Ayden Blake (Flashpoint)

The following information refers to a possible future revealed in the USS Veritas mission "Flashpoint".

Gender: Male Race: Vulcan, Brekkian, Betazoid hybrid DoB: 239101.22 (100 years old) Occupation: Traveler Affiliation: Temporal Integrity Commission (formerly) Starfleet Department of Temporal Investigations (falsely) Betazed Twentieth House of Betazed Eleventh House of Betazed (respected son) Family Sky Blake (mother; deceased) Sabor (father; deceased) Ilakai Blake (sister; deceased) Merce Ekal (fiancé) Nairen Ekal (adopted daughter) In praesens, in posterum

Ayden Diego Blake is a 'multicultural' humanoid (of Vulcan, Brekkian, and Betazoid descent), and a traveler from the 25th century. He continues to pose as the Rigelian Jhalib Ekal while located in the 24th century.

History

Raised on the Betazoid homeworld, Ayden's lifetime is plagued by the devastation of a long-arching war where resources on the outskirts of what remains of the Federation have been sucked dry. His mother, whom fails to recover mentally and emotionally from a devastating loss, intended to keep him from harm by having her son remain as far from the edges of the Federation for as long as possible, so their residence remained firmly on Betazed with the members of the Eleventh House.

When his mother passes, Ayden opts to leave the Eleventh House and choose his own path, though remains under the watchful eye of the Twentieth House of Betazed - however, he ignores this completely, caring extraordinarily little about his connection to Betazoid royalty and finding the system ill-equipped to handle the devastation occurring throughout the alpha and beta quadrants.

He meets Merce Ekal in 2464 when he suffers life-threatening medical episode and is taken to a Betazoid hospital. After several months of courtship on Ayden's part, Merce gives his case to a fellow colleague, and the two begin a serious relationship.

Following severe complications to a medical episode, Ayden is admitted into hospital again, this time for two weeks as doctors struggled to find suitable treatments to his deteriorating condition. Concerns surrounding his circulatory system had doctors recommending a heart transplant, even to consider an artificial heart, but Ayden refuses, much to Merce's dismay. However, after several days of uncertainty, doctors come up with a blood treatment to improve his oxygen circulation, and Ayden is finally released from medical care.

Ayden becomes anxious when rumours suggesting an impending attack on the Betazoid homeworld was immenant - so, six years into their relationship, he and Merce leave Betazed and migrate to Etamoa V, an out of the way Federation world. When Mazar is all but annexed, he and Merce decide to adopt an infant Mazarite, and name her Nairen.

In 2477, Ayden meets Narm'ei Constable and is invited to join the Temporal Integrity Commission. For a handful of years, he begins to travel between Etamoa V and Cait for "employment purposes".

On a jump back to 2389, Ayden accidentally leaves traces of his being on the Coverian homeworld, his traveling persona remaining in the Federation Identification Archive. Confused and upset, Merce confronts Ayden when he finds himself in doubt about Ayden's true identity, as he matched the exact description of Jhalib Ekal from years before Ayden's supposed birth. Ayden chooses to explain the situation in it's full and confusing detail, as well as his current position in the Temporal Integrity Commission - after a frustrating argument, the two manage to reconcile, and Merce opts to move to Cait to be with Ayden on a more permanent basis. They become engaged to marry shortly after the move.

Ayden is assigned the 'case' of the USS Veritas and it's part in the instigation of the current state of the galaxy, one of the primary travelers sent back to certain places and points to make 'adjustments' to the timeline in the hopes that one small change in the past will make a better present. However, before he could make his first jump, the Guardian of Forever becomes unresponsive, and the Temporal Integrity Commission are forced to find other means of time travel.

Ekal completed small work on Star Station Esperance during a jump back to 2395, and literally bumped into Sky Blake on a station turbolift. Convinced he looked familiar, she asks if they'd met before, though he claims to merely have worked behind the bar of the officer's lounge aboard the USS Ronin. Though he wasn't told of her destination, he tells Blake to "enjoy the wedding" of Mei'konda and Evan Delano.

