Okay, I'll go first. Picture this guy from "Megamind:" Now picture a larger and more realistically depicted aquatic life-form, maybe even longer and ending with a tail. The alien is wearing a Starfleet-issue M.A.R.S, a Mobility Accommodating Robotic Suit, which approximates a humanoid, bipedal form clothed in a Starfleet uniform. His name is Ic'Thus, one of various species from the aquatic world Thalassis. Ic'Thus' species, unlike the Selkies of Pacifica, are are not bipedal and therefore cannot simply wear hydration suits. Ic'Thus is one of a handful of Thalassians to decide to leave their homeworld, and is the first Thalassian in Starfleet. The Thalassians are a brilliant species, and Ic'Thus' specialty is engineering. He is the ship's chief engineer and enjoys working on the ship's systems more than being with other people, a quality of his species. I think Ic'Thus could work in any era or iteration of Trek and would offer some new possibilities as one of the alien crew-members through whom humanity is viewed and explored. Let me know what you think about my character or add your own!
Except for the name (I mean, it's almost the Greek spelling for the word fish) I like the idea. I really do, something new and original for Trek, a completely non-humanoid, intelligent lifeform.
Well, that's why I went with that name. I like the sound of it, and I don't think that many folks would catch on to the fact of its origin. The more I think about it, what if Ic'Thus were the captain? We have never had a truly alien Starfleet captain in Star Trek. Yes, we've had diversity by our standards, but surely even a guy with what we would consider a "handicap" (needing a device like the M.A.R.S. suit to get around) would be able to become captain in Starfleet...
Name - "Czenbevida" (Bev for short) Species - Calamarain The first member of the Calamarain to join the Federation since their enounter with the Enterprise D and Q... having observed humanity through their actions, the Calamarain decided to send one of their own to join Starfleet, and work on establishing relations between the 'solids' and the native gasseous Calamarain. As her native body is pure gas, Bev wears a specialised encounter suit, allowing her to stay in a humanoid form to interact with the crew and function within a starship, though when off duty or in her quarters, she is quite happy to revert to a fully gaseous state, an off-green shade of smoke, to relax. M
I wonder if it would be like Nog from DS9, who joined Starfleet, but didn't join the Federation. If the Calamarain themselves didn't become members, select individuals could immigrate into the Federation, this would be a good way for the species to evaluate the Federation from within. Ensign Doh-chil is of a (obviously) quasi-millipede insect species, the Walloppi were one of the first species to join the Federation after it's original creation. Their domain almost doubled the size of the Federation and because they weren't a participant in the Romulan War, they were in a position to significantly assist in rebuilding the founding worlds after the war. Ensign Doh-chil is approximately two and a half meteres long and can "rear up" as she walks about, to work and to operate consoles (she can also curl up in a seat), the first ten limbs behind her head end in eight digit hands, the next twenty are "foot/hands" which are good for grasping and holding, but not fine work, The remainder of her many limbs terminate in clawed feet. She has six eyes two large on her face, and four more in a cluster between her eight hand limbs. She can understand English, but requires a universal translator to be understood herself, the Walloppi communicate with clicks, hisses, whistles and soft grunts. The Walloppi are most commonly seen in Starfleet's medical division (they are excellent multi-species surgeons), however Ensign Dol-chil is pursuing a career as a operations specialist and has been assigned as a general bridge officer.
