Karen Dawson
Name Karen Leeann Dawson MD
Position Ship's Doctor
Character Information
| Gender | Female | |
| Homeworld | Ariel | |
| Age | 31 |
Physical Appearance
| Height | 5”6’ | |
| Weight | 126lbs | |
| Hair Color | Brown | |
| Eye Color | Ice-Blue | |
| Physical Description | Karen is a bit on the thin side. She runs to keep in shape, but other than that, she really doesn't do much in the way of muscle tone. Her clothes are more common in attire. Worn. She appears very much like a commoner on most Alliance worlds. The only slight change, on the right side of her shoulder holster, is her 9mm Kang-21, which is hidden by some sort of jacket. When she is performing her clinic duties, Karen wears light-blue scrubs. |
Family
| Father | Ian Thomas Dawson, MD (60) | |
| Mother | Susan Lynn Cox-Dawson, MD (59) |
Personality & Traits
| General Overview | If there is one word to best describe Karen in how she manages people, it is, "Pragmatic." No matter who is injured, she does not see sides, but rather an individual that needs her help. Karen is often described by patients and peers as being kind and caring but make no mistake... She is no pushover. When people are out of line, or they need to hear what she needs to say, Karen has no issues asserting herself. There is a darker side to Karen, however. She struggles often with war-related PTSD. As such, she sleeps a lot less than she should and suffers a depression that only herself is allowed to see. When these times are toughest on her, Karen will prescribe herself antidepressants. Eventually, they'll be a day when her emotional trauma cannot be aided alone by medication. She knows she has to talk about it, but refuses. |
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| Strengths & Weaknesses | + Pragmatic + Assertive + Basic Pilot Skills -/+ Maintains a Neutral Outlook on Many Political and Medical Situations - Suffers Insomnia - Occasionally Suffers From Mild PTSD |
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| Ambitions | Karen lives in autopilot. She has no idea what she wants, as the war has bittered many aspects of her life. | |
| Hobbies & Interests | Gun Range, Reading Medical Journals, and Playing the Fiddle (Violin). As to her work as a doctor, Karen has had to dip her bill in various specialties. Though not certified in most of the areas, she has done well with OB/GYN services in her old clinic, as well as neurosurgery (thanks to her dad). However, she is certified as a GP, Trauma Surgeon, and GI Specialist, due to much of her time in the war as a battlefield surgeon, and the types of wounds she treated from gang-related violence while on Persephone. |
| Personal History | Born 2486 on Ariel, Karen was born into a privileged family. Her father was a neurosurgeon, her mother was an emergency department doctor at Blake Medical Center. Karen grew up in a household that pushed academics early on and as such, Karen had the best schooling from preschool and onwards. Her parents even put her in the Junior Alliance Marshal Cadets in high school. To pad her college applications. Karen had always been academically gifted, however. So she was two grades ahead of her peers. She also had a basic pilot's license at age 16 (though restricted to parental supervision). So when Karen applied to Ariel University's School of Medicine as a pre-med student, she was accepted. Though, at this point, her parents were also donors and important alumni, so the process was nowhere near as hard as what the other candidates had to go through to get accepted. 2505 Karen graduated early from her 4-year program due to piling on summer classes. Med school was next. For which she spent the next 6 years interning in a surgical fellowship with the university. Or would have. September 7th, 2509 the Alliance Military came knocking, looking for surgical residents and medical students. They were in such a bad need of doctors, that they plucked Karen and forty-seven other surgical interns into service. Partly why she went from a General Surgeon specialty, later on, and into Trauma Surgeon, was due in large to her conscription. She learned a lot more in the Army about trauma-related wounds and in retrospect, likely became a better surgeon for it. Before her time ended with the Alliance Army, Karen was one of the doctors that tended to Independent prisoners at Serenity Valley. She was not there when it was fire-bombed. But Karen dressed enough burns and treated several hundred malnutrition cases to know the Alliance would rather these people die than give them compassion. When the Alliance released her from her conscripted service after the war, she and the other interns that survived the war, finished out their degrees officially on Ariel. The government even waived half their residency requirements - having done a large chunk of it on the battlefield. By now, Karen despised everything about the Alliance. The rich, posh world her parents knew, was nothing but a lie. However, she played the part of a good daughter and spoke little about her beliefs or her experiences. Secretly though, she did what she could for the former Independents that were now poor and scrounging. Persephone is where she ended up next. Close to the Eavesdown Docks, she set up a shop where no matter who you were, she patched you up without question and without pay (for those that were poor). Her parents saw this as a great charitable thing. So they often donated to her clinic. Eventually, Karen realized a lot of the people she did surgery on, the local marshals had beaten to a pulp for wearing brown coats or any other clothing that signaled you as a sympathizer. When marshals came knocking at her clinic because one such ruffian had been spotted running into her establishment, they trashed the place until their boss came in and pointed out that Karen was a former, decorated Alliance military doc and to pay her respect. However, the level of violence escalated. If it weren't open persecution of former Independents, the gangs of Persophone warred with each other. Which meant her clinic would no longer be neutral ground. This ultimately pushed Karen to carry a sidearm and start hitting the gun ranges in her spare time. Over the years, Alliance Marshals hauled her into their station for questioning because she was one of few docs on the planet that conversed with Independents. And the last time, the station chief threatened incarceration if she didn't start talking about her patients. So... she was forced to close her clinic and look for a place that needed her skills. Fortune was such a place. |
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| Service Record | |Blue Sun Allliance Military School: September 25th, 2509| Karen completed a bastardized Alliance Army ODS (Officer Development School) Military boot camp, just for the newly conscripted doctors. She graduated with the rank of 1st Lieutenant and assigned to the Alliance Army's 15th Infantry Brigade, 1st Battalion as a Battalion Aid Station medical officer in the 405th Medical Corps. |Deadwood, Fort Soble: November 9th, 2509| Karen was injured on her first patrol, headed to Fort Soble for the unit's health and sanitation inspection. Browncoats ambushed her and the platoon she was assigned to - Bravo Company, 2nd Platoon. For receiving a shot to the right shoulder, and heralded to safety by the surviving 15 members of 2nd Platoon, she was awarded a purple heart while she inspected and recuperated for a few weeks at Fort Soble. |Paquin, at the Siege of Bamville Outpost: Janurary 9th - March 23rd| Assigned as a trauma surgeon intern. Worked mostly on Alliance troops, while the main infantry attempted to take the Browncoat's command outpost of Bamville. This would be a win of attrition for the Alliance, losing almost 5,000 soldiers in the siege. Karen, being a medical officer in a battalion aid station, was awarded the Combat Action Ribbon due to meritorious service while under enemy fire. |Battle of Du-Khang: April 13th, 2510| Karen was awarded a bronze cluster for her Combat Action Ribbon and promoted to Army Captain, after holding the battalion's aid station for six days without help, due to her CO's mortal wound - a shot to the heart. Karen was noted on-record for tending to over fifty-wounded Alliance soldiers while their aid station was temporarily controlled by the 57th Overlanders. She managed to keep over 57% of the wounded alive during this time. |Hera, Serenity Valley: May, 2511| Karen served as a senior medic for the POW camp on Hera, after the battle of Serenity Valley ended. She patched the wounded prisoners who had survived their wounds some three days after the Alliance bombings. Many Browncoats came to know her as Mercy for euthanizing the severely wounded on-request, as well as sneaking the underfed as much food as she could while she tended to the POWs' medical needs. |Ariel: August, 2511| Karen is honorably discharged from the Alliance Army and returns home to civilian life. |Mid-2517| Joins the Fortune's Echo as the ship's doctor. |