Character Information

Gender		Female
Species		Argelian
Age		27

Physical Appearance

Height		5'8"
Weight		60kg
Hair Color		Blonde
Eye Color		Brown
Physical Description		Tall, lithe yet curvaceous with bronze skin and long, smooth blond hair, Nerilah is the picture of Argelian beauty, often drawing eyes wherever she goes. She likes to wear loose but eye-catching clothing off duty, though if the mood hits she'll wear something a bit tighter.

Family

Spouse		N/A
Children		N/A
Father		Kalpas
Mother		Edelia
Brother(s)		N/A
Sister(s)		N/A
Other Family		A few cousins resident on Argelius

Personality & Traits

General Overview		Syaffia is generally extremely open, friendly and curious about the world around her. In true Argelian fashion has been known to be very open about the giving of affection and comfort; she's been known to offer complete strangers she's just met a hug and a kiss on the forehead as a greeting, and has no qualms being openly flirtatious with anyone she finds attractive, though she always respects their boundaries. That being said, Nerilah knows when to take things seriously, especially on duty - knowing that what she does could quite possibly be one of the most important jobs on board. She takes her duties as a flight control officer extremely seriously and accepts no shortcomings from herself when it comes to her work.
Strengths & Weaknesses		+ Dedicated to honing her skills as a helmsman. +/- Hardworking - Sometimes works to overexhaustion and burnout - Not very good with understanding personal space
Ambitions		* Become the best pilot she can possibly be. * Raise a family of her own.
Hobbies & Interests		* Working out in the gym * Socializing * Quite literally anything that she finds enjoyable, in true Argelian fashion.

Personal History		Nerilah had the fortune, or perhaps misfortune, of being born in the shuttle racing capital of Argelius. That was how her parents initially met, in fact, with her father as a professional racer of reasonable repute and piloting instructor and her mother a mechanic who serviced shuttles for a living and often provided services for her husband's driving school. It was this heritage that prompted many to believe that, like her father, Nerilah might one day chase greatness on the racing track. She'd often receive playful teasing about it, in fact, from relatives and peers alike, which she took in stride. She didn't think becoming someone like her father sounded all that bad, really, and she liked the idea of zooming past people in shuttles. Things started well enough. She enrolled in her father's piloting school as soon as she was old enough and began her training to satisfactory results and generally positive comments from her instructors, though those same instructors also noted that her improvement was somewhat slower than that of her peers', to her father's concern. He believed, however, that given enough practice she would make a fine pilot one day, with enough practice. After all everyone's growth occurred at different speeds. He would never get to see the day she finally did reach that point. He did, however, get to see her numerous piloting test fails, all in succession. The first was a soft blow at best, but as her failures built up to her fourth failure in a row and seventh remedial training session with her exasperated instructors the young woman decided to throw in the towel having decided that she simply wasn't meant to be a pilot after all, to the disappointment of her father and all who'd placed much hope and prayer in her to succeed. She relegated herself to watching her father take part in races instead, offering support from the stands from among the crowd. She would, sadly, be present to see him race his last. Like the rest of the audience in the spectator stands Nerilah and her mother had turned up expecting an exhilarating show, seeing as it was one of the final races in the entire championship series with a considerable prize at stake. The atmosphere was alive with energy and thrummed with the excited cries of adoring fans as the racers were flagged off. All went well for seven exhilarating laps. On the eighth, however, was when disaster struck. The lead racer lost control of his shuttle entirely, sending the craft pinwheeling backward into the racers behind him and sending them flying. She and her mother were forced to watch in horror as her father's shuttle collided with it, destroying both shuttlecraft in a spectacular orange fireball as their impulse engines exploded. Neither pilot survived the accident. Several other racers failed to avoid the accident and were caught in its wake, leaving a single shuttle to avoid the resulting pileup and cruise through the finishing line unchallenged and forgotten by the chaos behind them. Neither mother or daughter was ever quite the same after her father's death. Now that he was gone she felt even more like a discredit to his legacy than before. Her mother was similarly shaken and, determined to make sure that the horrible accident that had befallen her mate would never find her daughter, forbid her from piloting ever again. It would be several months later during her tertiary studies that Starfleet personnel came to her school as part of a recruitment program. The young woman was fascinated by stories of their adventures among the stars, exploring the wider universe, so much so that by the time they'd left campus she was determined to pursue a career with them. The only problem? She hadn't the faintest idea what she would pursue as a career even so. She wasn't the most gifted when it came to subjects such as science and engineering and the like; all she had was the endless hours of piloting experience she'd accumulated over the course of her training, and… oh wait. Now there was an idea. Her mother was livid when Nerilah expressed her desire to become a Starfleet pilot. To her she'd just lost her mate to a shuttle accident, and now her daughter wanted to throw herself into danger several times bigger? No matter how much she tried to (passionately) dissuade her daughter from embarking on this path it became increasingly obvious that her mind was set. So intense were the arguments between mother and daughter that the the latter travelled to the spaceport alone, and both haven't been on speaking terms ever since. Mercifully few people at Starfleet Academy were able to draw a connection from her to her father, allowing Nerilah to train and study in peace. Her instructors regularly noted that she seemed to be far more adept with the handling of a shuttle, both holographic and real, than most of her peers. She never entertained those remarks, disclosing her previous piloting experience only when asked to. Her past failures did not define her. She took up swimming and basketball among other similar physical activites as ECAs, knowing that much of her day would be spent sitting in a chair. She liked to think of swimming as piloting herself through water, but even more relaxing. She would go on to represent the Academy at four separate Earth-based competitions during her time as a cadet. The biggest obstacle in her path, however, would be her Academy administered ground-based piloting test. To say that Nerilah had butterflies in her belly in the weeks leading up to the test was something of an understatement. After all it was her first test in a long, long time, especially after her chain of failures. Her butterflies continued right up till the day of her test, when she sat behind the controls of an actual shuttle with her examiner seated in the passenger's seat, pulled out of the Academy's training circuit… and passed half an hour later, to the delight of her tester. It was at this point that she decided that nothing could truly stop her from achieving what she wanted. Nerilah worked very, very hard for the rest of her training, passing her space-based flight test handsomely and on her first attempt. She would go on to graduate and commission along with all her peers; most of her remaining family attended the ceremony. Once again her mother was notably absent. She would be assigned to the USS Orion as her first posting, during which she would go on to fly numerous missions as a shuttle pilot. One of her most memorable moments is having to fly through a dense asteroid field on minimal thrusters in order to rescue an escape pod; she describes it as the most fur-raising experience of her nine lives so far.
Service Record		2394-2398: Cadet, Starfleet Academy 2398-2400: Flight Control Officer, USS Orion