Qinthe, Issai

NPC	STAR FLEET PERSONNEL COMMAND FILE  SECURITY RATING 3, CONFIDENTIAL

RETIRED
Issai Qinthe
Career Occupation
Position:	Exobiologist, University Lecturer
Assignment:	USS Challenger, CX-1986
Rank:	Civilian
Biographical Attributes
Played By:	Fraser Dunbar
Species:	Betazoid
Gender:	Male
Height:	185 cm (6 ft. 1 in.)	Weight:	79.4 kg (175 lb.)
Eye Color:	Black, lightening to a dark and cloudy grey in some lights
Hair Color:	Glossy black, with one or two greys hidden at the temples
Hairstyle:	Short at the back, longer on top though not so long that it falls into his eyes, with a rough and choppy side parting
Physique:	Naturally skinny but kept in reasonably good shape through regular exercise
Complexion:	Pale-skinned, entirely lacks a tan
Facial Hair:	Clean-shaven, though it isn't uncommon to see him with a sheen of stubble after a long day in the lab
Voice:	Low and deep, his words usually softly spoken
Affiliation:	United Federation of Planets
Birthplace:	Sevina, Betazed
Born:	17602.20	Age:	47
Familial Relationships
Father:	Crmahn Qinthe (deceased, aged 42 at time of death)
Mother:	Rezmaia Qinthe (60)
Status of Parents:	Issai's mother is incarcerated in a Federation penal colony near Betazed, where she is serving a sentence for her crimes against Issai. She is considered to be dangerously unstable and has failed to respond to rehabilitative therapies. Issai's father died in an accident during his youth.
Siblings:	None
Marital Status:	Single
Children:	None

Personal History

The childhood of Issai Qinthe was a pretty ordinary affair. An only child, he was the product of an eccentric academic mother and an unassuming farmer father. They were regarded as an odd couple and it was even felt that Rezmaia had married beneath her class. However, it was also felt that the steady and dependable Crmahn calmed Rezmaia, curtailing some of her wilder and more impulsive tendencies. She had always been regarded as a woman on the edge and she needed the stability that Crmahn's nature and comparatively simple life offered. More importantly, they were happy together and their union, which seemed so surprising on the surface, clearly worked, so there was little for their detractors to attack them with. Their family was complete when Issai was born and the three settled into a comfortable, peaceful existence.

Bright and inquisitive, Issai was also something of a prankster as a child, often to be found giggling over his latest jape. At school, he gained a reputation as the class clown, becoming a source of frustration to his teachers for regularly disrupting their lessons. His own grades, however, remained strong. His intelligent and curious nature helped but it was his mother's strictness at home which ensured high standards in his schoolwork. She was determined that he would have an impact on society as an adult, regularly insisting to anyone who would listen that her son was destined for true greatness and would change the world. For most of his childhood, it seemed that she believed he would do that through academic accomplishments, though it would eventually become clear that she harboured more extreme ambitions for him. Still, for many years, Issai felt he simply needed to make sure his work was solid to win her approval, so he studied hard but also played hard, maintaining a wide circle of friends and becoming one of the more popular students at his school, especially once he hit his teens and began growing into his looks.

Life was to take a radically different turn for Issai when he was 14 years old. The catalyst for this was the sudden death of his father. Crmahn had been travelling overnight through a storm to deliver some of the farm's produce to one of his customers when he lost control of his vehicle and crashed. His injuries left him comatose and, after five long weeks, he passed away. Issai was devastated and, naturally enough for a bereaved teenager, became lost in his own grief. For a time, he withdrew into himself, aware of nothing but his own pain. This would prove to be a mistake because he missed all the warning signs that his mother's grief wasn't manifesting in the normal way that his was. Rezmaia had always been a woman of extremes and Crmahn's death had pushed her over the edge into instability. She quickly came to the conclusion that time was too precious to waste and her life's work, the project she'd always been subconsciously building towards, had to come to fruition as quickly as possible, by any means necessary. That project was Issai.

