Aron Kells
Aron Caleb Chassigne-Kells, commonly known only as Aron Kells, is an officer of the Federation Starfleet. Known for his scientific work with epigenetics and extinction rehabilitation, he has been the subject of two temporal accidents throughout his career, and served as a civilian scientist briefly until called into service again at the behest of Starfleet. From June 2392, when it was announced during President Nan Bacco's State of the Federation Address, through November 2395, Kells commanded the high-profile starship USS Invicta. However, following the destruction of Astrofori One, the Invicta was reassigned to Lily Ventu, the Federation Secretary of the Exterior, and Kells took a leave period of several months, after which he accepted a position as special science advisor to the Secretary. After serving in that position for another several months, Kells was reassigned again, this time to the USS Thor as commanding officer. Kells served as CO of the Thor until that ship's decommissioning in 2399. His most recent appointment has been as the dean of Starfleet Academy's campus aboard Starbase 118, through which he also commands the Oberth-class training vessel USS Rachel Carson when necessary.
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| Aron Kells | ||
| Position | Starfleet Academy 118 Campus Dean, CO of training vessel Rachel Carson | |
| Rank | Commodore | |
| Species | Human/Romulan | |
| Gender | Male | |
| DOB | 235012.20 | |
| Age | 50 | |
| Birthplace | Spirit, Mars | |
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Appearance
- Height: 1.89m (6'1'')
- Weight: 80 kg (176 lbs).
- Hair Color: Brown
- Length of Hair: Midlength, a bit shaggy
- Eye Colour: Green lightening to blue
- Skin Tone: Also lightening
- Birthmarks, Scars: None
- Tattoos/Body Modifications: None
- Build: Quite tall, lanky
- Carriage: A bit like a spider
- Taste in Clothing: Semi-formal
- Voice: Given to inflected monologues or a quick wit
- Handedness: Ambidextrous, right favored
Family
- Bridget Chassigne
- Born 2310, Mars. Met her future husband in Mollywood in 2332, married in 2336. An actress usually associated with Mollywood, the Martian holopic industry based in Spirit, on the edge of Terra Cimmeria. Deceased, 2361, due to a rare but especially virulent viral disease that developed a deadly genetic variant in the Martian atmosphere.
- Jack Kells
- Full name John Joseph Kells. Born in 2308 on Earth but moved to Mars and Utopia Planetia after his Starfleet commission in 2330. Met Bridget Chassigne, an aspiring actress, in Mollywood in 2332, married in 2336. A Starfleet experimental pilot for the first twenty years of his life. Retired in 2352 from Starfleet at the rank of lieutenant commander. Once retired, he became a respected holopoet, building upon a hobby he developed during the first few decades of his life. Still resides in the family house on Mars, which all three children visit whenever they are able.
- Stevie Kells
- Full name Stephanie Chassigne-Kells. Also an actress, oldest sibling (born 2339). Left home at 17 to travel to Earth and seek her fortune as an actress there, and achieved some success in Paris as a holoprogram model and onstage, mostly at that city's historic Théâtre du Châtelet; she married in mid-2381.
- JJ Kells
- Full name Joshua Joseph Chassigne-Kells. A physicist, middle sibling (born 2341). Gained a doctorate in wave-particle physics by 2368 and works quite happily in research, also primarily on Earth. Unpartnered and has no interest in joining the service, though Aron has asked him to join Starfleet before and, failing that, to serve as a civilian on whatever ship Aron commands.
- Maiek Khev
- Pictured (below) as a young scientist, widely circulated by the Federation. A Romulan biologist and the creator of the virus that eradicated the Jaborrhik race during the Dominion War. The Federation considers him a war criminal and he remains one of their most wanted fugitives. His crimes, however, are much more complicated than that.
- Neka Quinsier-Chassigne
- A skilled geneticist who met the noted Romulan bioengineer Maiek Khev as a young woman. Eventually married him. Involved in Jaborrhik affair, but exonerated of any wrongdoing and now lives in retirement on Risa.
Bridget Chassigne, mother.
Jack Kells, father.
A young Stevie Kells, oldest sibling.
A young JJ Kells, middle sibling.
Maiek Khev, maternal grandfather.
Neka Quinsier-Chassigne, maternal grandmother.
Romantic Relationships
- Nic del Vedova
- Del and Aron knew each other from their Academy days, though they were initially only acquaintances and only became better friends afterward, when their work brought them closer together. Del was especially alienated by the latter of Aron's two temporal accidents; he didn't recognize very much of his friend in the older man's body. Since Aron's return to command in the Menthar Corridor, Del hasn't seen much of his old friend, though once assigned to the Invicta, Del made a point of seeing more of his old friend. They began dating during their service in the Menthar Corridor, and when Aron was assigned to the Thor, they had been partners for about three years.
