Biography for Fst Lieutenant T'Kara

Personnel File Number 2387.02.1456: Doctor T’Kara

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Rank: Lieutenant
Post: USS Ares
Assignment: Medical Doctor

Name: T’Kara

Age: 29

Species: Vulcan

Home Planet: Vulcan

Height: 5' 4”

Weight: 135 lbs

Date of Birth: 07.11.2359

Birth Place: Earth

Eyes: Medium Brown

Hair: Dark brown, long; straight

Features: medium sized, pointed ears, green blood, and all other features characteristic of a full blooded Vulcan; left eyebrow is prone to arch.

Marital Status: Widowed

Family:

Mother: T’Marahoi
Father: Schandel (Deceased)

Brother: Snarf
Sister: T’Krista
Nephew: Sandru

Husband: Satog (presumed dead)

Background:

           T’Kara was born on Earth while her father, Schandel, was serving as an Ambassador for Vulcan.  She is the youngest of three children.  The family lived on Earth while Schandel served in interplanetary politics.  T’Kara’s childhood was filled with many visits to Vulcan, and often she would stay with her grandparents on Vulcan for long periods of time.  Even though she was born on Earth she always viewed Vulcan as her homeworld.  Especially since her education was still done in the Vulcan manner.  She was taught by her parents and also received formal training on Vulcan.

           Schandel and T’Kara had a special relationship as she grew up.  They would often meditate together.  As an Ambassador, Schandel had a busy schedule, but he would always make time for his daughter.  As a child, T’Kara would come up with many games for the two to play and he was always willing to do whatever his daughter came up with.  Schandel never discouraged T’Kara’s creativity, and was actually quite proud of it.  He knew his daughter would go on to do many great things in her life.  As T’Kara got older, their “play time” turned into “discussion time”.  T’Kara enjoyed their long nights of discussions about philosophy or politics, or whatever they wanted to discuss.  She admired her father and valued his counsel.

T’Kara came from a long line of scientists.  Her grandparents from her mother’s side were both Vulcan scientists, who were well known for their research in Dark Matter and singularities.  Her mother, T’Marahoi, also obtained a degree in science.  Both of T’Kara’s siblings decided to pursue careers in the sciences as well, so when it became time for T’Kara to decide what to do with her life, science seemed the logical choice.

           T’Kara attended the Vulcan Science Academy majoring in biology.  She met Satog her freshman year and the two became good friends, and remained close throughout the years.  Her junior year was a difficult one as she found out that her father had been killed in a shuttle accident.  This was devastating to her as she had always had a close relationship with her father.  The rest of her family seemed to cope with the news in their own way.  Her mother decided to join Starfleet, her sister graduated from medical school and began her career as a doctor, and her brother joined an archeological research vessel.  Everyone seemed to be coping well, but her.  

T’Kara was having so much difficulty dealing with the death of her father that she began to lose control over her emotions.  T’Kara did not feel she could bother her family with this fact as she did not want to burden them with her emotions.  She deferred a semester of school and went to train with a Vulcan master at a Vulcan meditation temple.  Over the next few months she learned new techniques of how to control her emotions and built confidence in herself and her abilities.  She learned to let go of pain and anger and gained balance once again.

The next semester she returned to the Vulcan Science Academy.  The only one who knew of her break from school, and the reason behind it, was Satog.  The two had become very close and T’Kara felt like she could tell him anything and he would not judge her.  He was supportive of her and helped her through any problems she had.  At the completion of her junior year, Satog graduated and accepted a job on a research vessel.  T’Kara knew she would miss him, but she was proud of him and knew he enjoyed his work.  She obtained her degree in biology at age 21, and then continued at the Vulcan Science Academy to get her medical degree.

While in med school her nephew contracted a serious illness.  This made T’Kara feel helpless.  She wanted to be able to do more, but she wasn’t even a doctor yet.  She helped her sister in any way she could through this difficult time, and their mother took a leave from Starfleet to help out as well.  After a few tense months, the doctors gave her nephew a good prognosis.  He was responding well to the medication and although he would have a long haul of treatments he’d have to endure, in the end he would be free of the illness and be able to live his life out normally.

T’Kara was inspired by her nephew’s doctors and nurses and decided to go into pediatrics.  She graduated from med school at age 24 and was ready to start her career as a pediatrician.  Her sister, T’Krista, had also been inspired by the ordeal with her son and decided to open up her own practice that was geared toward helping families with ill children.  Her practice would also have a whole floor dedicated to research and finding better cures for illnesses, especially ones that currently require long painful treatments like the one her son went through.  The two sisters talked about working together.  T’Kara liked the idea, but since T’Krista wasn’t ready as of yet to start the business, T’Kara accepted a job at a local vulcan children’s hospital.

While T’Kara worked at the vulcan hospital, Satog returned to Vulcan from his four year research assignment.  Over the years they had kept in contact, remaining quite close.  Satog accepted a job as a biology teacher in the suburbs about an hour from where T’Kara worked.  The two reunited and their friendship developed into something more.  Six months later they bonded and became husband and wife.  It was at this time that T’Krista began her practice and T’Kara left the children’s hospital to work with her sister.

T’Kara and Satog were completely bonded to each other, mentally, physically, and emotionally.  Their wedding ceremony had connected them and they were truly one.  However, about six months after their wedding things began to change.  Satog began working with a professor named Surlac.  As he did this T’Kara could feel Satog slipping away.  He became increasingly distant, and she could sense him becoming colder and darker.  His logic slowly faded away and was replaced with confusion, hatred, and anger.  T’Kara could not understand this change.  It was as if this professor Surlac was taking Satog’s control and replacing it with negative emotions.  The longer Satog worked with Surlac, the worse he got.  After a while T’Kara barely saw her husband.  He was always off researching something or training with Surlac.

