Anastasia Natalie Yoieya

Standing at just over one metre seventy, she is taller than most Betazoids. She also has other unusual and distinctive areas to her physical appearance. She was born on Earth in Siberia, which because of the lack of sunlight has left her with a very pale, whitish complexion. She was also born with slivery blonde hair, but decided that given her chosen occupation, it might be wise to colour it down. Her hair is now raven black and although she prefers to leave it loose, when on duty she usually has it in a single plait or sometimes a ponytail.

Anastasia Natalie Yoieya (Pronounced Yoy-ee-ah) prefers to use her middle name Natalie rather than Anastasia, only her parents and those who have not met her still call her Anastasia.

Born in Siberia, Earth in 2359, she spent most of her life there with her parents, who were both Betazoid. Her father was a scientist working for a Federation research project and her mother was a counsellor. The location of the research base was in an area of Earth which had been fairly unhampered by the use of weather control systems, which was one of the reasons why the location was chosen. The nearest civilisation was over two hundred miles away, which was another reason for siting the base in the area. Most of the station was 'buried' underground and the power systems were heavily shielded to prevent interference to the sensitive equipment.

Because of the severe cold and the lack of many windows, Natalie only saw the Sun and the sky on the rare occasions that the weather permitted it to appear. Spending most of her early life living in a totally artificially lit environment, she has been left her with a very milky-white complexion and her skin is very sensitive to UV light. But the small child still enjoyed visiting the station's observation dome, unusually at night, where she could sit and watch the stars pass overhead without her skin being harmed. She was also born with slivery-blonde hair, gained through having a genetic ancestor who was an Andorian.

Like all Betazoids, she was tested to determine her telepathic abilities at the age of five. It was found that as well as being extremely sensitive to strong emotions, she also had limited telekinetic abilities. Although her parents were recommended to have Natalie attend a specialist Betazoid school, where her abilities could trained and developed, her parents could not bear to be parted from their only child. So Natalie had a fairly standard Federation education and her parents taught her about her abilities and how she could use them. Whilst they were able to teach her about how to deal with her telepathic and empathic abilities, they had only limited success with teaching her about telekinetic abilities.

As she became a teenager, she took a great interest in her mother's work and by the age of sixteen had decided that she too wanted to become a counsellor. However, she also wanted to see the stars and so enrolled in the Starfleet pre-academy programme, before progression through the Academy, graduation third in her class. She was very disappointed at not being made valedictorian as she had always been top of her class at school.

Although she had always liked her own hair colour, as she went through the academy and noticed the limited number of blonde officers and cadets in Starfleet, she decided that it could be advantageous for her to change her hair colour. After she graduated, she had her hair genetically altered to change it's colour to raven black. The treatment was based on Borg nanotechnology and was designed to last for five years, after which her own hair colour would slowly re-emerge as the nanoprobes became dormant.

After the Academy, she spent another two year at Starfleet medical, receiving her Doctorate in Counselling a full year ahead of most people. She graduated second in her class, blaming her young age as the reason she did not graduate first. Upon leaving Starfleet Medical, she was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Junior Grade and assigned to the USS Exeter-A, an Olympic class vessel assigned to the Bajorian sector. She served as Junior counsellor for two years, until she was again promoted to the rank of full Lieutenant and offered the position as Counsellor onboard the USS Leviathan-B.

She arrived at Deep Space Nine, just before the USS Leviathan-B left for the Gamma quadrant. One of the reasons for accepting the position on the Leviathan was the fact that as well as being a large vessel, it was also Starfleet's only vessel equipped with a Quantum Slipstream drive and assigned to the Deep Range Fleet, whose remit was to expand the exploration of the Milky Way beyond the Alpha quadrant. She hoped that she would get to see and experience the entire galaxy, encounter new alien races.

As a counsellor, Natalie has a very outgoing, yet quietly accepting personality, though she does have a few little quirks. She is afraid of loud noises and especially does not like thunder and lightning storms. Her Betazoid abilities, along with her Starfleet training have made her both an excellent counsellor and officer and she tries to excel at every challenge.

However, she also has a dark side and her telekinetic abilities can get out of her control if she feels extremely upset or threatened. Although this is a rare occurrence, she is still striving to tame her abilities to prevent anyone getting hurt.

As well as having a higher than average telepathic and empathic ability, she also has limited telekinetic ability. She was taught by her parents how to use and control her abilities, something which was continued during her years at the Academy. However, she does not have total control of her telekinetic abilities, which can get out of control if she is scared or threatened.

During her childhood, the station had no holodeck, but did have both a gym and an Olympic sized swimming pool. Although she never showed any interest in being an athlete, she took to swimming like a 'duck to water' and still tried to swim at least twice a week.

She also has a strong interest in astronomy, which started when she was a child watching the Siberian night sky.

One of her ambitions has been to be able to pilot a shuttle and she is attempting to gain her shuttle pilots certification. She spends as much time as possible on the holodecks using the various shuttle piloting programmes. So far she has killed herself twice, flown into a sun instead of manoeuvring away from it and wrecked several shuttlebay doors. But she is determined to get her shuttle pilot's certification.