Matthew's Star Trek Page

Rosalind Chao-Keiko

Status: Civilian, spouse of Starfleet officer
Full Name: Keiko (Ishikawa) O'Brien
Education: Advanced degrees in botany and bio-life science
Parents: Mr. and Mrs. Hiro Ishikawa,
Marital status: Married, to Chief Miles O'Brien in 2367
Children: One daughter, Molly, born 2367; one son, Kirayoshi, carried by surrogate and born 2373 after injuries forced transplant

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH:

The onetime civilian chief and supervisor of the USS Enterprise biology lab, who may be professionally and formally addressed as "Professor," was introduced to her future husband by that starship's Lieutenant Commander Data, whom she chose as her bridal escort after Miles proposed to her in the ship's arboretum, where she often worked. She wore a traditional Japanese kimono for their wedding, held in the starship's Ten-Forward lounge - but not before getting a severe yet temporary case of "cold feet." Her Enterprise quarters were on Deck 12.

Keiko grew up awash in a mix of her traditional culture and modern technological convenience; as a child it was her job to keep a cup filled with water to wash out her grandmother's brush while writing. Keiko's mother in Kumomoto on Earth marked her 100th birthday soon after the couple arrived on DS9 in 2369, and Miles escorted Keiko home to visit after the incident of the imagination-probing aliens later in the year, returning two weeks ahead of her.

She operated a school for DS9's children from 2369-2371, and took part in a year-long Bajoran bio-survey in the uncharted Janitza Mountains in 2371-72.

CONFIDENTIAL: Selected Access Only Personal Medical File: Physician's Psychological Evaluation Report by Doctor Julian Bashir, M.D., DS9 CMO

It's been no secret that Mrs. O'Brien's years since moving to DS9 have been fitful and often unfulfilling, having made the sacrifice to give up the comfy and relatively fulfilling starship life she and daughter Molly had grown to enjoy in order to move to the broken-down DS9 - despite her exposure to hostage-takers and Molly's emergency birth there in a crisis. Despite small touches like decorating her quarters with bonsai trees, she felt lost but refused any favors from her husband, such as special Gamma Quadrant botany missions or alien gardening on the Promenade.

Realizing no structured environment for DS9's children was available, Keiko filled her time for about two years by winning approval to open a school for those aged 8 to 16; on opening day she had four of 14 available students, and the class soon grew. Initially her major concerns were attracting non-human parents such as Rom to participate, but controversy arose in late 2369 when her secular teachings about the wormhole ran counter to Vedek Winn's orthodox Bajoran beliefs and, after a Bajoran patrons' walk-out, was nearly killed when the school was bombed. Miles had offered to transfer, but she didn't want to run from a fight and abandon her convictions. He had also substituted for her at the school on occasion, and when both were gone class was dismissed with long-term projects assigned.

When the Dominion scare early in 2371 scattered DS9's Bajorans left only Nog and Jake as students, she regretfully closed the school with the renewed prospect of no career outlet - although she still kept up with experiments and once attended a hydroponics conference on Rigel IV. Encouraged by Miles, she won the chief botanist's post on a six-month agrobotany survey of Bajor's unmapped Janitza Mountains, taking Molly along; the trip, later extended by three more months and then even more, was a hardship on their marriage but eventually served to strengthen it thanks to occasional visits home, such as a two-day trip during the Bajoran Gratitude Festival two months into the mission. In fact, Keiko became pregnant again after her last trip home before the mission ended. One colleague and confidant on the trip was Sebarr, a zoologist.

Keiko knows the dangers of her husband's career and their front-line position, but though upset she was steely supportive during his arrest by Cardassians on trumped-up charges, his supposed death over T'Lani III, and his recuperation from the wrongfully-imposed Argrathi mental prison sentence. She tried to soothe Miles' aging crisis during his racquetball matches with Bashir, but before their big tournament she helped him dress and presented him with a scented silk handkerchief for good luck. She sometimes teased him with mock jealousy of his female workmates, but his onetime racist remarks about Cardassians, as when war orphan Rugal stayed with them, do anger her.

She is very fond of Jake Sisko, the captain's son, and after reading one of his stories she showed it to a friend with a contact at the Pennington School in New Zealand, resulting in a fellowship for him. She had earlier encouraged his onetime girlfriend Marta in her writing.

Keiko enjoys good health and like her husband avoided Lwaxana Troi's Zanthi fever. Shortly before leaving the Enterprise for DS9, however, she was briefly transformed into a child in a freak accident during a trip to collect plant samples on Marlonia, and was shocked when Molly and Miles both had trouble adjusting to her youth.

Having eaten organic seafood all her life but open to a broad palate, she was unprepared for Miles' meat-and-potatoes outlook when they first married, incredulous at the thought his mother cooked real food without a replicator. Her preferences include a distaste for sweets, even the Vitamin C-filled jumja sticks; she drinks her coffee with cream only. Oddly, she hates Fricandeau stew but makes it for Miles' replicant. She is also a neatnik who's learned to live with Miles' dirty sock pile, and she prefers to replicate her own outfits rather than buy them whole.

Outside her career Keiko plays the clarinet and enjoys the soothing music of composer Minezaki, an interest perhaps shared with her husband. She never enjoyed Dabo nor understood its fascination for others.

Psycho-Medical File UPDATE: Access Nominal SD 50500: Report by Dr. J. Bashir

The subject has once again exercised considerable self-healing and restraint in light of two major personal traumas in the past year: the transplant of her baby after injuries to a surrogate mother, Major Kira, and the takeover of her body by an exiled Prophets alien wishing to coerce her husband into its plan to destroy the Bajoran wormhole. Of course, both these episodes stemmed from Keiko's active lifestyle, which I had been hard-pressed to squash for her own sake: having already rappelled off Bajor's Cliffs of Undular while pregnant to get a fungus sample, she was injured in an asteroid field en route from Torad V when I was forced to make the fetal transplant. Luckily I was there, as was a semi-compatible female. Out of a desire to be near the baby, she joined Miles in inviting Kira to live with them, and to her credit she mediated the inevitable squabbles between the well-meaning yet strong-willed twosome around her. I suppose it merely cost her an extra ration of her favorite chocolate, Tellurian mint truffles.

The possession episode began on a five-day solo visit to Bajor's Fire Caves. Barely conscious of the hijacking as it happened, later broken by her husband's quick sabotage of the alien's plot, she sustained a broken femur and a hairline fracture of the right parietal lobe when the alien threw itself over the promenade railing as a threat to keep her husband in line.

Somehow throughout these personal minefields Keiko has returned to a normal life, teaching a botanical pathology course earlier this year and visiting her parents on Earth with Molly circa SD 50416, some two to three weeks before Kirayoshi was born. Reportedly the couple had considered the name Sean, until realizing it was the Bajoran word for "swamp."