M'eko J'ross

Generally resembling a Terran Feline in appearance, but very closley resembles a human in stance and body lines. Stands 5 feet 9 inches tall (tall for a Caitian) has dull gold eyes and light brown hair that goes about 4 inches past her neck. Has a soft tan fur covering her like all Caitians. Weighs 115 lbs. Caitians are generally much lighter then other races due to lighter bone structure for faster running speeds. Claws in each finger (Caitians have "normal" appendages despite evolving from a cat-like creature) that retract. (The thought of using them except in defence is abhorred.) Some Caitians have a small tail, but some do not. She does not have one, so there is no need for a specially designed uniform to accomidate for it.

M'eko was born on Cait, the Caitian homeworld to her parents K'atcha and T'nna J'ross. She was the 3rd of 3 children. She has one brother, K'orra, and one sister, N'surr. (NOTE: The ' in most Caitian names is the closest English pronunciation of the "unique" Caitian language system.) At an early age, she loved to be around shuttlecraft. She would actually take apart shuttlecraft at home, and put them back together to make them better. Getting rocky results at first, she soon learned enough to reconfigure a basic impulse drive to be 35% more effective then it was before. Then she learned how to fly the machines she had altered.

When she was 18, she had already graduated 3rd in her class from the G'narr R'oka Technical Application school on Cait. She attempted to join Starfleet through the Cait recruiting branch, but did not qualify her first try. She doubled her efforts and won a spot at the academy the next year. She decided to study Warp Dynamics at the academy and went through her 3rd year doing well in that field. Her senior year, she decided she would continue her Warp Dynamics study, but would also learn basic piloting skills with a Lt JG Ryan John; the advanced course's instructor. She completed the academy earning 4th in class in Engineering Warp Dynamics. She decided her career would be best to follow, and had to say goodbye to Lt John, who she had become close with.

After graduating, she was assigned to the Sabre Class USS Youngstown on patrol outside of DS2 along the Gorn border. She was assigned as a Warp Technician. After 1 year on the Youngstown, she was sent to repair the starboard plasma injector. While she was working, the conduit ignited 4 decks below her and trapped 3 crewmen in a compartment, she had to try and get them out because she was the closest crewmember to them. She began to decend on the outside of the conduit when it collapsed. She was able to jump onto another conduit next to it, but it blocked her way down to the compartment the crewmen were trapped in. She got out into a corridor through a hole in the bulkhead that had been made and got down past the blockage. She was no more then 10 feet from the crewmen when one of them cut through the wall and got out just as the rest of the conduit collapsed, killing the other two. She had a hard time getting over the incident. For risking herself to get to the crewmen, and for exemplary time served on the Youngstown, she was awarded the bronze star and transferred to the Nebula Class USS Eisenhower.

On the Eisenhower, she was put in charge of the Beta Shift Engineering team. She served in that position for 2 years. When the Eisenhower entered a sector 5 light years from Klingon Space, a mine (a remnent from one of the Klingon Romulan conflicts) hit the port bussard collector and ruptured the reactor control lines in the engine. The engine started to overheat and they had no control over them. She was the senior Engineer on duty and had to immediatly do something. She beamed a shipment of kemosite in the cargohold that had been confiscated from an Orion trading ship into the reactor rooms and flooded them with oxygen to shut down the reaction. It worked and the engine reactors immediatly blew out. The nacelle was destroyed, but the ship and the crew was saved. For this act of improvization, she was promoted to Lt JG and was given the option of Assistant Chief Engineer since the Chief Engineer was leaving and the former Assistant would be replacing him. She accepted.

She served on the Eisenhower as Asst Chief Engineer for 5 years. She showed exceptional command ability. Her shifts were the tightest run, the crew was the happiest when she was in charge, and her shift produced the most results. The CO and XO took notice of this and when the Chief Engineer left, he promoted her to Chief Engineer and offered her second officer. She happily accepted and served the position for 3 more years without major incident. She took command of the ship several times during routine away missions and leaves. She was then offered the position of Executive Officer on the USS Taurus.

When Commander A.J. Buford was seriously injured in the Gamma quadrant, the remaining senior staff had a difficult decision to make. With no Captain or XO onboard, they had the choice of continuing with the mission or return to DS9 to pick up their replacement XO, M'eko J'ross. Upon their return to DS9 and with no time to assign a new Captain to the Taurus, M'eko was forced into the command chair.

Very outgoing. Likes to see people comfortable around her. She does her best to be accomodating, but is not afraid to stick to regulations. Will bend the rules on occasion but will not break them unless a crewmember's life is in danger.

Very sensitive hearing. All Caitians have this ability. Able to run faster than most humans and jump slightly higher. All Caitians have these abilities due to their light weight bone structure and thicker leg muscles.

Most Caitians have to have cardiac replacement surgery after about 40 years. This is an incurable naturally-occuring heart problem. But due to the commonality, Caitian surgeons consider it a simple and routine procedure with an extremely low mortality rate.