Rezmaia was a neurologist specialising in the workings of the Betazoid brain in relation to their telepathic abilities. Having used the peace of the farm to devote herself to her studies for years, she felt ready to move on to the next stage of her life's work. She wanted to manipulate the brain to unlock the totality of Betazoid telepathic potential, and she believed Issai was the person who would be her trailblazer. She intended to make him the most powerful telepath Betazed had ever seen, taking an evolutionary leap to usher in a new age for their species. One night, a few weeks after Crmahn's death, she sat Issai down and explained this to him. He was confused and frightened, not understanding what she wanted from him, and refused to go along with it. Rezmaia had anticipated this, however, and injected him with a sedative. When Issai awoke, he found himself strapped to a table in the basement of his mother's laboratory on the farm, alone and in the dark. He screamed but nobody came.

Always less than sociable, Rezmaia broke off contact with everyone the Qinthe family knew, informing Issai's school that she was taking him off planet to be with relatives while he recovered from the death of his father. While their disappearance was a sudden one, it wasn't really questioned. They had just suffered a great tragedy and Rezmaia had always been eccentric, so leaving the planet didn't seem like a particularly strange thing for them to do. In truth, they never left Betazed. Instead, Rezmaia imprisoned Issai in the basement for months. During the initial days, she spent her time transforming the basement around him, installing the scanning and operating equipment she felt she would need. She ignored him as he sobbed and begged her to release him, acknowledging him only when she brought him food. His emotional needs were no longer of interest to her, only his mind's potential was of concern to her now. He would, she was certain, thank her in the end.

She set to work on attempting to unlock his telepathic potential quickly, initiating a series of rigorous and exhausting tests on Issai's brain. After the first few days, he stopped trying to resist, too terrified and defeated to fight back against his own mother. Besides, he was constantly restrained physically so there was nothing he could do to free himself anyway. The farm was too remote for him to reach anyone telepathically and nobody would come looking for him. Escape seemed impossible so all he could do was resign himself to his situation, surrender to Rezmaia and cooperate fully, deciding that this would all be over once she'd finished her crazed experiments.

In between tests, Issai remained strapped to a chair and had no access to any form of recreational activities, or anything which could occupy his mind, so he was grateful when his mother installed a computer database in the basement. The database contained a library of school textbooks and academic works on numerous subjects, Rezmaia's thinking being that if he enhanced his intellect then his brain would be more powerful and able to accept increased telepathic power. Emotionally, Issai desperately needed the distraction the books provided, and he dove into them, devouring the books hungrily. They became his solace, his safe haven, the place his thoughts could go to get away from the hurt. Though he began by reading up on many varied topics, he soon started to focus on the area which captured his interest the most - exobiology. With nothing else to do, he read more and more on the subject, fascinated by the anatomical permutations and differences between other species. It was a subject he swiftly fell in love with and he soon became better read in exobiology than any other 14 year old in the sector. Exobiology was the thing his brain latched onto, the one thing that kept him going.

As months passed by with agonising slowness, Rezmaia's tests and operations became increasingly invasive and debilitating. The physical pain seemed endless but it felt to him that his very thoughts were aching too. Issai had no real clue if his mother was making progress, he just knew that it was killing him and it had to stop. His defense mechanisms were degrading and he was aware that he was approaching the limits of his capacity to cope. After eight months, his mother seemed to suddenly become more frenzied in her work, muttering to herself excitedly and getting very little sleep. Unknown to Issai, she had made a breakthrough and had enhanced his psychic power, just as she'd always believed she could. She was unwilling to stop there, however. She intended to bleed as much telepathic power from him as possible before presenting him to the world as the next phase of the Betazoid species. But Issai could take no more. One night, after a particularly excruciating session, a despairing and almost delirious Issai snapped. Without warning, he harnessed the telepathic strength Rezmaia had unleashed in him and used it to broadcast a cry for help to anyone who would hear it. He poured every last drop of energy he had left into the task before slipping into unconsciousness.

And it worked. Spectacularly. Miles away, at the nearest town, several hundred people received his distress call simultaneously, a psychic scream in their minds. Rezmaia received it too, though being in such close proximity to a telepathic broadcast as ferocious as this one overwhelmed her own mind, incapacitating her long enough that she was unable to resist or escape when the local authorities arrived to seek out the source of the psychic disturbance. An oblivious Issai was rescued and rushed to hospital, while Rezmaia was taken into custody. She would later be found guilty of several crimes against her son and sentenced to a lengthy rehabilitative sentence. Since that time, her sanity has only degraded further, despite the best efforts of her psychiatrists, making her release impossible. Though Issai retains full visitation rights, he has never used them.

