View source for Ash MacKenna

{{:Ash MacKenna/Navbar}}

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[[Image:ASH6.jpg|center]]
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{{LCARS-bar|Basic Stats|COLOR=#000000}}
*Full Name: Ash Tristan MacKenna 
*Race: Human
*DoB: 237012.29 
*Gender: Female
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*Father: Carlton MacKenna (Farmer and Historian, Archeologist)
*Mother: Marian Crawford-MacKenna (Farmer, Storyteller, Archeologist)
*Siblings: N/A
*Significant Other: [[Randal Shayne]]
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*Height: 5'5"
*Weight: 110
*Hair: Red
*Eyes: Green
*Skin: Fair/Pale
*Build: Slender

{{LCARS-bar|History|COLOR=#000000}}
Ash was born in a small town in Scotland. Of traceable Scottish decent, she grew up following the stories and traditions of the older days. She has no siblings, and was able to lead a quiet life in the highlands of the area where few people still live. The relics of broken and derelict monuments and castles were her playgrounds, and she spent lots of time on her father's farm. Ash is well versed in how to handle a variety of animals, plants, and has an uncanny interest in the weather and geological phenomenon of long ago. When she was old enough, she enlisted in Starfleet in order to expand her knowledge and provide a route for her endless seeking of knowledge.

Ash is extremely shy and does not like to be around people. While some of this is just being unable to connect socially on account of inherent neurodivergence, some of it stems from her semi isolation as a child. She did not fit in well with the social structure at the Academy and found herself at the cruel end of her peer's jokes, with many of them jealous of her grades, and because she was given a provisional commission, they told her that she would soon fail. Taking this knowledge with her into her first assignment aboard the Resolution, she is always wondering if she has messed up. No matter what she does, she over worries about doing it right, and when it looks like she didn't or that her idea or theory was not good enough, she panics. 

Most people see Ash as extremely nervous, and she has been known to literally run away from social situations. She will hide in corners if forced to attend social functions, and her favorite place to be is a small, out of the way corner of the Astrophysics Lab. If you were to watch her work, you would see her do multiple things at one time, generally having one screen full of code relating to a visual representation which is on another screen. Watching code, and understanding it, calms her down and helps her forget the social interactions she is forced to have. She will generally carry a PADD around for the same reason, as a way to cope with situations where she would love to run away, but cannot for one reason or another.

Being assigned to the away mission to [[Embassy of Duronis II|Duronis II]] provided Ash with the chance to build her confidence, and thanks to the poking and pushing of senior officers, namely [[Jaxx, Andrus|Lt. Commander Jaxx]] and [[Kora, Makal|Lieutenant Kora]], she is starting to gain confidence in her new Starfleet role.

==='''Losing a Hand'''===

During the last mission, as [[West, Heath|Major West]] returned with [[Turner, Toni|Commander Turner]] from being kidnapped, Ash came in contact with [[Borg]] nanites that were wreaking havoc on the Major's body. Attempting to perform scientific analysis, Ash was pricked by the Major, thus beginning her own assimilation process. In the attempt to resolve the issue quickly, [[Llewelyn, Iolo Madoc|Marine Captain Iolo Llewelyn]] chose to cut off Ash's hand to prevent the process. Due to the trauma and the need for a proper prosthetic, Ash was transferred to Starbase 185 for treatment. Though she will miss the one close friend that she had made on the [[USS Resolution|Resolution]], [[Orman, Katy|Katy Orman]], she once again ventures into the unknown.

Fitted with, and well versed in the use of her new hand, Ash was placed back on active duty and reassigned to the [[USS Eagle]] as a science officer. Currently on assignment in the Gamma quadrant, she travels accompanied by two other officers to the ship. 

Still excelling in anything science related, she has risen through the ranks quickly. Slowly overcoming her overly shy nature, she is learning to trust in the abilities that she has. Although she still questions herself before she speaks, her scientific advice is usually dead on even in theoretical situations. She has the budding talent of making up theories on the fly, and she is learning that sometimes you just need to speak up. Even if you aren't right, others that are working on the problem can often jump off of what you have started.

