Noella St. James

Secretary of State

## Background

Originally Nancy Peterson, a rising star of a medical student and Starfleet Academy classmates to Rebecca Talon and Nick Ryder until an event that caused her to split into two versions of herself. Similar to what caused William Riker and Thomas Riker. The exact cause is still mysterious with neither Nancy nor Noella really volunteering much information. One duplicate that became Dr. Nancy Peterson-Niamh and one that became Noella St. James, a diplomatic ambassador that married Nick Ryder during a period of time when Julie Lei was thought dead. Noella is more outgoing and bold, whereas Nancy was a bit more shy and reserved. After the whole Pythus Sector incident, Nancy went off to join her, presumed, adoptive - actual birth mother, Bessie May and her royal Siofran family. Noella, stayed more active in the Sol Sector. It was actually Noella that proposed to Nick, knowing that his children, Angelica, Olivia and Marcus needed a mother and the fact that for years, she had harbored a great love for him. They were married within about three months of Julie's presumed death. Within about six months, she was pregnant with their children, Alessandra St. James and Jack Ryder least until Julie Lei, in a fit of jealousy and anger, had extracted Jack from her womb and attempted to pass Jack off as her's and Nick's child.

When Julie returned, she threatened Noella and nearly killed her. Noella and Nick were quietly divorced and he returned to Julie, as their marriage was still valid, despite Julie faking her death. Noella harbored deep resentment toward Julie Lei and while she still loved Nick, she couldn't bear to be near him as long as he was with Julie. Moving back to Earth, she raised her daughter Ally and dove more into the Federation Diplomatic Corps, hopping from planet to planet after gaining a reputation as someone who could get things done. Despite no longer calling herself a doctor, she was still healing people through diplomatic channels.

It was more than a quarter century by the time she finally saw Nick again, even though they did keep in touch, and Nick had sponsored and paid for their daughter's education and pretty much everything else she would have needed or wanted behind Julie's back. And secretly, she always wished that Nick would return to her, much to their daughter Ally's chagrin, thinking she should move on and find someone else.

When the Terra Alpha project began, the Federation assigned her to the planet - partially to get her out of their hair, because she was an outspoken advocate for more marginalized planets and races. Yet another aspect of her old 'Nancy' personality, she was a helper. She would do whatever it took to make sure people got what they needed and were treated with respect, even if she herself was not really treated with the same respect. . The years were kind to her and she had a number of close contacts within numerous governments. She was made the newly terraformed planet's Chief Diplomat and headed up their Embassy for the first few years, at least until Nick Ryder, her ex-husband, had made her his Secretary of State and she gave the Embassy to one of her diplomats, a former crewmember and Romulan Empire defector, T'Kir. Noella and Nick did manage to remain friends, even if Nick no longer felt the same way toward her that he once did. With so many years single, she accepted that as her new status quo and started to allow herself to enjoy it. She realized that she really didn't need a man in her life to make her complete, even though she wouldn't mind the companionship, she found that she had surrounded herself with more than enough friends, co-workers, and even family that gave her what she really needed. And for other more... intimate needs, she would occasionally date, but felt it best that she keep things more casual. Both to avoid scandal and because how fertile Terra Alpha was to many couples, she really didn't want to raise another child.

Currently Noella spends most of her time in the State Department offices and maintains a residence near the Presidential Compound, while trying to keep her intelligence operative daughter from making reckless decisions that would get her killed again. She has started to practice using her psionic abilities a bit more, given the nature of the threats from men like Jackson and Dominus and the Ajem'dasis have posed to the Alliance. Noella was one of the few members of the government that did not get taken by Jackson during the 'Capitol Incident'.

## Personality and Traits

As Nancy Peterson she was more reserved, almost shy other than to her friends. Dedicated to learning medicine and being a healer. Very sweet and kind to almost everyone. As Noella she is a bit more outspoken, bold and outgoing, although deep inside she still has her old feelings of inadequacy. Whereas before she simply was content to blend into the background, now she compensates by dressing a bit flashier and flirting a little more. Deep down, she still wants to make a difference and help people, she just knows that there are more ways to achieve that same dream.

To say that Julie Lei, after her marriage to Nicholas, was a big influence on the 'new' Noella is an understatement. She vowed never to be pushed around again, by anyone and instilled that in her daughter. It wasn't until much much later that she found out that Jackson was her son, having inherited the Siofran telepathic genes from her side of the family.

Noella is telepathic and telekinetic when the need strikes, but after she was split off from Nancy, has chosen not to use her psionic abilities, feeling they gave her an unfair advantage in diplomatic matters where a certain amount of posturing and even lying is almost necessary to at least attempt to move toward a solution. While she is truthful to a fault, she knows when to let others think what they want to think.

The Nancy that Becca served with is almost entirely different from the Noella is now. The 'old' Nancy still exists, choosing to work with the Siofran people and married with a couple children to a counterpart of Nick Ryder, named Nick Czeski.

Noella as she is now, is dedicated to the Terra Alpha State Department and expanding the Alliance's diplomatic ties to combat the Dominus threat and preserve as many lives as possible.