Jania Nis
| USS Octavia E. Butler | ||
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| Jania Nis | ||
| Position | Medical Officer | |
| Rank | Lieutenant Junior Grade | |
| Species | Trill (Joined) | |
| Gender | Female | |
| DOB | 237508.13 | |
| Age | 26 | |
| Birthplace | Trill | |
| Writer ID | O240108JN2 | |
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Ensign Jania Nis is a joined Trill and symbiont. They are an officer of the Federation Starfleet currently serving as a medical officer aboard the USS Octavia E Butler.
Appearance
Jania:
- Height: 1.58m
- Hair: Short black
- Eyes: Brown
Nis:
- Length: 21cm
Relationships
Jania:
Parents: Kadu Orynn (father) and Lanah Diaad (mother)
Siblings: Irul Orynn and Aagru Orynn (older brothers)
Spouse: None
Children: None
Jania Personal History
Jania was born in the Urot Mountain region of Trill. Her father was an artist who produced woven fabrics made of Yilga moth silk and her mother was a socialite who served as her father's manager. Her parents were well-off, but she never thought of herself as such because her childhood wasn't easy. She worked hard to maintain the Yilga moths and Xay'ix birds they kept on their property, but she also worked hard to plan the kind of lavish dinner parties her mother assured her were important for her father's career.
She was the youngest of three. Her older brothers were sometimes cruel to her, including playing a ‘game’ where they told her ghost stories before locking her in the basement.
Only she and her mother had symbionts. Although her father was content without one, her brothers were jealous of her. In her late teens, she often rubbed it in her face since they picked on her as a little girl, but eventually she learned to ignore their jealousy. Even during her time in Starfleet, though, she was still closer to her mom and dad than to her brothers.
In addition to being a socialite with a taste for luxury, Jania’s mother was an amateur naturalist. Like her mother, Jania straddled both these worlds, and she spent her youth between the deep woods and fancy parties. When she was 13, she met Yisrah Nis, a geology student who became her tutor. When Yisrah graduated three years later, she invited Jania on a celebratory camping trip. But a day into the trip, Yisrah was fatally injured in a rockfall. Although Jania was unable to help Yisrah, she was able to save the Nis symbiont by bonding with it. Because of Jania’s age and the circumstances, this was psychologically difficult for both of them. It also caused consternation among the Symbiosis Commission and even calls to liquidate Jania and return Nis to the caves of Mak'ala, though they’ve since gone through Zhian'tara to bond properly.
Yisrah’s death and a chance encounter with a Starfleet recruiting agent led Jania to join Starfleet as a medic, as she became more interested in helping people than studying rocks.
Even as a Starfleet officer, she did still enjoy a good rock, though. During breaks from her grueling shifts in sickbay, Jania was usually found on the rock climbing wall in the Butler’s gym.
Although Jania had an adventurous side and loved nature, she also had an interest in fashion and luxury imbued by her mother. As a medic, she was quite skilled with her hands. In the academy, she was known for her calming bedside manner, and she was often called to deal with patients who were panicking.
Philosophically, Jania followed an isolated form of Trill medicine that preferred physical contact to tricorders due to the difficulties in treating symbiont injuries with standard Starfleet equipment. In many cases, she was as fast at accurate diagnoses of injuries without a tricorder as she was with one. Like many doctors in her philosophcal camp, she knapped her own scalpel blades using obsidian from Trill, an ancient tradition. (Obsidian was considered by some local doctors to be the best material for surgery on symbionts due to their unique biological makeup, but this may have simply be a retained belief without scientific merit.)
Although her mother and father did not approve of her choice to join Starfleet, they supported her as best as they could. Before she left for Starfleet, her mother gave her a polymer resin scalpel handle with the phrase, Let your heart guide your hands. Love, M-. This was destroyed in 2943 when the crew of the Butler was flung through time.
On the USS Octavia E. Butler
Jania Nis's earliest experience on the Butler involved witnessing an ensign succumb to the hallucinations caused by the changeling on Omicron Vector IV; she and Nurse Miash managed to prevent the ensign from depressurizing the ship.
She received a Silver Lifesaving Ribbon for her efforts; she later cut it in half to give a portion to Nurse Miash.
After the OVIV mission, Jania mostly stayed on the ship during shore leave, treating radiation wounds and out-of-phase crew members of the USS Unity Dow.
When the ship was transported to the year 3200, Jania attracted the attention of her higher officers after coming in contact with one of the Cultists of the Loom, a group determined to take advantage of their time-displaced nature to summon the Loom. With much of the bridge crew deployed in an attempt to find a time crystal, Jania was asked to serve on the bridge, her first time in that role.
Later, when some crew members from the Butler were scattered into different centuries by the destruction of the time crystal, Jania was trapped in the 2900s with Avander Promontory and Morro Caras. There, she encountered a version of Starfleet engaged in the Temporal Wars. One member of Starfleet was Susru Nis, the Nis symbiont's host in the 2900s. Eventually, Jania used her symbiont's previous hosts' memories to find a method for sending them back to their own time. When Jania and the other 25th-century Starfleet officers were attacked by the Cultists of the Loom, Susru and Nis sacrificed their lives to ensure Jania's return to the present.
