Sometime in the early 2330s, a small delegation was sent from Bajor to Earth to appeal for Federation assistance to end the Cardassian takeover and occupation of Bajor. Led by an ambassador named Tarin Barel, they met with the Federation's diplomatic team led by the Betazoid Rxyaeria Sola. The talks were unsuccessful, but rather than returning to Bajor with the rest of his team, Barel elected to remain behind to try and push his point. Again, it was unsuccessful, but Barel did find himself falling in love with the young redheaded diplomat from Betazed. They spent several months together, until Rxyaeria asked Barel to move back to Betazed with her. It would require Barel to resign his diplomatic post, but after realizing there was little he could do to help his home planet, and that he had a chance for a better life elsewhere, he agreed. The two were married in 2336, and in 2337 Rxyaeria gave birth to their first child, Iniara.
Unlike the majority of Betazoid children, Iniara's telepathic abilities unexpectedly surfaced when she was only a few weeks old. She was then sent to a mental institution where her powers could be controlled by others until she could learn to control them herself. The result of her strange powers was never fully determined but was assumed to be some sort of genetic mutation; her younger sister Kaeylia went through the same thing, whereas her brother Glydias did not.
Iniara remained in mental institutions under various stages of care until she was 5 years old, when she returned to live with her family. Once she had learned some degree of control over her telepathy her life progressed normally enough. Being a privileged member of Betazoid society she lived a comfortable life, and was a fairly above average student, though her academic achievements were never anything special. Early on she took a great interest in sport and physical competition, becoming adept at several sports and forms of martial arts over the years. Her mother was less than pleased with this development, especially because Iniara preferred sports over more ladylike pursuits such as instrumental and vocal music (both of which Iniara showed promise in), and Rxyaeria often lamented that her daughter was not a true Daughter of the Seventh House. Because of this, as she grew, Iniara began to resent her mother and developed a closer relationship with her father.
In 2353 her father returned to his native Bajor after receiving information that his own parents had been killed in the Occupation. He contacted his family on Betazed as often as he could, but less than a year later they lost touch with him. Iniara was especially affected by this, although she tried to put it out of her mind while she finished her schooling. But, when she had graduated from secondary school, she surprised her mother and everyone in her family by announcing that she was going to Bajor to find her father and bring him home. Her mother was furious and threatened to disown Iniara, but this still didn't stop Iniara, mostly because she was still young and naïve and had very little concept of the conditions on Cardassian-occupied Bajor. In her mind, she planned to quickly find her father and return home with him, but the reality of the situation was completely opposite. She soon found herself in a refugee camp, forced to work in the mines. After more than a year she managed to find her father, who was overworked and slowly withering away from exhaustion. Soon after they were reunited, Barel passed away.
For the next five years Iniara moved around a lot, spending time in various camps and working in the mines when she had no choice. It was during this time that she decided to start passing herself off as a full Bajoran, so she adopted the name Tarin Sola, after the surnames of her two parents. Also during this time, she met and befriended a set of brothers, Thorin Kell and Thorin Malik. The three became good friends as they moved around and performed odd jobs for the Resistance, and so it was only inevitable that Iniara and Kell would fall in love and become Imzadi.
In 2360 she was rounded up and sent to Terok Nor as part of a group of fresh laborers for the ore processing facilities. Soon after, she was selected to become a comfort woman for the Cardassian officers aboard the station. She quickly became the favored companion of Gul Tarrod Marcin, an officer who seemed to spend a lot of time traveling between Bajor and Terok Nor. This was the main reason Kell joined the Resistance around 2362: to try and get to a point where they could retrieve Iniara and bring her back to Bajor.
Iniara accompanied him on many of his trips, which put her unexpectedly in contact with some Resistance sympathizers who happened to know Thorin Kell. Eventually she revealed a bit about herself to these people, particularly that she was a half-Betazoid telepath, and for the next three years she used this to her advantage, doting on Marcin while at the same time telepathically relaying information and messages between Resistance supporters who laid in wait wherever she went. Her luck could not last forever though, and in 2365 Gul Marcin discovered just what Iniara had been doing in her spare time. Furious, he ordered her executed, but with the help of Kell's Resistance cell (and perhaps a little divine providence) Iniara managed to escape, fleeing into the mountains.
