Dr Katrazyna "Katska" Nadezhda Kowalewska
: Dr Katrazyna Nadezhda Kowalewska
Nickname: “Kat or Katska”
Age: 29
Gender: Female
Occupation: Wreck researcher at Olympus Marine Recovery. Part of Olympus Heavy Engineering International.
An multi Billion pound UK based and owned heavy industrial company mostly based in Europe but has expanded to the United States in more recent years.
Appearance:
5’9 flat. 5'11 heals
Naturally Black hair
Pale silver eyes.
Fairly athletic. Active regularly in and in good shape. Paler skin tone has spent the last 3 months In arctic recently however and not that tanned yet.
Always needing glasses, goggles, Sunglasses or so prescription. Bad eyesight runs in the family.
Tattoos.
Left arm. Lower. Full periodic table.
Left arm shoulder and upper. Polish Eagle in black with red details.
Right upper arm. Small polar star with coordinates of where the team she was on found SS Marlin and the ship's name spelled out in morse code.
Somewhat of a goth ascetic at times, however will dress to the conditions and local area. She is mostly pragmatic about this and willing to adapt as needed to suit where she is. She however values comfort for both choices and weather and is more likely to be seen locally in casual wear or looser clothes than fancy wear. Though she can dress up when needed and make self more presentable and clean up well.
A favourite Necklace often worn of her grandmother's, Red beads of traditional red coral, passed down and a Polish Folk item.
Character Concept:
A wreck hunter, she is somewhat a modern adventurer, a exploreŕ of the largest And least known place on the entire planet. We know more about the moon than some of the deepest places on our planet.
Her work and her life became maybe too interlinked and her assignment to a more stable, slower paced and settled role is no accident. The company decided she was too good to lose, but needed some time to decompress and take a break off expedition.
Nat is an outsider, an unsettled soul she has been on the move in literal and general sense since she left home for university, working away on ship's and has racked up over 3 years of sea time In her time working for the company. Her latest assignment she has been sent as a more independent researcher and enjoys the freedom, privacy but misses the whole tight community the crew formed on expeditions.
Years at sea change things and you, Nat is a woman who is unsure how to take on her new role, and new task. Any idea of the future has been too busy and now she has too much time to think about such things. She is a keen reader, confident but not always sure how to interact with people who are settled and stable in their place of living.
Her greatest strengh of being her drive, determination and force that allowed her to accomplish her life so far with own effort also can be a double edged sword. She has pushed forward sometimes at her own expense and lack of a life independent of her career.
Island time is hard to get used to after such a life to say the least.
As for her hobby, she is a keen artist, drawing and working mostly In pen, Ink and charcoal favouring landscapes and such over portraits. She has spent long hours sat on the fore or aft deck in quiet hours drawing what she saw and enjoying a rare moment of quiet and peace aboard a busy ship.
She started in St Andrews joining a University art class and never stopped.
Will she find peace on the Islands? Or just another stop on the road?
Character History:
Born into a family of Polish farmers on the Polish Ukraine border near Liev. They were fairly well off but wanted her to stay and help take over and join the family farm. Kat did not. While her brother and sister eventually did follow the path their parents would prefer, Kat did not, much as she enjoyed her time at home and what they had that was not the life she wanted.
Initially her parents were frosty and disappointed but later years things had calmed and her relationship with them improved. She has returned home when can for major holidays but is too much of a wanderer to want to take over the Farm and her family have come to admit that their daughter is a soul not to be tied down.
She went abroad to study on a full ride scholarship, earning a place at St Andrews before taking her masters and doctorate under Olympus Heavy Engineering providing employment and funding. The first years where hard alone in a foreign nation but the small town she found self in was very much a place she could grow, build, and find others. Soon they had a small group they joked as the exiles club, all of them from foreign countries and all of them had defied expectation, family or other reasons. That small "family" still keeps in touch despite being often far flung in diffrent nations and even continents.
Hired straight out of university as a graduate due to her high marks and professors reference, working at first as a junior researcher, doing her masters degree and earning her PHD on study of how she led a small research team to track and locate the SS Marlins location. Newly gained her PHD Graduating from Imperial College London.
