Lieutenant JG Heather Kowal

Name Heather Kowal

Position Chief Operations Officer

Rank Lieutenant JG


Stats

  • 2 Mission Posts

Last Post

Tue Apr 13th, 2021 @ 9:53pm

Character Information

Gender Female
Species Human
Birthplace USS Venture
Age 26

Physical Appearance

Height 5’9”
Weight 140lbs
Hair Color Currently Blonde, Naturally Auburn
Eye Color Green

Family

Father Deceased
Mother Deceased
Other Family Patricia Adams, Maternal Grandmother
Oanez Lozac'h, Best Friendz
Jethro Holleboom, Boyfriend

Personality & Traits

General Overview Heather is opinionated, tough, and maybe a little too blunt at times. She works hard to get along with her fellow officers and to be a good leader to those subordinate to her. Her ambition is sourced from wanting to honor her parents who were taken in a shuttle accident. Her life and friends found in Starfleet have quickly became the replacement to the family that she didn’t get to have growing up.
Strengths & Weaknesses Heather’s strength is in her ambition and drive to do her best for her leaders and her subordinates. She is a bit more blunt than she realizes from time to time. The loss of her family as a child is both a strength and weakness as she is a bit too driven to honor her parents though also makes her value her friends and the relationships she makes in Starfleet.
Ambitions Heather’s main goal is to become the Commanding Officer of a Starfleet Vessel.
Hobbies & Interests Heather likes to sketch but she is shy about it and doesn’t like to share. She is also big on reading and loves to hit the holodeck beaches as often as possible.

Personal History Heather was born aboard the USS Venture her parents both serving as officers aboard the ship. She spent most of the first two years of her life aboard the ship. When her parents had both completed their tours her mother had elected to resign her commission and her father was moving on in his career with her mother in tow. Between assignments, they elected to return to Earth so they could introduce Heather to her mother’s parents. During the stay on Earth, her parents left Heather with her Grandmother and went away for a few days on a small vacation alone. The plan was for them to return the night before her second birthday but sadly they were involved in a transport accident and were both killed.
From the time of her parent’s death on her Grandmother became Heather’s guardian. Heather grew up hearing tales of her parents from her mother’s childhood, to their meeting, and their time together up until Heather’s birth and finally when they passed on. Heather was always fascinated with the stories, movies, and even her mother’s diary she knew from a young age that she would join Starfleet like her parents.

Heather’s first time aboard a Starship, after the accident, came at the age of ten when the USS Venture was in orbit of Earth. Her grandmother managed to reach out to the command and got them a tour aboard the ship. Heather was able to tour the ship from top to bottom, sit in the command chair at the bridge, simulate being in command in the holodeck, saw the sickbay she was born in, and the quarters she lived in as an infant. From that moment on there were never any questions about what her life plans were.

When she finally reported to the Starfleet Academy her dreams became a reality. Despite the grueling first months of the Academy preparing them for service to the Federation in a much more Bootcamp like setting they finally moved from plebe to becoming a full-fledged Cadet Fourth Class. Upon completion of the plebe summer, they also received their first bunk assignments and met their roommates for the rest of the year.

The cadets in Starfleet Academy were assigned dual occupancy rooms and when Heather arrived she saw on the door her name and underneath ‘Oanez V. Lozac’h’. She wondered however she was going to learn how to pronounce that. She entered the room finding the girl inside she was adorable and she must have been some sort of child prodigy she didn’t even look old enough to be in the academy.

“My god you’re so cute,” were the first words Heather spoke to her roommate. As it turns out Oanez was only a year younger than her but even that was impressive. Heather endeavored for the first three days to properly pronounce Oanez’s name but after failing repeatedly she gave up and settled on the nickname ‘Oval’ a play on her initials OVL. In response, Oval decided that she would call Heather “Herky” a play-off her own initials, or so Oval said, HRK. The two girls became inseparable during their time in the academy and ended up being roommates for their entire four years.
Heather’s studies at the academy followed in the footsteps of her parents. Her primary degree was in Intergalactic Relations her mother serving as a Diplomatic Officer and having wanted to be an ambassador. Her father was an Engineer which was something she honestly had no interest in but he was also a huge history buff which she loved so she minored in Earth History, her father’s favorite. Heather loved her classes and discovered that her personal desire was to go up the command track and to have her own command. It was found out from a professor her Second Class year who had served with her parents that her father was preparing to move into the command tract as well as a starship’s XO prior to his accident.

Upon graduation, the unstoppable team of Herky and Oval were broken up. Oval was going to Outpost 39 as a Science Officer experimenting on species and data collected from the Horuuilis expanse an area of space being explored by Task Force 39 which was headquartered at the Outpost. Heather, on the other hand, was going to a starship the defiant classed USS Valiant as Chief of Operations.

Heather was thrilled to be assigned to a department head role at her first unit but it proved to be a challenge. While she managed it was a challenge to move into a role where she was in charge of the entire department and not having a more senior officer to rely on. Thankfully the Chief Petty Officer of her department was a fantastic mentor and worked with her teaching the value of her enlisted personnel and especially of the chiefs.

Throughout her first eighteen months, she gained multiple positive reviews from the Executive Officer. She became qualified as Officer of the Deck, boarding team officer, boarding team member, and other duty-related qualifications. She advanced in rank to Lieutenant Junior Grade as well.

Jethro Holleboom was the next exciting item that happened to her aboard Valiant the new Chief Medical Officer. They hit it off quickly and became fast friends and then even more. Their relationship became a bit off again and on again as they were easily able to manage between missions and their duties and silly arguments. Even ridiculous ones including her making fun of his name, which is why she always refers to him as Jay.

Toward the end of her official tour of duty aboard the Valiant, she requested an extension and was given the position of Chief Operations Officer for another year. While wanting to become more rounded in her experience she had her eyes set on becoming Executive Officer knowing she was eligible to advance to Lieutenant by the time the current XO would move on to a new assignment.

Unfortunately at the end of her extension, she was reassigned to a new ship though disappointed is very open-minded about the experiences she will gain as she continues to love her life in Starfleet.