Iniara was reunited with Kell, and at this time she also met the youngest Thorin brother, Dimos, who had joined his brother in the Resistance a couple years prior to this point. Seeing no other options open, Iniara decided to join the Resistance, and trained with their group. She performed well in smaller missions, and within a few months was assigned to a more important raid to gather information from a Cardassian base. The mission went well enough at first, but someone tripped an alarm, forcing the group to flee lest they be captured or killed. Iniara and Kell nearly managed to escape, but were pursued by a group of Cardassian soldiers in the forest outside the base's grounds. When the Cardassians fired on them Kell shielded Iniara with his body, and was critically wounded in the process. Assuming the two were dead the Cardassians didn't pursue, which allowed the only moderately injured Iniara to drag her lover back to their base. Unfortunately, his injuries were too severe, and within hours Kell died from his wounds.
After burying Kell on the same hill where she had buried her father years before, Iniara was confronted by Dimos, who blamed her for his oldest brother's death. The incident left a lasting impression on Iniara; it made her colder and more withdrawn, but also increased her determination ten-fold. Before, she always felt like she was a half-breed sham posing as a full Bajoran to blend in where she didn't really belong; now she felt more and more like she truly had a purpose. And for the next four years, until Bajor gained independence in 2369, Iniara remained a full-time Resistance fighter, doing her best to destroy the Cardassian presence on Bajor one bit at a time.
Not really having anywhere else to go once Bajor had gained independence, Iniara signed up for the newly formed Bajoran Militia and was assigned the rank of 2nd Lieutenant. For the next four years she did her best to help Bajor rebuild, even if it meant clearing rubble and laying brick with her own two hands. In 2373 she was promoted to the rank of 1st Lieutenant and requested a transfer to Deep Space Nine, partially because she wanted a change of pace and partially because Bajor held one too many bad memories for her. She was assigned to the station as a security officer and became known as a competent and reliable soldier if not the friendliest or most talented person on the station.
In 2374 Iniara was unexpectedly reunited with her younger sister Kaeylia, who had been transferred to DS9 as one of the many incoming medical officers sent to keep up with the casualties that were pouring in from the Dominion War's front lines. The two hadn't seen each other since Iniara had left Betazed 20 years prior, so the reunion was a joyful, if slightly awkward, one. But, Kaeylia had to deliver a bit of bad news: when Iniara left Betazed, her mother had made good on her promise to disown Iniara, which she had done on Iniara's 18th birthday. In addition, Ryxaeria Sola had Iniara declared legally dead on her 20th birthday, which meant Kaeylia was now the heir to their family's fortune. Iniara was a bit stunned by this at first, but soon came to accept the news as good in a way; after all, she'd never truly felt like a part of the Sola clan, so now that she was no longer a member of it, she felt like she could go her own way without the pressures of the past weighing on her. Kaeylia remained on the station for about six months until she was transferred, which gave the two plenty of time to catch up. When Kaeylia left, the two agreed to keep in touch, and Kaeylia agreed to keep the secret of Iniara's whereabouts hidden from the rest of the family.
Shortly after, Iniara decided to follow more or less in her sister's footsteps and transfer her commission to Starfleet. Feeling no need to keep living a false identity now that she was off Bajor, she once again changed her name, this time to Tarin Iniara. In 2375 she attended Officer Integration School on Earth, getting an interesting crash course in Terran culture, since this was the first time she'd ever been to Earth. In 2376 she was commissioned as a Lieutenant and assigned to the USS Musashi, where she performed admirably.
In 2379 the Musashi picked up a distress call from a Cardassian transport ship which was experiencing an unexpected and catastrophic system failure. While the Musashi's engineers worked to get the Cardassian ship back on its feet several of its senior officers came aboard the Musashi. Iniara was part of the team assigned to escort the Cardassians around, only to discover that the captain of the ship was none other than Gul Marcin himself. Iniara did her best to remain professional, hoping that perhaps Marcin wouldn't recognize her. Unfortunately for both of them he did and he just couldn't stop himself from taunting her, making several very inappropriate comments regarding the years she had spent with him during the Occupation. Iniara wouldn't let him get the best of her and she attacked him, spitting curses in every language she knew as she took out years of repressed anger on him. By the time the other Cardassians and security officers had pried the two apart, Marcin had sustained a broken nose, two broken fingers and several fractured ribs, while Iniara had suffered a black eye and fractured wrist.
Iniara was relieved of duty on the spot and thrown in the brig. And when the dust had settled from the event, Iniara found herself demoted to the rank of Ensign and transferred off the ship, headed for starbase duty. She was assigned to Starbase 23 as part of the Operations staff, which her superiors hoped would prevent the situation on the Musashi from happening again. Iniara settled in pretty well, quickly learning the ropes in Ops, although she found the Federation starbase to be considerably more boring than her last starbase assignment, especially because she was assigned to the overnight shift.