Following his rescue, Issai awoke to find that he was finally safe, but that wasn't the only thing that had changed. He no longer had access to his telepathic abilities at all. At first, it was assumed that the extraordinary feat he'd achieved at the farm had temporarily burned out his psychic reserves but further investigation eventually made the situation clear. During his bout of unconsciousness, Issai had rejected his telepathic nature, erecting a wall of formidable psychic blocks around his mind which prevented him from accessing any of his psychic abilities at all. When informed of this, he was perfectly fine with it and refused to consent to any treatment to remove the blocks. Equally, he refused counseling, though he clearly needed it, unable to allow his mind to be manipulated again even if it was for the right reasons. His treatment at the hands of his own mother had reaped significant psychological damage, leaving him quiet, withdrawn, unable to trust and uncomfortable with even the slightest emotional intimacy. The class clown, the giggly kid, had been eradicated, and only a serious and damaged young man remained.

Issai relocated to the other side of the planet to live with an aunt while he recovered from his ordeal. He spent a lot of time alone, despite the best efforts of his remaining family to reach out to him, but he wasn't interested in being close to them and kept them at an emotional arm's length. Instead, he focused his attention on his studies, just as he had during his imprisonment. Though his teachers expected him to be significantly behind, Issai turned out to be way ahead of his fellow students thanks to the intensive reading he'd been doing over the previous year, and he quickly graduated from school with outstanding grades. Soon enough, he was able to take his pick of universities on Betazed and ultimately elected to go to medical school to further his understanding of exobiology.

Life at university was an isolated one for Issai, partly due to his inability to communicate telepathically in the confines of a predominantly psychic society, but mainly because he chose to seclude himself wherever possible. Some of his old social skills returned to him, allowing him to be polite in company and even superficially friendly, but he was really just doing what was necessary to get by without undue awkwardness. Emotionally, he remained entirely cut off. Academically, however, he was streets ahead. Very quickly, it became clear that he was gifted in his chosen field and he was having acclaimed papers published long before he graduated, top of his class by a considerable distance. Though he was now a qualified doctor, he was far more concerned with academia than the practicing of medicine, eventually taking a research position at a science institute on Betazed. There, he worked diligently and passionately, pioneering new techniques in exobiological analysis and making his name in the field. Issai soon became regarded as one of the Federation's rising stars in exobiology, one of their brightest hopes for the future.

Though he took pride in his work and was pleased with his accomplishments, Issai didn't allow these plaudits to go to his head. In truth, he was simply too sombre to get overly excited about such things, not to mention his distrust of the motivations of those who would lavish praise upon him. Moreover, he was unhappy with his life. By the time he reached his thirties, his personal life was in exactly the same shape it had been in when he was 20 - he had little contact with his family, no true friends, and spent the majority of his time alone. He was aware that this state of affairs was undesirable but didn't know how to change it. One thing he did know was that he needed to get away from Betazed. Since the ordeal with his mother, he'd lost all trust in telepaths and, over the years, his discomfort around them had only increased. This was unfortunate since he was on a planet populated by them. He began investigating posts he could take up off-planet and entered into talks with Star Fleet to join their Science Institute on Earth.

Before those talks were complete, however, Star Fleet offered him a different role, a place on a newly launched vessel named the USS Challenger, populated by the brightest scientific minds the Federation had to offer. There, he would be able to focus on exobiological research while also teaching a class at the on-board university. It was an intriguing and unexpected idea. In a rare display of impulsiveness, Issai spent very little time considering his options before accepting the offer and setting off for a new life aboard the Challenger.

Telepathic Abilities and Limitations

Issai is a powerful telepath, far moreso than most other Betazoids. He has the psychic capacity to engage in telepathic communication over long distances, broadcast to several hundred separate minds simultaneously, engage in deeply penetrative scans, sense intricate and subtle variations in emotion, and can locate an individual based purely on the echo of their thought patterns. However, his access to this array of abilities is extremely limited thanks to the presence of psychic blocks which cut him off from his telepathic powers. Put in place by Issai himself, these blocks are extremely strong and could only be eradicated through years of psychic therapy, something which would require Issai's full compliance. Since he hates the telepathic aspect of his nature, that is something he'd be very unlikely to provide. As things stand, Issai is unable to engage in telepathic or empathic communication at all in day-to-day life. These blocks also make it difficult, though not impossible, for other telepaths to read his mind.

