Rydel Aram

Dr. Rydel Aram is a Trill Specialist on the USS Odyssey.
== Background ==
With both of his parents having joined Trill, Rydel was fast-tracked into the Trill Initiate program. His family couldn’t conceive of him being anything else, even as his father, Jorvin Aram, progressed through the ranks of Starfleet to become captain of the USS Essex. Even though he was away, Rydel’s mother stayed on Trill, actively working with the Symbiosis Commission. On her sixth host, she oversaw recruiting for the Guardians to ensure the symbionts were kept safe.  
With a father gone, mother busy, and both detached in ways from the life of an unjoined, he had a strange childhood. The pressure was high to perform, as he became a reflection of both a Starfleet officer and Symbiosis Commission’s family. Even though his parents couldn’t be seen as celebrities, he was always pressured to appear proper in public. They dressed him in formal clothes all the time, which made him stand out from the other kids, and eventually caused him to get somewhat picked on and made distant from them. He understood it was their resentment, though. He had genes that were all but guaranteed to make it through the Symbiosis Program.
He passed the physical trials with flying colors, working harder at strength and conditioning in the gym than much of his class. He also loved to play sports, his favorite being springball. In his schooling time at the commission he made it to the championships on Trill, coming in fourth in the tournament overall. With thousands of people across the planet trying to get to that point, it was a major accomplishment. 
He had one final cognitive exam to take before he would have passed as an acceptable host, but for some reason when the test came up, he blanked. He’d studied, his IQ was off the charts, but staring at that test PADD was like staring at a different language. He’d known he’d failed even coming out of it, but he didn’t realize how badly until his parents came to sit him down and bitterly tell him he’d failed out of the program.
It was a shock to the system. His parents resented him. They couldn’t believe it having raised a son for the purpose of joining and he’d failed them. He was an embarrassment to the family. They didn’t want to bring him anywhere suddenly. Nor did Rydel want to go anywhere. He holed up in his room, depressed, wasting his time on VR games for months, unable to come out of his funk. His entire life was a sham. 
Eventually, his parents gave him an ultimatum to get out of the house. His father strongly suggested he join Starfleet and go to the academy and do something with his life, and not wanting to argue, Rydel went. 
On Earth, he was still in his slump, unable to really make close friends or do much. Even springball at the academy didn’t tempt him in his first year. The pain was too fresh. His family hated him. They never called, he’d been abandoned with no idea what to do. While there, a freak earthquake occurred in old San Francisco, and several buildings collapsed despite many modern upgrades. People were hurt, though Rydel was lucky to be outside when it occurred. But he saw first responders from Starfleet show up, medical personnel on the streets tending to the wounded, and it stirred his heart. He’d found his purpose.
When everything settled, Rydel started himself in medical and biology courses learning all about the sciences. He excelled in these courses, genuinely interested in learning all he could to help people. His sophomore year he went back into springball at the academy, quickly rising to be one of the top players on the team.  
He ended up finishing the academy with top marks before getting a residency aboard Starbase 279 in the Antari Cluster, working under a Vulcan doctor, Rekol, who was no-nonsense, setting Rydel up with excellent training. Rekol’s specialty was neurosurgery, and Rydel had steady hands which allowed him to become a surgeon in quick order. Rydel didn’t specialize, becoming a general surgeon.  
Starbase 279 was situated in the perfect place for a young surgeon to learn his craft, a vital supply line location for the fleet, with ships stopping off regularly for repairs and to bring in patients for him and Rekol to work on. The days were long and taxing, but he did well. 
Over the course of his time there, Rydel became closer with his father, whose ship the Essex stopped in on several occasions. The old bitterness had faded and his father was happy to see his son thriving, even if he was not able to become a joined Trill. He felt somewhat responsible for the failure and wanted to press Rydel into higher service, which he thought would not be done well on a starbase. He had dreams of his son becoming a captain like him and lived a little too vicariously through his son.  
