Character Information[]
- Full Name: Hsina Amman
- Race: Human
- DoB: 2262.02.25
- Age: 131 Chronological, 46 years lived (not counting stasis)
- Gender: Female
Family[]
- Father: Hussein Amman (Iraqi)
- Mother: Nina Malaki (Syrian)
- Siblings: Brother Uday Amman (Boxer, drunkard, deceased - would be 118), Sister Nuri Malaki (115 – police detective, deceased), sister Samira Amman (suicide at age 15 when mother died would be 109)
- Religion: Atheist
Appearance[]
- Height: 6’3”
- Weight: 220
- Hair: Black
- Eyes: Brown
- Skin: Tanned
- Build: Muscular/Strong (very)
Languages[]
Ancient Earth:
- Sanskrit
- Sumerian (Cuneiform)
- Egyptian
- Aramaic
- Mayan
- Proto-Chinese
- Tungusic
- Persian
- Norse
- Old English
- Greek (ancient)
- Latin
Ancient Alien:
- Iconian
- Preserver
Modern Earth:
- Arabic (Native)
- English (Native)
- Standard
- German
- Spanish
- French
- Italian
- Persian/Farsi
- Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese)
- Japanese
- Korean
- Russian
Modern Alien:
- Vulcan
- Romulan
- Klingon
- Bajoran
History[]
Hsina was born 131-years-ago in Iraq to an Iraqi father and a Syrian mother, the youngest of four children. Hsina's farther was a police officer in Baghdad, and was killed in the line of duty when Hsina was only 6-years-old. Her mother, a medical doctor, raised Hsina and her siblings until Hsina was 13, at which time she literally slipped and fell down a flight of stairs, to her death. At that time, Hsina was the only minor child, her sister Nuri the next youngest was already 23-years-old, and a police officer like their father. Her other sister, Samira, took her own life days after the death of their mother.
Hsina was taken in by brother Uday, who was something of a nut-job, but a very tough nut-job who made his living as a professional boxer and an amateur drunk.
While Hsina's upbringing was disjointed and unconventional, she remained very close to her two surviving siblings as she grew up and while always a social misfit, was also always an exceptional student. She graduated from high school at age 16 and college at age 19, receiving a full scholarship to USC for her masters, and a full scholarship to Oxford for her doctorate, where she then served for 17 years as a professor. Like most archaeology professors, she was always very active on digs and was a staff archaeologist for The British Museum. In her time, she was one of the leading scholars on the poorly understood ancient race known as the Preservers. Her claim to fame was deciphering the mysterious Preserver written language by finding its "Rosetta Stone", the discovery made in all places in a previously undiscovered temple in ancient Iraq, barely 160 miles from her birthplace.
Hsina's achievements in her field are due in no small part to her exceptional memory, which allowed her to recall clues from books read years before and piece them together for that "a-ha" moment in which she realized that an ancient Sumerian poem was actually coordinates on an equally ancient Sumerian map. One of those mysteries who's answer had been staring scholars in the face for centuries.
Hsina's memory (eidetic) also made it extremely easy for her to learn languages. By the time she finished high school she already spoke Arabic, English, German and French fluently and was more than conversational in Mandarin Chinese and Spanish. Once in academia, she continued to hone her language skills and study new languages at a voracious pace, never stopping even to this day. While at Starfleet Academy following her long-time in Cryogenic stasis, she became nearly fluent in Bajoran and Korean. It was her language ability that led to her later fame in cracking the Preserver's cuneiform-like language and decoding not only the writing system, but also the grammar, syntax and even compiling a still-growing list of vocabulary that allowed nearly complete translation of all surviving texts.
Contrary to what her resume might suggest, Hsina is no bookworm. The combination of her tumultuous childhood, extreme height and being raised by a brother who was a professional boxer, Hsina couldn't help but come out slightly odd, 51-50, playing slightly short of a full deck, etc. She is beyond fanatically fit, with her exercise routine more masochistic than merely fanatical. At 6’3” she is extremely tall, a trait she got from her mother and shares with her brother, who was 6'5". She is proportional for her height, with a definitely feminine build, but one subjected to masochistic workouts to produce a body that would make most Klingons jealous. Also like her mother and brother, she is freakishly strong, easily out-muscling the vast majority of men. Her height, massive build and stern countenance are often intimidating to people who do not know her well, and even to some who do (the whole she's crazy thing).
