Eshen'strars Houston

Eshen'strars Houston is a non-commissioned officer serving within Starfleet. A former secondary education teacher, he currently serves aboard the USS Phoenix as a counsellor.

Early Life
Born on one of the Andorian moons, the childhood that Eshen’strars faced was not the nicest of ones. The colony they lived upon was Federation-owned and home to people of numerous species – you would have thought that this would encourage people to get along, but many were cold and isolated. The colony had been an attempt to share culture and ways of life, but instead, it only served to highlight the differences between everyone.

Eshen’s father was Aenar and his mother Andorian; they weren’t an entirely uncommon match… Although, unbeknownst to both Eshen and his father, his mother had been cheating - the child was born of another man and thus was fully Andorian. Growing up, he acted the same as any young child – always trying to have fun and cause a bit of trouble. From a young age, however, he learned that mistakes and acting his age was not allowed. His mother would become increasingly violent at every little mistake, intervening with abuse even for the smallest of offences. There were times when things got out of hand and his father tried to intervene too, however, the poor man wasn’t particularly strong at all in comparison to his wife and would find himself on the receiving end of her abuse as well.

The young boy never liked to lie, but was taught that it was crucial so none of the other families found out what was happening in his household. Even if the people on this colony were distant, abuse was not tolerated anywhere on any Federation world. If people asked how he acquired the bruises he would say that he tripped. He even learned how to play it up, acting clumsily on the playground; and as a result, not a single teacher noticed.

Help eventually came for the family when his father – unfortunately – suffered a mental break. Under pressure by his work and snapping under the stress from his wife’s actions – a wife who he was being manipulated into staying with, in fear that if he were to try to leave, she would do something to their son – he had finally snapped. The truth came spilling out then and his father’s colleagues quickly set to work to help them. Eshen’s mother was arrested and there were continuous social worker, police, and council visits to the house. The poor boy couldn’t understand any of it – he had been emotionally manipulated for years into thinking that his mother was just keeping him safe, that she just had a different way of showing him love.

Naturally, the changes were hard for him to deal with. The family went through court proceeding after court proceeding, some of his teachers were even filed against for negligence and failing to pick up on a safeguarding concern. Eshen now went through the education system with the help of councillors, having to learn to manage the changes and undo the emotional conditioning he had been forced into. The quiet child seemed to retract in on himself further – he had never had too many friends, being relatively shy, and now he hid away from those few completely. At times he even became bitter as he grew; why hadn’t anyone noticed anything? Why had nobody stepped in? Why had his mother felt like she were allowed to do that sort of thing.

University of Andor'ishan
In his late teenage years the bitterness settled down, converting itself into a desire to ensure that his case would never happen to anyone else – not under his watch. The thought of ending the education system terrified him; it had turned into a lifeline… And as a result of his high grades, he ended up applying to university. Initially the degree he signed up to study was one in psychiatry and psychology, although an apparent aversion to the more medical side of the degree resulted in psychology being his main focus; it resulted in him being able to prescribe a medication or diagnose an issue but only with the assistance of somebody else. Counselling as a degree was pursued, followed by post-graduate degrees in both clinical psychology and education. It was after a lot of coaxing that he eventually removed himself from the education system he had latched onto - only to fall back into it as a career, teaching in a local high school as a personal and social education teacher/guidance counsellor.

Teaching Career
No matter where Eshen worked – he moved around a couple of times, trying to broaden his horizons – he always settled right in. Students seemed to latch onto him like a lifeline, sensing that this meek but friendly teacher was safe and there to help. Eshen made it his personal goal to support them all as best he could, and carried out his work diligently, listening to the concerns of these children all of the time and helping them through their fears. However, following the unfortunate death of his father, Eshen later began to change. The friendly light in his eyes seemed to have died down, the smiles never reaching his eyes – and his students, concerned for him, could see the change too. There was chatter of trying to help him somehow, but no one knew what to do… Thankfully, help came from elsewhere.

At a science fayre, of all places, Eshen met the man whose surname he would later take. Harsharn Houston, a Human man, had been sent from the Academy to drive recruitment and pique people’s interest in Starfleet. He was a scientist, and as such, wanted to show off with a live volcano display… But he had gone completely overboard, and the volcano violently erupted upwards and burned a giant hole through the roof. Eshen was in charge of cleaning up the mess and rallying the terrified students back together again, reassuring them and trying to keep them calm. He had later snapped at Harsharn for being so careless… And the other man had just given him a grin and invited him out to dinner in order to apologise. Things fell into place from there.

