Editing Gel Kalem (section)

== Biography ==
Gel Kalem was born to a pair of refugee Bajoran touring performing artists, and grew up on the road, in starships and starbases. He found his parent’s commitment to preserving traditional Bajoran arts stifling and became fascinated with the starships he grew up in and around, learning everything he could about them. He entered Starfleet Academy as soon as he could, where to the frustration of his instructors he developed opinions on the unnecessary conservatism of safety guidelines, although he proved talented enough to pull it off with only a few black marks.

During his initial assignment to the USS Zenith, the ship was called to the Malkus 9 to deal with a sudden outbreak of a fast-acting plague. All hands were called to administer emergency care while the medical staff raced to synthesize a cure. Kalem found himself on triage duty. He tries to think of the people they saved when he’s steeling himself to make a tough call.

During the Dominion War, the Zenith found itself protecting an isolated Romulan colony. When the ship was disabled by a lucky shot during a Dominion probing attack, Kalem assisted the engineering staff with refitting the colony’s small craft as fighters, and led them as they baited the Dominion force into an ambush by the colony’s sole cloak-equipped vessel. When the plan began to go awry, he turned and led an attack that won the day at the cost of a number of the inexperienced Romulan pilot’s lives. The battle won him a formal commendation from the Romulans and a promotion, but left him a bit rattled, and wondering if he really can make the tough calls that would come with a command position.