- Didrik Stennes
- Didrik and Aron evolved a complicated romantic relationship after Aron's first accident and his ill-advised admission to Didrik that the two had been in a relationship in that Aron's future. Though they attempted to begin a relationship then, and maintain it after Aron had transferred, the romance did not last.
Dr. Nic del Vedova
Didrik Stennes
Friendships & Professional Relationships
- Roshanara Rahman
- Roshanara was Aron's chief of engineering aboard the Mercury and, later, Aron convinced her to serve concurrently with the Starfleet Corps of Engineers and as his first officer due to his familiarity and comfort with her command style. The two rarely saw eye-to-eye, but theirs is an effective, usually efficient working relationship. Once Roshanara earned promotion to the rank of captain and command of her own ship, the USS Veritas, Aron visited her there a couple of times, including a memorable trip to her homeworld, Krios Prime.
- Saveron
- Saveron and Aron have had an important relationship since Aron first took command of the Mercury in 2389. When Aron suffered an apparent temporal accident the following year that left him in an older body, the relationship between the two grew into a mutual respect grown from their long lives. With Saveron back under Aron's command on the Invicta, both relied upon each other more than either cared to admit.
- Geoffrey Teller
- Aron was reassigned to command of the Thor in 2397 and found then-Lt. Cmdr. Teller waiting to move the crew of the Embassy of Duronis II over to their former escort ship. Aron's evolving relationship with his XO aboard Thor is colored by Teller's service aboard the Veritas, where he served as chief of engineering to Roshanara.
- Quinn Reynolds
- Quinn Reynolds was Aron's first starship captain (after his time on Zosma Station). She was assigned to the Menthar Corridor as the region's intelligence director whe Aron commanded the Mercury and Aron considered her an important ally and, occasionally, a friend during that time. Since her own return to command, of the USS Gorkon, Aron has kept in sporadic contact with the now-admiral.
- Kali Nicholotti
- Kali was Aron's first and only commanding officer when he served as executive officer, and he found (surprisingly) that his more cowboyish tendencies were on display during his tenure ... yet it seems that these same qualities endeared him to her, and the two developed a friendship following Aron's promotion to commanding officer.
- Alora DeVeau
- Alora was assigned as a young science officer under Aron's first command and helped him make several important breakthroughs in discovering and coming to terms with the fact of his partially Romulan heritage. Since his return to the fleet, first as a civilian and then as an officer, she has been steadfastly supportive of him, and he has remained in contact with her through her service on the Veritas, Roshanara's ship.
- Arden Cain
- Arden was Aron's first executive officer and, like Aron, came from a background as a science officer. The two developed together well a bond of respect; that bond was strong enough that the older Kells doppelganger sought out Arden when he was on the run from the disabled Mercury -- though where the doppelganger went from that meeting, no one seems to be sure.
- Sinda Essen
- Sinda Essen has the dubious distinction of being the first person Aron met as an officer aboard a Federation starship: Immediately after arriving on the Drake, he invaded her personal space by performing an unauthorized scan upon her; he was fascinated by her hybrid biology. Despite this, the two developed a strong friendship after Aron invited Essen to his Romulan grandfather's trial; in this moment of vulnerability, he offered himself up as in need for a good friend.
Captain Roshanara Rahman
Dr. Saveron
Commander Geoffrey Teller
Admiral Quinn Reynolds
Fleet Captain Kali Nicholotti
Lt. Cmdr. Alora DeVeau
Commander Arden Cain
Lt. Cmdr. Sinda Essen
Pre-Service History
Aron is the third child of an ex-officer and a now-deceased actress, both of whom gained success in their respective careers. Bridget Chassigne helped the young holonovel industry on Mars move into its own as one of the first character models out of the Martian holo-mecca, "Mollywood." John Joseph Kells successfully tested three new Starfleet fighters, one of which he had helped design. Aron and his siblings grew up in a privileged household, but no more than most other prosperous Federation colonies. He was always interested in the sciences, but it was his mother's premature death that helped push Aron into his particular focus area.
Starfleet Academy & Zosma Station
Aron proceeded through the Academy a few years later than most. He spent an extra year as a cadet to fully explore his dual science specializations in biochemistry and genetics, and then spent another full year on his cadet cruise aboard the science-focused Nebula class starship USS Tesla on a survey of the reaches of the Beta Quadrant, where he worked to catalogue the genetic and epigenetic makeups of strange new creatures.
Following his graduation and earning of his commission, Aron spent nearly three years on the research science station at Zosma. His fellowship involved genetic experimentation with RNA viruses and gene editing. Toward the end of his final quarter of the fellowship, he requested a placement as an officer aboard a starship.