Starting out she began working in their support teams on shore, but soon earned a place on an older Goddess class the Hera operating in English channel to catalogue and check on various wrecks, then later more locations around the United Kingdom. Many of them were war wrecks or other navigation and environmental hazards.
Her most major achievement was In the arctic, deep into the cold and ice frontier where it still was a challenge. The SS Marlin, a Cargo vessel which was lost to enemy action and its recorded manifest was destroyed in the decades since. 3 months of hard work, crazy ideas in middle of the night and notebook after note book of ideas, turned out she was correct on location but it's cargo they were not.
The SS Marlin turned out to mostly carry baggage, oil would be pumped so the environment was safe from its decaying tanks, but 3 months in the far north was not easy. The baggage was no danger to anyone but a fish getting stuck In a decayed chest or case. It still was a suprise, the SS Marlin had far more baggage than a ship of that size and crew should, the mystery remained but answers where long dead and the job was done.
Joining the team locating the SS Vika off the back of the SS Marlins success, the Ship was one of a list contracted to attempt to locate toxic and dangerous shipwrecks. Its cargo was known to be heavy metals, but the exact manifest was very much missing. The need to locate it became more important due to the danger of Mercury or other metals posed, so Nat was sent.
All they had was the liberty ship went missing in 1944, this was one of the suspected routes after it never returned after the storm.
So Natska was now off to the Gulf of Mexico, a small island in the Gulf. Its local population was Maya… A new adventure, a new opportunity.
She is docked at the main island as far as it locally goes, closest to city hall and the main functions of the area. Deciding this was the best place to start her search on the official side. Though rumours say the old family's keep archives, secrets and information that are not known to the official record and very much guard it jealousy.
Likes:
Coffee. Sweet and cannot stand it black. Sweeter the better.
Cheesy rom coms and romance novels, the more paper back the better.
Music in general. If you hear music, it's her boat.
Keen Dancer.
Mangos… why. Who knows she loves them and that's that.
Spicy foods.
Yoga.
Dislikes:
Rather picky on sea food.
After so long on the move in the last few years she struggles to put down roots.
Has a nut allergy.
Grease and oil on hands, had never been able to get over it feeling odd.
Thunder storms. Been scared since childhood.
Thursdays.. always feels like a bad luck day.
Diet drinks. Diet makes her crave more sugar instead.
Smurfs scare her... somthing about the little blue things creep her all the way out.
Special Talent:
An excellent cook with most basic tinned, Freeze dried or so items found in a ships galley. During a previous expedition she was taught by the ship's cook, whom she later had a relationship with, aboard the Saga of Patroclus and has never lost the knack even when they went their different ways. Her volunteer duty aboard ship was helping out the cook and as well as better food, meant she knew that hers did not have nuts in it.
Supporting Information:
“Home” is a company charter of a 50 foot Princess motor Yacht named “Arognought” with main Dock at Isla Zafiro. It has been augmented with longer range tanks, an E bike secured in the main cabin as well as a small cabin has been converted to run a small underwater imaging suite etc. Only suitable for shallower waters and the larger ship operates further out.
She is qualified to pilot the vessel though is a less experienced sailor as spent most time on a larger ship.
The larger vessel is the “Saga of Jason” an 76m open water research and salvage vessel operating as the main ship supported by researchers in the local side. The company operates multiple Saga class vessels globally.
Fully Fluent in German, Polish, English and partially in Ukrainian and Spanish to least passable degree. She is a natural in languages. Russian she had a much harder time with for reasons yet to work out and only speaks the basics.
Has a minor criminal record in Falkland Islands, Drunken Trespass onto a penguin area, though the situation was Knocked down to a fine and a few stern words. Also a warning in Scotland for misuse of traffic cones and making traffic go in circles.
Can drive a tractor, and is pretty good at it thanks to her dad teaching her, is a pretty good driver and can drive a pick up, farm truck, tractor, quad bike and few other things like basic welding thanks to helping on the family farm.
Family: (In Poland.)
Brother. Jacek Kowalewska, 22.
Sister. Angelica Kowalewska 27. (Married)
Father. Georgei Kowalewska 54.
Mother Jadzia Kowalewska 57.
