensely so, that it was being charged for its connection to the assassination of the Romulan Senator in 2374... somehow .

	Relationships

On Galador II

Gnai
Mentor Back on Galador II, Gnai was apprenticed to another Galadoran, an aging engineer who had once traveled the stars. It was awestruck with the stories that its mentor - named Gnai - told it, and eventually ended up taking on its name when it left Galador II to join Starfleet. The design of Gnai's suit was a joint effort between mentor and apprentice, based on the suit that Gnai had worn when it had traveled the galaxy.

On the USS Artemis-A

Jovenan
Department Head Gnai first met Lt. Jovenan on Romulus in 2374, after being snapped there alone. It took a liking to the Lieutenant, after her cheerful introduction. She seemed to be of a similar demeanor to Gnai, it thought. Hopefully she didn't hold its unquestioning involvement in the assassination plot against it in the future...

Gila Sadar
The Lieutenant (JG) Gnai also met Lt. JG. Gila Sadar on Romulus. For an extended period of time, it wasn't certain what her name was exactly - names were a foreign concept to Gnai, coming from a species that didn't really have them. So it just kept referring to her as Lieutenant.

During the mission, it ended up paired off with Lt. JG. Sadar, mostly as the two least-disguisable in the team. They both were stationed at the bottom of the Romulan turret as everything went wrong...

Genkos Adea
The Mildly Terrifying Commander The final individual from the USS Artemis-A that Gnai met on Romulus was Cmdr. Genkos Adea. It doesn't know what to make of him, nor of his strange gestures (winks are not standard practice in species without apparent eyes, or eyelids). Humanoids really are strange, aren't they? Gnai's impression of Cmdr. Adea was that he was decidedly a man of action, cracking skulls with his cane and cussing out Romulan guards.

Addison MacKenzie
The Captain Gnai's Captain aboard the USS Artemis-A. Gnai wants to do its very best to stay on her good side, lest it get kicked off of the ship or out of Starfleet and lose access to the various scientific resources that were aboard. Unfortunately, it has already informed her of the failure that was the blueshirts' attempt to bring the Romulans into the war and right history... the exact thing that landed a third of the Artemis's crew in prison.

Savel
The One That Raised His Eyebrow At It Gnai first met Ens. Savel at the Betazoid Prison Colony when they were all snapped there by CloQ. Ens. Savel raised his eyebrow at Gnai, which it took note of. It clearly wasn't making a good first impression.

Salkath
The One That Didn't Much like Ens. Savel, Gnai met Lt. Cmdr. Salkath in prison. He didn't raise an eyebrow at it. Perhaps Gnai had made a better first impression on him. It hoped that much, at least. Having such a massive moral dilemma as a first mission was bound to lead to some strange impressions.

File:Ensign Chevalier.png

Jaseb Chevalier
The Roommate Gnai has not yet met its bunkmate/roommate/whatever it is that fellow ensigns call the person that they are sharing living quarters with. It hopes that its strange requirements aren't too alienating...

	Service History

Starfleet Service Record Insignia Rank Dates Posting Assignment Cadet 2397 - 2401 Starfleet Academy Cadet Ensign SD 240102.27 - Present USS Artemis-A Science Officer

	Awards and Service Ribbons

For award descriptions, see: Awards and Service Ribbons

Awards and Service Ribbons
Award Name Date/Assignment Citation None Service Ribbon Name Date/Assignment Citation Starfleet Academy Graduate Ribbon 2401 Starfleet Academy Awarded to those who have graduated from Starfleet Academy.

	SIM References

	The Ship

NPC Listing   ·   USS Artemis-A Crew Manifest   ·   Crew History Commanding Ofc. Addison MacKenzie Executive Ofc. Talos Dakora Chief Tactical Ofc. Vitor Silveira Engineering Ofc. Salkath Engineering Ofc. Imril Chief Science Ofc. Jovenan Helm/Ops Ofc. Lyara Alroyo Operations Ofc. Ollie Bergmen Security Ofc. Savel Security Ofc. Kel Solas Science Ofc. Gnai Chief Medical Ofc. Genkos Adea Edit This Nav