In the same mission, fellow Trill Kimonzi Lahl received a near-fatal injury to her symbiont; upon returning to the present, Jania was immediately forced into a high-stakes surgery to save the symbiont. Although the surgery was a success, Lahl was still forced to return to Trill for treatment. In addition to other crew members, Jania and Alex Forsyth accompanied Lahl to Trill. There, Jania and Forsyth went to Jania's family home for dinner. During the dinner, one of the family's pet birds was attacked by a diseased Itronok. After Forsyth managed to kill the Itronok, Jania's father Kadu embroidered a silk image of Alex fighting the Itronok. Since then, the two became close friends.
During the following shore leave, Jania developed a bit of a reputation for being a gossip after desperately attemping to unite Caras with Sevantha Saa, a recently-transferred councilor who seemed to be destined to be with Caras based on information Jania learned in the future. She was the first to share the rumor among cadets and transfers that the USS Octavia E. Butler contained the most attractive crew.
Jania was promoted to Lieutenant Junior Grade and moved to Assistant CMO at the end of her shore leave.
Nis Personal History
Nis has had a number of hosts for a symbiont, many of whom lived long lives. This leads Jania to joke that it is a crusty old man, although compared to other members of its species it is relatively young. While it has had a variety of hosts, it tends to prefer science-minded hosts. Here is a list of its known hosts:
Yirin - Host 1 – female – government official/teacher (b. 1889 - d. 1967) – This host was a populist firebrand and one of the first women in a high political role in Trill government. Eventually though, she was discredited by a sexist member of the Symbiosis Commission and she retired to become a teacher.
Kona - Host 2 – m to f trans – government official (b. 1956- d. 2030) – While still a government official, this host was much the opposite of Yirin, beginning in a more administrative role and being elevated into politics somewhat against her wishes. Like her predecessor, she faced discrimination and often felt like the "token" woman. She stayed in politics all her life, though.
Deesru - Host 3 – female – archaeologist/spy (b. 2009 - d. 2121) – This host began her life as an archaeologist but used her status to serve as a spy for the Trill government after their first contact with the Vulcans went not-so-well in 2055; she was the first to take Nis offworld.
Gaz - Host 4 – non-binary – soldier (b. 2099 - d. 2185) – This host trained as a soldier after the L’Dira incident but never saw combat because of changes in political structures; they lived a long life even for a Trill and traveled the galaxy. They visited many places, including Corazonia.
Ajil - Host 5 – male – geologist (b. 2175 - d. 2288) – This host was a famed geologist who made important discoveries about Trill plate tectonics; he left Trill once but found flying disagreed with him so stayed on-world. His pet project was an eccentric search for Trillian time crystals, something most scholars claimed don’t exist. Toward the end of his life, he became a bit of a joke, and people said he only wanted to find time crystals on Trill because he was too much of a coward to look for them anywhere else. During Jania's Zhian'tara, he briefly refused to return to the symbiont.
Sudre - Host 6 – male – biologist (b. 2264 - d. 2320) – This adventurous biologist studied lifeforms on and off Trill, including petel stones, a type of plant which grows in asteroid fields. Although he was generally brave and interested in new technologies, he feared transporters after witnessing a transporter accident; this fear stuck with the Nis symbiont and even plagued Jania from time to time. He died, somewhat ironically, in his early 50s after he’d retired to work at a zoo and was bitten there by a venomous earth serpent.
Mibahm - Host 7 – female – journalist (b. 2300 - d. 2387) – This host was an entertainment journalist who was familiar with Timorzin Lahl. Mibahm had expensive tastes in food and wine; her favorite wine was Holtin House Tetali. While initially antagonistic after Mibahm wrote a negative review of Timorzin's restaurant, over the years their relationship mellowed, and when Mibahm died, Timorzin spoke some kind words at her funeral.
Yisrah – Host 8 – female - geologist (b. 2367 - d. 2392) - This host was a geologist and explorer who died at the age of 25 in an unexpected accident. Known to outsiders for her prodigious understanding of geology and love of nature even before she had Nis, Yisrah was known to Jania as mentor and friend. She used Ajil’s memories to become a specialist in time crystals, although she didn’t believe any could be found on Trill itself. During Jania's Zhian'tara, she struggled to understand that she was dead, although the next time Jania spoke to her she was more understanding.
Jania — Host 9 — female - see notes above
Susru — Host ? — female — soldier (b. 2891 - d. 2943) - This host hoped to be a scientist but was forced into a life as a soldier due to the Temporal War. At 52 years old, she and Nis were killed by the cultists of the Loom while saving a time-displaced Jania Nis.
Service History
Starfleet Service Record
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Awards & Service Ribbons
- For award descriptions, see: Awards and Service Ribbons
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NPC Listing · USS Octavia E Butler Crew Manifest · Crew History
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