Captain Brynhild Kleim
Name Brynhild 'Valhalla' Kleim
Position Commanding Officer
Rank Captain
Character Information
Gender | Female | |
Species | Human | |
Age | 41 |
Physical Appearance
Height | 6'0" | |
Weight | 207 lbs | |
Hair Color | Brown | |
Eye Color | Brown | |
Physical Description |
Family
Spouse | N/A | |
Children | N/A | |
Father | James Kleim | |
Mother | Maria Kleim (nee Vostok) | |
Brother(s) | Richard Kleim Carl Kleim |
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Sister(s) | Stephanie Kleim | |
Other Family | Susan Kleim (nee Green), Married to Richard - Madison, Niece - Everett, Nephew Jason Kleim (nee Wyatt), Married to Carl - Miller, Nephew Eric Wagoner, Married to Stephanie - Alexander, Nephew - Sebastian, Nephew - Gabriel, Nephew |
Personality & Traits
General Overview | Brynhild is quiet and somber by nature, although she has a very caring and sensitive nature. It's not that she's the cliché of 'hard on the outside, but soft on the inside.' She's neither. It's just that she doesn't show her feelings very easily. She is sometimes afraid to make friends nowadays, as she's lost a lot in her life, but she does anyways, because she knows that no one is an island. As she puts it, 'No one can live surrounded by fire and not have someone cross it sometimes. It just takes a little work to get there.' | |
Strengths & Weaknesses | ||
Ambitions | ||
Hobbies & Interests |
History
Personal History | James Kleim and Maria Vostok met during the first night of a presentation of the ancient Earth opera by Robert Wagner, 'Der Ring des Nibelungen.' It took three days, and they met each night just before the performance began and talked. After several months, James asked Maria to marry him. Two years later, their first child was born. They named her Brynhild, after the Valkyrie of Norse mythology whose story inspired the opera that they had met at. Brynhild, who was known as Brynna to friends and family, had inherited her mother's personality and her father's Southern German coloring with dark hair and eyes. She was a bright child who enjoyed sports, although she was quieter than other kids her age. She grew up with a strong sense of values and emotions that ran deep yet silent. She provided the classic big sister and protector role for each of the three siblings to come. When she was ten, the family moved to Georgia. James, an engineer, had been hired by ELT Aerodynamics. When Brynna was fifteen, she worked part-time at ELT as well, assisting in administration and later in repairs. Less than a year after she began her after-school job, there was a terrible accident. She was there when it happened. A faulty part caused an explosion in a room filled with industrial replicators, which caused a chain reaction. Eleven employees were killed and another fourteen injured. Most of them were trapped in rubble until rescue workers found them. The replicator room did not have the same structural reinforcements as other rooms. Brynna had been friends with nearly everyone there that day—both those who lived and those who died. She was in the hospital for a month to recover from her own burns and wounds caused when pieces of metal had lodged in her lower back and side, as well as broken bones from being buried in the rubble. Because of the delay in treatment, there are scars that only extensive cosmetic surgery will remove, but she refuses the surgery. She kept up with her homework while in recovery, thanks to her teachers, but she still had a lot to do when she returned to school. She also returned to work at ELT, helping to rebuild. It was then that she got her first tattoo on the back of her neck and down between her shoulder blades. It's a column with the names of all those who died at ELT, with 'R.I.P.' and the date, and a circle of flames at the bottom. She’d been a quiet girl before, but she became a more somber adolescent after the tragedy. She didn’t withdraw entirely and still maintained a social circle, but she was certainly far more sedate than her peers. It didn’t bother her, however. Due to working on fighter craft for her job, she took an interest in flying and was even allowed to try out the on-site simulators at ELT. When she was eighteen, she graduated high school. For a short time, she contemplated college but decided to pursue her drive to fly. She applied to Starfleet Academy, and while her parents weren't thrilled that it would take her further away from home, they supported her. She was accepted in to that year's class. The academy years seemed to pass quickly. She was studious and worked hard, only socializing occasionally and making a small number of close friends of like mind. She was part of the academy's squadron. It was after a drill one day, when she was holding her hair off a sweaty neck, that someone saw the tattoo peeking out over the collar of her uniform. They wanted to know what it was and why she had it, so she told them. It was her friend there that called her 'the keeper of the dead,' because she could recite every name off that tattoo, and the date, without looking or even thinking. ‘Keeper’ was her callsign during her time at the academy. Eventually, she graduated and went to her first posting. Any time someone died where she was, she would memorialize their name and the date of their death. It was at her next posting where she met Cody, her wing-mate. He was one of the few people to not just recognize her name from the opera, but to know the myth behind it. She found a kindred spirit in him and told him about the tattoo, when he asked. He was the one who dubbed her Valhalla, and that one stuck with her for good. Valkyries were the Choosers of the Slain, but they brought those warrior spirits to the halls of Valhalla, where they would live on. Keeper of the Dead. She was not the Chooser, he said, but the place where their bravery would live forever. Cody would be the first person she ever fell in love with. He died a year later in an engagement against Talaarians during a border skirmish. She nearly died herself along with him when the canopy of her bird was shattered and the pieces cut through parts of her flight suit near her neck. It was fate that kept it from hitting an artery, and it was the pieces of the shield lodged in her seat that kept her suit from venting her oxygen and suffocating her. Brynna, called Val by some, was in sickbay for two weeks after that. She requested a transfer once she was released. The wing commander understood and supported it. In transit, she got another tattoo on her wrist. The flames can be seen sneaking out of her sleeve and on the back of her hand. It’s a plane, a Valkyrie class since that's what they flew, flying out of the fire and beneath the circle of fire reads: 240509.24 Where the brave may live forever. This was now her life. She went from posting to posting, and most would say about her that she was reserved, but not cold; quiet, but not shy. Brynna made a few friends, and they were close and she would always keep in touch, no matter where she landed. Her fault was that she kept things forever and never forgot. She earned the respect of her colleagues and commanders and climbed ranks and positions, remembering the name of every pilot lost. It was not an inconsiderable number, given the dangerous profession they had placed themselves in. Eventually, she made the decision to accept promotion into command as the first officer of the USS Lincoln. Even though her name was no longer Valhalla, she would forever be the Keeper of the Dead... |
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Service Record | Star Fleet Academy, 2399-2403 Star Fleet Aerospace Training, 2403 USS Dacia, 2403-2405 (Ensign, Fighter Pilot) Starbase Zenith, 2405-2409 (Lieutenant, Squadron Leader) USS Wallace, 2409-2414 (Lieutenant Commander, Squadron Leader) USS Artemis, 2414-2418 (Commander, Wing Commander) USS Halliwell, 2418-2419 (Commander, Commander Air Group) USS Lincoln, 2419-2422 (Commander, Executive Officer) |
Writer & Character Awards
Writer Awards | ||
Character Awards | Karagite Order of Heroism, 2405 Starfleet Decoration for Valor and Gallantry, 2405 Silver Palm with Cluster, 2416 |