Karim

Karim was born on Bajor and named for his maternal Bajoran grandfather, a freedom fighter that had been killed warring against the tyranny of militant regimes. Nevertheless, Karim spent the vast amount of his life amongst Vulcans, on Vulcan, learning the Vulcan way of being, becoming a studious adherent to the teachings of Surak.

His mother, a half-blooded Vulcan, had turned away from her mother’s culture by the time she gave birth to Karim, and was in the infancy of her Starfleet career, shortly before the outbreak of the Dominion War. Whilst T’Vel made great efforts to be a present and supportive mother to her son, having long-struggled with her identity as a Vulcan on the homeworld, her career and the war (which prompted a move from Bajor to Vulcan at a young age) obstructed this, and Karim was subjected almost exclusively to his father and grandmother’s parenting. Although this would cause some strains between the mother and son, they shared a great deal of common interests and character traits, having a scientific fascination as well as a direct manner with people. As Karim reached his adolescence, he would often quietly enjoy (although never expressed) his time spent aboard the vast space explorers his mother served aboard or commanded, and began undertaking distance Starfleet Academy preparatory courses.

When he was of an age, Karim entered Starfleet Academy, undertaking preliminary foundation medical courses, before specialising in psychiatric and diplomatic fields. This led to an additional year’s tutelage as an intern at Starfleet Medical, prior to achieving a commission at the junior lieutenant grade, and a posting to the deep-space scientific vessel, the USS Rhea, where he served as a counsellor. Due to his stern and critical manner, as well as direct and arguably callous or arrogant approach to his patients and general interactions, Karim won himself few friends at either the Academy or aboard the Rhea, although he rapidly established himself as a competent and honest officer, with an aptitude for efficiency, and a surprising degree of concealed compassion, as his reports and latter-day interactions with colleagues revealed. Nearly every senior officer that served with Karim, despite initial reservations, provided beaming reports regarding his unorthodox but capable approaches to both diplomacy and counselling.

From these recommendations and being spotted by members of the admiralty that Karim was assigned to the Diplomatic Corps. Whilst he operated without a portfolio officially, Karim regularly travelled within, without, and to the furthest reaches of Federation space, interacting with over two dozen separate species on a formal diplomatic basis. During this time, as had occurred on the Rhea, Karim was involved with, or even responsible for certain elements of, several first contact events – a career development that mirrored his mother’s, with the pair even having certain interactions with another on a professional basis.

By 2399, Karim, having spent some time working directly for certain members of the admiralty to review the suitability of command candidates, was requested to assist in the assessment of Commander John Harrison and the proposed crew of the USS Adelphi, a potential exploratory vessel for the Delta Exploration Initiative with an untested crew. It was ultimately agreed that this review would be an ongoing endeavour, with Karim assigned to the Adelphi formally, as both the ship’s counsellor and first contact specialist. Unexpectedly, this placed Karim indirectly under the command of his mother, Deputy Director of the Initiative.