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31 Jul 2024 @ 10:17pm
Ensign Mackenzie Laren
Name Mackenzie Laren
Position Deputy Engineer
Rank Ensign
Character Information
| Gender | Female | |
| Species | Bajoran | |
| Age | 32 | |
| Date of Birth | 2360 | |
| Place of Birth | Jalanda City, Bajor |
Character Type
| Category | Primary Character (PC) |
Starfleet ID
| Serial Number | MC-867-5309 | |
| Rank Class | Junior Officer | |
| Security Clearance | Level 4 | |
| Duty Watch | Team 1 |
Physical Appearance
| Height | 5'10" | |
| Weight | 155 lbs | |
| Hair Color | auburn | |
| Eye Color | brown | |
| Physical Description | Mack is tall for a Bajoran. Standing at five foot ten inches, she possesses an athletic build as a result of her youth, where she learned from an early age that survival meant keeping fit. Her uniform fits well, but still allows her relative freedom of movement. Aside from her hallmark nasal creases, her face has relatively soft lines accentuated by her wavy shoulder length auburn hair, which she normally leaves down, but she will tie into a bun to crawl through Jefferies tubes. Mack is usually seen wearing a Bajoran earring on her right ear. She is considered attractive by Bajoran standards, but currently has no interest in pursuing a romantic relationship. | |
| Body Art | No body art |
Family
| Spouse | none | |
| Children | none | |
| Father | unknown | |
| Mother | unknown | |
| Brother(s) | unknown | |
| Sister(s) | unknown | |
| Other Family | Joshua Mackenzie (adopted father) Ivan Mackenzie (adopted father) |
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| Pets | none |
Personality & Traits
| General Overview | Mack’s personality is a result of her upbringing: Raised as an orphan by the Bajoran resistance, constantly being hunted by the Cardassian occupational forces has instilled within Mack an innate survival sense. Due to the conditions she often lived in until she was nine years old, Mack has also come to develop a deep appreciation for the little things that others usually take for granted. Mack’s penchant for tinkering stems back to watching resistance mechanics repairing their equipment, which inspired Mack to become an engineer. Mack can get frustrated by things she doesn’t understand: Having to learn Federation Standard being a prime example, but she never allows the frustration to push her to give up, instead running the foreign concepts through her head over and over again until they make sense to her. | |
| Strengths | Perhaps Mack’s greatest strength is her ability to learn foreign concepts, obsessing over them to the point where other engineers would drive themselves crazy until she understands them. Improvisation is another valuable tool in Mack’s arsenal: Watching the Bajoran Resistance improvise many a time has taught her that when there’s no clear solution, sometimes a little spontaneity will light the way. Mack has developed literacy in the LCARS system over the course of her Starfleet career. As such, she has taken some limited cross-training in Operations. She observed piloting in her youth with the Bajoran Resistance, and knows some basic flying maneuvers. Nothing fancy, but she can get you out of danger. While Mack was never allowed to touch weapons in her youth, she was shown how to use phasers later in life, and her skill with a phaser is comparable to an average Bajoran Resistance fighter, despite Mack being several years removed from the organization’s disbanding. |
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| Weaknesses | While Mack is capable of learning foreign concepts through repetition; if something really stumps her, she can get deeply frustrated by it. This frustration can and has been channeled into hostility towards others. She is less fluent in Federation Standard than she would like to be, and estimates her knowledge of the language to be at least ten years behind her peers. When she is frustrated or in an otherwise heightened emotional state, she will often revert back to her native Modern Bajoran, the language she is most fluent in. Her knowledge of the Cardassian language is also fairly limited; as she only knows enough to get by in a tourism setting. She has also been known to refuse to work on days of worship or during major Bajoran holidays. Mack has never had a knack for science. The Bajoran Resistance never needed scientists, so Mack wasn’t exposed to them until after her adoption. Mack also makes a terrible medic. While she is capable of diagnosing and operating on mechanical maladies, that experience does not carry over to organic systems. As such, whenever there is a medical emergency, Mack’s first instinct is to get out of the way. |
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| Ambitions | Mack’s tendency towards fixing things has led her down the Engineering path, and she hopes to one day become Chief Engineer on a Starship. | |