In 2381, Iniara glady accepted a transfer to the USS Galaxy-A, relieved to be off the starbase and back onto a real ship. Oddly enough her assigned roommate was none other than a full-blooded Cardassian, which went against the Starfleet mandate that Iniara not be assigned to work or live near Cardassians. Her relationship with the woman, Aristi Ferguson, started off rather poorly due to Iniara's less than friendly demeanor. But, she soon learned that Aristi had been requested as Iniara's roommate by none other than Iniara's sister Kaeylia, with whom Aristi had served during her previous assignment on the USS Prokofiev. Knowing how thick Aristi's skin was (physically and metaphorically), Kaeylia felt that her Scottish-Cardassian friend could perhaps destroy the strong prejudice her big sister Iniara held against Cardassians. And Kaeylia was right: it took a while, but Iniara eventually warmed up to Aristi, their relationship gradually wearing away the strong racial prejudices Iniara had once held.
Iniara's first mission aboard the Galaxy was none other than the Battle of Havras, a mission in which she was able to use her unique telepathic powers to coordinate a psychic assault against a T'Kith'Kin bio-technological mine field. During the mission she had extensive telepathic contact with the alien entity called Vr'lu, who awakened her latent empathic powers and also taught her to better control her abilities. Shortly after this, during the Galaxy's three month refit and overhaul following the Battle of Havras, Iniara found herself returning to Bajor as part of a handpicked team led by the ship's XO, Cassius Henderson, and tasked with the retrieval of an AWOL Starfleet officer.
Due to her dedication to her work, and partly owing to the lack of qualified personnel within the department, Iniara was soon promoted to the position of Assistant Ops Chief. She also tried out for and was accepted into Galaxy's newly formed Hazard Team. Several months later, with the sudden departure of the department's current chief, Iniara found herself promoted to Lieutenant JG and Chief of Operations. Although not a talented officer, Iniara continued to excel due to her willingness to put in extra hours in the understaffed department, working double and sometimes even triple shifts when she needed to.
During the encounter with the extradimensional beings known simply as the Others, Iniara was forced to relive several of her most painful memories, particularly those of her time on Bajor and the death of her Imzadi. She became trapped with Saul Bental in visions of each other's pasts, both of them learning inconvenient and perhaps uncomfortable truths about the other. From this moment on she and Saul developed a closer working relationship, and they would continue to trade favors with each other over the years.
As Chief of a perpetually understaffed department, Iniara often found her life filled with little more than work and sleep. She occasionally made time to spend with Lieutenant Michael Jamson, her Assistant Chief, since the two older officers seemed to have more in common with each other than the much younger officers with whom they both served. However, such times were few and far between as Iniara watched entire months and missions fade away into the past. She coordinated relief efforts on Trill after the USS Akira incident, and during the encounter with the Hydrans she was tasked with catering to Rear Admiral Olivia Proctor's demands while en route to Deep Space Five.
When the Dithparu were released from their prison on Deep Space Five, Iniara found herself host to at least a dozen of the entities. The experience was traumatic, and it caused her to absorb painful memories that the Dithparu had carried from their previous hosts. After they were removed from her consciousness Iniara lapsed into a coma that lasted three months, and when she awoke she found herself completely paralyzed. The paralysis was partly due to muscle atrophy, and after a couple weeks she was able to regain the use of her upper body. But, for some inexplicable reason her legs refused to work, so she found herself confined to a grav chair.
It was around this time that the current XO, Cassius Henderson, was unexpectedly transferred. A temporary replacement, Commander Kol, recommended that Iniara become the ship's new XO, and demanded that Iniara regain her ability to walk before she would be promoted. Given this additional motivating factor, Iniara decided to seek out some alternative treatments, and was convinced to perform a mind-meld with her Vulcan counselor, V'Lot. The process revealed a psychosomatic block that Iniara's metaconscious had created, which was preventing Iniara from using her legs properly. After releasing this block, Iniara was quickly able to regain the use of her legs, although she still had to use a cane for a while until she adjusted to walking again.
After this, Iniara found herself increasingly plagued by nightmares and was less able to control her telepathic abilities. As she had never been comfortable with the abilities, Iniara decided to begin a regimen of psi-blocker drugs, which gradually dampened her abilities down to a much lower, more manageable level. Part of her considered it cheating or a betrayal of some sort, and it felt strange to be without those abilities, but in truth she was glad she didn't have to worry about them as much.