Hsina has no fear. This is not a heroic, courageous kind of no fear, but more a mentally defective, "death is merely the end" and of the "she likes pain" kind of no fear. The kind of no fear that put her in the hospital when she was mugged at knife point in London and attacked the mugger with her fists, breaking the muggers arm, jaw and four ribs, but getting stabbed three times in the process.
In addition to her unhealthy lack of fear, Hsina also has a very unhealthy prejudice against certain professions and generally dislikes regulations that she sees as silly or unnecessary. Its not that they are silly or unnecessary, just that she sees them that way, and quickly decides that they don't particularly matter to her. Thus far she has been reasonably lucky and nothing has gotten her into too much trouble, as very few men complained when she would use the men's restroom when the line for the women’s room was too long. Her disdain for rules extends to a disdain for bureaucracy and bureaucratic professions, which she considers one step above a prison sentence and wonders what kind of spineless insectoid weasel would ever consider a career as a file clerk, secretary or what-not. She's smart enough not to outright insult such people when they are in a position to cause trouble, but its always quite a struggle.
Hsina frequently takes unnecessary risks and participates in extreme sports to center herself. When such activities are not available she tends to drink heavily, and never that synth nonsense.
Finally, while Hsina is unbalanced and not quite right, she is very good at hiding it. She actually suffers from a genetic disorder that makes her completely psi-null. She has absolutely zero psionic potential where most humans have some, and while that means she can never learn some of the mental disciplines like walking on hot coals and the like, it also prevents empaths and telepaths from getting any reading at all, though a Vulcan mind-meld, which is a direct physical connection, will get a reading, but only if done intrusively as she is incapable of consenting as that involves opening up a part of the brain that simply doesn't work.
Since completing her doctoral studies, Hsina has spent most of her life in academia. Much like the fictional 20th movie character Indiana Jones, Hsina spent the years following her studies teaching classes on archaeology, history and anthropology while also participating in and often leading archaeological digs both on Earth and in deep space.
It was on one such dig, a classified mission by the Starfleet vessel USS Curiosity to recover a Preserver artifact of incredible age found drifting intact near Romulan space, that Hsina was lost and presumed dead. USS Curiosity recovered the artifact, but before they could return it to Starfleet for study, the ship was attacked and lost with all hands.
What really happened was that a Romulan team infiltrated and boarded Curiosity, and made a play to capture the ship and the precious Preserver artifact. By the time the fighting was over, only five of Curiosity's crew and Dr. Hsina Amman, who was on board as a civilian mission specialist remained alive, and the Curiosity herself was dead in space, venting atmosphere. The Romulan survivors escaped with the Preserver artifact.
THAT WAS 89-YEARS-AGO. The six survivors went into stasis, certain that someone would find the drifting, derelict starship. They did, 87-years-later, but only one of the six stasis chambers remained active, that of Dr. Hsina Amman. Hsina woke up at Deep Space 9, then following her recovery spent two years at Star Fleet Academy and finally posting as an ensign on the USS Belfast.
Hsina's older brother died twelve-years-ago while she was in stasis on the Curiosity. Her older sister lived until the age of 115, and also died while Hsina was in statuses. Hsina's only surviving relatives are an 80-year-old grand-nephew and his three children, none of whom were yet born when the Curiosity was lost.
Hsina has never been married, but has had two committed romantic relationships. The first with Dr. Alexander Martin, another professor at Oxford. Hsina and Alex parted romantically after being together for 12 years, and remained close friends. When Hsina dissappeared, Dr. Martin eventually married one of his female students (Hsina was also once one of his students), had a family and died 65-years-ago at the age of 108. Hsina's other long-term relationship was with one of her under-graduate and later graduate students, who died in her arms on USS Curiosity.
Family History[]
2267.02.25 Born in Mosul, Iraq
2273.09.30 Father killed in action
2280.03.04 Accidental death of mother
Education[]
2283.06.10 Graduated Nineveh College Preparatory High School two-years early
2386.06.21 Graduated Baghdad University, BS Major Physical Anthropology, Minor Geology
2388.12.13 Graduated University of Southern California, MA Archaeology/History dual major
2290.12.11 Graduated Oxford University, Ph.D Archaeology – Dissertation on the Preserver Language, which Hsina decoded for the first time
2289.03.24-2306.01.23 Staff Archaeologist for The British Museum (part-time/Seasonal)
2292.02.04 – 2306.01.23 Oxford University Professor of Archaeology
2305.11.15 - 2391.01.16 Classified Federation Dig, Deep Space, Preserver Artififact, Derelict USS Curiosity, in stasis
2391.0220-2393.04.15 Starfleet Academy
2393.05.19-Present Ensign, USS Belfast