Xaran Aisut

**Xaran Aisut** is a Starfleet officer currently serving as the First Officer of the USS Eventide, a Somerville-class ship assigned to Starbase 777. Originally an Away Team Coordinator, they spent the entirety of their career as such up until 2413 when they were transferred to the USS Rapture to serve as its First Officer, before transferring to the USS Eventide when the *Rapture* was repurposed for a deep-space mission.

## Early history

##### Childhood & Academy

Born aboard the USS Monarch to Phenna and Xaav'ax Aisut, they were a Starfleet kid, rarely leaving their parents' posting aside from shore leave. Prior to going to Starfleet Academy, Xaran spent the best part of two years exploring the Federation and its allies, learning about cultures and languages, and this was reflected in the courses they took at the Academy, including Communications Skills, Introduction to Planetary Exploration, Introduction to Linguistics, and Intergalactic Relations to name but a few.

## Starfleet career

##### USS Modin, 2394 - 2401

Xaran’s first posting was the USS Modin, a Miranda-class starship assigned to a standard patrol route. During their time aboard the Modin as an Away Mission Coordinator they performed their job as expected, and with as much enthusiasm as they had shown from the moment they first arrived at the Academy. Over the course of five years Xaran made a fair few new friends aboard, and worked hard at their job with minimal mistakes. There were a few small errors here and there in the early years, but they learnt from them and improved themself.

It was in their fifth year that their skills and experience were truly tested when an away mission they were coordinating went south. A storm rolled in resulting in transporters and communications no longer working, and their general visibility was significantly reduced. This wouldn’t have been as big of an issue for those with experience, but the mission in question was meant to be a fairly safe research mission, and as such the away team primarily consisted of newer Ensigns and Crewmen, as well as two Cadets learning the ropes. There was a Lieutenant present, but Xaran was the second most experienced on the team, and as such their survival training was relied upon to help keep the team safe. Attempting to navigate to shelter through the storm the Lieutenant was hit by a falling branch, knocking them out, leaving Xaran in charge. It was through their survival knowledge that the group managed to find shelter under a cliff edge, and just in time as it quickly became a lightning storm, with a bolt striking a tree they were just under moments ago.

Once the storm passed the away team were able to regain contact with the ship and beam back, and the Lieutenant was soon tended to and survived with no lasting injuries. Due to Xaran’s leadership and ability to work in the face of adversity they were promoted to Lieutenant Junior Grade. Naturally, they immediately called their parents to tell them about the good news.

Xaran spent one and a half more years aboard the USS Modin before being offered the opportunity to transfer to the USS Courage and become one of their Away Mission Coordinators. Despite loving the ship they were on and loving the people they worked with, Xaran couldn’t help but consider the option as the Courage was a far bigger and more active ship, and it could lead to more experiences and career opportunities later down the line. After talking with their friends about it, they decided to accept the transfer, but only after asking if they could return should they not like it. They were given the answer of ‘maybe’, which as far as they were concerned was Admiral talk for ‘no’.

##### USS Courage, 2401 - 2407

Over the first two and half years of working aboard the USS Courage, an Odyssey-class star cruiser, Xaran took their time getting used to the sheer size of the ship, as well as trying to make some new friends. It was fairly easy for them to do the latter, but the former took some getting used to (including having to walk corridors that were even longer than on the Modin). It was towards the end of 2403 that they were promoted to Lieutenant, not for anything spectacular this time, but for continued service to Starfleet and performing their job with high regard to quality, and the safety of their colleagues.

In late 2404 in the middle of their shift Xaran was contacted by their father. It being obvious it was urgent, they immediately dropped what they were doing and headed to their quarters. Once there, they were informed that their mother had gone missing. Naturally, as one might expect, they had no idea how to process this information. Grief, shock, disbelief, denial. They felt all of this, and remained on call with Xaav’ax for many hours before eventually leaving and just trying to go to bed. Except they couldn’t sleep, and didn’t sleep at all. The next day, despite everything, they tried to go back to working like usual, but it was obvious to those around them that they weren’t okay and weren’t able to concentrate, and as such they were asked what had happened by one of their friends, resulting in them finally emotionally breaking. Receiving support from their friend, they were taken to the counsellor, at which point they were relieved of duty due to the circumstances for the foreseeable.

It was after a couple of days of being in their quarters, not knowing what to do or how to proceed, that they decided to just go home… Well, not exactly their home, because their home was the Courage, but to their parents’ house on Earth. It was there that they spent the remainder of the year on medical leave, with Xaav’ax taking time out of work as much as possible to be with Xaran.

It was at the start of the next year, just after their birthday, after a lot of counselling, spending time with friends and off duty colleagues, and just trying to process everything, Xaran returned to the Courage after being cleared for duty by Starfleet Medical, with regular counselling now scheduled with the onboard counsellor as a requirement for their return. Over the next two years Xaran continued to work to the best of their ability on both coming to terms with the essential loss of their mother, and with getting on with their life and trying to enjoy it, knowing that’s what Phenna would have wanted. In late 2405 Xaran decided to get a tattoo of the stardate their mother disappeared on their left upper arm, written in Denobulan characters, a week before the anniversary of her disappearance.

