Join us for another in a series of interviews with winners of awards from our 2401 Awards Ceremony. Our goal is to give you insight into how our fleet’s best simmers write, and imagine their characters as well as their out of character contributions and achievements.
This month we’re interviewing the writer behind Lieutenant Commander Esa Kiax playing a female Joined Trill Operations Chief officer assigned to the USS Astraeus. She won the Prestigious Service Medallion: “Awarded to members in the fleet who are steady and unwavering from their chosen Duty Post. This is a divisional award for each (Gold, Red, Blue) to celebrate a continuing player in the divisional role who has already won (and still qualifies in the eligibility criteria) a duty post award in a similar vein to how we enhance the Service Ribbons each time one is won.“
SALKATH: It has been too long since we last had a chance to interview you – very glad to rectify that now! Please, remind us a little bit about the writer behind the character.
KIAX: It has! Four years or so, I think… To those who don’t know, my name is Matt, Technical Lead in Musical Theatre for a university in the UK, and a freelance Percussionist, working all over the south coast and in London’s West End. Avid Twitch viewer, and Phoenix Wright superfan! 😀
You’ve received the Prestigious Service Medallion for your continued excellence in portraying the Operations duty post. Has your approach to this role evolved over time?
Oh, massively. As times have moved on, and I transitioned into the leadership role of being a department chief, I had to change the way I thought of Ops. When I started, I was the problem solver. Now I’m what I love to refer to as “The Facilitator of Solutions”. Not directly solving the problems, but helping other players craft ideas to give them the chance to shine. Not to say that I don’t sometimes exercise my right to make Esa a star as well, but I pick and choose those moments carefully.
In the writeup for your award presentation, Captain Mei’konda Delano states, “…his character also performs the more interesting on-screen ‘Data-like’ duties of Operations with at least as much artistry.” That’s not faint praise, being compared to one of the best portrayals of the duty post!
High praise indeed; thanks Captain! <3
Data is probably the epitome of blended intellect and computer interface. Esa isn’t quite as skilled as our positronically-minded friend, but she’ll give her best shot at researching whatever is demanded by the plot. In space, information is power; and a large portion of that is gathered by Operations.
I always find it interesting to detail how said information is obtained by Starfleet. In my opinion, it makes for a deeper, more interconnected universe; and there are so many ways that an officer can get their hands on that critical bit of knowledge to turn an assignment or mission around, legal or otherwise…
Operations can sometimes seem like that duty post which is hard to pin down, in that it can often play a more supportive role to other departments. What advice do you have about the duty post for others who might be interested in it?
Be prepared to fill any role that’s thrown at you, would be the most useful thing I could suggest. Sometimes you might need to be a scientific researcher, sometimes a systems specialist, sometimes a tactician. I loathe to use the term “Jack of All Trades, Master of None”, but it’s functionally apt in its simplicity. Esa is definitely a Logistically talented being, that’s her real forte, but she’s also reasonably well versed in a broad range of other subjects to enable her to contribute to discussions on virtually any topic. She’s got a bit of temporal physics, a bit of engineering, and a bit of tactical knowledge floating around in her head. I always defer to the players that are experts, especially for the specifics, but being able to come up with generalist ideas that enable them to get to a beautifully crafted solution is a real treat.
I think the Wiki sums it up well, to be honest. Engineering officers know the ins and outs of, and how to repair every object and system on the ship. Operations officers know how to use every person, object and system on the ship, often in creative and completely unexpected ways.
Finally, what is next for Esa Kiax? Do you see any big changes or opportunities for your character over the next year or so?
In the short term? She’s got a lot of baggage to offload after everything she went through during the Fleet Blockbuster, which’ll definitely give something for our Medical officers to dig into.
But, recently she has also been appointed Second Officer, so we might be seeing her make the switch from Gold to Red sometime soon, if the fates align. It might not happen completely over the next year, but that’s the longer term goal, I think… It would certainly be an interesting challenge to see how I can develop her character into actual command material.
Thanks for your time, Lieutenant Commander Kiax!
You can read more about Lieutenant Commander Esa Kiax on the wiki.