However, over the years the psychic blocks in his brain have started to erode slightly. This has resulted in infrequent but debilitating episodes during which his telepathic power will briefly assert itself against his will. These episodes are involuntary and, seemingly, entirely random. They involve a short and intense scan of someone in his physical presence in which Issai will be assaulted by a series of images pulled from the other person's mind. These psychic flashes leave Issai feeling exhausted and disoriented, and almost always result in migraines, nose bleeds, stomach cramps, and other psychologically triggered pains. There are no side effects involved for the person who is scanned, aside from a violation of their privacy. With an enormous act of willpower, Issai can initiate these flashes himself, but doing so results in even more severe physical consequences. Partly for that reason, and partly because he loathes his telepathic abilities, Issai willingly engages this power extremely rarely and would only even consider it if the situation were life-or-death.

OOC Note: The player relinquishes all control over Issai's telepathic abilities and places it entirely in the hands of the GMs. The GMs are welcome to initiate a psychic flash whenever they feel it would enhance the story, or simply when the whim takes them (though these episodes shouldn't become too common), and are equally welcome to never utilise this plot device at all. The GMs will decide who he involuntarily scans and what images he glimpses in their minds. The player may also initiate one of these flashes if the character ever decides to attempt it willingly. In these cases, the GMs would be free to decide whether the attempt worked at all, what images Issai sees, and the severity and nature of the physical consequences he endures in the attempt. Short of death, these consequences may be as extreme as the GM wishes. To clarify: these psychic flashes are designed to be a hopefully interesting plot device and a source of character development; the limits have been put in place to prevent the character from imbalancing the game and remove the possibility of powergaming.

Personality Profile

Hobbies and Pastimes: Issai doesn't spend a lot of time doing things purely for pleasure but he does like to read a lot. Though his first choice of reading material is usually related to his field of study, he will read anything at all, provided he can be alone to do it. He also likes to stay trim and in decent condition through regular exercise, though he isn't at the same level of fitness as a typical Star Fleet Officer.
Short-Term Goals: Issai's immediate focus is on his new role aboard the Challenger. He hopes to make a success of his position at the university, and aims to advance his own studies.
Long-Term Goals: Becoming regarded as the quadrant's foremost expert in exobiology is the ultimate goal for Issai, not because he desires the reverence and plaudits which come with that level of respect (he distrusts that sort of thing), but purely because being held in such high regard would grant him access to the Federation's very best scientific resources.
Personality: Issai is a very serious man. He smiles only to be polite and prefers to spend his time alone whenever possible. Though he started life as an outgoing prankster, the experiences he lived through in his teens changed him completely, leaving him a damaged man, unable to trust and unwilling to allow himself to become close to anyone. He holds others at an emotional arm's length and is far more comfortable simply relying on himself. By choice, he has no close friends and has never been in a relationship, confining romantic liaisons to one-night affairs with people he's certain he'll never see again. Issai would claim he's entirely happy to remain as isolated as he is, but underneath his suspicion and discomfort he's incredibly lonely. His life away from work is deeply unfulfilling but he has no idea how to go about changing that, or even if he truly wants to. In his professional life, however, he's very happy. He's proud of everything he has achieved and possesses a great passion for his field, along with the drive to dedicate himself fully to it. The sanctity of life is hugely important to him and he considers it his duty to devote his gifts to deepening the Federation's understanding of the body, and furthering their ability to heal it.
Sense of Humor: It would be fair to say that Issai's sense of humour is less than well developed. He almost never makes jokes and rarely laughs in the presence of others. In private, he quite enjoys watching slapstick comedies, but this is not a side to him which he allows others to see.
Phobias: As a result of the trauma he endured in his teens at the hands of his mother, Issai has a strong aversion to being physically restrained, tied up, bound etc.
Likes: Being left alone is something Issai always appreciates. The only company he's ever truly comfortable in is his own. He has a fondness for the finer things in life - well-tailored clothes, fine wines, modern furnishings. His work is something Issai genuinely enjoys and he's never unhappy when he's able to get on with things in the lab. He believes silence is golden.
Dislikes: Untidiness is something Issai very much dislikes. He prefers order and neatness. Loud noises and large groups are things which set his teeth on edge, and he doesn't like to be around drunk people. Though he'll do it when necessary, he isn't comfortable with giving presentations or speeches. He hates it when underpar technology gets in the way of his work.
Pet Peeves or Gripes: Issai finds game-playing deeply annoying and absolutely loathes feeling manipulated. He appreciates directness.
Bad Habits or Vices: When working, Issai regularly forgets to eat. He'll also skip proper meals to save time, opting for quick snacks instead.
Achievements: Forging such a successful career for himself, in a field he's so passionate about, when he could very easily have gone off the rails following the events of his teens, is something Issai is proud of. Despite his relatively young age, his name is associated with a long list of scientific achievements in the field of exobiology.
Disappointments: There are a few projects Issai has worked on that have ended up hitting dead ends which were very disappointing for him but, of course, his mother has been the greatest disappointment of his life.
Illnesses: The only major physical ailments Issai has suffered in his life were the results of his time spent imprisoned in the basement of the family farm. He was malnourished and extensively bruised, and required some physiotherapy to learn to move around unaided again. Otherwise, he's been generally healthy throughout his life.
Strengths: Issai considers his brain to be his strongest asset. He's gifted in his field and possesses a sharp mind, which is obviously a boon in his profession. He's also resilient. Though he doesn't always deal with trauma in the most healthy way, he never allows bad experiences to derail him.
Weaknesses: Issai's greatest weakness is his reluctance to trust others on a personal level, and his almost total avoidance of emotional intimacy. That has had a profound effect on his personal life, which is essentially nonexistent. His need to be in control of himself and his actions can also be a weakness, since the universe likes to wrest control away from individuals on a regular basis.
Fears: The presence of the psychic blocks which cut off access to his telepathic abilities are a source of great comfort to Issai, and his greatest fear is that they'll fail or degrade completely, leaving him to deal with his mental powers once more.
Prejudices: Issai has a significant problem with other telepaths, especially Betazoids. Their presence makes him feel nervous, and he finds it even harder to trust them than he does anyone else. Now that he's no longer based on Betazed, he's likely to do what he can to limit his exposure to other telepaths.
Off Duty Clothing Tastes: Almost always dresses smartly, most commonly seen in a suit outside the lab. When working, he switches the suit jacket for a lab coat but otherwise retains the shirt and tie. Has a fondness for silk.
Distinguishing Features: None
Pets: None
Friends: Though Issai has acquaintances and colleagues he may casually refer to as friends, the truth is that none of them really qualify for that title, and there's certainly nobody who could be described as his 'best' friend.

