Della Vetri/Personal history
Childhood
Born in her parents home town on one of the islands off the coast of the Trill homeworld's southern continent, Della's early life was, if not the ideal, then at least a good approximation. Raised by caring parents, she took great delight in romping about both around her father's landscaping projects and her mother's home office, though with very different levels of amusement from her parents for each.
As a child, she was very active, though also a fairly voracious reader from an early age. This often led to amusing (for onlookers) incidents where she would try to run around the house whilst reading, with fairly predictable results. She was always trying to get involved in things, even trying to take over caring for her sister when she was born, though she never got very far into the more difficult tasks before one grown-up or other would intervene to prevent further damage.
Full Timeline
- 235706.08: Born.
Teenage Years
Della's teenage years were actually pretty unremarkable. A little higher than average in her classes, she was also a solid member of the school's swimming team, winning a few medals during her tenure there. The most remarkable aspect of this part of her life was the high-school crush which transformed into something a lot more, leading to her getting engaged during her term at the TAAL.
Full Timeline
- 237009.21: Entered High School.
- 237506.12: Graduated High School.
Pre-Academy Years
After graduating from high school, Della went straight into higher education, entering the Trill Academy of Higher Learning's Psychological Sciences program. She had a ready-made resource for when she got stuck, in the shape of her mother, and managed to achieve high marks in her courses, graduating with advanced qualifications in both Psychology and Psychotherapy.
One of the greatest challenges she faced during this period was simply balancing her Academy workload with the pressure of the Initiate programme - something that her field docent, Travi Mal, helped her put in perspective. To this day, she credits him with the fact that she didn't wash out, even though she hasn't been in touch with him for several years.
Being selected for joining with the Vetri symbiote was both a surprise and a great honour for her, even with the attendant changes in her life she'd been trained to expect. As in almost every case, there was some defeinite adjustment required, and a number of somewhat embarrasing incidents occured before she managed to get a handle on things - the most memorable of which was her first meeting with her father after the Joining, during which the personality and memories of Tomas within her caused her to quite bluntly compliment her father on just how hot her mother looked.
Whilst such incidents gave her family and friends plenty of ammunition to use against her in the usual banter that bound them together, it was not much of a surprise. That honor was reserved for the emergence of previously unsuspected empathic ability, something she is still working to fully adapt too, but the collapse of her engagement was also a bit of a cloud over the whole affair.
In fairly short order, she realized that she needed help, and arranged to enter a program specifically designed for people that have suddenly developed psychic ability. It was actually during this time that she decided to join Starfleet, an decision helped along by one of her therapists, a retired ship's counselor by the name of Geoff Harding.
Full Timeline
- 237509.16: Enrolled at TAAL.
- 237906.14: Graduated from TAAL.
- 237907.27: Joined with the Vetri symbiote.
- 237908.12: Entered therapy and education program on Betazed to help deal with her new empathic gifts.
Academy Years
Della quite enjoyed the Academy, giving her as it did access to a huge base of knowledge and training to dabble into, in addition to honing her Counseling skills. Indeed, her course through the Academy's programme was already largely mapped out by her mother's influence, and her education prior to enrolling.
She was on good term with the majority of her fellow cadets, and tutors, though, as always, there were those that she simply didn't get on with. As a rule, she was able to maintain at least a professional relationship with those, only slipping once when a fellow cadet tried to blame her for his own screw-up. The cadet in question was suitably chastened by the responses of both the faculty and Della herself, though no blame ever actually (officially) attached to her when the console in his quarters wouldn't stop playing Klingon opera at high volume in the middle of the night.
Full Timeline
- 238009.24: Enrolled in Starfleet Academy.
- 238411.13: Badly injured in an accident during a swimming event.
- 238506.29: Graduated Starfleet Academy.
Post Academy/In the Fleet
Della's life in Starfleet proper has only just begun, but there are certain to be interesting events down the line...
Full Timeline
- 238507.04: Assigned to Starbase 118 Operations as Assistant Counselor.
- 238507.19: Assigned to USS Indria-A as Ship's Counselor.
- 238509.01: Promoted to Lieutenant (Junior Grade).
- 238601.28: Received Neelix Award
- 238601.31: Assigned to USS Constitution-B as Ship's Counselor.
- 238603.24: Promoted to Lieutenant.
- 238611.26: Promoted to Lieutenant Commander.
Previous Hosts
Being a joined Trill, Della has several lifetimes of prior experience to call upon.
- Laren - A fairly stern and humourless woman, the symbiote's first host worked as a terraforming engineer throughout Federation space.
- Tomas - Driven, but friendly, he made a name for himself on Trill as an innovative, if slightly crazy, chef. Tales of him verbally abusing customers that criticised his creations are entirely exaggerated. Honestly.
- Hellia - A gifted singer, she was set for a great career when she was fatally injured in a shuttle accident aged only 23.
- Rynn - More of a drifter than anything else, Rynn made his way between the stars trading his skills as a mechanic for passage on merchant vessels. Of late, however, memories and feelings have started coming to the surface that simply don't fit with what she previously knew of Rynn's life, suggesting a far darker past than anyone expected.
- Marik - A trauma nurse in Tycho City, Luna, Marik was also an avid painter, though never particularly good. This never really bothered him, as he did it mostly to take his mind of things anyway.