Name: Iella Caedmon (nee Brahe)

Professions:  Starship Engineer (Ph.D.); President & CEO, Brahe Shipping Company.

Aliases: Elle, Dr. Caedmon,

Species/Homeplanet: Human/Corellia

Age: 38

Height: 170cm (5'7")

Weight: 75kg (165lbs.)

Hair: black

Eyes: brown

Aura: yellow

Family:

• Alcander Caedmon, Colonel, GFN, age 38 -- husband (married 9 years)
• Melanah Caedmon, age 8 -- daughter
• Zeven Caedmon, age 6 -- son
• Erisi Caedmon Drayson, Commander, GFN, age 30 --  sister-in-law
  • Current Assignment: NID, SOG 42; CO, Squadron VI-1138
• Rayf Drayson, Commander, GFN, age 30 -- brother-in-law
  • Current Assignment: NID, SOG 42; CO, Squadron VI-2641
• Jenica Drayson, age 2 -- niece
• Tycho Brahe, M.D., age 34 -- brother

Description: Iella is a remarkably intelligent and well-educated woman with a quick, sarcastic wit and an easy-going and jovial demeanor.   Something of a technical and mechanical genius, she takes her work very seriously, but is not a serious person in the slightest.  She has a tendency to drone on with "shop talk" about her engineering endeavors if given half the chance, and can be slightly obsessive in her drive to fix, build, or understand anything technical.  She has to be stopped from tearing apart new devices to see how they work, even when she usually already knows without looking.  She also has a good head for business, and a calm, jovial manner that makes her a very good negotiator and diplomat.  However, she also has a forceful and intimidating side to her, and can and will fight like a demon when her family is threatened, and she is a tenacious combatant in a fight - be it with weapons or words.

Clothing: When working, forest green coveralls/jumpsuit, typically with sleeves pushed/rolled up to elbows and front zipped down a few inches below neck, with utility/tool belt around waist, and black leather boots and gloves.  When relaxing, denim pants and a loose shirt or sweater.  When traveling, typically an outfit of gray pants, green shirt and brown suede jacket.

Weapons: Self-built mastercraft heavy plasma pistol and mastercraft beam sword.  Plasma pistol is of a simple, blocky design specifically shaped for quick draw from secure holsters with a black matte finish. It is a little ugly, but powerful, accurate, and very effective.

Disciplines: Mechanical and electrical engineering, starship engineering, mechanical and electrical repairs.

Notable Skills: A gearhead by inclination and an expert mechanic and starship engineer by training and education, Iella is a technical genius.   She can do things with electronics and mechanics that most people wouldn't even imagine doing.  There's nothing that she can't fix, and she can build some of the finest weapons and gadgets in the galaxy.  In addition, she is a fair pilot and astrogator.  She also has a good head for business, and a calm, jovial manner that makes her a very good negotiator and diplomat.

Bio:  Iella Brahe was born on Corellia to a poor speeder mechanic and his wife in the lower-class district of Coronet City.  Her mother died from complications after giving birth to her younger brother, Tycho, when she was 4 years old.   Her father never got over her mother's death, and slowly drank himself to death over the course of the next 20 years.  The only thing that seemed to keep him going, really, was Iella's zeal for learning her father's trade.  She was a born gearhead, and her doting father taught her all he could.  Her brother, Tycho, on the other hand, grew up with an insatiable drive to be a healer, likely as a way of making up for the death of his mother in bringing him into the world.

Upon finishing secondary school at age 18, Iella quickly spent all the money she had saved while working in the shop over the previous 4 years and bought herself a spaceship.   It was a third-hand Rhean-built light transport that had seen its better days during the end of the Jedi Wars, and was falling apart at the welds, that a junk dealer friend of her father's was just about to scrap.  But to Iella, it was the most beautiful thing she'd ever laid eyes on.  She spent the next six months pouring the rest of her money into buying the parts and spending all of her time repairing the thing.   In the end, though, it was worth it.  Her first ship, the Mirax, named after her mother, was ready to fly.  After getting her father's blessing, she picked up her first charter - hauling a few tons of scrap metal for the junk dealer from which she'd purchased the ship and most of the parts, for enough credits to pay her back - and set off into the spacelanes.

That dream lasted all of about six months.  The Mirax didn't have much life left in her, even with all the work Iella had put in.  She soon found herself back on Corellia without a profession, so turned to what she knew: being a mechanic.  She responded to a job posting and went to work for Nyphot Shipping Company as a mechanic.  That was where her life changed dramatically.  She met a young Corellian pilot named Alcander Caedmon.  They hit it off almost immediately and over the course of the next several months, almost a year, they were in an increasingly serious relationship.  But, they were both young, and stupid, and both wanted to go out and seek out "adventure" in the spacelanes.  Or, at least, that's what they thought they wanted.  Iella had saved up enough money to purchase a new second-hand light transport, which she did, naming it the Larch, and was bound and determined to quit being a mechanic and go back to being a spacer.  So, she broke off the relationship with Alcander, as much as it pained her to do so.  It took about a week or so after leaving Nyphot Shipping for the enormity of it all to hit her.   When it did, she spent nearly a week in a near-constant state of tears.   Luckily, she was already in a spaceport at that time; if she'd been in hyperspace when it'd hit, she very likely would've had a horrific accident.