As XO, Iniara performed decently, often putting in extra hours when she deemed it necessary, but again wasn't the most talented officer on the ship. On multiple occasions she found herself in command of the Galaxy's stardrive section in battle, where she performed admirably.
In 2384, the Galaxy discovered the remains of the wrecked Romulan Exodus ship Talvalen near the Federation/Hydran border. Along with the rest of the crew Iniara was forced to relive their experiences, herself playing host to the katra of Sakonna Raal, daughter of the ship's captain, Talvath Raal, and wife of the chief engineer, Chulak Vardek. However, unlike many of the crew who retained some vague memories of their experiences, Iniara remembers nothing of hers. From what she was told after the katra extraction process on Vulcan, her unique mental makeup caused some unexpected side-effects, one of which was a complete lack of memories from the event. All she remembers is being on Galaxy's bridge when they found the Talvalen, then 'waking up' a few minutes later feeling slightly disoriented.
Some months after this, Iniara found herself unexpectedly reunited with her old friend Thorin Malik. Malik was one of the leaders of a Bajoran colony in the Vered Cluster, an area of space which was hotly contested between the Federation and Dreshayans. Iniara and Malik had a fond reunion, but the mood was quickly spoiled when Malik found out why she and her ship were really paying the Cluster a visit. Along with the rest of the colonists in the system, Malik and his family were evacuated, and the two parted on less than good terms.
Shortly after this, Iniara took temporary command of Galaxy after Captain M'Kantu was seriously injured at the hands of a Hydran agent disguised as the new Ops Chief, Th'Khiss K'aa. During this period Iniara found herself even more overworked, partially because she was now doing the jobs of CO and XO, and partially because she had never learned to adequately delegate work to subordinates. Thankfully, a replacement captain came soon enough, and even though the two got off to a bad start initially, Iniara was glad to be back to just the XO again.
Iniara tends to be serious and distant, and may appear quite cold to people who don't know her. Years of military life have made Iniara very efficient at her job, but don't expect her to be very friendly. Some people find her intimidating, but she usually doesn't bother with what other people think about her on a personal level. She's more interested in doing her job, and doing it well.
Iniara prefers to work alone and is quite detail-oriented, always having to know exactly what is going on at any time that might affect her. She has a hard time delegating responsibility and sometimes has a tendency to micromanage; both habits left over from her time in the Resistance, when not knowing every detail about an operation often meant people died. But, recently with the help of more experienced coworkers, she is starting to let go of this behavior.
Though Iniara is a very dedicated officer she has trouble getting close to people. She's willing to die on the battlefield protecting her fellow soldiers, but she doesn't like it when people try to get too close personally. She's lost several people that were very close to her over the years, especially when she was younger, and although she may not realize it this scarred her and made her very afraid of being hurt again. She is deeply lonely and privately wishes that she could open up to people more than she does, but for the time being she'd rather be comfortable and safe than take that risk again. Because of this, she takes a very long time to make friends, and she hasn't been in a romantic relationship since the death of her Imzadi. Over the years this has made her somewhat bitter towards relationships; now she views sex as a tool and thinks romance is pointless. She gets uncomfortable around happy couples, sometimes leaving the room if it bothers her enough. But, she's quite adept at various sexual techniques learned from her time as a comfort woman, even though she has for the most part remained voluntarily celibate since the death of her Imzadi.
Growing up, Iniara had zero empathic ability but was a very strong telepath. However, during her encounter with the Q'lrn bioship Vr'lu, he awakened her latent empathic abilities and taught her to control her talents better. She still views the abilities as a curse more than anything, and in general she doesn't like to discuss that side of herself. Although the incident with the Dithparu left her dependent on psi-blockers to control her abilities, over time she came to view it as a blessing in disguise, since the drugs have brought her abilities down to a much more manageable level.
Unlike most Bajorans or Betazoids, Iniara is not particularly spiritual or religious. Through her time spent on both planets she learned a good deal about both cultures' religious beliefs, but she never thought of them as anything more than stories or perhaps allegories to teach people how to lead better lives. Although she doesn't hold much faith in either belief system, because she grew up with both of them she'll occasionally let an "Oh, Prophets" or "By the Fates" slip out in normal speech.
