Early Childhood
Due to a civil war, Reinas became a war refugee as an infant and has almost no recollection of her birth planet. Most of the men of her family remained to fight and were presumed killed in action, while the women and children sought refuge in a neighbouring system which was home to the Kathraki people - a lizard/humanoid race who valued strength and honour.
Of Reinas' family, the survivors living with her on Kathrak were her Mother, an older aunt, an older brother, an older sister, and another aunt, Aumih, who was only a few years older than Rei. Fairly early on, both Rei's mother and oldest aunt married members of the Kathraki peoples to ensure the safety of their family members. Reinas barely remembers this, regarding her step-father as if he were her birth father.
Childhood - Teens
Reinas followed Kathraki traditions and culture growing up, surrounded by a large family. Despite most Kathraki relationships being a constant vie for power, Rei's mother and step-father had a mutual respect and eventual love for each other. Reinas learnt early on to be a scrappy fighter, due to the rambunctious nature of other Kathraki children, and often came home with scrapes and bruises from rough-housing. Despite being born Krill, Rei and Aumih could hold their own fairly well against the naturally physically stronger and bigger Kathraki.
Growing into somewhat rebellious and boundary pushing teens, Reinas and Aumih were an inseperable troublesome duo, often getting sent home for causing mischeif and unnecessary fights. Both had an insatiable appetite for adventure, and wanted to see the stars - Rei's personal goal to work on Starships as an engineer. When they weren't fighting or hatching schemes, the two would talk at length late into the night about how they were going to leave their home planet to persue their dreams together.
Despite their closeness, the age gap between Reinas and Aumih became more apparent the older they got. If only by a few years, Aumih's maturity came with restlessness, and she leapt at any oppurtunity to take to the stars. When some dodgy traders came by, offering a job in scavenging and smuggling, Aumih decided to take it - even if it meant leaving Rei behind. She justified her decision with declaring Reinas was 'too young' to go, and ignored Rei's pleas to take her.
Unable to follow Aumih, and now watched closely by her family who didn't want another of their household to go missing, Rei dedicated the rest of her childhood to getting into Starfleet.
Young Adult
Reinas aged into a brilliant young woman, and engineering prodigy of her people, and was quickly accepted into Starfleet Academy through merit. This would, however, be a small problem for Rei - Starfleet had rules and regulations, etiquette and standards, that didn't align to Rei's rebellious Kathraki nature. While an almost model student in the classroom they were often sent to an officer for various misdemeanors, mostly involving fighting.
In one such offense, Rei was written up for punching a fellow student into a fountain simply because he had called another student a nerd. Said 'nerd', a fellow Trill named Col who was grateful for the intervention, sneakily distracted the officer in charge of the write up and managed to get Rei off the hook, resulting in the two forming an unlikely friendship.
Col encouraged Reinas to stick to her studies and make friends rather than have fights, and while Rei found it difficult she was intrigued to understand how others of her race behaved. In dedicating her time to this focus, she developed a considerable amount of skill and experience in engineering, and even took up an extra curricular course in Android Maintenance which she quickly fell in love with as a subject. She also fell in love with Col, who was not shy to express his requited feelings.
For her improved behaviour and focus, Rei was granted a temporary position on a small science vessel to gain experience on a real star ship - the mission was to be a short trip to a couple of systems to collect data, giving a novice crew a chance to see the ins and outs of their future roles. However, partway through their mission, the vessel was hailed with a distress call which the Captain decided to answer, ready to offer medical aid.
The distress call was in fact a hoax, and smugglers tore into the ship to attempt to obtain valuable scientific cargo. The engines were severely damaged, and there were multiple casualties, including a Joined Trill doctor known as Dr. Lu'Cah. Not wanting the Symbiont to die, the remaining medical staff asked Rei to be a temporary host until they were rescued - which she begrudgingly agreed to. However they Symbiont itself had also maintained its own damage, and remained in a strange coma, resulting in Reinas remaining much the same. While she couldn't recall many familiar memories, Rei could recall a fair amount of Dr. Lu'Cah's medical training.
Unfortunately, rescue took far longer than expected as they had a severely damaged ship with a reduced crew - Rei ended up hosting the Symbiont for over a week, meaning she could no longer be seperated from it without dying. Furious, Rei suffered another write up due to serious disruptions cause by her uncontrollable anger. As the Symbiont remained semi-comatosed, Starfleet logged it as officially 'deceased', and made only passing note of it on Rei's profile.
During this time, Col had been chosen as a host by the Trill Symbiosis Commission, though a few were suspicious as to how a young and fairly inexperienced young Trill had been chosen over 'more appropriate' candidates. Nontheless, Col was joined to a Symbiont, and had drastically changed from an introverted nerd to an extroverted, arrogant flirt. Though it was taboo, Col attempted to continue his relationship with Reinas - even to the point of getting posessive and refusing to let her break up with him.
