Alysha Forrest

Alysha

Alysha Forrest is a military officer in the Alliance Fleet. Best known for her captaincy of the UAV Stardancer.

Appearance and Personality

One of the Karaka'A, Alysha is about 6 feet in height (a height referenced as "a foot too tall for normal") and notably muscular, pleasant alto voice, with rain-gray fur and black straight hair to her shoulder-blades, and full lips and ice-pale blue eyes. Her fur is relatively short, and fine enough--with grey skin beneath it light enough--that her blushes are visible when in good light. As a Selnor native, she is habituated to a higher gravity than standard in the Alliance, and has the dense bone/muscle structure of that heavier gravity well.

Post-graduation from the Fleet Academe she wears a pair of ice-gold hoop earrings. She has prosthetic claws made of breathnache, a clathrate usually found in starship hulls; that can score rock despite the fact that they bleed when she pops them out and are capable of doing serious unintentional injury, she keeps them as "a symbol that difficult paths were still worth walking."

Wears her long hair in braids wound around her head when wearing a helmet.

Scar on her lower back (fur is growing in a different direction.) And another on her shoulder blade.

Should she survive to old age, "You might end up with a more aggravated case of osteoarthritus" -- Nathan Lifeweave

Family

Birthdate is probably 434 BA. (Events of Sword and Strand, taking place in the same year, are listed on the chronology at 465). This would put her graduation at 455 BA.

Alysha was born on Selnor to Selina and Talen Forrest. After her father's death, her mother--previously a singer and musician--ceased her previous work, instead taking poorly-paying jobs at seedy bars and neglecting her daughter. While at finishing school, Alysha dedicated herself to translating the Exodus Lullabies that her father had sung to her from Meridan to Universal, an assignment given her by a sympathetic librarian. They moved from neighborhood to poorer neighborhood several times and ultimately began to regularly run out of food, while Alysha's mother brought home anonymous liaisons.

Pre-Service History

Alysha left to apply to the Fleet Academe at Terracentrus and paid her way through the first year of school via an illegal career at the Phantasies nightclub, where she danced under the name "Steel." She arranged for the escape of two other women at the club: the pre-teen Rispa and Liset Line Insendere, who danced under the name Angel. She also enraged the club owner, Tiell, both by disrupting his operation and by attacking customers in self-defense and defense of her fellow dancers; in retaliation he had her declawed, and she had her claws replaced with breathnache.

It was while working at the club, and arranging for care for her peers, that she first met Nathan and Laelkii Lifeweave, who provided her and others with critical medical care. After Nathan's untimely death, Alysha encouraged Laelkii to sign on as a Fleet cadet.

Alysha's Academe career was one of significant ups and downs: flashes of brilliance, as observed by Mark West, combined with periods of significant problem due to her exhaustion and emotional strain. Ultimately Matthew Brighthaven discovered her work at Phantasies, and purchased her time every night to permit her to sleep unmolested. The strain of lack of sleep caught up with Brighthaven, however, and at Forrest's encouragement, he entrusted her to Harroway Sloan, his second. However, Sloan was a member of the Anti-Human League, and abused Forrest while setting up a frame to bring down Brighthaven. Laelkii and her friend Alastar Virgil uncovered his plot and enabled Brighthaven to rescue Alysha and bring Sloan to justice.

No longer strained by her emotionally and physically taxing work at Phantasies, Alysha excelled in her studies, added electives in military history, strategy, history, and language, as well as pilot experience in the Academe orbital station. She graduated and was assigned to the UAV Diamondwing, in tactical.

Service History

The original author notes suggest the following service history:

• Ensign, ages 21-23, UAV Diamondwing
• Lieutenant, ages 23-26, UAV Sunchaser
• Commander, ages 26-29, UAV Blackice
• First Commander, ages 29-31, UAV Scattersky
• Captain, age 31-?, UAV Stardancer

But more likely is:

• Ensign, ages 21-22, UAV Diamondwing
• Lieutenant, ages 22-24, UAV Songlance
• Lieutenant Commander, 25-27 UAV Sunchaser
• Commander, ages 28-29, UAV Blackice
• First Commander, ages 29-31, UAV Scattersky
• Captain, age 31-?, UAV Stardancer

Ensign

Alysha Forrest was immediately assigned to the battlecruiser UAV Diamondwing, in part due to recommendations from Fleet Academe staff. When she was three months into her tenure there, she was selected by her superior officer Vera to serve as part of the honor guard for an observance of the anniversary of the induction of the Phoenix to the Alliance. While so doing, she met Terrell Shirrelberry in logistics. While undertaking this duty, she assisted Vera with an unforeseen problem, and was provided with another perspective on the question of Terran Military humans in Fleet.