Ekal was later seen aboard the SS Rowena as it dropped two Starfleet officers back to Kidman I after rescuing them from a malfunctioning escape pod, performing minor upgrades to the freighter's sensor equipment. When asked, he claims to the Rowena's captain that he is from Rigel V, though opted to leave the Rigel system due to ongoing and heated political debates regarding the Kalar. He would be asked by the freighter's captain to take apart the escape pod, simply shrugging at Tristam Core's insistence that the process may not be worth the work.

On Star Station Esperance in 239508, Ekal would meet with Roshanara Rahman and Mei'konda to individually restore their memories of a premature trip to the USS Veritas, claiming to be with the Department of Temporal Investigations - and providing documentation to prove it. Though he fails to explain the reasoning to Mei'konda, he separately admits to Rahman that the two had perhaps caught a glimpse of something vital to an investigation he was undertaking when they inadvertently entered a second temporal anomaly on their return trip to the USS Mercury. He asks Rahman to describe a battle between Starfleet and Tholian factions, specifically asking whom fired first - though the answer she provides (being a Starfleet quantum torpedo) causes him disappointment. Before she can further ask about the investigation, Ekal vanishes.

Ekal travels to Eporue station, an ore processing facility under Tholian rule, to travel back to 2395, claiming to the station's enforcers that he was searching for two Andorians. When left alone in the room, he activates his CRI brace, and falls backwards in time to the Coalition Outpost Eporue (Eporue's very first iteration of use). Though in poor physical condition, he immediately attempts to seek out the USS Veritas.

Appearance

Despite the strange timing of his appearances, Ayden as Jhalib Ekal looks to be an otherwise unremarkable, middle-aged, vulcanoid Rigelian, possibly holding a Bajoran relation (given his minor nose ridge) - this however is proven false when bioscans are run, revealing his Vulcan, Brekkian, and Betazoid heritage. He is of medium height with a wiry build, sporting a thick head of short and curly brown hair, wearing clean and crisp clothing. To the common passers-by, his eyes are a generic brown and are nothing overly special, but they are near identical to the eyes of his father, Sabor.

Ayden carries equipment some would generally find out of the norm while in foreign years. For a day and age when finding the time and stardate was as simple as asking a computer, Ekal instead wears a bulky chronometer on his wrist - a CRI brace, standard equipment for all travelers from the Temporal Integrity Commission. He has also been encountered twice carrying a medical kit, one of the instruments within being used to restore a few weeks worth of initially suppressed memories within Roshanara Rahman and Mei'konda.

His condition deteriorates considerably after jumping to meet the Veritas in 2395. He looks and feels incredibly tired, his complexion often pale. Due to this deterioration, he is now no longer able to support himself for long period of time, having to sit due to exhaustion after just a few minutes standing. His breathing has also been impacted, and Ayden will often yawn just to regain breath (not because he has lost interest). However, though his physical capabilities have been heavily diminished, his cognitive abilities are still finely tuned.

Personality

A mildly whimsical kind of person, Ayden comes off as extraordinarily young despite his age and physical health. He is a chatty kind of person, generally always positive even when much of the state of the galaxy is at a bleak point in it's history. However, much like his mother, he takes stressful situations seriously, and will not push himself anymore than he deems necessary, well aware of his physical condition not generally being up to task. He is, however, incredibly stubborn and head-strong, unwilling to compromise on things he whole-heartedly believes in (such as getting a replacement heart, which would have improved his condition significantly).

Ayden seems capable around starship equipment, assisting a civilian crew with minor upgrades to their sensors so to combat the tetryon interference of the Shoals when off the Mother Road, and unfazed with being asked to strip a battered escape pod for parts. However, though often times he is alert, ready and waiting, he has on certain occasion noted to seem dazed or 'out of sorts', unable to breathe properly without medical intervention.

Strangely enough, when asked if he likes cats (or any other household pet by extension) by Alora DeVeau, he likens the prospect as being in the same room as a snake about to eat him alive, inducing unnecessary stress. This is supposedly because he or his sister "had an incident" with a small animal with claws, subsequently scarring his mother for life to the point where Ayden and Ilakai were not permitted around any animals with claws, no matter how friendly. By the time he was an adult, he had an ingrained aversion to such pets, thus his own daughter was also not permitted around them (which was, to his surprise, supported by his partner).