| Hobbies & Interests | Having been accidentally called “McLaren” a few times in her life, Mack has taken it upon herself to learn about the historic Earth Formula 1 team and automobile manufacturer. As such, her research has led to a fascination with speed. Her tendency to tinker doesn’t stop when she goes off duty: Mack has been known to disassemble things in her quarters or the mess hall to see how they go together- and then put them back together, sometimes better than they were before. Keeping fit is also an important part of Mack’s regimen, as she lives by the mantra “the fit survive.” As such, she will often partake in a wide range of physical activities. Mack is also a very spiritual person; worshipping the prophets and making her annual pilgrimage home for the Gratitude Festival. | |
| Vernacular | A native speaker of Modern Bajoran, Mack’s Federation Standard often carries a heavy Bajoran accent. Not so thick her Standard is incomprehensible, but there is a noticeable strain in her words when she is speaking Federation Standard: Something which is not present when she speaks Modern Bajoran- a language she is far more comfortable speaking. This is reflective in her speech patterns being much more confidant when speaking Modern Bajoran. | |
| Orientation | Heterosexual | |
| Language(s) Spoken | Modern Bajoran, Federation Standard, limited Cardassian |
| Personal History | Mackenzie Laren, or Mack, as she goes by, doesn’t remember much about her early life. What she does remember, she was told about by members of her Bajoran Resistance cell: Allegedly, she was born in Jalanda City sometime in 2360. Her parents were killed when a Cardassian bomb struck their apartment complex and collapsed half her family’s apartment, though Mack’s crib was in the portion of the building that was still standing. The rescue worker that found baby Mack in the surviving portion of the building was a member of a Bajoran Resistance cell, and he couldn’t bring himself to leave such a small child in the hands of the other rescuers, so he brought her back with him to their base camp. Mack grew up in a complex guerilla operation; one that was constantly on the move as the Cardassians sought to snuff them out. As such, she learned from an early age that in order to survive, one needed to be in peak physical condition, as the Bajoran Resistance couldn’t afford to let anyone slow them down. In their rare moments of down time, Mack would often sit and watch the resistance mechanics as they worked on their equipment, and while they would never actually let the young girl turn a single wrench, they did explain to her how the equipment they were working on was broken, and what they were doing to fix it. Nobody knew at the time, but these simple acts would inspire Mack to become an engineer later in life: When Mack was 9 years old, the Cardassians officially called it quits and withdrew from Bajor. Though victory had been achieved, the planet was left in shambles from the occupation and resistance war, and the task of rebuilding was too great for the newly-formed provisional government to handle alone, and as such, the Bajoran provisional government requested aid from the United Federation of Planets with the intent to become a full member at a later date. One of the first issues the Federation wished to address was the many Bajoran children whom had been orphaned in the occupation, and Mack was one of these. The provisional government agreed to allow the orphans with no known next of kin to be considered for adoption by Federation citizens. As very little was known about Mack’s family, her name was placed on this list. It didn’t take long for interest to be shown in Mack, as she was visited by Joshua and Ivan Mackenzie; a same sex couple from Ohio who had talked for years about adopting, but had wanted to adopt an older child. Mack was understandably hesitant to be adopted by a human couple and brought to a planet where hardly anyone spoke her language or even knew what a Bajoran was, but she was assured that going to Earth was better than staying on Bajor by some of her former resistance comrades who were now in charge of the adoption program. So, through her translator, Mack agreed to take the Mackenzie name, but she wished to do so in a way that would remain faithful to the Bajoran culture. Joshua and Ivan agreed, and Mack officially became Mackenzie Laren. Mack’s first few years on Earth were rough- as her initial fears were justified: No one spoke a word of Modern Bajoran, and she would have to learn Federation Standard from scratch. Being linguistically behind her grade level immensely frustrated Mack, and she found herself teaching basic Modern Bajoran phrases to her teachers, any friends she made, and even her adopted fathers to take off some of the pressure of learning a new language. The frustration peaked when Mack ran away from home with the intent to board a transport back to Bajor. However, when she was found and brought back home by the police, she realized her actions had scared her adopted fathers to death, as they deeply cared about her. Seeing Joshua and Ivan so distraught gave Mack a new lease on life, and she resolved that whatever challenge she might face- whether that be learning Federation Standard or learning advanced warp physics- she would not rest until she fully understood it- even if it physically and mentally broke her. |