Alysha later attended the ensign training retreat on Quickwater Reserve; at that point, she had been an ensign for almost a year. There, she met Taylitha Basil, who became a lifelong ally and friend, and first encountered Mike Beringwaite. During a disastrous canoe trip at the end of the retreat, she was thrown from a broken canoe into rocks and broke three ribs, but was rescued by the courage and quick thinking of Taylitha..

Lieutenant

Alysha with Sar and Platies

After three years on the UAV Diamondwing, Alysha was promoted to lieutenant and transferred to another Battlecruiser, the UAV Songlance, where she was assigned to the role of liaison to the alien crew..

Alysha assumed this role and spent a great deal of time with the Naysha, especially Sar, and shepherding the Flitzbe. She ultimately spent more time in the water environment than her predecessor Shandreis..

She was an active participant in the lieutenants' skullbash, getting to know crew such as Jae'en, Valery, and Serra FindaWrench.. She also developed close relationships with the Platies and Naysha, especially Sar.

Beringwaite assigned his human "bad eggs"/"Old and Proud" to the engineering problem in the water environment, to the dismay and disgust of Wyn. When Beringwaite and Alysha finally spoke frankly about it, Beringwaite revealed why he was protecting them: Fayid needed the job to support his kid sister and grandmother, but suffered panic attacks in space; Solomon had used the military to escape poverty and prison, but would backslide if thrown out; and though Friedman was a genuine incompetent, he was enmeshed with the others. Alysha tried again to convince him to attend the skullbash, without success.

Their conversation was interrupted by a sudden ambush attack on the ship. Recognizing that one of the pirates' goals would be to cripple the ship in order to prevent it from fleeing, they moved to the aquatic navigation section to bait the pirates into the machine room. Forrest then flooded the machine room, opened the airlock between the machine room and the currentlock area and set a timer for the currentlock to open before strapping herself in. The enormous pressure of the currentlock sucked the pirates through, crushing them and shredding them through the filtration system, which Beringwaite and Forrest were protected from by the safety harnesses. One pirate managed to slash at Forrest with a knife, missing her but cutting her safety harness; Beringwaite grabbed her and held her until the currentlock closed, saving her life. After that experience, they were able to have an honest conversation that brought them to an accord.

Beringwaite eventually was willing to join the skullbash, despite it being painfully awkward. He also answered a summons from Hood along with Forrest. Sar expressed Hood's thanks for their work, and the Naysha and Platies gave him his 'aquatic name:' Strong Friend, for his strength and determination in holding fast to Forrest and keeping her from dying.

Her interactions with Mike Beringwaite on this assignment caused her to seriously consider why many humans were bitter about the Pelted.

First Commander

When Alysha was serving on the UAV Scattersky, the ship received a distress signal from the UAV Alabama, a freighter, that had suffered a navigational failure and gotten caught in the gravity well of a gas giant. As the ship was too large to tow, it had to be evacuated, and she led the evacuation. When doing so, she learned from the ship's headmaster, Dan Hawkins, that there was another previously-unknown set of people on the ship: refugees from the Chatcaava, hidden in cryogenic suspension in the ship's cargo areas. Against the orders of Captain Maurbery, Alysha refused to stop searching for them, and with the assistance of the special senses of the ship's Platy crew, successfully rescued twelve hundred refugees.

UAV Stardancer Career (Captain)

Gledig

Alysha and Svetlana on Gledig

Alysha became captain of the UAV Stardancer, bringing her friend and Chief Medical Officer Laelkii Takara Lifeweave with her; Alastar Virgil had already been on the ship for six months, and Taylitha Basil had been aboard long enough to have served under both Captain Metricia Heartfoot and Captain Leary. The Stardancer's crew had was mainly the felid races: Karaka'A, Asanii, and Harat-Shar; though there were some of the other Pelted races (and a handful of humans), there was no water environment, and Alysha found the relative lack of diversity bemusing, and specifically missed the Naysha and Platies. She is also initially concerned that her natural reserve will hinder her in bonding with the crew.