Personal Paradigm Shifts

Most Painful Experience: Without question, the most painful period in Issai's life was the double whammy of his father's unexpected death, and his mother's descent into lunacy. The torment he suffered at her hands is something he has never truly gotten over and still haunts him every day and night. The horror of those first few days, when he didn't understand what was happening or how his own mother could treat him in such a way, was unimaginable and he can't conceive of anything more painful which could happen to him now.
Best Time: Issai has achieved a great deal in his life, many things which he is proud of, but if he were to be honest, he'd admit that the happiest time in his life was his childhood. Before his father died and his mother betrayed him, he was carefree and always full of laughter and a love of life. That seems like a different person altogether to Issai now, and he misses that version of himself.
Most Crucial Experience: The circumstances may have been awful, but having so much time to do nothing but read academic textbooks changed the course of Issai's life forever. It was during this time that his passion for exobiology was sparked and he came to understand that he had a natural affinity for the subject. That defined his professional future, and gave him a headstart on his peers. Equally, that period, and the abuse he suffered at the hands of his mother, redefined him as a person.
Role Model: Though there are numerous names in the field of exobiology who Issai greatly respects and admires, there's nobody he models himself on at a personal level. He strives to be his own man.

Career History

Character In-Game History
Stardate 19409.02 - Enrolled, Azlbetd University, Betazed
Stardate 19511.01 - First paper published,
Stardate 19905.25 - Graduated, Azlbetd University, Betazed
Stardate 19906.15 - Took position as Exobiology Research Specialist, Science Institute of Lak’laa City, Betazed
Stardate 20302.20 - Promoted to Head of Exobiology, Science Institute of Lak’laa City, Betazed
Stardate 20608.12 - Awarded Zoza Dussamer Prize for Scientific Distinction,
Stardate 20903.29 - Awarded Betazed Medical Council Award for Outstanding Achievement,

Character In-Context History
Position	Assignment	Date(s)	Event
Exobiologist, University Lecturer	USS Challenger, CX-1986	21011.11	Assigned to USS Challenger, CX-1986

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