It was in mid 2407 during a regular patrol on the border of Federation space that the Courage suddenly came under attack by an entire fleet of raiders. Being over an hour away from any other ship at max warp, the crew had to defend it as best as possible until help arrived. It was during this time that the raiders attempted to board and hijack the ship, but Security managed to fight them off until they got to the point where they knew they wouldn’t be able to take the ship in one piece. As such, they decided to try and destroy it. Knowing they were struggling to keep the ship alive, the Captain instructed the helmsman to get them as close to a habitable planet as possible in case they needed to abandon ship, which they soon did. With the Courage coming under extremely heavy fire, and their shields failing, the Captain ordered the crew to abandon ship. Xaran followed orders and did so, along with the majority of the crew, and their escape pod flew down to the nearby planet as the Courage exploded behind them. Not knowing if all their friends were safe, or how many people had managed to get out, they could only hope they had gotten enough time.

Landing on the planet they had to snap out of the emotions they were feeling for once, trying to use what they had learnt about logic all those years ago on Vulcan to keep themself focused on the task at hand. Survival training kicking in, they immediately took command of those they were with and started the process of figuring out where the hell they were, figuring out the immediate threats, figuring out where everyone else was, and figuring out if they could transmit a distress signal. The other escape pods had landed across the entire planet, but some were near enough by where they could walk towards them. Working with their communications training, they set up the distress signal while the others gathered the emergency equipment, before heading off towards the direction of another distress beacon that had activated nearby, all while attempting to communicate with them using an emergency handheld communicator.

After an hour's hike the two groups managed to meet up, and they set off towards a third pod that had activated its distress beacon, knowing survival in numbers had better odds. Despite not being the only Lieutenant in the group they were the only one with survival training (the other was a doctor) so they were left in charge of the survivors. It was after another hour and a half that they came across the third escape pod, its occupants having stayed put due to injuries sustained by some of them. The doctor immediately attended to them, while Xaran and the others started setting up a makeshift camp while they waited for help.

With was over the course of the next four hours that they waited for help to arrive, Starfleet having arrived in the system above the planet and started engaging with the raiders, who were busy picking apart the wreckage of the Courage, and then beginning the long process of recovering everyone in the escape pods. Some having left their pods, including two thirds of Xaran’s group, meant the rescue ships had to scan the surface for survivors which increased the time it took for them to be found, but once they were found they quickly boarded a shuttle and headed to safety. Once aboard the primary Medical ship that had responded, the USS Curie, Xaran was reunited with their friends after a painful few hours of waiting and not knowing, while also getting to see some of the fruits of their mother’s labour in the process.

The destruction of the USS Courage led to unexpected shore leave for the entire crew, but it was very much so needed and appreciated. In this time Xaran spent time with their friends, all of them grateful to still be alive after what had happened but also mourning those who hadn’t made it. But unbeknownst to them, they had been recommended for a promotion for the role they took in keeping people alive and safe on the planet, leading them to receiving a surprise promotion to Lieutenant Commander, which they graciously took, really not thinking they deserved it for just being a decent person. It was while waiting for a new assignment that Xaran knew they could be separated from their friends upon receiving a new posting, but they thankfully did not, and they were all reassigned together to the USS Maurrus.

##### USS Maurrus, 2407 - 2413

Aboard the USS Maurrus, a Buran-class command dreadnought cruiser, Xaran spent the next five years continuing to work as an Away Mission Coordinator, having never questioned if they wanted to change position throughout their career. It was in late 2412 that they were given the bridge when the Captain, First Officer, and Chief Tactical Officer all went off ship for diplomatic talks with a species regarding trade of weapon technology. It was during this time that the Maurrus suddenly came under attack by a group of rebels who opposed the Federation seeking trade allyship with their people, which left Xaran to take up the role of acting CO. Ordering Red Alert be activated, shields raised, and for Tactical to fire to disable the attacking rebel ships, as well as the helmsman to perform evasive manoeuvres, it was due to their calm thinking in the face of danger that they soon managed to disable the ships, of which were quickly surrounded by the local government’s own and taken into custody.

Once the CO, XO, and CTO returned they were impressed with Xaran’s work (and how little the ship had been damaged) and commended them for their actions, as well as noted it down in their file and notified Command to the fact they would potentially be a very good First Officer should they need some fresh meat elsewhere. It was in the next year, 2413, that they were finally offered the chance to become a First Officer, with Starfleet Command having been alerted to the USS Rapture requiring a new one, and wanting to give Xaran a chance, they offered them a promotion and transfer. This news pleased the now Fleet Admiral Xaav’ax greatly, and he was ever so proud about his child going up in the world of Starfleet just like he had once, but it took Xaran some convincing to leave their friends behind in search of new adventures and career progression. After thinking it over for a few days they decided to accept it, and transferred.

##### USS Rapture, 2413 - 2413

Xaran’s time aboard the USS Rapture was short, but meaningful. They got a taste of what it was like to be an XO, and they got to get used to the concept of performing their duties as such. When they heard about Rapture being repurposed and the entire crew being transferred they were admittedly disheartened, but upon hearing that they were all being offered a position aboard the Federation-renowned (for better or for worse) Starbase 777 they were very pleased indeed. They were also naturally very pleased to hear that they were still keeping their XO position, but instead for the USS Eventide, the starship assigned to the starbase to assist in that sector. But the thing is, they weren’t just pleased with this outcome. They were more than pleased, because this outcome felt special, and even personal to them, because they were now going to be stationed in the sector they were born in, a place they hadn’t visited in quite a while. This was going to be special.

##### **Starbase 777 / USS Eventide, 2413 - present**

Xaran Aisut is currently the Executive Officer of the USS Eventide, a Somerville class Intel Science Vessel assigned to support Starbase 777.