Six months into her assignment to the 'Stardancer,' Alysha was sent to Gledig by Admiral Maegan Laphylinrii, with two directives: to investigate a possible civil war and coverup, and to locate Svetlana Karishenikov, a missing lieutenant commander who called Gledig home. After a thorough debriefing by Taylitha, they made the trip to Gledig. She was met with surprise when she requested to meet Governor Kerenkev, which aroused her suspicions, and Kerenkev's polished but less-than-genuine response and assurance that the UAV Voidsong checking up on them regularly further deepend them. She agreed to dinner with Kerenkev, and then arranged with Taylitha, Alastar, and Laelkii to do a preliminary, un-escorted information-gathering mission beforehand (despite the mess it would make of her formal boots). During this reconnaissance they discovered that the city of Daleth, the capitol, and discovered many discrepancies between its actuality and the messages they had been receiving: Gledig was built out of what were, to them, primitive materials (stone, brick, and mortar), and not apparently for aesthetic purpose; the buildings were abandoned; and the pavement simply stopped without any wall, fence, or gardening. She sent Laelkii, Alastar, and Taylitha to scout out the city.

During her reconnaissance, she located two small children: Ivan and Rhys. Rhys had stepped on a nail, but they both refused care for it, because they reported that Kerenkev had forbidden the populace to bring 'outsiders' (meaning offworlders) to the clinics. As a compromise, Alysha brought them home, and discovered that their mother was more or less terrified, and that Ivan had nurtured a desire to join Fleet and go to the stars. She left encouraging Ivan, and respecting his promise not to seek out the clinic herself--but not without suggesting that Alastar develop a "small stomachache."

Alysha then attended the governor's dinner, in a surprisingly well-appointed and well-staffed mansion than the poor colony's resources would suggest. She briefly thought she had recognized a guard, but chose to move on rather than investigate. She observed that while Kerenkev spoke freely, the representatives didn't--except for Brad Courtland, who kept making sallies that Kerenkev quashed. Abruptly, in the middle of dinner, the building was bombed, and the surprisingly familiar guard was the one to take the Fleet representatives to safety, at which point Alysha recognized her as Svetlana Karishenikov. Alysha and company were sheltered at Svetlana's family steading in the outwild, where they met Breana Karishenikov and Roman Karishenikov, Svetlana's parents. Alysha and Svetlana had a private heart-to-heart.

When the party splits, Alysha was one of those to return to the Stardancer, along with Alastar, to hunt down the Voidsong and find out what was going on. Back on the ship, she has Alastar do more in-depth research into the issues with Gledig, the pirate ships, and the Voidsong. They discover that prior scouts logged numerous encounters with pirates, and the Voidsong logged none; in addition, the Voidsong's report on pirate activity to Fleet Command was encrypted (with an encryption that Alastar could break) and also that there had been a lengthy court-martial regarding the Voidsong, also encrypted (which Alastar could not break). Alysha decided to hail them and invite them for dinner on the Stardancer--a Terran custom but not a Fleet one.

The Voidsong did not reply quickly, and did not rendezvous in a timely fashion. Its captain, Baerut Flait, rejected the invitation, and characterized Gledig's plight as "a thin cover story" for civil war. Upon returning to Gledig, the Scythe (Ship) attacked using hedgehog missiles, physical rather than energy weapons. Alysha discovered this too late, and a shot that hit the weapons bay destroyed the entire ship. Three were lost in the battle, to Alysha's dismay.

In the aftermath, Alysha chose to return to Gledig to end things. She met up with Dylan Brushnie (as he had planned), who ordered their hostages, Kerenkev and Courtland, brought out. Alysha's brief questioning revealed the truth: Kerenkev had bribed the local Fleet authority (Baerut Flait) had been taking bribes to ignore Gledig and everything that happened to or on it, and at the same time, Courtland had been bribing pirates (Kamaney Foster and Pwyll Mansey) to attack frequently in the hopes of calling in a Fleet force and making him a hero.

Having rid the colony of both its corrupt government and its pirate problem, Alysha asked what was next for Gledig. Dylan responded with a challenge to a duel, with the loser being the one who conceded first. Despite her dislike of swordplay, and taking the first injury, Alysha held her own. Alysha ended the fight by catching the Dylan's blade in her bare hands before it could do a grievous (and match-ending) injury. When Dylan told her that simply twisting the blade would sever her fingers, she replied "Then they do. And today, I'll be the one who pays the price for everyone else. That's why I signed up, alet." Despite having the upper hand, the gesture or the words convinced Dylan to back down, and he ceded the match and vanished.

Alysha was tended by Svetlana and Laelkii (her wounds included a hole in her thigh, an injury to her arm, and the aforementioned damage to her hand), and during her care learned that Gledig had near-unanimously voted to remain within the Alliance, and that Maire had been chosen as governor to replace Kerenkev. On her return to the Stardancer, Alysha reported again to Admiral Laphlynri, who listened to Alysha's requests for lenience in the case of Svetlana, and explained her own interference with the Gledig civil war. She also was present at, but did not participate in, the Gledig memorial bonfire.