==='''Moving Up'''===

Having overcome most of her paralyzing shyness, and once again working under the command of [[Jaxx, Andrus|Lt. Commander Andrus Jaxx]], Ash took the assignment of Chief Science Officer.

When [[Drawoh, Rocar|Admiral Rocar]] disappeared, and then was found injured and had to be transferred to [[Earth]], Ash stepped up to help with command of the ship as [[Webb, Cyrus|Lt Commander Webb]] stepped into the first officer role. Upon returning for shore leave after a grueling mission into the [[Trinity Sector|Azure nebula]], Jaxx was promoted to commanding officer of the [[USS Victory]] and offered Ash the permanent position of First Officer. She accepted, and began a new path in her Starfleet Career.

Shortly after assuming her new role, the [[USS Victory]] is sent back in time. When it happened, though they didn't know it, a 'Q' who would eventually make herself known, creates a rift in space time causing the Victory to emerge from the anomaly in the Earth year of 1969. Within seconds, the senior staff witnesses a collision with an ancient spaceship from the time period - Apollo 11. 

In the rush to find the information the crew needed to rebuild the spacecraft and put it back on track towards history, Ash is sent to the surface in the guise of a US Navy nurse, along with Dr. Deron and Liam Frost, in an away mission that would go horribly wrong. While waiting for a specific person to arrive so that they could retrieve said information, [[MacKenna Candyman|Ash ingests LSD]] that was given to her by a local man. She was [[MacKenna Somethings Not Right|saved from the situation by Frost and Deron]], but there was already damage done. The resulting effects put her out of commission for the remainder of the mission.

==='''Resignation'''===

Ash goes on leave indefinitely after the events that day and she officially resigns her role as First Officer as soon as the Victory appears, because of the Q, in front of Starbase 118. Because of the longer hold the drug had on her, Ash lost contact with Radi during this time, finding out later that he had been reassigned.

There wasn't much time for Ash to transfer herself to the station, but she found a temporary room in which to stay until she figured out what she wanted to do. No sooner had she fell on the bed in an overly depressed state than the station shuddered. Ash, caught up in her own mind, huddled in the dark for three days until Katy appeared in her doorway. The two spent the next day together as they both came to terms with returning to duty.

As days pass, Ash grows closer to Katy in the wake of Radi's disappearance. She's broken hearted, but Katy helps her through. Continuing her work in science, Ash is soon shocked to learn of sensor sub processor faults that seemingly looked like sabotage. A day later, as command of the station is handed over to Commander Kalianna Nicholotti, the reason for the sabotage is made apparent. Now, Ash finds herself caught up in a doomsday scenario where the entire station is crippled and is about to be bombarded by veritable bullets from the sky.

Confidence is something that comes and goes for Ash in the days following the Reikara attacks. She finds out that Radi is dead, but feels very little having already grieved for his loss after he left her the first time. Troubled by this, she attends a crew gathering with Katy but runs off with her friend aboard a holographic representation of her horse; an animal that seems to inject her with more confidence than she imagined she had. Meanwhile, strange impulses run through her mind, usually concerning Katy, and for once, Ash finds herself fighting them less and less.

==='''Reassigned'''===

Caught up in the mundane tasks that day to day science work on the station brings, Ash soon finds herself in a place where the days run into one another and nothing seems to keep her attention. Katy is reassigned, most of those she had known from prior assignments were reassigned, and then one day she was also reassigned. Sent back to Earth to work on a number of projects, she was required to report back to command and submit the final of what had been many reports leading to her promotion to Lieutenant Commander. Long from the days of her provisional commission, she closes the last of that chapter and is set on a path to lead the next generation of science officers by teaching a few very small classes at the Academy while working on various projects connected with her areas of expertise.

Teaching is something she decides definitely isn't for her, and as she moves to ask Command for a reassignment, she finds that she has been sent to DS26 to meet up with a crew, though she knows little else about everything. With every ounce of courage she can muster, Ash boards a shuttle to the station and to her future.

