Editing Nika Earhart (section)

=Background=
Nika Gwendolyn and her twin Nala Guinevere (don't ask, her mother was something of an oddity in her reading habits) were born on a large ranching spread on Boros, about three days' horseback ride from the main spaceport in the middle of one of the worst snowstorms that had ever whipped through the region. Their mother Fern barely survived the birth, and she was sickly for much of the girls' childhood. That left their father Jon, whose focus was on keeping the ranch solvent, to figure out how to teach two little girls all they needed to know to live on the rough prairie.

The ranch was quite large -- nearly 60,000 acres, with around 1500 head of cattle on it. He and a crew of approximately 15 fulltime year-round ranch hands (plus seasonal laborers when harvesting and branding and such were going on) did the work. 

Nika and Nala are a classic case of opposite sides of a penny. While Nika excelled at and enjoyed the outdoor part of their life, Nala was happier with more 'ladylike' pursuits. Both girls were given a stellar education, including languages, music, social graces, and more. All the things well-brought-up young ladies of the Core should know. They were both also taught the business end of the ranch. Nala showed talent early on for the bookkeeping side of things, while Nika's talents lay in actually running the place. Jon spent a lot of time with the girls, though more with Nika because she tended to ride the herd with him, learning to shoot rifles, pistols, and even a bow and arrow with him. When the girls were ten, Fern passed away. Jon, feeling the girls needed a mother, remarried quickly -- a good friend of Fern's named Tanya. Tanya was a good stepmother -- no stereotypical issues here. She continued on in the vein that Fern had wanted for the girls, but she also encouraged them to pursue their own interests. To that end, Nika was finally given the opportunity to fly -- and she took to it like a bird takes wing, all instinct and grace. Jon, surprised by Nika's talent in this area, went ahead and let her take as many lessons as she could.

In 2505, Nika and Nala were 20 years old. The War of Unification began in 2606, and Boros - though closer to the core than Persephone - was considered mostly a Border World. Loyalties on the planet were pretty much to themselves and few others, and like many on the Border, those on Boros resented being told what they HAD to do. Jon Earhart was, by now, middle-aged with a huge spread, two lovely marriageable daughters, and a two-year-old son (JJ). Nika opted to join the Browncoats, as they were later known. Not because she wanted to fight so much, but because she wanted to fly and running the blockade offered both a challenge and a thrill. Sure, she saw fighting too, but in the end she came home safe. Jon supported her -- hell, he told her, if he was ten years younger, he'd go too. A person has the right to make their own way in the universe without interference. Nika jumped around and did various jobs for a variety of people until 2609, when she was recruited by Captain Shyla Kramer aboard an Alliance fast cutter to assist in the theft of said cutter. From then through the end of the war, Nika flew aboard the <i>ISV Harbinger</i> with a [[core group]] of people.

By the time the war was over and Nika got home, everything had changed. Nala was running the ranch with the help of a foreman, Trey Johannsen, and Jon was mostly in retirement. He seemed to be enjoying it, using the time to teach Nika's young half-brother JJ the things he'd taught Nika and Nala as girls. The whole family seemed content with life in general, and Nika returned to space with a sense of well-being, grateful that her family had weathered the war with no ill effects.

Jon passed away several years after the war ended. Nika had managed to get home a few times in the middle of everything, but she wasn't home when he died and it was quite a shock. The second shock was that Nala was married to Trey, pregnant, and living on the ranch with Tanya and JJ. Her family was thrilled to see her, but Nika just didn't quite feel like she fit anymore. And worse yet... Trey was a rat bastard. She wasn't sure how bad it was until she walked in the kitchen one morning shortly after her return and found her brother-in-law punching her twin in the face. When she threw herself into the fray, Trey turned on Nika with a quip about two being better than one. He assaulted Nika and things might have been much worse if the sight of her husband attempting to rape her twin hadn't galvanized Nala into action. She hit him over the head with a pan, giving Nika time to turn on him and fight for herself. When Trey turned on Nala, roaring about killing her, Nika instead killed him. It was a huge mess, and although Nika was ultimately cleared (self-defense), she hasn't really been home much since it happened -- going home to the speculation and suspicions about why she killed him just doesn't enthuse her. The ranch is in her sister's capable business hands with a trusted foreman and crew handling the cattle. Nika gets reports pretty regularly, what with owning half the thing, but she stays out of the way.

Nowadays, she spends her time flying for whoever'll have her. (And whoever she feels like flying for.)