Editing Niadra Gaelli (section)

== History ==
Niadra had been sold into slavery early. She commanded a steep price, and became the prize possession of a Romulan mining baron who kept many more in slavery on a remote colony in the Neutral Zone. She had made it most of the way through organizing an insurrection when they were all liberated by the Federation, which she joined in gratitude. While she suffered more than her share of discrimination in Starfleet, the thing that kept her going was the promise that people were subject to laws and policies and procedures, and she could use them against the worst of the bullies. The system wasn't perfect, sure, but it beat tyranny. It gave the young Orion a taste of a completely different kind of power: knowing, and enforcing, the rules.

She found she had a knack for Engineering at Starfleet Academy, and it was the commission she got instead of leadership, so she has years of experience with shipboard engineering by now, including a certain number of the "what the blazes is that" encounters that are part of life in Starfleet. But her focus has always been more "what the blazes is that doing to the ship and how do we counter and repair it?"

Stuck below decks after graduation, young Niadra formed a plan. She didn't need rank to lead. That was a skill she'd learned among the slaves. Ranks followed accomplishments, and all she needed was to make sure the right people saw her leading. She knew exactly who they were. And now, after years, here she was. Granted, it was a commission out in the middle of the unknown, but she was finally a senior officer. 

[[Category:Characters by Dersen Lowery]]