As it turns out, she's been assigned as the Chief Science Officer of the USS Columbia, a role that she's not quite sure she is ready to take. Still, without much choice she joins the crew for a transition celebration and meets someone who changes her life for good.

==='''Finding the Captain'''===

It didn't take long for Ash to find herself in the middle of trouble. Not long after the Columbia heads out to its new area of operations, the Captain takes his yacht out for a spin and is lost. Following him, the crew finds themselves having to brave a planet where little makes sense. Ultimately Ash is captured with the rest of the team and it becomes increasingly apparent that their augment captor has little motivation to let them go. 

Thankfully, the team finds the captain and his injured crewmates before any have died, though they still faced difficulty in finding a way out. Time, as it were, was on their side though, and before long the magnetic fields blocking communication and transport faded. Armed with a hypospray 'bomb' created by Mirra Ezo, the team's leader and former doctor, Ash managed to sneak transporter beacons on to each member of the team including the captain before facing their captor. As the blue shimmers appeared and her teammates faded into nothing, Ash blocked the augment by blowing up the hypospray bomb in her face. The tactic worked and all members of the team were transported to safety, though Ash lost her artificial hand in the process.

Once back aboard the ship, Ash finds herself in sickbay awaiting the process involved in getting a new hand. It was then that the man she'd only recently met, but had completely fallen for, let her know that he was being reassigned. She found herself destined for loneliness once more, though the memories of Radi's reassignment dredged up feelings she would have much rather left in the past.

==='''Undercover Coincidences'''===

Ash's assignment aboard the Columbia is cut dramatically short as she gets word that a freak accident at home [[MacKenna How She Came to Be|claimed the lives of her mother, father, and beloved horse]]. Returning home, she deals, or doesn't deal rather, with the fallout of the loss. Without friends, and now without family, she all but gives up. It was Starfleet that finds her, having invoked counseling trauma protocols in the wake of her leave, and who brings her back to the nearest installation for recovery. Not long after she's back on her feet on the outside at least, she is offered the opportunity to transfer to the Intelligence division. Without much drive or joy in the things she used to love, she took Starfleet up on the offer and was subsequently shipped out to Karek Tor undercover to learn what could be learned about a zealot religious faction that potentially endangered the entire region. 

It was aboard the station that she runs into an away team from the USS Eagle led by the one man she missed in her life, Randal Shayne. 

The station is ultimately destroyed and Ash returns to the Eagle with the away team and is soon after assigned to the ship. Slowly, her connection with Shayne is confirmed - he had never left her despite her grief. She didn't share any of it with him either, not wanting to burden him in his new role as First Officer. Instead, she graciously accepts his invitation to move into his quarters and starts slowly putting her internal emotions back together again.

==='''Abnormal Normality'''===

With nothing but her connection with Shayne left in the universe, Ash threw herself into her work often taking on assignments that sent her across the galaxy and out of contact for long spans of time. She found that she was not only good at things like that, but also that it allowed her to be solitary and out of crowds, which she liked. Her base of operations became the USS Resolution, housed in the Borderlands, and Deep Space 224, which she returned to between missions and served on as a Science/Intelligence liaison officer. 

Most of the information regarding her missions outside of the Resolution have been redacted to all but those with the highest levels of clearance.

==='''The First Day of the Rest of Her Life'''===

Granted an extended leave, Ash takes time to meet up with her longtime boyfriend in person in the living park on Deep Space 3 not realizing that it would be the trip to define the rest of her life. The two had remained true to each other despite the distance between them, but given the chance, the pull became too great. In the soaked artificial moonlight of the park, [[MacKenna The First Day of The Rest of Their Lives|Ash asked Shayne to marry her]], and with a simple command he wisked her back to his quarters to reveal that he had already aquired rings. With the proposal, a [[MacKenna (Shayne) Turnabout In-Rude-er|transfer was granted]] and Ash became a permanent member of the Arrow crew.