USS Drake and Starbase 118
In April 2388, Aron was assigned to the USS Drake as a science officer. Later in that year, he participated in the capture of "the Infernal," the wanted Romulan war criminal Maiek Khev (July) and helped to discover a series of tetryon sandbars that "beached" the Drake and the convoy of ships it had been escorting (August). Later in August, Aron attends the sentencing of the Infernal on Vulcan with Sinda Essen, and the two are present when the Infernal escapes. He takes Aron captive and reveals that he has some familiar relation to Aron, who did not previously know that he had any Romulan heritage. This is confirmed with a complete physical, but Aron's CO William Rogers refuses to relieve Aron, as the latter requests when he finds out.
In late 2388, Aron assisted the crew of the Drake with exploration of the Ring, an orbital megastructure associated with a Tellarite colony. Aron and Mitchell Kavalier beam aboard and, unbeknowst to them, are scanned and recorded by the Ring. After beaming back, and when Doctor Dantin-Vex is infected with an unknown agent, Aron volunteers to break quarantine and enter Sickbay for a sample of the agent. He discovers an unknown lifeform growing on Tellarite corpses in the morgue, and, when he attempts to learn more, is attacked by them and nearly killed. Again unbeknownst to him or his shipmates, the intelligence behind the Ring intervenes and saves his life, albeit in an unorthodox way: The Ring infuses Aron with the life of a possible future self, an Aron from eight years in the future. Following this mission, Aron is briefly removed from duty while his fitness is evaluated. Once it has been, he is elevated to the rank of lieutenant commander and takes over as chief science officer for the Drake.
By early 2389, Aron was serving from afar as the director of a project to revive the extinct Jaborrhik species on a terraformed world in addition to his duties aboard the Drake. His success in both posts led to his promotion to commander in March 2389 and, soon after, was approached to become the first officer for Starfleet operations aboard Starbase 118. He accepted, with the condition that he would still oversee the Jaborrhik project. However, he lasted less than two months as an executive officer.
USS Mercury
Aron was assigned as commanding officer of the exploration and laboratory vessel USS Mercury in the Menthar Corridor in May 2389 at the rank of commander. He served as the CO of the Mercury at the rank of commander until his promotion in September 2389 by Kali Nicholotti and Quinn Reynolds, his former COs. During his first year of command, Aron participated in several important missions, including the discovery and rehabilitation of an ancient space station into a Federation installation, Deep Space 10 and the rescue of an important Cardassian politician, Prianna, who would turn out to be a useful ally to Starfleet's presence in the Menthar Corridor for many years to come.
Also during his first year of command, Aron continued to learn more about his family and his unexpected history. In several more unexpected meetings with Maiek Khev, the Infernal, Khev revealed that he was Aron's biological grandfather and that the claims made against him were not entirely true: He stood accused of genocide that had resulted in the extinction of the Jaborrhik, the same species Aron had worked to rehabilitate. However, Khev proved to Aron that he had been ordered to create the Jaborrhik in the first place by a secret committee made up of high-ranking Federation and Romulan officials during the Dominion War as an Alpha Quadrant version of the Jem'Hadar: Genetically-engineered super-soldiers who would fight on behalf of the Federation-Klingon-Romulan Alliance. Once he learned of the project's true goal, Khev rebelled and threatened to go public; the committee responded by destroying the Jaborrhik and manufacturing blame for Khev that made it appear that he had wiped out a naturally occurring, pre-warp sentient species. Although Aron wanted to help clear his name, Khev declined his offer and returned to hiding -- but not before revealing that Aron himself had been genetically manipulated, and that the Vulcanoid telepathic abilities he inherited as part of his Romulan heritage had been "turned on." Though his abilities were minial, Aron had a difficult time coming to terms with the fact that he'd been an experiment.
In May of 2390, Aron again encountered the Ring, this time associated with a different planet, and took a small team to investigate. The Ring was less friendly to his companions this time and killed all but one of them. It also took Aron as a captive and replaced him with another time-shifted alternate, this time with a possible self from more than twenty years in the future. Again, this possible self was evaluated for fitness of duty, but Starfleet eventually named him to be the contining commanding officer of the Mercury -- all while the real Aron was held by the Ring. This older doppelganger oversaw several missions aboard the Mercury, including the discovery of an ancient repository of information in the Corridor, disaster relief on 83 Leonis II, and a crisis involving the Iconian gateways. At the end of the year, with the Mercury crippled by attacks from a rogue Cardassian vessel, the doppelganger Kells abandoned the ship and returned to the Ring at the same time the real Kells was expelled and discovered in the path of a Starfleet starship.
Recovery and the USS Garuda
Following his release by the Ring, Aron returned to Earth for an intense three-month period of therapy and rehabilitation. He revealed, over the course of those months, and in pieces to both family members and professionals, that he had suffered psychological and physical torture thanks to whatever intelligence was behind the Ring. After those months, however, he was cleared by Starfleet to regain his commission and join the fleet -- after he examined the logs and mission recordings from the seven months that the Ring's ersatz Kells had been in command of the Mercury.