She later visited the Karishenikovs' home in search of Svetlana, and Breana welcomed her, and asked her to come by again--Alysha felt that her affirmative reply was 'a promise.' She then spoke to Svetlana, telling her that she was welcome back in the service (minus a rank), and acknowledging that she had done it--and saying that while Svetlana didn't owe her anything, she should remember it "when I send for you."

Alysha was then responsible for overseeing the funerals of the members of her crew who died during the pirate bombing, and while the volunteer chaplains could provide funeral services for the Asanii and KaraAlysha Forrestka'An, there was no one to speak for the Harat-Shar angel pantheon, and so it fell to her.

Amity

In between her assignment to Gledig Colony and the mapping expedition to Gledig, Alysha began to learn swordplay from Taylitha Basil, on the principle that fencing is still semi-common in the Alliance (Fleet Academe still teaches it, and sword-fighting is still widespread, especially in areas that permit swords but forbid projectile and energy weapons).

The sixth of the Stardancer's mapping assignments was the star Theth-129, which had a habitable planet that would come to be called Amity. Alastar Virgil informed Alysha of an "anomaly" on the surface--the presence of what appeared to be alien ruins. When Alastar (who had been overseeing the investigation of the ruins) was reported missing, she sent Taylitha to investigate;; when Alastar was found mysteriously unconscious, she visited her in the Medplex and then traveled to the planet in an attempt to figure out what was going on. She also had another sword-fighting lesson with Taylitha, this time with real holoblades set to the bluntest setting, during which she brought Taylitha's anger and frustration at the situation to the fore so it could be discussed.

She returned to the planet to visit a new dig site centering on a set of ruined buildings. Upon returning to the Stardancer, she viewed a message from Fleet Command: a summons to one of the Fleet's captains' retreats. Frustrated, Alysha returned to the planet and entered the ocean, having learned from Laelkii that the waters showed indications of something similar to a neurotransmitter. While doing so, she made her first contact with one of the native octopus-like sapient aliens. The alien shepherded her toward the painted cave where Alastar had been found unconscious, which closed on her as it had for Alastar.

Alysha first attempted to escape the cave, and when that proved impossible, explored it instead, noting the paintings of fish, octopus-like creatures, small six-limbed figures, and an enormous leviathan, along with writing. Speculating that some quality of the water had given Alastar hallucinations ("or something else?"), she removed her slimsuit and bodysuit and lay in the pool, where she began to perceive the paintings on the ceiling as moving. The cave then reopened and she entered the water, still nude save for her utility belt and oxygen-exchange clip. There she was located again by one of the Octopi, who began to communicate her using concepts, images, and scents, requesting information about her, her ship, her people, and where she had come from. As they communicated, she came to perceive the alien's "speech" more and more clearly.

Alysha and her Octopi guide

Alysha and her alien "guide" communicated extensively about their varying perspectives on life and the world: Alysha's love of vastness and the dark and her drive to protect; the aliens' sense of their place in the natural order and the tapestry of life even when that meant submitting to death, including sacrificing themselves to the deadly leviathans; and their acceptance that the pleasure of bearing young was worth death. He also spoke of the Small Ones' resistance of that acceptance of their approach to life, and the way it led to the separation of the two species, the death of the Small Ones, and the decline of the Octopi. He indicated that the Octopi were concerned that contact with the alien visitors would lead to similar disaster.

The guide instructed Alysha to turn off her telegem (and concerned her somewhat by indicating that, should things not go well, he would need to remove her memory of encountering them). He then brought Alysha to speak to the Eldest, the last living egg-layer and a truly enormous creature whose voice was far more complex and layered than those she had heard before. There they continued to speak of the Eldest's concerns that the new "small ones" would lead them to the same terrible end as the old, and Alysha's assurance that the past did not have to repeat itself. She then dismissed Alysha, and her guide brought her to an island to wait for an answer, and to meet with her "companions." Though aware that it would be too dangerous to remain in the water while many Octopi were conversing, she listened by placing an arm in the water and feeling the tenor of the debate. Shortly thereafter, two more Octopi arrived with her promised companions: Julien Steffis, Darya Darteriov, Felsha Rennagan, and Janny Perralta, who filled her in on what had happened on shore, including the one living Small One that they'd found.

Timeline

• Alysha was born in 434 BA. This makes her 47 years old at the time of the First Chatcaavan War (in 481 BA). She will have been captain of the Stardancer for 16 years (assuming she took command in 465 BA).

