Oddas Aria: Difference between revisions

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Aria was born on Bajor in the city of Hathon. She grew up hearing stories of how her extended family were executed by Gul Pirak during for not showing loyalty.  Growing up she continued to hear more and more stories from friends and remaining family of heroes, ordinary people who fought for the survival of her planet.  Her father and mother both were members of the Resistance and, later, the Bajoran Militia. When Aria decided to break the family tradition and join Starfleet it not a popular choice in the Oddas house.  Her sister stayed behind and joined the Militia, but Aria saw Starfleet as a way of bringing the Oddas tradition of standing up for your beliefs to the galaxy, instead of confining it to the planet of Bajor.
Aria was born on Bajor in the city of Hathon. She grew up hearing stories of how her extended family were executed by Gul Pirak during for not showing loyalty.  Growing up she continued to hear more and more stories from friends and remaining family of heroes, ordinary people who fought for the survival of her planet.  Her father and mother both were members of the Resistance and, later, the Bajoran Militia. It was assumed Aria would follow their footsteps.


Aria found herself learning of her affinity in Engineering when she looked around one day and realized that most of the people in her immediate surroundings were much more interested in being soldiers than actually making things work, and that her neighborhood was crumbling. The militia was good at policing and crime was low, but things like basic infrastructure needs did not make it down to the 'street level', and people still assumed that picking up a phaser was the best way to fix things, and to be a 'hero to Resistance'.
Aria was always interested in mechanics, math, and engineering, to the annoyance of her parents who were expert marksmen, logisticians, strategists, and could not understand Engineering as anything more than a 'maintenance' function. Aria's interest was brought to a head at the age of 10 when she found a Replicator that seemed beyond repair, and everyone told her it never would be.


One day, at the age of 10, she found a Replicator that seemed beyond repair, and everyone told her it never would be.  She scavenged parts and got it running well enough to feed the neighborhood for 2 years before it was eventually replaced.  During her scavenging efforts she met the Resistance's engineers who kept the ships running, their weapons repaired, and kept a low profile.  She realized there was more than one way to serve a cause.
Aria lived in a neighborhood where people did not worry about where their next meal came from, their replicators were working, they got shipments of fresh food as needed, but not every pocket of the city was the same.  Despite her family's insistence it could not be done she searched high and low for replicator parts, taught herself how the machine should operate, and eventually got it functional well enough to feed one of the poorer areas of the city for three years before it eventually had to be replaced.   
 
The people around her, most of her classmates, friends, and all of her family, were interested in picking up phasers so they could go and become 'Heros of the Resistance', but during her scavenging efforts she met the Resistance's engineers who kept the ships running, their weapons repaired, and kept a low profile.  It was during this time she began to realize there more than one way to serve a cause. The same engineers spoke of engineering works helping entire planets and species.  They spoke of learning things to help the entire galaxy, and the older ones spoke as if Starfleet was the way to help as many people as possible for as little effort expended. 
 
When Aria decided to break the family tradition and join Starfleet it was not a popular choice in the Oddas house. Aria tried to explain it in Engineering terms: do the most good for the most people with the least effort. As she was leaving her parents insisted she not come back, her sister told her to never come home in a Starfleet uniform.


As an adult Aria will admit she was not an easy child to parent.  She would often disappear for a day or more at a time scavenging for parts for one project or another and would often discard rules she felt served no purpose.  She often would make little to no attempt to try and reconcile with her parents after such infractions, leaving her parents feeling helpless.  She never considered herself a rebel, but never understood the need to conform to what others were doing.
As an adult Aria will admit she was not an easy child to parent.  She would often disappear for a day or more at a time scavenging for parts for one project or another and would often discard rules she felt served no purpose.  She often would make little to no attempt to try and reconcile with her parents after such infractions, leaving her parents feeling helpless.  She never considered herself a rebel, but never understood the need to conform to what others were doing.