Upon doing so, Aron declined to reenter Starfleet service, believing that it would be difficult for his fellows to trust a man who, even though he may have looked more aged than the version they had known and would know again, was still him. Though Starfleet offered a posting that wasn't near the Menthar Corridor, Aron again refused: He wanted to return to the Corridor, but he wouldn't do so as a Starfleet officer.
Once out in the Corridor again, he found many ways to spend his time. With his former shipmate and current friend Alora DeVeau, Aron began a small shipping, trading, and exploration partnership that he pursued with the small ship he purchased for himself (that he named, eccentrically, Ship). He spent a large part of his time on Deep Space 10, forging relationships with its denizens, including the commercial partnership between the Klingon Akharana and the Ferengi Erri. Occasionally, he volunteered his services to the USS Garuda, a Galaxy class starship and the successor to the Mercury in the Menthar Corridor. However, he found that he was right, and he was treate with suspicion and mistrust by several officers aboard the Garuda, including its commanding officer, Cassandra Egan Manno and its first officer, Harrison Ross. However, when Ross himself turned out to be a traitor and defected from Starfleet during a mission in which Aron was participating, Aron found that he was accepted a little more kindly.
In early 2392, Aron finally accepted Starfleet's offer to return to the service and was recommissioned at the rank of captain, as part of the science department of the Garuda under his friend Alora. While he was happy to serve in that role and not rise to the head of the department or to a command position, he found that he had less choice in the matter than he would have liked: When Egan Manno was promoted to fleet captain and given command of the diplomatic station Astrofori One, she named Aron as her reluctant successor and commanding officer of the Garuda. Her first order for him and his new command staff were to investigate the recently arrived Va Wreth, a species of powerful, long-lived nomads, and make sure the launch of Astrofori One went well. When it did, Aron was unexpectedly singled out by Federation President Nan Bacco during her State of the Federation Address, given aboard the state-of-the-art USS Invicta, as Starfleet Command's choice to captain that vessel.
USS Invicta
From June 2392 to April 2393, Aron served as commanding officer of the USS Invicta. Neither he nor his new command staff took kindly to the sudden reassignment from the Garuda -- but, as Fleet Captain Egan Manno told him, they were at the mercy of politics in an election year. Aron made the best of it and assembled the command staff he wanted -- his former chief engineer, Roshanara Rahman, as his first officer, and his old friend and former Mercury chief medical officer Saveron as his second officer. With that support, and the expansion of the Menthar Corridor into a region bustling with political, scientific, and historical potential, Aron led the Invicta out to explore new worlds, new frontiers, and new civilizations.
In 2393, Aron was promoted to fleet captain and overall command of the diplomatic mission of the Invicta and its associated ships. He served in that capacity through late 2395 and the Tholian invasion of the Menthar Corridor. When Astrofori One was destroyed, Aron and the rest of the Starfleet personnel from the area were assigned elsewhere. Aron requested and was granted a leave of absence to figure out what he wanted to do next, and the Invicta was assigned to Lily Ventu, Federation Secretary of the Exterior, as her personal vessel.
Leave, Politics, and the USS Thor
Aron's leave included some unexpected adventures in the Shoals as a visitor to the USS Veritas, commanded by his friend and former XO, Captain Roshanara Rahman, which was also the ship where his partner, Doctor Niccolò del Vedova, served. Aron joined the Veritas crew for a memorable trip to the planet the crew named Limbo, which existed outside of standard time.
After this (mis)adventure, Aron was recalled by Starfleet and assigned to Secretary Ventu's personal retinue as her special science advisor. In that capacity, he visited the Veritas again during Secretary Ventu's tour of the Shoals and her visit to Ketar V. Following that visit, Aron was able to accompany Rahman, del Vedova, and Rahman's partner Tristam Core to Rahman's homeworld, Krios Prime.
As the group returned to their respective posts, Aron was informed that he had been reassigned again, this time to the USS Thor, which had previously been a part of the defense force assigned to Duronis II and the Federation embassy there. He was ordered to take command of the Thor and staff it with the Embassy's senior staff, and launch the new career of the Thor as an exploratory vessel.
The Thor, a Vesta-class explorer, was equipped with a quantum slipstream drive and the new Warp XV engine, which made it ideal as a long-range vessel primed to carry out Starfleet's foundational mission: to seek out new worlds and new civilizations. The assignment of the Thor to Aron came along with a trip to the Menthar Corridor to search for a colony that had been lost some 200 years prior. However, given the impressive engine capabilities of the Thor -- to cross most of Federation space inside of a week -- its subsequent missions promised to carry it much farther from known space.
NPC Listing · USS Thor Crew Manifest · Crew History
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