{{LCARS-bar|Education|COLOR=#000000}}

Educated at home until she left to join Starfleet. Very high grades in sciences and mathematics, but falters in just about any other area.

Ash keeps to herself, and transfers all of her efforts into her studies. As a result, she excelled in the Academy and far outdistanced her classmates. Because she was so far ahead of them academically, she was offered a provisional commission aboard the USS Resolution, a science vessel that had just been commissioned.

{{LCARS-bar|Family|COLOR=#000000}}
Ash's parents are both archaeologists that have been dispatched throughout the galaxy to study various civilizations. When Ash was born, they decided to settle on Earth in the land of their forefathers in order to share their love of history and the traditions of the human race. Since she joined Starfleet, they have returned to their old occupation on a limited basis. They still have the farm, however, which is always taken care of even if they are off world working.

Ash stays in touch with her parents on a regular basis. Her horse, Duster's Red Dawn, still remains on the farm for her to visit when she can.

In 2396, following a series of incredibly unfortunate events, the family home is lost to a massive fire caused by a malfunction. The barn, connected to the antique stone and timber home, was also destroyed, along with Ash's beloved horse. In the months that follow, Ash's sanity is tested and ultimately she is roped back into Starfleet and sent out as an Intel operative with 'no home connections', a term SFI used to describe those without 'distractions' back home. Her demeanor shifts, and though her shy nature remains, it is colder, and overall, she is bolder.

{| cellpadding="2" style="border: 1px solid darkgray;"
|- align="center"
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[[File:mackennas_duster.jpg|300px|Duster's Red Dawn]]
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[[File:Ash1.jpg|200px|Ash (Photo by Katy)]]
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[[File:Mackennas_duster2.jpg|250px|Duster's Red Dawn]]
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|Ash's Horse, Duster || Ash, taken by Katy || Duster's Red Dawn
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{{LCARS-bar|Relationships of Interest|COLOR=#000000}}
'''[[Kora, Makal|Makal Kora]]''' - The Chief Science Officer aboard Ash's first assignment, the [[USS Resolution]]. Provided feedback and support, helping Ash grip the new role as a Starfleet officer. 

'''[[Jaxx, Andrus|Andrus Jaxx]]''' - Unofficially, Jaxx has always been a mentor to Ash. He was her first First Officer, the XO of the [[USS Resolution]], when she was first assigned there as a provisional ensign. Over the years, the two have served on various ships together including the [[USS Eagle]] as well as the [[USS Victory]]. Jaxx provided support and guidance throughout her time as a provisional member of Starfleet, as well as through her career and personal growth. Unbeknownst to her, he has kept tabs on her throughout her career when they were not assigned to the same ship.

'''[[Orman, Katy|Katy Orman]]''' - Ash first met Katy when stationed on the [[USS Resolution]]. With an assignment that put Ash in the position to bring Katy up to speed on the current situation, Ash found herself spending lots of time with the woman. They discovered similar tastes and got along quite well. Over time, the two have formed a bond that Ash holds dear. When Ash lost her hand, Katy gifted her [[Mr Squishypants]], and when Katy took an extended leave, it was on Earth that she went to spend the end of said leave with her best friend. Ash has no clue of the depth of Katy's feelings, or her own, until the two decide that it is best to let things be as they are. Technically, Ash considers Katy's quarters as 'home' and sleeps there most nights.

'''[[Rais, Radi|Radi Rais]]''' - Mr. Rais and Ash have not known each other long, but there seems to be a distinct attraction between the two. Having been on a couple of 'dates' and spending time together throughout their first shore leave, Ash has decided to allow the relationship to progress further despite her distinct lack of experience in that area of life. In fact, her first ever romantic kiss was experienced shortly before the [[USS Victory]] was sent to help with the Romulan evacuation while on the holodeck with Radi. Following the incident where the Q transported the crew and ship back in time, Ash has not seen or heard of Radi save that he was reassigned. She keeps the bear he made her on the shelf where he left it. It would be much later, when she returned to Earth, that she would learn of his death.

