Hsina Amman: Difference between revisions

Contrary to what her resume might suggest, Hsina is no bookworm.  The combination of her tumultuous childhood, extreme height and being raised by a brother who was a professional boxer, Hsina couldn't help but come out slightly odd, 51-50, playing slightly short of a full deck, etc.  She is beyond fanatically fit, with her exercise routine more masochistic than merely fanatical.  At 6'1" she is extremely tall, a trait she got from her mother and shares with her brother, who is 6'5".  She is proportional for her height, with a definitely feminine build, but one subjected to masochistic workouts to produce a body that would make most Klingons jealous.  Also like her mother and brother, she is freakishly strong, easily out-muscling the vast majority of men.  Her height, massive build and stern countenance are often intimidating to people who do not know her well, and even to some who do (the whole she's crazy thing).

Hsina has no fear.  This is not a heroic, courageous kind of no fear, but more a mentally defective, "death is merely the end" and of the "she likes pain" kind of no fear.  The kind of no fear that put her in the hospital when she was mugged at knife point in London and attacked the mugger with her fists, breaking the muggers arm, jaw and four ribs, but getting stabbed three times in the process.

In addition to her unhealthy lack of fear, Hsina also has a very unhealthy prejudice against certain professions and generally dislikes regulations that she sees as silly or unnecessary.  Its not that they are silly or unnecessary, just that she sees them that way, and quickly decides that they don't particularly matter to her.  Thus far she has been reasonably lucky and nothing has gotten her into too much trouble, as very few men complained when she would use the men's restroom 50% of the time, just using whichever is closer rather than caring for what she considered stupid segregation.  Her disdain for rules extends to a disdain for bureaucracy and bureaucratic professions, which she considers one step above a prison sentence and wonders what kind of spineless insectoid weasel would ever consider a career as a file clerk, secretary or what-not.  She's smart enough not to outright insult such people when they are in a position to cause trouble, but its always quite a struggle.

Hsina frequently takes unnecessary risks and participates in extreme sports to center herself.  When such activities are not available she tends to drink heavily, and never that synth nonsense.

Finally, while Hsina is unbalanced and not quite right, she is very good at hiding it.  She actually suffers from a genetic disorder that makes her completely psi-null.  She has absolutely zero psionic potential where most humans have some, and while that means she can never learn some of the mental disciplines like walking on hot coals and the like, it also prevents empaths and telepaths from getting any reading at all, though a Vulcan mind-meld, which is a direct physical connection, will get a reading, but only if done intrusively as she is incapable of consenting as that involves opening up a part of the brain that simply doesn't work.  There have been two instances, however, when somehow (Hsina doesn't yet understand it) two telepathic/empathic individuals were able to get something of a fuzzy-peripheral read on Hsina, while at the same time Hsina heard their thoughts as well.  Defective hardware is Hsina's best guess.

Since completing her doctoral studies, Hsina  has spent most of her life in academia.  Much like the fictional 20th movie character Indiana Jones, Hsina spent the years following her studies teaching classes on archaeology, history and anthropology while also participating in and often leading archaeological digs both on Earth and in deep space.   

It was on one such dig, a classified mission by the Starfleet vessel USS Curiosity to recover a Preserver artifact of incredible age found drifting intact near Romulan space, that Hsina was lost and presumed dead.  USS Curiosity recovered the artifact, but before they could return it to Starfleet for study, the ship was attacked and lost with all hands.   

What really happened was that a Romulan team infiltrated and boarded Curiosity, and made a play to capture the ship and the precious Preserver artifact.  By the time the fighting was over, only five of Curiosity's crew and Dr. Hsina Amman, who was on board as a civilian mission specialist remained alive, and the Curiosity herself was dead in space, venting atmosphere.  The Romulan survivors escaped with the Preserver artifact.

THAT WAS SIXTY-YEARS-AGO.  The six survivors went into stasis, certain that someone would find the drifting, derelict starship.  They did, 60-years-later, but only one of the six stasis chambers remained active, that of Dr. Hsina Amman.  Hsina woke up at Starbase 118 OPS, then spent a few weeks at Star Fleet Academy for a direct commission course (she did not attend a regular academy) and finally posting as an ensign on the USS Discovery-C.

Hsina has never been married, but has had two committed romantic relationships.  The first with Dr. Alexander Martin, another professor at Oxford.  Hsina and Alex parted romantically after being together for 12 years, and remained close friends.  When Hsina dissappeared, Dr. Martin eventually married one of his female students (Hsina was also once one of his students), had a family and died 25-years-ago at the age of 108.  Hsina's other long-term relationship was with one of her under-graduate and later graduate students, who died in her arms on USS Curiosity.

Since waking up, Hsina has been promoted quickly through the ranks on USS Discovery despite her rather abrasive personality, eventually serving as the chief science officer and more recently the chief of security.  In her months on board she has almost caught up with the last 60 years of technology, at least when it comes to operating modern computer systems, and has earned a reputation as an unfeeling b!tch, but one who gets results and will go to extremes to protect her shipmates.

Most recently, Hsina and her shipmates spent some time on the planet Kjenta II, a high-gravity planet with similar physiological effects to Ba'ku inside the Briar Patch.  While the effects varied by individual, the older one was physically, the more their physical age reverted while on Kjenta II.  The effect is such that the longer one spends on the planet and more one exerts oneself while there, the more pronounced the effect, which in its end state would have a person age backwards (or forwards normally if very young) until they reached their physiological prime.  To make Hsina's age more complex, she essentially got ten-years-younger in her time on Kjenta II, and while she was born 104-years-ago and has lived for 44 years, she is physiologically 34-years-old.