Pru Meshea

Early Life (2369-2387)

Meshea’s parents, Deya and Jotel, met in a labor camp after being captured as soldiers in the Bajoran Resistance against Cardassian occupation. They survived a year there before it was liberated at the end of the occupation. With the war over, the two married. Soon Deya gave birth to fraternal female twins, Meshea and Akiane. Soon after, believing it their duty to fight Cardassian tyranny wherever it cropped up, Deya and Jotel joined the Maquis. They left their daughters at a sympathetic Bajoran monastery in Tomrat province, since neither had any remaining living family. They would return to Bajor whenever they could, but would always rejoin the Maquis to fight. In 2373 when the Cardassian Union joined the Dominion and Gul Dukat’s forces slaughtered the Maquis, Deya and Jotel were both killed.

Meshea and Akiane both grew up hearing of their parents’ heroics in the war against the Cardassian occupation, and with the Maquis. However, as they grew, both girls developed competing philosophies regarding their parents’ participation with the Maquis. Akiane vehemently supported their involvement, and as such gained a hatred for the Federation to rival that of the Cardassians. Meshea took a more nuanced view, seeing the inherent injustice in the Federation-Cardassian Treaty, but also realizing the Federation did the best they could in a bad situation. What’s more, Meshea recognized the key role Starfleet played in helping Bajor maintain its independence, especially in those early years.

Meshea grew up feeling pulled between two worlds – one of spirituality and religion, and one of reason and science – and struggled to reconcile the two. This sense of being yanked in different directions gave Meshea a talent at seeing and understanding all sides of an issue, even if she disagreed with a given viewpoint. As a result, she took on the role of mediator in family arguments rather than choosing a side.

When visiting her father’s family in the Bajoran capital, Meshea was given the privilege of an Orb experience with the Orb of Prophecy and Change. When she came of age, Meshea joined the monastery and spent the next few years attending to the duties of her office. During this time, however, she also secretly began to study for the Starfleet entrance exam, and passed. Much to the monastery leadership’s chagrin, she accepted enrollment. This was too much for Akiane to bear, and resulted in the sisters not speaking to each other for many years. 

Starfleet Academy (2387-2390)

In an attempt to understand the Bajoran Wormhole/Celestial Temple, and reconcile her spirituality with science – to make the “wormhole aliens” and the “Prophets” one in the same – Meshea dove into scientific disciplines, most notably Quantum Physics and the development of a Grand Unified Theory. In addition to her required courses as a sciences cadet, she also took courses in philosophy, comparative religion, history, and xenoanthropology.

Deep Space Nine (2391-2393)

Desperate to study the Celestial Temple up close, Meshea managed to finagle her first posting to Deep Space Nine. Unfortunately, however, as an Ensign, she was required to perform much more banal science tasks, leaving more interesting science to more senior officers. She was able to make some study of the wormhole in her free time, but also came up against clearance issues in learning more about it. Her obsession with the wormhole caused some of her fellow officers to label her as somewhat of a kook. She realized that if she did not focus on other subjects, she may never get the experience and respect to be able to follow her own research goals. After being promoted to Lieutenant Junior Grade, she put in for a transfer to Starbase Bravo; a much more conventional posting.

Starbase Bravo (2393-2399)

While at Starbase Bravo, Meshea was able to build up her reputation as a serious scientist. Her interest in the wormhole never waned, but she chose to ignore that line of research for the time being. While there, she discovered Task Force 47. Its mission of pathfinding interested her greatly, convincing her that this was the place to be that might open up new areas of the galaxy, and in its wake, new scientific discoveries.

Roosevelt Station (2399-2401)

When the former Breen listening post, now dubbed Roosevelt Station, was reestablished, Meshea jumped at the chance to be on the edge of the new frontier. Unfortunately, she found the work exceedingly dull, and did not stay there long. She decided that serving on a ship would be much more exciting, and provide her more opportunities for interesting areas of study.

U.S.S. Alhambra (2401-Present)

Meshea transferred to the U.S.S. Alhambra as Chief Science Officer, and attained the rank of Lieutenant Commander.