The two married, after years afterwards, with Eshen taking his husband’s surname. Eshen moved to Earth so they could stay could live together whenever Harsharn was home. He continued teaching, working in a high school in San Francisco. A few years later they ended up adopting a daughter; a teenager named Vrotyi. Teenagers so often wouldn’t get adopted because they were older, and so Eshen and Harsharn were determined to provide her with a properly loving, caring family. They were happy for so long, and the light finally returned to Eshen’s eyes…

Until, a few years later and out of nowhere, he was struck by the sudden suicide of one of the students under his care. He had been helping the young girl for years, helping to pick up the pieces whenever something happened – but this time, he hadn’t been quick enough. With Harsharn rarely at home due to him travelling as part of the recruitment scheme and Vrotyi having left to go to university, Eshen slowly found himself being drawn into depression and guilt. Whenever his family came home they didn’t find the lively and somewhat geeky teacher any more – they found the shell of the person he was meant to be.

Starfleet Academy
Harsharn knew that his husband required a change of pace and scenery. Eshen was reluctant to listen, to begin with, but slowly started considering what was being said… Enlist in Starfleet. Head on out there, see the stars; do something different. It took quite a lot of convincing, but the counsellor part of Eshen knew that he needed to do something otherwise he was going to be stuck in this rut forever. Eventually he agreed, enlisted in Starfleet, and found himself moving to attend the Technical Academy on Mars.

There, he found that he could apply his knowledge and experience in a new format. While he was learning, he found himself rapidly becoming the favoured counsellor even though he wasn’t Starfleet official yet. The Academy had a pleasant number of people of all different ages in attendance so thankfully he didn’t feel out of place – there were numerous others like him, many of which he counselled, who had joined up for that exclusive chance to try a new way at life.

USS Cooper
Two years of training at the Technical Academy seemed to fly past, and eventually he was posted to the USS Cooper to become the ship’s counsellor. Quite often he was struck with a fear that people there wouldn’t listen to him, considering the fact that he was an NCO as opposed to commissioned officer. Despite his fears, he found that the majority were nice; people flaunting their rank was thankfully rare. He continually missed his old job, but found that he had the ability to become friends with numerous people amongst the crew. Most of all, he missed Harsharn and Vrotyi, but the three of them became experts at co-ordinating starbase visits so they could see one another.

The Cooper flew onwards for quite a while but it was an older vessel. After a while it was decommissioned. Eshen ended up working on a starbase for a time whilst awaiting his next posting, working away as usual to ensure the health of both the starbase crew and the crew of ships that passed through. He gained a reputation for being a counsellor with a soft and caring attitude, one who always knew where to signpost you to next.

USS Phoenix
Being posted to the Phoenix was a strange experience; so much hardship but also the experience of a lifetime. It was aboard that vessel that he got to know so many good people and also helped so many, always on hand for when he was required. It was also aboard that ship that he ended up almost dying at the hands of the Tal Shiar from a disruptor-bolt to the head, losing multiple years of his memory, and finding out that his husband had died. Remembering to look after himself while looking after everybody else had always been a hardship and it wasn't long until he found himself in a bit of a decline, relapsing into a depressive episode.

It was quite the internal struggle to realise that he had to do something about this instead of just waste away. Counselling yourself had never been exactly easy and it was as such that he turned to his colleagues and superiors at Starfleet Medical. A couple of months back at Earth and a fair bit of intensive counselling put him back on track again, taking the first steps to come to terms with everything that had happened aboard the Phoenix. He had begun to harbour quite the hatred for Starfleet but it was clear it only stemmed from their inability to save Haar - and in reality, the fleet had been doing a good job all along.

Progression and learning had always been part of the Aenar’s life, continually striving to learn more. While going through medical courses for the psychiatry part of his degree had been like a living hell and he had delved into basic counselling afterwards to hide from it, the sensation of feeling stagnant in his position left him desiring to learn more. With this in mind he is determined to put his fears aside and set foot into the medical bay once more; not as a patient, but as a student. Adult nursing will only help to further his experience and give him the opportunity to help people even further. Despite being rather nervous to return to the Phoenix, given all that has happened, he finally has a clear head about it all and looks forward to getting back on track - and to meeting all of the new people who have come aboard. It is about time that he learned to make proper friends, he reckons.