A good long while ago, I wrote a story of a new crewman to the Enterprise, whose previous assignment was to a Starfleet vessel that was configured for a aquatic species, basically the ship's interior was flooded. You learned of the Try-la through flashbacks. I could have made the Try-la look like the creatures from the black lagoon, but instead I made them mermaids and mermen. We know from the the example of the Xindi that a Cetacean species can have starships. Just as there are multiple Humanoid species, why not multiple aquatic star-fairing species as well. From dozens of different worlds there would be cetaceans, whales, CBL's, mer-people, and true fish-people too. What benefit would a aquatic species bring to Starfleet? Looking at Earth as a typical class M world, the majority of the surface is water. The aquatic crewmembers would be assigned to investigate the oceans and waterways of interesting worlds. They would beam into the waters of these worlds, interact with the aquatic lifeforms they found there. On some aquatic starships, the corridors would be three quarters water with a gaseous atmosphere near the ceiling, whale-people need to breath. On others starships the fluid would posses a higher concentration of oxygen (or other gas) than terrestrial water does, amphibians and intelligent fish-people need to breath. Mermaids, The Try-la are warm-blooded amphibians, they have legs and not tails. Their fingers and (long) toes are webbed, their forearms and crura have boned fins that extend outward when needed. The Try-la have internal lungs and not gills, the water they live in has more dissolved oxygen than ours. The new character is Jer'notta (Jehr-NO-tah), Jer'notta entered Starfleet later than most, having already served a decade in the Try-la Interstellar Guard, mostly in anti-piracy patrols. Her assignment is in sciences, she is a talented shuttle pilot and is a security auxiliary.
The Okatu (pronounced oak-ought-ew) are, like the Klingons, an aggressive species that puts a very high value on their concepts of honor and a rigid code of behavior. Unlike the Klingons, they place more of an emphasis on the might of intellect than of muscle. Nevertheless, they are strong and vaguely bear-like, being closely related to a carnivorous dog-bear-like species on their world ("Okat", pronounced oak-ought) in much the same way that humans are related to monkeys. Their early history is filled with strife between packs and clans that seemed to come to an end shortly after their first recorded encounter with alien life - at that point, the Okatu became a single clan as their definitions of "us" and "them" rapidly changed. 20 or so years after they first acquired primitive warp technology from a Ferengi merchant in exchange for access to the planet's natural rich pergium deposits, a drone ship attack was launched on their world with the seeming intention of destroying all life on the planet. The Ferengi delegation that was there worked quickly, out of self-preservation, a desire to protect their investment, and (it must be said) some honest affection for the Okatu people, and managed to successfully defend the world from the missiles the drones were launching. Except one city, which resulted in the loss of over 6 million Okatu lives. Okatu honor demanded revenge, and since the attack had apparently been intended to destroy their species, that was what they set about to do to their attackers. The Ferengi gathered intelligence for them - for a fee, of course - as to where the drones had come from: the nearby world of Sashune. The Okatu put together a bioweapon to eradicate life from Sashune, and launched it. It was devastatingly effective, and the native Nesho people (unbenownst to the Okatu, a gentle, peaceloving people that had evolved from one of their world's herbivore species) were no more. Later, the Okatu found out that the drones had actually been sent by a particularly nasty Orion trading consortium who were attempting to free up the pergium deposits that the Okatu were trading to the Ferengi, and when questions began being asked about the drones, the Orions had seeded information that another world that was refusing to pay them protection had been responsible - Sashune. The Okatu were furious, and undertook to wipe out these Orions. But also, their code of behavior, going back to even before their recorded history, required that if an Okatu killed another by accident, that he then had to take that Okatu's place in all of his responsibilities: work, personal, all. So after years of intensive research on the planet Sashune, a meeting of the clan elders was held that included input from almost every component of Okatu society, and extensive input from their behavioral and medical sciences. It was decided that a portion of the Okatu people would go and live as the Nesho, upholding their traditions and cultures and even using artificial aids to attempt to BE them, to as great an extent as possible. In an effort to appease their client's anger over the poor quality of intelligence product that had been acquired for them, the Ferengi offered their assistance in this effort, as well. The Okatu continue to have strong ties with the Ferengi, whom they realize were duped and were also targets as much as they were. The "Nesho", OTOH, eventually joined the Federation, as that is what the Okatu that have taken up their role have determined that they would have done. Lt. Babalen is a Nesho, and an expert xeno-biologist and xeno-linguistics specialist aboard the U.S.S. 24th-or-25th-century-Hero-Ship. He comes from an aristocratic family back on Sashune that has managed a district of one of the southern continents for almost a thousand years. Except, of course, that that isn't true. He's an Okatu, and that is the role that the Okatu's "Nesho Reciprocity and Preservation Council" has given him to play, since birth - to the extent that he has no Okatu name.