'''[[Shayne, Randal|Randal Shayne]]''' - Serendipity at its finest. Ash met Shayne by chance at the awards banquet following her assignment to the ATF/Columbia. He seemed to pick up on her extreme discomfort and moved to protect her from the cause despite its normality. They were true kindred souls, seemingly 'on the same page' and in tune with each other. It didn't take long for her to fall completely for him even with her normal reservations and inability to share her feelings. [[MacKenna Goodbye is not Goodbye|His transfer to another ship crushed her]], but they continue to try to connect despite the distance between them.

True to their serendipitous nature, the two run into each other once more aboard Karek Tor, an abandoned Cardassian station on which Ash was serving undercover to collect Intel on a rouge faction of religious zealots SFI believed to be an up and coming threat to Starfleet. Following the demise of the station, she requests and is granted assignment aboard the Eagle. Not long after moving in together, she is sent out on further missions for SFI, but the two continue to work at as normal of a relationship as possible. He becomes the one stable aspect of her life, and the one thing she can count on even as he moves into his own command aboard the Arrow.

Following a time of trials and time apart, during which both fought to keep in touch as much as possible, they finally met in person on DS3. The spontaneous asking of Ash to go with Shayne led to her asking him to marry her and a few favors called in later, Ash was officially transferred to the Arrow to serve as the Chief Intel officer, but also to plan a wedding and build a home. After spending years in the black collar, she finds these tasks her most fulfilling - and challenging - yet.

'''[[Ezo, Mirra|Mirra Ezo]]''' - As the leader of the away team and the maker of the hypospray bomb that took her artificial hand, Mirra seems to feel at fault for Ash losing her hand. The result of that, plus their shared loss in the wake of multiple transfers off the ship, lead to a kind of connection that promises to grow into friendship. Unfortunately, Mirra goes MIA and Ash has been unable to uncover any information regarding her whereabouts.

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{{LCARS-bar|Professional History|COLOR=#000000}}
*237911.02 - Accepted into Starfleet Academy
*238605.26 - Assigned to [[USS Resolution]] as a provisional ensign due to extremely high aptitude for science.
*238609.01 - Lost right hand due to Borg infiltration of the ship.
**238609.01 - Promoted, Full Ensign. Received Starfleet Commission and all privileges associated.
**238609.03 - Arrived, Starfleet Medical, Earth
*238610.01 - Reassigned to [[USS Eagle]]
**238610.08 - Promoted, Lt. Jg.
**238611.05 - Promoted, Full Lieutenant
*238706.18 - Reassigned [[USS Victory]]
**238706.21 - Assigned as Chief Science Officer, [[USS Victory]]
**238710.03 - Promoted, Lieutenant Commander
**238711.26 - Assigned as First Officer, [[USS Victory]]
*238807.02 - Relieved of duty, placed on medical leave.
**238807.10 - Transferred to [[StarBase 118 Ops]]
**238810.10 - Reinstated as Science Officer
*239004.12 - Reassigned to Earth, Starfleet Academy/Science Command
*239508.15 - Reassigned, [[USS Blackwell]], Chief Science Officer
*239512.29 - LOA, loss of family home/Mother/Father/Horse
*239602.22 - Reassigned, Starfleet Intelligence (Field Operative)
*239610.05 - Reassigned, [[USS Eagle]], Intel Officer
*239705.10 - Reassigned, Starfleet Intelligence (Field Operative)
*239808.01 - Reassigned, [[USS Arrow]], Chief Intelligence Officer, SFI Liaison 


{{Arrow Crew}}


[[Category:Victory Alumni]]
[[Category:Characters]]
[[Category:Humans]]
[[Category:Starfleet personnel]]
[[Category:Scientists]]
[[Category:Science Officers]]
[[Category:Starbase 118 Ops P/NPCS]]
[[Category:Andaris Task Force Alumni|A]]
[[Category:Columbia PCs|A]]