Keras Linn

Lieutenant Keras Linn M.D., originally Keras Dor, is a young Trill officer in the Starfleet Medical Corps. His mother was a diplomat from trill stationed on Vulcan. Keras has some vulcan heritage on his mother's side. He never could follow his parents hopes for him to join his mother as a diplomat. Politics never called to him. Instead Keras studied medicine on Vulcan due to encouragement from the family doctor. Keras had found the doctor's work fascinating, and to help heal people only drove him more.

Keras earned a commission in Starfleet against his parent’s wishes. He joined almost exactly one year after the war began, when starfleet began offering commissions to applicants with in-demand skills who were willing to complete a 4 to 6 month accelerated training course (in lieu of the usual 4+ year Starfleet Academy course for officers). Because he already graduated from a Vulcan medical school he was placed in one of these accelerated courses, the equivalent of Starfleet basic training, and given a commission in the Medical Corps. During his time in training, he became good friends with a fellow trill Tiben Linn.  They did everything they could together, though Tiben's choice of being an infantry officer often have him clash with Keras. One training to save lives while the other took them.

Both were assigned to the same ship during the war: the USS Laika. The Laika was sadly lost a week before the war’s end during an attempted boarding action on a Breen warship. It met with heavier than expected resistance and was itself boarded, losing much of its crew compliment to attacks by jem'hadar and Breen boarding parties. During this time Tiben was killed, but the Linn symbiont survived. An emergency joining was needed Keras volunteered to serve as as the new host. The symbiosis commission was not to thrilled about someone not completely Trill getting the symbiote, but as the deed was done, there was little they could do but complain. He now carries his friend with him at the war's end.

Readjusting to life after the war has been hard. Having to do so with part of his friend in his head even more so. Keras has not been the most welcoming crewman these few years after the war. This seems to contradict all profiles and reports from before. He still holds his ideas true though, and will look out for every person aboard. That will hold true for his newest ship. The Akira class U.S.S. Baikonur.

While a medical student, Linn was put in a situation where ten people were infected with a rare bacterial parasite. One of them was an Andorian child. The rest were mostly Vulcans. The Andorian had more of a natural resistance and produced antibodies that were holding off the infection. The physicians you were studying used a procedure to extract the antibodies from the Andorian patient and used them to save the other patients, at the expense of the Andorian's life. The Vulcans claimed the moral justification was clear: the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. But part of him wonders if it was mostivated in part by the undercurrent of racism in Vulcan society that de-values non-Vulcans.

### Story hooks for this Character:

- Keras and his mother are not part-Vulcan, but part-Romulan. Keras’ grandfather was a Romulan infiltrator who defected when he fell in love with Keras’ grandmother. He dropped off the grid. They played off the idea of the Vulcan heritage to hide his Romulan identity. Keras didn't discover this until an shot from a Breen during the war caused him to need a blood infusion. His superiors know, but he keeps it from his fellow crewman, and the symbiosis commission.

- Keras’ family physician not only encouraged him to pursue medicine due to noticing Keras took a like to it. He knew of Keras’ heritage. Hard for one to hide such a thing from your doctor.