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| Starfleet History | When Mack turned 18, she enlisted in Starfleet. She spent 2 years in boot camp as she learned what it meant to serve in Starfleet. When boot camp was completed, she was assigned to the USS Tokyo as a damage control specialist. She spent the first two and a half years of her Starfleet career aboard the New Orleans class starship running damage control, achieving the rank of Petty Officer 3rd Class by 2382. When Mack achieved the rank of Petty Officer, she was reassigned to the USS Musashi, this time as a propulsion specialist. She spent about six months in the role before she was assigned to matter and energy systems. When another six months had passed, Mack had earned the rank of Petty Officer 2nd Class. It was at this point that she was reassigned once again to the USS Yamato. The next three years that Mack spent on board the Yamato were some of the most trying of her life, as she specialized first in structural and environmental systems before specializing in communications. By this point, it was 2386, and Mack had achieved the rank of Petty Officer 1st Class. As Mack had now specialized in all aspects pertaining to the job of an engineering officer, the Yamato’s Chief Engineer felt she was ready for officer candidacy, and wrote a letter of recommendation to Starfleet Academy. Mack’s reference was accepted. However, as she was still needed aboard the Yamato, she would be permitted to take the more Academic courses remotely. However, there were still courses she would be required to take in person. So, Mack sat down and crunched some numbers, determining that the amount of in person courses she had to take would amount to 7 months of in person learning, meaning out of the 24 month period, she could still be of use to the Yamato for 17 of those months. By late 2387, Mack had completed every course that she was able to complete remotely, which meant that it was time for her to leave the Yamato. Her boss, Lieutenant Toka Yada, and the Yamato’s captain, Nagisa Shiota, both signed off on permitting Mack to return to Earth to complete her officer candidacy. Mackenzie Laren graduated her officer candidacy in mid-2388, accepting her officer’s commission with the rank of Ensign. Expecting to return to the Yamato after graduation, Mack was surprised when her packed belongings turned up after the ceremony. It hadn’t been Captain Shiota’s first choice, as he fought Starfleet Command tooth and nail to keep Mack on as a general engineering officer after her graduation, but alas it wasn’t meant to be, as Starfleet decided to reassign her to the USS Michelangelo- a Nova class starship, as they believed putting her on a smaller ship would be something of a test to see if Mack was truly ready to be an officer: Mack served dutifully aboard the Michelangelo for four years, proving that her six and a half years of enlisted service had paid off, as Mack, already familiar with the tasks of an engineer, made a better Ensign than even those who had been on cadet cruises in the Academy, and soon, it was Mack that was being relied upon to teach the less-seasoned Ensigns the ropes. It was Mack’s wisdom that transcended her rank that attracted the attention of Commander Morgan Tarin- commanding officer of the Michelangelo’s sister ship, the USS Galileo. |
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| Medical History | Detailed medical records from the first 9 years of Mack’s life are scant, as any records the Bajoran Resistance might have taken for her were likely destroyed by the Cardassians. However, from age 10 onwards, there is no evidence of any lingering health defects that require treatment. While she has suffered several injuries over the course of her service, all have healed with minimal lingering effects. Mack has an irrational aversion to mammograms, as she has heard from fellow Bajoran women that the Cardassians implemented a similar procedure as a method of torture in order to break them. Though Mack never personally experienced this torture- as the occupation ended before hers grew in- the thought of such torture makes Mack uncomfortable. |
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| Service Record | 2378-2380: Starfleet Enlisted Academy 2380: USS Tokyo (Crewman Recruit – Damage Control Specialist) 2380-2381: USS Tokyo (Crewman Apprentice – Damage Control Specialist) 2381-2382: USS Tokyo (Crewman – Damage Control Specialist) 2382-2383: USS Musashi (Petty Officer 3rd Class – Propulsion Specialist/Matter/Energy Systems Specialist) 2383-2386: USS Yamato (Petty Officer 2nd Class – Structural/Environmental Systems Specialist/Communications Specialist) 2386-2387: USS Yamato (Petty Officer 1st Class – Communications Specialist) 2386-2388: Starfleet Academy [Petty Officer 1st Class – Officer Candidacy Course (NOTE: 17 months’ worth of credits were accrued while serving aboard the USS Yamato – 7 months of credits accrued in-person.) – Graduated at rank of Ensign] 2388-2392: USS Michelangelo (Ensign – Engineering Officer) |
Character Progression System
| CPS Option | DISABLED |
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