Trivia

Body Language

• Expresses feelings subtly: a faint lift of brow, the quirk of unusually full lips, the tilt of one sharp ear.
• When relaxing or relieving stress, she likes to take off her boots and dig her toes into the carpet.

Habits

Alysha reads several different publications; they are tagged in green in her inbox.

• The Eagle's Flight, an unofficial Fleet news-zine; though it is one of many, she considers it the best. Has been known to especially keep an eye out for mentions of Matthew Brighthaven.
• The Journal of War History, which was recommended to her by an instructor at Fleet Academe
• Anthropology journals, including New Anthropology Journal.
• Military journals; she noticed that in a particular batch of journals "with only three exceptions, [the authors] were all human"
• Perspectives on History

She is avid about maintaining her exercise regimen (somewhat to Laelkii's dismay, as she believes that Alysha doesn't eat enough to support as much physical exertion as she does). These include using the treadmill, swimming, and eventually learning swordplay from Taylitha.

Other Habits

• Curses or swears seldom if at all.
• Uses a pine-needle-scented soap cream.
• Has her messages color-coded: green for journals sent to broad lists, blue includes her financial statements (among possibly other things), and red for things from Fleet Central.
• Wears a soft cotton tank top and shorts to bed.
• Enjoys watching the stars out her window to help fall asleep.

Relationships

In between the events of Alysha's Fall and Sword of the Alliance, when they were spread across different ship assignments, Alysha stayed in contact with Laelkii Takara Lifeweave, Taylitha Basil, and Alastar Virgil. Alysha was amused to observe that she was tailoring her communication with all of them: not giving Laelkii an excuse to worry about her health, not giving Taylitha bait to talk about Mike Beringwaite, and telling Alastar things bluntly (but without expecting a quick response due to Alastar's long-range assignment). Her casual familiarity with Laelkii is startling even to other, younger Fleet members, implying that it goes beyond Fleet's garden variety informality.

Her usual nickname for Laelkii (which is used by others as well, including Taylitha) is "Snowhide." She also sometimes refers to Laelkii using an old nickname: "Mom."

Skills and Abilities

Alysha has a very high Stanley-Kerrileu Xenophilia Average (SKXA) score, which measures comfort with other races and species. She also has a small esper Sensitivity according to the Bayer scale of Sensitivity, which rarely wakes and when it does, she uses it only to confirm what training and long years closely observing the behavior of those around her told her. The Bayer scale has been deprecated by Fleet.

Other Skills and Abilities

• Knows enough Meredan to do translations

Other

• Doesn't wear dresses (at least not as a cadet).
• Dislikes swordfighting, because she sees it as ornamental violence when she has engaged in deadly violence. Some old Marine instructors taught her a less formalized version that made it more palatable.
• Has investments with a financial services company of some kind called Perihelion; messages from the are tagged in blue.
• According to Taylitha, the footage of Alysha's fight with Dylan Brushnie has been broadcast "to every known corner of the universe" (though of course Taylitha might be exaggerating.
• Still sometimes feels a phantom weight on the nape of her neck, a memory of Phantasies, she "was never sure if it was the memory of a lock, or the fingers that had once removed it."
• Sometimes gives out lifeguard duty at the gym as a punishment (or at least Alastar thinks she might get for breaking safety protocols).
• didn't know the Harat-Shar had a homeguard until her first captain's retreat, when Baner mentioned it

Quotes

• "I’m one of those self-appointed defenders, alet. But I realized that weakness and strength aren’t fixed. Sometimes the strong falter. Sometimes the weak step into the light. And you have to let them. That’s another kind of strength, and more sublime."

• "Fleet is a family, Lieutenant Commander. When you join it you inherit thousands of brothers and sisters. They may berate you if you’re on the wrong path, but when you need to stand against something they’re there."

• "In all seriousness, a sword—any weapon—is a barrier. If you’re going to be responsible for someone’s pain, you should feel it yourself."

Quotes and Observations by Others

• She sighed, chuckled. “All right. I know you have a habit of rehabilitating people—” Alysha suppressed her start of surprise. “—and you’ve proven you have good instincts."

— Admiral Maegan Laphylinrii

• "She’s strong, and she cares, and she has scruples to shame us all. The strength makes you admire her, and the caring makes you want to live up to her scruples, instead of feeling embarrassed or resentful about it.” A broader grin. “Good qualities in a commanding officer. I hope we keep her for a long time.”

— Taylitha Basil

Related Fiction

Alysha's Fall (Fiction)

In Good Company (Fiction)

In the Line of Duty (Fiction)

Leadership Lessons (Fiction)

Season's Meaning (Fiction)

Second (Fiction)

Sword of the Alliance (Fiction)