#I finally had to get my act together alsdkfj

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ON ETIENN EVERS ;

etienn evers, owner of a transport ship he uses to ferry a variety of goods both within and without the borders of federation space, meets una when she is sixteen, three months after she departs illyria for the stars. a teenager on her own, too bright for her own good and always pushing the boundaries both of her abilities and of what she can get away with, una had run herself afoul of the gravitational pull of a pulsar in an escape pod. she had thought she could boost the small craft's engines to get herself out once the ship pursuing her ( a smuggler's ship she had stowed away upon, needing transport, when none was or would be available, to another system ) departed. her calculations and best efforts failed to conjure power, to materialize a miracle, and etienn and his crew fish her out of a dangerously low and decaying orbit.

he confines her to a set of quarters and plans to deposit her at the nearest stellar port — a three week journey away. within three hours, he finds her in one of their cargo bays, having evaded the lock upon her doors, attempting to construct — well, to be fair, he's never sure what — and realizes that if he does not give her something to do, she will only find her way into trouble. so, he makes her useful instead. with a focused direction for her energy, the bounds of expectations clearly set, she finds her place. etienn does not deposit her in the hands of authorities, and she remains upon the ship for most of five months, gaining experience — of space travel and of the galaxy and its inhabitants.

it is with etienn that she visits pau'uri, the planet that she will later claim as her home planet when she applies to starfleet. it is with him that she begins forging a network of connections that she will expand upon and maintain throughout her starfleet career.

etienn bails her out of trouble many more times over those months — and several more times in the many years since. of everyone in her network, he is the one person whom she owes, and she can, at this point, never pay back that score. then again, she is the only one keeping tally; etienn does not give a damn. if she asks, he will come, and he is one of very, very few people throughout her life that she feels comfortable enough to willingly ask for help. she trusts him in a way she will trust no one else until she meets christopher pike.

etienn is half-human and half-manchai ( a humanoid species that has declined to join the federation but maintains an amicable relationship with them ) raised amongst his mother's people and their customs. forty-five when he first rescued una, he is retired by the time of strang.e n.ew wor.lds. he has retreated to life upon his wife's home planet, handing over his original ship, and a second purchased over the years, to his two sons to continue the family business. the boys, twins, were ten when una was sixteen, then living planetside with their mother. while una has met them, she never connected with them, or to their mother, as she had etienn, and she always felt like they were merely tolerating her at his insistence.

when una submits her application to the academy, she forsakes her illyrian names in favor of the simplified 'una' and etienn's surname; he is, after all, the closest thing she has to family.