Coriola

Coriola (born 1664 EU) was an engineer who served aboard Station Zero from 1689-1693 EU. An altrasian, she departed Station Zero after a near-disastrous failure of the waste water transport system.

Early Life
Born on the Altrasian homeworld of Dolré, Coriola was a part of one of the earliest generations born after the Imperium's systematic sterilisation of altrasian children had ended. Like many of her age, she had no knowledge of the sterilisation campaign, though she learned about it in adulthood. (PROSE: Balance)

Coriola's family group was one that had maintained close contacts with the waters of their homeworld. Though most altrasians after the conquest had forgotten the old sign language system of "water speech," Coriola's group knew some, and she learnt it at an early age. Her life was fairly typical for a youngster of her generation, including being sent to an Imperium run school on Dolré when she was four. It was at the school that she endured the usual indignity of a physical examination so that she could be labeled with human-standard gendered pronouns. As she was a typically presenting altrasian, she was classed as female for much of the time. Though she sometimes disliked the idea of such classification, she came to understand the necessity of it for working within the Imperium.

At age twelve, Coriola was sent to the temple at Rista; it was hoped that she would be a part of the resurgent Altrasian religious structure, but she had little interest in such matters and fled back to her school, where after some conference between her instructors and family group it was decided that she should be allowed to continue her education, focusing on mechanical and electrical engineering.

By the time she turned seventeen, Coriola was allowed to attend a minor academy on Vabor II. She graduated at age twenty with an A-2 rating, ranked as an Engineer First Class. By age twenty-five she had achieved the rank of a Chief Engineer aboard "a backwater repair station just off the Cerican Arch" and thought she would stay there for much of her career. An unexpected change occured, however, when she was called upon to join the crew of Station Zero under the new regime of Commander Addison Sharpe. (TV: Bricks)

On Station Zero
Like all altrasian children born so soon after the horrors of the "Clean Sweep" operation and the mass sterilisations that had followed, Coriola had been trained to keep to herself as much as possible within reason; thus, she seemed a "lone wolf" after arriving at Station Zero, at least initially. Eventually, she began to be quite close to Vanessa Sharpe, taking pains to keep an eye on Vanessa's safety during an outbreak of Ilion Fever aboard the station. (TV: Prisoners)

When Sub-Officiant Keller revealed himself to be the presumed-dead Blydon Sharpe, it was Coriola who located and fixed many of the faults he had caused in the station's systems. Assisted by Jordan Richardson, she used her programming skill to save Vanessa from certain death in a gravitronic drive. (TV: Arise)  She was upset at her inability to save Jordan (TV: Oroborous) but was successful in helping Commander Addison Sharpe to lay a trap luring Blydon to the waste-shafts of the station. She was the only one to witness Commander Sharpe forcing his father out of an airlock. (TV: Battlelines)  She befriended Commander Sharpe and convinced him that he had made the best choice (PROSE: The Ardeen Conspiracy) and comforted Vanessa by inviting her to a party with the engineering crew. (AUDIO: Tier 3)  It was during a private moment just after the party that Coriola and Vanessa admitted that their friendship had grown into something more.

When the stranger Jensen Black arrived at the station, Coriola was among the first to trust him, if not fully then at least on a basic level. (TV: Castaway) She could apparently relate to his outsider status, and though the two did not become close, they were at least civil to each other. It was also around this time that Coriola's relationship with Vanessa developed a sexual component when Coriola was unable to hide away as she usually had done during her mating phase. (PROSE: Balance) Any hope for a future together seemed quashed, however, when Vanessa was among those infected with the Valdone Plague. (TV: Outbreak) Though treatment was administered, those infected were required to travel to Earth for treatment aboard the plagueship Valourous, at least guaranteeing that Coriola and Vanessa would be separated for quite a while.

Not terribly long after the Valourous departed Station Zero, a technician re-checking the medical scans of the patients aboard discovered that Vanessa had been pregnant at the time of departure. He broke confidentiality to inform Coriola, knowing of their relationship and Coriola's odd anatomy. At first Coriola assumed that she could not be responsible, as there was no record of any successful human/altrasian crossbreeding. Some deep research in the archives proved that it was indeed possible, and also led Coriola to information about the "Clean Sweep" operation and the sterilisations of her people. She began to live in the hope that the Valourous had not simply vanished, but had been destroyed and that Vanessa had died in some instant, painless way, thus sparing both of them the fate other parents of human/altrasian hybrids had suffered at the hands of the Imperium. She wiped the section of Vanessa's medical record that indicated pregnancy. (PROSE: Balance)

Coriola was present at the celebrations for a new wing of Station Zero being successfully docked, and met several past commanders and crew members, striking up a close friendship in particular with General Urlan Tomlinson when the two discovered a plan to irradiate the new wing, killing or at least permanently maiming those in that area. (TV: Many Happy Returns)

After a ship limped into dock at Station Zero, a crewman suffering from space madness ran rampant on the station, causing several major issues. These culminated in a failure of the waste water system which left Coriola briefly trapped in a rapidly flooding disused communications room. While she escaped the possibility of drowning thanks to her gills, she was nearly electrocuted, but for the quick thinking of Jensen Black. After this, she decided to resign her post and head back to Dolré. (TV: Last Best Hope)

Home Again
Back on Dolré, Coriola found that her family group had been greatly reduced thanks to an outbreak of Ilion Fever. She helped to tend to the ill as best she could, using knowledge she had acquired on Station Zero. She moved into the lodge of her remaining parent, Gasht, and set about building a life for herself.

Coriola found her place among a growing group of young adult altrasians who had learned of the conquest times and related horrors and were pressing for youngsters to be educated on such matters. This included a program of teaching young altrasians not to be frightened or ashamed of the differences their anatomy presented when compared to that of humans.

Among other accomplishments at this time, Coriola was instrumental in setting up a native school for children to be educated in before they reached the age for Imperium schools. Water speech was a major part of the curriculum, as well as the original language of the altrasian people, which was rapidly being phased out in favour of Imperium Standard languages in many family groups.

Imperium authorities had some reservations about the school, but evidence that the youngsters educated there were actually learning more easily once they moved on to the Imperium schools helped to stem the tide of criticism. Coriola also had a strong supporter in Addison Sharpe, who had gone on to work as an instructor at an Imperium tactical college after resigning his post on Station Zero. Soon enough, some aspects of Altrasian Water Speech were being implemented in battle situations by Imperium forces.

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