Kali Nicholotti

Join us for another in a series of interviews with winners of Duty Post awards from our recent 2020 Awards Ceremony. Our goal is to give you insight into how our fleet’s best simmers write, and imagine their characters.

This month we’re interviewing the writer behind Commander Ash MacKenna playing a human female Intelligence Officer assigned to the USS Arrow. She won the Black Cross: “This award is given to a member of the Intelligence community that strives to accomplish the goals of Starfleet Intelligence, while simultaneously upholding the ideals and structure of Starfleet command. This person has the cunning to gather intelligence by means of deceptive dialogue or espionage, as opposed to force drawn confessions. While matters of intelligence are often game changers, this person strives to attain those goals within the boundaries of their Commanding Officer, and the regulations of Starfleet.“

TIERNEY: Tell us a little about the writer behind the character — where in the world do you hail from?

MACKENNA: Though I spent most of my life growing up in the shadow of America’s space program on the space coast of Florida, I currently reside in the exact center of the state of North Carolina, surrounded by woods, cattle fields, and the Uwharrie Mountains.

Captain Oddas Aria of the USS Juneau said in her presentation that you collect information from both conventional and unconventional sources. Working in a world of technology and diverse species, could you give some examples of where you obtain information?

I think the information aspect can be a tricky thing, especially depending on the mission. Of course there are set sources and things that are known OOC’ly in the mission build, but within the Trek universe there is a wealth of places to potentially get bits and pieces of intel that can be used to build stories to provide information on just about anything. There’s everything from rumors that go through civilian populations on starbases, legends from primitive races met and catalogued along the way, patterns in movements and actions not outwardly spoken in words, and of course a number of databases that provide a place for intelligence officers across starfleet to combine the mass of information they see, feel, and hear in their travels. 

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UFOP: StarBase 118 Star Trek PBEM RPG offers opportunities for writers and their characters to climb their way up through the ranks while embarking on amazing adventures we, the writers, can only dream about. Of course, with adventure comes risk, and no one knows about more than the character of Kali Nicholotti. Today, I had the opportunity to learn a little bit more about this protagonist and her trek.

DeVeau: Welcome, welcome!

Nicholotti: Thank you, it’s good to be here.

DeVeau: You’ve been around SB118 for a while? Will you share some of your history with us?

Nicholotti: I’ve been here for just over 5 years. I originally joined after seeing the new Trek movie. When I was a teenager, I once played a PBeM Star Trek RPG where I rose to captain a ship. I remember loving it, so on a whim, I went to Google and looked for a similar game. The one I used to play was nothing more than a dead website, but Starbase 118 wasn’t. I had my application in that day and started training a couple days later. From then, I’ve had one epic journey after another.

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