Character Profile - Kara Waquer Smythe

Age: 31 Height: About 5'6" Body: Sexy and sensuous. Not overly muscular, but nicely toned. Hair: Dark Auburn - shoulder length. Personality: Kara is a sweetheart. Very understanding of people. However, she can hold her own when provoked. Basic attributes: Kara's strengths are quickness and stealth. She is very intelligent, a quick thinker, and decisive in emergencies. She is dedicated to serving the GGI at the side of her father, General Derrick Waquer.

Relevant History: Likewise a native-born of Procyon 1, Kara has been a close friend of Trevor Blake since childhood. She lost her mother when she was just seven, and this spurred her on to a career in the GGI, dedicating her to the side of her father. Ever since Derrick Waquer was promoted to the position of General, Kara had planned on being an officer that he would be proud of. At the age of sixteen she officially began training, swiftly progressing through the ranks. By the age of eighteen she qualified for Special Ops recruitment. Many crewmen resented this fact, believing she was receiving special treatment from the General. This was not true, and Kara was always smart enough never to let these beliefs get the better of her judgement. The truth is that her father helped her better prepare than most, but Kara’s accomplishments in training were down to her own abilities. After Trevor Blake’s demotion she was sometimes known to request his skills for Special Operation team maneuvers.

For the next five years of her career she established herself as a firm and decisive commander. She had performed as many sweeps of the lower decks than anyone, a fact that worried her father greatly. Suffice to say, she rode her luck somewhat, but no one survived as many missions as she did without being capable and highly alert.

When tragedy struck Trevor Blake and his family, Kara was heart-broken. She is known to have spent many hours by his cryo-cell, but it seemed all indications pointed to the fact that Blake might never recover, and if he did, it seemed just as likely that he would not be himself.

According to laws concerning the propagation of the species Kara would be obligated to take a husband and to bear children. She had hoped that she and Blake would not have to resort to this agenda, and had been planning for some time to approach him on the matter. She had never envisioned a future with anyone else, but after Blake’s mental collapse and incarceration, coupled with sustaining an injury which kept her out of action for some months, she decided that the time had come to consider other possibilities.

She was eventually married to Alan Smythe, a team member of Special Ops, who had long held a passion for Kara. General Waquer could only encourage the union.

The three years of Kara’s marriage were intolerably hard and cruel on all involved. Inter-gender relationships had little room to flourish in this environment, and her husband bemoaned the fact that Kara clearly had feelings for her childhood companion. She would fall pregnant in the second year of this marriage, and was given due leave. Unfortunately, the Cosmos1 survivors had seen a steady increase in miscarriages over the past years, and Kara would sadly count her own child in the pitiless statistics. It would be more than half a year before she was fit for duty, and her relationship with Alan Smythe deteriorated further. She believed that Smythe did not truly love her, though this was likely the result of the fact that she could not truly love him.

After all she had endured it would take Kara some time to fully recover herself and her natural instincts in combat situations. On Procyon 1, however, time was an unforgiving master. While on detail guarding the lower decks with her team, including Alan Smythe beside her, there came an emergency of great risk. One of the creatures of Procyon 1, a brute of immense strength, succeeded in breaching the hull, and threatened to lead others into the population. It was the worst case scenario that every officer had feared since ditching on the planet, and if not contained, many lives would undoubtedly be lost. In the events which followed Smythe would prove his affection for Kara, sacrificing his life for her, and for the crew. It had become necessary to section off part of the first deck above the ruins (this deck was commonly known amongst the crew as “purgatory”) and Smythe remained behind, knowing the creatures would not be held by this for long. Kara would say that her husband seemed “possessed” as he took action, and it may be that Smythe was in fact influenced by the unknown powers of their strange world. In his case, however, it drove him to prove his love by any means possible. There may have been other options available, but Smythe had made up his mind. His last words to Kara were peculiarly off-centre – “I’ll show you what love is” – as he proceeded to draw the creatures toward him, near the vicinity of volatile equipment, where he detonated several small explosives. This section of the ship has since remained off-limits, as it most certainly forms an entrance to and from the decks below.

Kara was devastated, and very nearly lost control of herself as a result. She was taken off duty for an indefinite period while she recovered. This perhaps she would never have done were it not for her father and Samuel Blake, who felt deeply for the young woman. Were it not for Trevor’s father, she might never have fought off the effects of the accumulated tragedies that befell her. She may well have succumbed to the same mental collapse that seemed to be inflicted on an ever-growing number of people.

Despite emerging from her personal anguish, Kara still harbored a great deal of doubt and guilt over her own actions, and lamented the death of her husband, who she believed she had mistreated, if unintentionally so. Kara Smythe would remain Kara Smythe, in honor of his sacrifice for her and the crew, and to somewhat assuage her personal guilt. She would return to duty, but on Procyon 1 nothing is said to ever improve. Hardened though she was by her years of service and personal sorrow, she was still greatly saddened at the loss of Samuel Blake soon after.

She would go on, as everyone had to go on, keeping her head down. When the time would come to try to wake Trevor Blake and to “escape the escapees”, Kara could have only little to say to her father. They were, after all, both officers, and knew well enough what was at stake. Perhaps it was better, she thought, that either they succeed, or never have to see the end.

Character Quote:

“Things have changed, since we met the Jahatera, and learned of the true history of our race. Blake asked me if we’re really even Human anymore, and I thought maybe, for the first time, we really are.”

Many thanks to Mike Pantazi for his work on this.