T'Press

Born on Vulcan in 2325 to a poet and a priestess, T’press was raised in a very spiritual and arts-guided household. From an early age her parents noticed that she did not have the same interest as they did in the metaphysical and artistic, and did what they could to encourage her exploration of the physical world and nature. As a child, T’press would spend as much time as she could in the deserts and mountains near her family home, exploring and studying everything she could find.

On a school trip to T’Khut in 2336, T’press discovered a new love: space. While she still loved the outdoors and nature, her desire now was to learn all she could about other planets and the life that could be found there. This desire drove her to study and excel at the physical sciences, and upon completion of her standard education in 2343, she applied for a position as a naturalist on T’Khut.

There she met Fanvuth, the captain of a freighter carrying botanical samples between T’Khut and gardens throughout the Federation. The two became friends and T’press found herself becoming more and more fascinated with the intricacies of interstellar navigation and the astrophysical principles behind it. This in turn led her to apply to the Vulcan Science Academy in 2350 at the end of her time on T’Khut.

At the Vulcan Science Academy, T’press studied Astrophysics and gained a reputation for an intuitive understanding of complex field effects, and upon her graduation, served a term aboard a deep-space Vulcan research vessel studying an unusual stellar nursery. During this period, several Starfleet ships spent brief periods participating in the study. Her curiosity about this very different organization was piqued enough that she applied to Starfleet Academy following the study in 2359.

While at the Academy, T’press found that she had difficulty relating to the emotional manner in which non-Vulcans behaved. Her intense curiosity as to how such (to her) disorganized people could have contributed so much to the stellar nursery study further drove her to excel in her studies and explore Starfleet just as she had once explored nature near her childhood home.

Over the next decade, her service in Starfleet was relatively unremarkable: first serving aboard Deep Space Telemetry Station 16 and then the USS Hood as an Astrophysics Specialist. The intellectual side of her duties was very engaging, but the more she tried to relate to her fellow crewmembers, the more she realized that there was something fundamental about the cultural differences between Vulcan and the rest of the Federation that she struggled to understand and overcome. The study of cultures became a secondary and personal effort of hers as a result.

In 2372, T’press requested duty as an adjunct instructor of Astrophysics at Starfleet Academy. Her exemplary work in the field over the past eight years caused her request to be approved, and for the next four years, she taught at the Academy. This was the perfect opportunity to learn more about the other cultures of the Federation first-hand through the students and faculty, and she participated in many cultural outreach and research programs while stationed on Earth.

The Breen attack on San Francisco in 2375 was the first personal experience T’press had with war, as her role as a teacher had kept her out of the actual fighting of the Dominion War until that point. Until then, the cultures of those outside the Federation had been of little interest to T’press save through the cultural imprints that they left on those within the Federation. Following the attack, she became dedicated to understanding those who would see the Federation and decide that it was a threat to them.

This shift in focus was noticed and in 2376, T’press was assigned to the USS Odyssey. Officially it was for evaluation as a Junior Science Officer to see if she could handle a larger department than simply Astrophysics. Unofficially, it was a recruitment evaluation by Starfleet Intelligence to see if T’press’ informal cultural studies could prove useful in the field. The evaluation was a success and in 2377, T’press took a leave of absence on Vulcan to marry and start a family. At the same time, she was receiving training to return as a covert intelligence officer once her family duties had been fulfilled.

Upon her return to Starfleet in 2385, T’press was assigned as a cultural specialist to the newly-repaired USS Rassilon, part of an anti-piracy taskforce focused on reducing threats to shipping lanes along the Federation-Klingon border. There she met Grigor Eisenberg-Sloane, the Assistant Chief Tactical Officer, and the two managed to develop a close friendship over the following year. Then in 2386, the Rassilon was destroyed during Operation Uppercut: a tactical operation to destroy a nascent cartel being formed by Kej Tal, an Orion pirate and mercenary.

The operation was a success despite the loss of the ship, and T’press was recalled to Starfleet Headquarters to serve as a Cultural Specialist and advisor in the wake of the Attack on Mars to evaluate possible methods of covert aid to the Romulans now that public sentiment had turned against aid. Ultimately no useful proposals were put forth and following the destruction of Romulus, T’press was reassigned to the Triangle and reunited with Grigor and Fanvuth as part of a counterintelligence task force officially tasked with discovering Tal Shiar infiltration of Federation space in the area. In actuality the task force was established to provide covert assistance to the Romulan Republic as it established itself.

The team was careful not to become directly involved in internecine conflict between the Romulan factions, but in 2392 there was an incident involving a former Tal Shier base of operations on Vilnat. While the base itself had been partially destroyed and abandoned for quite some time, there was enough of the computer systems left intact to piece together vague information about previously planned infiltrations of Starfleet by the Tal Shiar. Unfortunately, it also turned out that the base was being used by pirates as a staging ground and the resulting conflict threatened to expose the task force’s presence while also resulting in the destruction of the information, leading to the claims being dismissed.

While most of the team was quietly reassigned elsewhere, T’press and Fanvuth, along with two other Vulcan members of the team, Sirrin and Skaan, remained in the area. Fanvuth’s transport served as their cover to monitor the situation in the Triangle and provide covert Starfleet influence to ongoing situations there. Several attempts to disrupt Romulan Republic activities in the area were foiled as a direct result of their action. However, continued action was deemed too risky and the team was recalled in 2398 to formally serve as an Intelligence Analyst team advising on the situation in the Triangle and were reunited with the rest of the original counterintelligence that was still active in Starfleet.

In 2401 the team was reassigned to the USS Wells as the senior staff following the Frontier Day attack. No longer officially associated with Starfleet Intelligence, they were tasked with openly providing assistance to the region due to their familiarity with it in an effort to show that Starfleet was still a viable organization in the wake of the attack.