Tay, Basic Profile Options

[Tay]

Name : Tay
Race: The Tay (Nightflyers)
Height: 4' 3"
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Brown
Complexion: Brown
Racial Traits : Wings, slit eyes, finger, wing and heel talons, large pointed and mobile ears, carnivore teeth
Martial Status:  Single

Higher Education:

Primary Specialty: Science
Secondary Specialty: Helm / Operations
Current Assignment: USS Agincourt NCC-81762
Rank: Ensign
Position: Operations / Science

Biographical and Species Profile:

Tay was recruited at a young age into a Starfleet Academy - Manaus College program which absorbs a small number of her species into the interstellar community. Her people are treetop dwelling night hunters. As such, they are focused to sonar and wings while most species focus towards eyes and hands. Their vocal apparatus evolved towards echo sounding. Thus their language -- much like Earth’s dolphins -- is built around sound images rather than words. The high frequencies used allow very dense layered communications, which are totally incomprehensible to species not accustomed to processing three dimensional sound images as a primary sense mode. The Tay are capable of learning the languages used by ground dwelling species, though Tay thought patterns are parallel, and the serial word-by-word syntax and low frequencies are at best awkward.

Like most females of her species, Tay is highly intelligent, deeply curious, and driven to completely learn her environment. Juvenile females are traditionally scouts and hunters. By instinct, they strive to know their surroundings, to anticipate and detect any threat. The few Tay that have joined Starfleet over the years have served well as helm and science officers.

The species has a strong sexual division of labor. While the young females are scouts and hunters, it is the male role to defend territory and protect the young. This role specialization does effect the tactics and emotions of conflict. Female Tay, being small lightly built hunters, by inclination pounce from ambush or take prey unaware on the wing. Their small size and bred for flight light weight bone structure makes them very fragile for direct physical conflict, which by inclination they avoid. Defending and protecting is a male role.

They Tay metabolism is variable, neither purely warm nor cold blooded. They prefer and are most active in a warm environment. Through physical action and an equivalent of adrenalin, they can increase their body temperature and activity level to a high pitch even in relatively cold temperatures. While not strong or heavy by the standards of most species, Tay are very quick when fully active. It takes considerable energy to maintain full metabolism, however. When there is no need, they tend to let body temperatures drop, to assume a pounce hunter’s silent watching stillness. By inclination, Tay will eat many small meals in order to maintain a steady metabolism. While a few transitions between warm active and cold resting states are not problematic, frequent and rapid transitions between the two modes can result in a state similar to insulin shock.

The Tay wings are optimized for their home world’s .91 G gravity field, and a somewhat thick atmosphere. In the envelope of most Class M planets, the Tay are capable of reasonably acrobatic flight. The higher the gravity, the thinner the atmosphere, the lower the oxygen content, the more the flight capability degrades.

Idiosyncrasies

It is unwise to startle a female Tay. Sudden unexpected physical threats instinctively trigger an painfully loud sonar pulse, a brief but intense flurry with talon and claw, followed by a rapid retreat.

Low frequency ground dweller words seem slow and clumsy to a Tay. When at all reasonable, they are apt to initiate or respond to conversation with a sonar pulse, the syllable ‘tay,’ which gives the species their name. Depending on context and emphasis, the most common translations for ‘tay’ might be ‘hello,’ ‘sir,’ ‘yes sir,’ ‘sensor contact’ or ‘incoming.’

In the wild, only the alpha male Tay breed. Only an alpha male can raise a juvenile female Tay to the higher status of matron. As a result, female Tay tend to obsess on the ship’s captain. While most Tay, by the time they reach Starfleet active service, have learned not to present food to the captain as the traditional way to prove their worth, captains are likely to get copies of science reports they might not absolutely need. This is allegedly an improvement over dead rats and birds.

History

Ensign Tay’s first assignment was to USS Gideon’s operations department. She transferred to USS Againcourt, and has been serving gamma shift science duty, recently transferred to Alpha shift.