In her spare time Iniara enjoys working out, lifting weights, and practicing various forms of martial arts or improving her proficiency in a number of sports. She's never one to shy away from a challenge by one of her crewmates even if she knows she'll be defeated; to her the enjoyment of physical exertion and competition outweighs whatever negative stigma a defeat may carry. She also enjoys target shooting with any weapon she can get her hands on and practices somewhat frequently to keep her skills sharp even though she doesn't need them much nowadays. Her specialty is energy-based weapons, although she is also proficient with projectile weapons (the TR-116 being a favorite from her Hazard Team days) and is good at hand-to-hand combat, although she doesn't practice any one particular style. Her skill with bladed or other hand-held weapons is lacking.
Physical details:
Moderate build, well-muscled body with minimal body fat developed over years of physical exertion. She has thick, flame auburn hair which in her earlier years she grew out to waist length or longer. However, her hair was also one of Marcin's favorite things about Iniara, so she has kept it cut short since she escaped from him. She has dull bluish-grey eyes. She also has several small scars over her body and three large ones: a long, thin line across her left collarbone, a large burn scar on her right shoulder, and a thick, crooked scar tracing a diagonal line from upper right to lower left across her lower abdomen. Even though Federation medical technology could easily remove them she has elected to keep them as reminders of the past, although she gets uncomfortable if asked about them.
Family:
Because Iniara's mother disowned her when she was 18, Iniara technically does not have a family. However, listed below are her biological relations.
Father: Tarin Barel, Bajoran ambassador to the Federation. Born 2293, died 2356. He and Iniara were very close.
Mother: Ryxaeria Sola, diplomat, Daughter of the Seventh House, heir to the sacred texts of Shaidha bel Liridon Melliferiasola. Born 2300. The two have not spoken since Iniara left Betazed in 2354. Ryxaeria is unaware that her daughter is still alive, but considering that she disowned Iniara in 2355 and had her declared legally dead in 2357, it's unlikely that she even cares.
Younger sister: Cmdr. Kaeylia Sola, currently chief surgeon aboard the USS Relentless. Born 2341. Has telepathic abilities similar to Iniara, though she learned to control hers better. She and Iniara correspond on a regular basis, and is the only member of the family that knows Iniara is still alive.
Younger brother: Glydias Kasai, diplomat and occasional ambassador. Born 2343. Married with a family of his own. Iniara has not seen him since he was ten years old.
Etc:
Iniara's birth name was Iniara Sola. Around 2354-2355 she began using the name Tarin Sola and passing herself off as a full Bajoran. In Bajoran, the female name Sola means 'alone'. It's an old-fashioned name and not used much nowadays, but when Iniara started passing herself off as a full Bajoran, it seemed appropriate. When she joined Starfleet in 2375, she changed her name to Tarin Iniara.
Iniara uses Bajoran name placement: family name before given name. She should therefore be addressed as Lt. Cmdr. Tarin, not Lt. Cmdr. Iniara. She has a slight aversion to people using her given name (especially if they attempt to shorten it or give her a nickname) but the aversion is not nearly as strong as it is for the average Bajoran.
Iniara used to steal her father's pagh ring and wear it around while he napped in the afternoon, but as an adult she has never normally worn one (although she has worn one on a few occasions when she needed to go undercover as a full Bajoran). Until recently she did not even possess her own pagh ring, but she received one as a gift from Thorin Malik after the Vered Cluster evacuation. This ring incorporates symbolism of both the Tarin and Thorin clans, indicating that even though Malik might not be able to forgive her for uprooting the New B'Hala colony, he still views her as part of his family.
In the d'jarra caste system, her family was a member of the Im'sara caste, one of the lower levels of the caste system. The Tarin clan were traditionally fishermen, and hailed from northern Janitza province.
On the OPRED psi-scale, Iniara was rated at a P8 the last time she was tested. Before she began taking psi-blockers she was at a high P10 level, but the psi-blockers now have her down to a P4 or P5 level. OPRED closed her file when she was declared dead, and she has not reregistered with the organization.
She has very few personal items in her quarters. These include a photograph of her family taken in 2352 (the last time all five members of the family were together in one place), a photograph of her mother, brother and sister, and one of her brother, his wife and their first child, both of which were taken in 2382. She also has a small knife with the emblem of Bajor carved into the hilt, a souvenir of her time in the Resistance, and she wears this inside her boot unless prohibited to do so. She also has a Starfleet-issue shipping case stored under her bed, which she apparently sent to herself while Galaxy was orbiting Vulcan, although she doesn't actually remember doing this. It has a lock code, and she has yet to remember what she set the code to, but she doesn't yet consider it irritating or imperative enough to request that Engineering crack the lock.
