Commander Jesse Shantel
Name Jesse Natasha Shantel
Position Executive Officer
Rank Commander
Character Information
| Gender | Female | |
| Species | Human | |
| Age | 44 |
Physical Appearance
| Height | 5'7" | |
| Weight | 144 lbs | |
| Hair Color | Blonde | |
| Eye Color | Green | |
| Physical Description | Kat has always had a strong stature and full figure. Both of these traits have only increased with the birth and raising of her children. She's not quite as lean as she used to be, but still maintains a strong build and feminine physique. She keeps her hair between shoulder and mid-back length in its natural blond, with vivid and very active green eyes. |
Family
| Spouse | Thomas Jameson (Separated) | |
| Children | Daula Bren (Adopted, 38) Lily Shantel-Bren (24) Kalen Shantel-Bren (24) Chase Jameson (Adopted, 23) Hadrian Jameson (16) |
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| Father | Unknown | |
| Mother | Natasha Shantel | |
| Brother(s) | N/A | |
| Sister(s) | N/A | |
| Other Family | N/A |
Personality & Traits
| General Overview | Kat has been through a lot in her life, but if nothing else, she has always remained true to herself. She's vivid, gregarious, friendly, social, and stubborn as hell. She is a survivor above all else and when she gives her loyalty, she sees it through whether it's good for her or not. She is 'one of the boys' in many ways, and she can keep up with the best of them. Motherhood and adulthood has tempered and limited these times, although she prides herself that she still can if she wants to. Over all, despite the occasional recurrence of her past traumas, she genuinely enjoys life and the people around her, and she has found much fulfillment in the life she’s chosen for herself. |
| Personal History | Jesse Shantel was born on November 3 in a small town in Massachusetts, North America to Natasha Shantel. A wild child in her adolescence, Nathasha never knew who had fathered her daughter but she settled down when the time for motherhood came. The two looked nothing alike, but neither cared. They loved each other dearly. When she was fourteen, Jesse's mother met a man named Patrick. He shared many features with Kat and claimed to be her father. Natasha couldn't remember if she'd known him fifteen years before, but she believed him. They were a lot alike. He moved in shortly there after and Natasha's time with Jesse lessened, and the remaining tranquility was shattered one afternoon when Patrick molested Jesse. Several hysterical hours later, Jesse left a note and ran away. She stowed away on an alien freighter and never looked back. When she was eventually discovered, she was tossed off on the war-ravaged planet of Turkana IV, where a failed colony was the forgotten victim. Jesse would live for two years in the underground tunnels, surviving by wits, sometimes with other lost youth and with the infrequent help of the occasional short-lived mission. It was a difficult life, and she eventually repressed many of the memories. When she was seventeen, Jesse by chance met a man from Earth. His name was Frank. He saw something in her that said she was capable of a much better life and his heart went out to this abandoned girl. He offered to take her to Earth, and with nothing left to lose, she went with him. With his fatherly assistance, she was able to catch up on missed schooling and was able to join Starfleet. She pursued a career as a fighter pilot. It was a career path that capitalized on a love of the sky she had shown early in life, and a combination of great hand-to-eye coordination and quick reflexes that Frank had witnessed. In those early years, her ferocity for flight was only matched by her ferocity for young men. She didn't believe that she was the type to deserve love or commitment, so she wholly committed herself to enjoying life and played as hard as she worked. It didn't interfere with her schoolwork and her bright, eager attitude won over her professors. Even if she wasn't an exceptional student, though bright enough, her resilience always won. She even earned a place on the Academy's Luna Squadron and earned the call-sign Katana from a boy she was dating at the time, due to his love of the arcane weapons and his appreciation for her skills in and out of the cockpit. Jesse's first assignment was the squadron of the USS Raven in Ares class fighters. She made fast friends, though none close, and won almost all of her drinking contests. Her first crew chief was one who taught her about the workings of a plane and was a good friend, closer than any and one she didn't sleep with. She was assigned some months later to the USS Crazy Horse, flying the Valkyrie class, which she qualified well at and came to adore. It was here that she made her first real friends: Thomas 'Dixie' Jameson, her squadron commander, and her RIO Barry 'Halloween' Redson. The latter gave her the nickname Kat. She resisted at first, but it stuck. Dixie would bring Kat, among a select few others, to a Valkyrie competition on Earth. It was there that she realized her emotions for him had grown, but he was still recovering from the loss of his lover who had died during Kat's first battle while on the Horse. She almost came