Lieutenant JG Gwen Icena

Tae Icena, born 2398 

None

One older and one younger sister, Ryshant and Cayas respectively.

Ryshant, 42, is an acclaimed musican, in the top five hundred pianists in the Federation. Married sixteen years ago to a male vocalist, Cael Doran, the two are well known across the Federation.

Cayas is currently serving as a Counsellor on Trill, although she hopes to join Starfleet in the near future if the situation allows it. She is 29.

A niece and nephew by her older sister Ryshant. Jody (born 2397) and Isaac (born 2394).

Born 2372 on the planet Trill, Gwen was the daughter of a human merchant captain and his Trill executive officer. The second child in a rather spread out brood of sisters, from the very beginning of her life Gwen was fascinated in how everything around her - and specifically within her - worked. Very different from her older sister Ryshant who you couldn't pry away from a piano with less than a crowbar, phaser blast, or the offer of food, Gwen's pet fascination in the workings of her body led into an avid fixation on the life sciences and particularly the study of alien species and their affects on the planets of other races. This fixation is both what dictated her choice of study and - eventually- what led her to join Starfleet.

Focusing on biology in schooling was easy, and from there xenobiology was a rather short - although not exactly simple - step across the field of life sciences. More like a shuffle sideways is how Gwen generally puts it when asked, but it was already clear at the age of fourteen that she had a true passion for the subject. Her grades were good enough for some very impressive schooling, and her initial goal had been university. But that changed somewhere along the line between her fifteenth and sixteenth birthday. During this period, Starfleet released multiple studies on the impact of xenobiological crossover on native ecosystems, and whilst Gwen wasn't perhaps fluent in the language of the papers, she was competent enough to understand most of it. And if xenobiology had been a fixation, this became something close enough to an obsession that there was little difference. And if this was what Starfleet was doing, then Starfleet was where she would go. She met the entrance standards quite easily, and at the (theoretically tender) age of seventeen she boarded a transport for Earth following her acceptance to the Academy and vanished into the world of Starfleet. 

For all those that might say that she hardly seemed to miss her family, those exact words would be very true. Special focus however, would have to be made towards two words in particular. Hardly. Seemed. Truthfully, she missed her sisters (plural as of nine years previous) and her parents terribly, but her...focus would be too weak a word, on her speciality overrode the loneliness. It also made her very, very good at that speciality.

Graduating in 2393, she was immediately set to work categorising and charting the species of multiple newly explored star systems surveyed by ships connected to Starbase 15. Her efforts there, specifically the creation of ecological webs for each planet with short papers on the ideal manner of colonisation so as to minimise damage to the native ecosystem, earned her a commendation and a posting about the USS Tengoku, an Intrepid class starship on a five year run alone the edge of the Alpha Quadrant. Assigned as the assistant head of the Tengoku's rather larger than normal Xenobiology section, she served with distinction aboard her new home - and here finally began to rebuild many of the emotional connections to those outside of her family that she had lost from sheer blind focus on the subject that she still loved.

Beginning with friendships, this reawakening culminated two years later in her marriage to a junior grade human Lieutenant by the name of Aran Icena - the Tengoku's Diplomatic Officer. A year later, Gwen was granted a promotion to the rank of Lieutenant J.G. in light of a commendation for her work on xenoecological interaction with the lifebearing worlds that the Tengoku had encountered on its mission. Ecological webs had now become a known hallmark of her reports, and with her new rank came command of the Xenobiology section of the vessel, the previous commander being transferred to a position on another vessel. This promotion also finally cemented the possibility of children for Gwen and Aran, and a year later, in 2398, she gave birth to a daughter - Tae Icena.

Tae's birth gave concrete reason for a transfer at the end of Gwen and Aran's tour aboard the Tengoku, the two parents applying for a family berth aboard a vessel more suited to the prospect of children. Granted positions aboard the USS Endeavour, both officers prospered greatly from their time on the Nebula class where both were afforded positions of further leadership. Aran was assigned as the craft's Assistant Chief Diplomatic Officer, a position in which he applied himself in his usual, rather phlegmatic way whilst Gwen was also assigned to an Assistant Chief position, hers to the CSO instead of the CDO however.

In the ten years assigned to the Endeavour, the couple have established themselves as a firm team whenever they can help each other, as well as a very stable couple that in time came to be part of the familial bedrock of the ship's social life. Many were sad to see the family leave, and they would be included in that number - none more so than their daughter - but positions assigned to the Horizon were too good to be passed up. Even accepting the technical loss of 'rank', both would be in command of entire sections. And far more importantly, more people meant - most likely - more families. And that would be nothing but good for both them and - far more importantly - their daughter. The fact that the Horizonwas rumoured to being tasked to explore quite possibly the most enigmatic of sectors known to exist in recorded history was, as Aran said when they accepted the assignment, "just gravy".

Nothing of note. Various injuries, none serious, obtained on away missions. Pregnancy was normal by all degrees.

2393 - Graduated Starfleet Academy with a speciality in Xenobiology and Ecosystems. Assigned to Starbase 15 with the rank of Ensign to assist their Xenobiology section in mapping the ecosystems of several star systems.

2394 - Following a commendation from Starfleet in recognition of her efforts on Starbase 15, transferred to the USS Tengoku, an Intrepid class exploration vessel for a five year cruise along the edge of the Alpha Quadrant.

2396 - Married Lieutenant (JG) Aran Icena, Diplomatic Officer on the Tengoku.

2397 - Following a second commendation from Starfleet in light of her studies on the effects of colonisation of border worlds on the xenobiological habitats on aforementioned planets, Gwen is promoted to the rank of Lieutenant (JG).

2399 - Transferred to the Nebula class USS Endeavour for a ten year tour of duty as assistant CSO.

2409 - Commended a third and fourth time by Starfleet for leadership and initiative in the course of duty aboard the Endeavour. Transferred to the USS Horizon as head of the ship's Xenobiology section.

Theoretical models are no substitute for practical study.