When she asked him what he was doing all the time with Surlac, Satog told her they were working on a way to help Vulcans use their brains more efficiently and a way to help Vulcan’s live even longer; and healthier lives.  Even though the idea sounded like a good thing, nothing Satog told her made sense anymore.  The man that she knew and loved became more and more suppressed under this new psyche that scared T’Kara.  She was still connected to that piece of him that was still the man she married and to that piece she held onto as best she could.  She did not know how to help him, but any time she tried to get him to seek help, or even just take a little break from Surlac, she would be met with anger.

A year and a half after their marriage ceremony T’Kara and Satog shared in their last Pon Far together.  After the Pon Far ritual, he packed his bags and left, saying that Surlac had a long term assignment for him for an undetermined amount of time.  There was nothing she could do to stop him.  T’Kara went through the next few months trying to deal with the fact that her husband was gone, and might not ever come back.  She worked longer hours and when she wasn’t working she meditated.

One day in the middle of a meditation session, a sharp and sudden pain in her heart caused her to fall to the ground and clutch at her chest.  Something was just lost; something very dear to her.  After a while of lying in silence she realized just what it was.  The last piece of her husband that she was still connected to was now gone.  The last bit of hope that he would ever return to her, left with it.  She knew that there were only two things that could have severed their intimate connection: either her husband was dead, or the last bit of the psyche that was the man she married was snuffed out completely by the newer darker psyche.  Either way her husband was, for all intents and purposes, dead.

When the news came that the research facility Satog had went to work in had been destroyed, she was not surprised.  T’Kara had no clue exactly what they had been doing in the research facility but the news report claimed that the explosion was likely due to an experiment gone wrong.  Several workers were inside when it happened, and although her husband’s body was not found in the wreckage, he was presumed one of the fallen workers.  It was possible that he was one of the unlucky ones to be at the heart of the explosion; nothing would have been left of his body.      

           Over the next several months T’Kara continued to work and deal with this news.  Although the hope of her husband to ever return to her was gone, at least she could have some sort of closure now.  She would be able to begin moving on with her life.  Soon, she decided that part of this moving on would have to involve leaving Vulcan.  There were too many things on Vulcan that reminded her of her husband.  And although she loved Vulcan and she enjoyed working with her sister and helping to heal Vulcan children, she decided that a change of pace would be good for her.  Her mother had done well in Starfleet and was now serving as the second in command for the USS Indepedence.  T’Kara had heard many stories of her mother’s adventures in Starfleet and was intrigued by the thought of joining.

Once she made her decision to join Starfleet, she applied to the Academy.  Her application was accepted and she began at the Academy in the Fall.  Due to her experience and prior medical degree from the Vulcan Science Academy, T’Kara was able to complete her work at Starfleet Academy at a an accelerated rate.  T’Kara gave as much focus and hard work into each of her required classes as she had always done when attempting to accomplish a goal.  With T’Kara’s dedication and vulcan characteristics completing the required work was challenging at times, but never impossible.

T’Kara’s level of outstanding performance, leadership skills, and ability to take on anything with persistence and excellence impressed her professors and the Academy administration.  She graduated after just a year and a half and was given the rank of Lieutenant Junior Grade; skipping the rank of Ensign all together.

Upon graduating, T’Kara was given an offer to work as an intern at Starfleet HQ in the political office under Admiral Robert Reid, who had worked with her Father throughout his political career.  During her internship, T’Kara discovered a secret organization within the political ranks in Starfleet who use their position in Starfleet to manipulate interplanetary politics.  Under the guise of protecting Starfleet’s interest, they sought their own power and tried to control every circumstance for their own personal gain.  They would even go as far as selling technology or weapons to enemy organizations if it meant broadening their own influence in the galaxy.

    T’Kara soon came to realize that her father was actually murdered in that shuttle ‘accident’ those many years ago because he discovered the same secret organization.  He had gathered evidence against them and the secret organization saw him as a threat.  T’kara, with the help of clues left behind by her father, was able to finish what her father started and took down the secret organization that killed her Father.  

At the completion of T’Kara’s internship she was promoted to Lieutenant and for her part in helping Starfleet remove the bad blood within the political ranks at HQ, she was given the Admiral Janeway Valor Service Award.  Along with the promotion she was given her pick of assignments among the ships and starbases that were in need of medical staff.  After careful consideration she picked the USS Ares who’s need for a medical doctor seemed desperate to say the least.  T’Kara felt her skills would be utilized to their fullest and she would be challenged sufficiently to warrant her decision to join the Ares a logical one.  Although the ship was awaiting new command staff whose identity were yet to be announced, she had no doubt she’d find the crew and it’s commanding officers efficient and acceptable.  

Personality:

Despite T’Kara’s interesting background, she views herself as a typical Vulcan.  She values her logic as all Vulcan’s do, and has learned to control her emotions before they control her.  Even though she has had problems in the past with dealing with her emotions, she feels she is now able to keep balance and peace within herself by using her learned techniques of meditation.  She understands that emotions are real and powerful and that it is important to find a balance between letting them run freely and completely suppressing them or ignoring them.  Both extremes can cause serious problems as she so painfully witnessed with her husband.

T’Kara enjoys helping others and especially finds it gratifying to play a role in the healing of others.      

Activities:

T'Kara’s leisure time includes meditation, reading, and playing the violin. Her mother taught her how to play the instrument when she was a young child.  She finds the instrument both satisfying and soothing.

Health:

T’Kara is health conscious and completes a rigorous exercise regime daily, along with keeping up with her martial art training.  She also keeps to a healthy diet.