to know love, and he almost came back to it...though the past would interfere. The final competition would find Kat only take to the air to prevent the other team from cheating and instead she ended up winning--an honor she doesn't hold too close, given her motives for flying that last round. There wasn't much time for anything once home again as the Horse joined a Fleet force meeting against a Borg invasion. A shock wave during one battle would knock Kat out of the water and grievously wounded Barry. Dixie would rescue them but the world crashed inward on Kat when instead of choosing her, he tossed his lot in with another officer. Kat wouldn't fight over any man and was certain this proved she wasn't worth loving. The second hit came when Barry was grounded and sent home to Earth, and she'd lost two friends at one time. She focused on what she had left, which was flying. Soon after, she was given command of a new squadron of Tigersharks (one-seaters) named the Warhawks. In the new transfers in, she would make two new and long-term friends in Georgia 'Diablo' Hernandez and Desiree 'Scorpion' Taliano. She would also become friends and then lovers with the ship's new commander, Trael Bren. Between the pair and Dixie and his new lover, the ship's new first officer, a very complex web would form of friendship, duty and antagonism. Her feud with Dixie's girl would lead to fractures between her and both Dixie and Trael, leading her to almost transfer off ship after the Borg-turned-Taurhai battle, but they made up and she stayed on. Eventually, her relationship with Trael would deepen. As a Trill with a centuries old symbiant, he provided her with a steady influence in her life and she bid farewell to her wild child days for a real romance. He'd be there through good and hard times for her. En route to an emergency mission, Kat learned she was pregnant. She kept it a secret through the mission, and led a rescue op to help Dixie save his lover. While he remained by her bedside, she became temporary wing commander. The emotional relationships between the four would stabilize, and hers for Trael would continue to deepen. Some secrets are hard to keep and Kat eventually revealed to Dixie that she was pregnant. Angry, he grounded her. This became a fight that Trael became part of. Something unexpected would happen with Kat and she would end up in sickbay, where she discovered that she wasn't pregnant but very ill with a disease that had been dormant since she was sixteen. It had masqueraded as a pregnancy and then almost killed her. It wasn’t long before a mission would ground her again, and she would take the position of wing lieutenant during her long recovery. She moved in with Trael during this time, and never moved out. Life would continue to be crazy and complicated. She would deal with conflicts and alternate universes and fights. Kat would eventually end up with a pair of adopted children belonging to her alternate self, Daula and Nathaniel, and she followed Trael to Starbase Zetari where he took command and she became wing commander. It was on Zetari that she was surprised by her pregnancy and would eventually deliver twins, one of which showed telekinetic powers from her father—they would be named Lily and Kalen. Kat would be promoted to Gamma Fleet as the flight ops advisor, and she would also found a doctor who had an experimental surgery that could let her fly again, and she took it. She and her children lived on Starbase Raven for a long while before she chose to retire from active service. Trael and she became estranged, and later divorced, and she moved her kids to Starbase Aurora to take over a freighter business from her old friend Dixie when he became CAG of the USS Artemis. She proved to be a skilled business woman, and DTC flourished under her care, as did her children. After a long time of dancing around one another, Kat and Dixie would eventually (finally) come together. He became captain of the Yorktown, proposed marriage to her, and she discovered she was pregnant with his child. The pair were married on Earth in front of friends and family, and for a long time, life was good. Things are different now. Kat’s children are almost all grown, and her marriage to Dixie has become estranged. Her adopted daughter Daula, now married herself with a child, has taken over DTC, and the lure of active service to combat the Federation’s growing enemy base has brought Kat back into service, although not as a pilot but as a command officer. Her adopted son Nathaniel—now going by Chase, and believing himself to be biologically Kat and Dixie’s son—is serving on the Artemis, while the twins are off living their lives. It is just Kat and Dixie’s youngest child, Hadrian, who travels with her. At sixteen, it’s a varied relationship. |
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| Service Record | USS Raven - Fighter Pilot for Phoenix Squadron USS Crazy Horse - Fighter Pilot for Lancers USS Crazy Horse - Squadron Commander of Warhawk Squadron Starbase 204: Zetari Station - Wing Commander, 550th SDW Gamma Fleet Flight Operations Advisor, Talon Squadron Civilian Business Owner/Operator, Dixie Trading Company Executive Officer, USS Enterprise |