Soon she got into a routine, however, and spent the next couple of years living from charter to charter, moving from spaceport to spaceport.  Eventually, though, as Iella neared her 22nd birthday, the novelty had worn off.  She realized that she liked fixing things, and building things, and that she was really much happier with her head and shoulders inside and engine access panel than with her hands on the flight controls of a starship.  Iella refused to go back to being a mechanic, however.  Her father was getting sicker by the day, his health failing from decades of alcoholism, and she blamed that on two things: the death of her mother and his dead-end job.  Iella's brother Tycho was starting college, bound and determined to excel in a pre-med program so as to go into medical school, so Iella thought about the possibility of attending college, as well.  She had done well enough for herself to be able to afford college.   After some thought, she settled on a field of study: starship engineering.

Thus, Iella spent the next 6 years attending university.  First getting her bachelor's degree in engineering, then getting her master's degree in starship engineering.  Now 28 years old, she felt she needed a break from school.  She had loved her time at university.  Iella had discovered a zeal for learning that she hadn't experience since she was a child in her father's shop.  And she had discovered that she had a real knack for figuring out how things worked, how to improve on them, and how to build them.  However, Iella needed a break.  So, she left her many friends - among fellow students and professors alike - behind, got back on the Larch, and took off into the spacelanes again.  She took a few jobs, and was getting back into the swing of things.  Then Iella decided to try some "modifications" on her ship's engines.  This resulted in disaster.  She barely made it into a spaceport, and the Larch, which had been close to its last legs, anyway, was finished.

It was there, fate would have it, that she met Alcander Caedmon for the second time.   It didn't take much for them to fall in love all over again.  And this time, Iella didn't intend on letting him go.  She recalled too vividly how she belatedly mourned the end of their previous relationship.  And she also reflected on her life, and realized that the only times when things went well for her was when she was either in school, or with Alcander.  Within four months, they were married.  They established a partnership, using Alcander's brand-spanking new light transport, the Notlob II, as their home and means of business.  Iella salvaged what she could from the Larch and sold the rest for scrap.  Alcander was the pilot, his V2-series pilot droid Yoke the co-pilot and assistant mechanic, and Iella was the engineer and ran the business end of things.  This became Brahe Shipping Company.  Iella continues to run the company, which is now quite a successful small shipping company, owning 6 light transports and 2 bulk transports, and employing 15 pilots and 20 mechanics.   It worked well, for a little while.  But Alcander's heart wasn't in it.   Iella knew he was meant to be a Jedi, and kept gently nudging him back in that direction, but Alcander refused.  He was still too hurt, angry, and afraid after the Children of Grendok affair to go back.  Iella knew he needed a larger purpose beyond simply running cargo around the galaxy, however.  Alcander had grown beyond that simple mercantile lifestyle.  So had Iella, really.

Soon, Alcander joined the Galactic Federal Navy, and ran off to command a fighter squadron patrolling the border with the Imperium.  Within six months, however, the Naval Intelligence Division snatched Alcander up due to his skills and brought him in for training.  This worked well, because during that training, Iella gave birth to their daughter, Melanah, now 8 years old.  The Notlob II became the family starship at that time, as the company had enough money to purchase another light transport and hire a pilot and co-pilot/mechanic.  Iella now shifted into the role of mother, and also the role of small business owner.  She loved both roles, and embraced them heartily.  Meanwhile, Alcander finished his intelligence agent training and after a few months of leave to spend with Iella and Melanah, went off on missions with his new troubleshooting squadron.  He would be gone for a month or two at a time, but then always had a least a few weeks of leave in between to spend with his new family.

Shortly before Melanah was born, Iella went back to school, taking HoloNet-based courses through her old university to earn her Ph.D.  With Melanah and the company business to attend to, her progress was slow.  It was slowed even more when her son, Zeven, now age 6, was born two years later.  But 3 years after she began the program, she completed her thesis and received her Ph.D. in starship engineering.  Meanwhile, the company grew just as Mel and Zev grew.  Using her keen business sense, she was able to manage the company into steady growth, hiring on more mechanics and pilots and purchasing additional light transports and even a couple of bulk transports.  Brahe Shipping made a name for itself in the market and developed a solid repeat customer base.   Alcander, during this time, finally came to terms with his emotional turmoil in the wake of the Grendok fiasco and accepted himself as a Jedi once again, even further developing his power, abilities and understanding of the Force.  Something he tried to explain to Iella as best he could, but was never quite able to do so.   Iella appreciated that he tried, though.

Iella juggled these many roles - wife to a Jedi, soldier and intelligence agent, mother of two, company president and manager, and engineer and gearhead - very well over the next several years.  She made a point of overseeing all upgrades and maintenance on the company's starships, and spent what little free time she had on many little side projects involving building and studying new technologies.  The Notlob II became something of her personal plaything; the engines and many of the ship's systems are nothing like what they were when Alcander purchased the thing well over a decade ago.   The company thrived, and Mel and Zev grew up with a persnickety droid "uncle" in Yoke and a doting and devoted Jedi father in Alcander.  Three years ago, the situation got even better, as they were able to spend a year together in their home on Coruscant while Alcander was awaiting the completion of the Acheron's refit.  Once completed, the family moved into the massive light carrier, bring the Notlob II with them, and made the Acheron their home away from home.

Return to the character index