His father went a little too far, arranging for Rydel to get a promotion to Lt. and get a transfer to the Essex, his ship. He did this without Rydel’s knowledge, which upset the young man, understanding that this was an act of nepotism and a bad look. He may have deserved promotion, but regardless of how it was sliced, it looked like the captain abused his position to get Rydel there. Moreover, Rydel liked his place on the starbase, getting on very well with his Vulcan superior officer. He didn’t want to lose the friendship, and now he would have to start over again in an awkward environment, with his father ever looming over his shoulder. 
Rydel served on the Essex and became good friends with the science officer T’Pel Kestra over the course of their tenure there for close to five years, serving with high marks, one of the most respected members of the crew. 
He’d solved a plague on Altos IV. He’d healed the crew from an aging disease. He’d tended to wounded to where many of the crew owed him their lives several times over. He was a skilled surgeon and quick with solving medical riddles.
Until a fateful day when they picked up a Trill ambassador who was suffering convulsions. They were trying to escort him back to Trill as quickly as possible, but his situation deteriorated quickly. Rydel was brought in to operate. His nerves got the best of him, just like they had during his Trill Symbiosis testing. Having to work on a Trill triggered something inside of him, something causing his hands to shake. With a subdermal scalpel, he attempted to create a shunt to allow the passage of blood between the symbiont and the host to ease pressure on some of the connective pathways, which he thought was the heart of the problem. His hands slipped in the process, shaking, and he ended up killing the symbiont--with the host dying as a consequence.
His father was livid. Rydel received the chewing out of his life. Rumors swirled back home that Rydel had killed the symbiont intentionally, a story coming out in Trill news about his past, speculating about his jealousy of joined Trill. Though security investigated and found him innocent, those rumors haunted him. His father pushed through a demotion back to Ensign and reprimand on his record regardless. 
Rydel put in for a transfer, unable to bear the shame. After months of counseling, he finally ended up at Starfleet Academy as a teacher. He didn’t dare operate on a live subject again, though he was adept at showing his skills on holographic patients for the students’ benefits, becoming a respected member of the faculty. 
It was odd having an ensign teaching the courses, let alone being a full-fledged doctor at all, but being able to put “Dr.” in front of one’s name staved off a lot of the questions that might be asked. Over time, being away from Trill, knowledge of the incident died among the public, and none on Earth were concerned one way or another, only seeing his ability to perform his duties as a teacher.
Still, his eyes showed his age and trauma. He’d never been the same since, now not in communication with his family at all, he spends his evenings drinking alone, knowing he can never return home, and he is wasting his potential talent, or sometimes immersing himself in springball against a holographic opponent. Regardless, he didn’t have the confidence to continue his prior surgical career path. 
Until Starfleet called him needing an emergency Trill medical expert, a job he didn’t want to do, but one where he was the only surgeon available for the emergency. Leave it to the bureaucrats to not care one way or another about the personal considerations involved. He was assigned to the team to assist with the strange medical condition plaguing Ezarah Ryn. 
== Appearance ==
Rydel has thin, soft brown eyes that both display his immense patience and a sorrow deeper behind, a square chiseled jaw, and a trim athletic physique as a doctor sticking to only the best diet and exercise regimens. He has wavy brown hair, short, often gelled for a controlled ‘messy look. 
== Personality ==
Rydel is reserved, really not wanting to cause any waves. He was happy teaching. He has very little self-confidence because of a past history of blowing it big under pressure, two major incidents in his life made for him always taking the safe route.
== Psych Evaluation ==
Rydel is bitter against Trill, both because of how his parents treated him after being expunged from the program, and because of his treatment in recent years for his surgical error. He would rather not be around them at all. 
== Other information ==
* Likes: Springball, Intelligent people, Teaching, Trill Amber Shots
* Dislikes: Other Trill, especially joined ones, Extreme pressure situations,
Category:Former Characters