Jelandra Gear/Parents

Becknar Pira Hitorin Martins Gé'ar (From 2318 to 2350)

Becknar Pira Hitorin Martins Gé'ar, PhD., or "Becknar Gear, Sr.", is undoubtedly a strange fish. Born Becknar Pira Hitorin Gÿ©'ar, to parents Aytha and Dungan on Betazed, he was raised in something approaching luxury. Whilst his family were not ranked among the Great Houses, they were a respected household with a long history dedicated, in the main, to supporting the establishment of the Peace Keeper system of government. His parents were diplomats, and Becknar spent much of his childhood travelling with them. Their unfortunate deaths while on assignment led to Becknar's adoption by a long-time human friend of his father's, Andrew Martins.

The young Becknar was a reserved, confident youth. The death of his parents turned that confidence to something more sinister - a cold superiority. It led him, despite the best efforts of his adoptive father, to become secret and self-contained. He learned to lie, a trait very uncommon to his people; and, more disturbingly, he became very good at it. Good enough that, following his research doctorate in [CLASSIFIED], he was head-hunted by SFI and would spend a great many years working behind the scenes of the Cardassian Wars.

It was near the beginning of these wars, towards the end of 2347, that he met a Starfleet Commander (acting-Captain, following the death of her CO), one of his own race, making a name for herself on the front lines as a highly capable fighting officer. Jadrice Midral was a breath of fresh air for Becknar; the two would probably have enjoyed a whirlwind romance, had they not been a hair's breadth from death for much of the formative portion of their relationship. They eventually found themselves requiring to wed, much to the chagrin of Jadrice's family, when Jadrice fell pregnant early in 2350.

Jadrice Kaya Trélia Pilos Midral (From 2311 to 2350)

Born into high society, a daughter of the Third House of Betazed, Jadrice wanted for nothing. Her parents, Taren and Pyra, were strongly conservative with a powerful sense of tradition. In many ways, Jadrice found this constricting and, despite being given anything a child could ask for, including affection, spent most of her youth wishing she were anywhere but home. This, combined with a strong sense of duty to her people and to the ideals of the Federation, drove her to apply to Starfleet Academy at the earliest opportunity.

Accepted onto the Command Programme, Jadrice followed the Engineering route, graduating in 2331 and being assigned to the USS Cairns, an Oberth Class science vessel performing biological research along the border of Federation space near what would become the front line in the Cardassian Wars. She served with distinction, remaining aboard the Cairns through the rank of Commander. In 2346, she was offered the position of Executive Officer aboard the Ambassador Class USS Nietzsche, which she accepted.

The Nietzsche found itself patrolling the border with the highly aggressive Cardassian Union. When the tensions turned to outright warfare, the Nietzsche was one of the first Federation vessels to engage a Cardassian warship. During the engagement, the Nietzsche lost her Commanding Officer, forcing a less-than-eager Jadrice to take on the role until a replacement could be despatched. Unfortunately, the Federation found itself trying to rally something resembling a warfleet, meaning that every available Captain and Commander worth their salt found themselves given command, on either a temporary of permanent basis.

Ultimately, Midral found herself in the role of Acting Captain for two and a half years. During this time, she was assigned an experienced intelligencer, a fellow Betazoid, by the name of Gé'ar - or, as he pronounced it, Gear. She lately learned that the pronunciation had been chosen to make his life on Earth easier - Gé'ar was difficult for Fed-standard-speaking humans to pronounce correctly without sounding pretencious, so he adopted a simpler moniker.

The two fell in love and, two years into their relationship, Jadrice found that she was taken withchild. This prompted something of an ad hoc marriage, Becknar having adopted a somewhat traditionalist human viewpoint on the subject of marriage (and, she later found, monogamy). Her family did not disown her, but their displeasure at a marriage as far 'beneath' her was made very evident.

"The Gears" (2350 to Present Day)

Jadrice reacted to her parents displeasure with a surprising amount of guilt. Becknar, to save his wife from at least some grief, chose to go by his own surname rather than hers - in deference to the fact that he evidently did not belong in her family. Fortunately for Jadrice, the new Captain of the Nietzsche arrived during the first quarter of 2350, permitting her relief to retire from the front lines to bear her first child. The boy was named Becknar, for his father, and was granted his mother's name and position within her House.

Young Becknar, however, was born with Mendroziga's Syndrome, a rare Betazoid condition caused by a slight physical deformation of the paracortex. A side-effect of this illness was a disfiguration of his eyes, which dully glowed green. The Midrals blamed Becknar Sr.'s 'lesser blood' for carrying the illness, believed to be congenital in nature.

To take better care of their son, Jadrice and Becknar retired to Earth, taking leaves of absence from their 'Fleet duties until Becknar Jr., or "Buck" as he became known, was near schooling age. He remained on Earth, with Becknar's adoptive father, to begin schooling there. The Cardassian War, however, had reached a heightened level of violence, violence which was nearing their mutual homeworld; both Jadrice and Becknar reactivated their commissions and were immediately despatched to the front lines, a trip taking somewhere in the region of a year at Warp 7. Near the beginning of this journey, Jadrice again fell pregnant, and was offloaded on Betazed (en route to the front line) some two months before her due date.

Becknar continued to the front, where he served as a covert operative, working against the notorious Obsidian Order. Jadrice followed some five months later, having left her newborn daughter, Jelandra, in the care of the Betazed Research Academy. Jelandra, born with her telepathic and empathic abilities fully active, required some form of isolation; though it would have been beneficial for her mother to have remained with her, Jadrice believed her duty to Starfleet to be more pressing than her duty to what she viewed as her second 'flawed' child. This, at least in part, is a reason why the two are as distant in the present time.

In stark contrast, Becknar took every available opportunity to visit his daughter during her formative years, and still to this day sees her whenever possible. She is the light of his universe, and the apple of his eye. Unlike his wife, he was eminently concerned about Jelandra's actions when she returned to Betazed post-occupation and, though he does not know exactly what happened to his daughter, he has sensed something 'wrong' with her ever since.