T'Kres
Personality:
T’kres is a woman both grounded in the here and now and one who strives to always be and find more than she was yesterday. She does not find the states contradictory: it is perfectly healthy and natural to know and accept oneself even as one seeks improvement of that self. She has learned to wrap logic and serenity about her like a cloak –inappropriate expression of emotion never helps anyone- but underneath lurks a gentle delight in life and discovery. She finds fulfillment in building and making things work, and in helping those she works with to be the best form of themselves that they can be. There is a newer note of steely resolve in her personality, as should probably be expected of someone who has been tempered on the anvil of significant hardships to emerge still alive on the other side.
Appearance:
T’kres has a typical Vulcan cast to her features: black hair, pale skin with a hint of greenish undertone, pointed ears and upswept eyebrows. There is perhaps a bit more grace and delicacy to her features, descended from artists and scientists instead of farm or guard stock. T’kres still prefers the soft, light fabrics and loose, flowing styles of her homeworld in her off-duty hours.
Background:
T’kres was born on Vulcan. Her mother, a noted artist, raised her alone after her father died from a previously unknown heart defect. Though some outside the culture assume Vulcans unfeeling, she learned from her mother to appreciate aesthetics of all stripes and that mediums such as art and culture were perfectly acceptable mediums to express some of the emotion that logic ultimately held sway over in other aspects of daily life. She failed to train herself to an adequate standard in any visual medium, but picked up both the Vulcan lute and (in her Academy years) the Human violin.
T’kres took her mother’s lessons to heart ,but preferred designing to purpose rather than for expression. She liked building things, and set her focus on joining the Starfleet Corps of Engineers as soon as she was taught of its existence. T’kres received encouragement from an unexpected source: her future husband. She was properly betrothed in childhood to the son of a friend of the family and got along with the bright-eyed and curious Sorlik well enough. He was not so adventurous as she, but thought she hung the moon and stars all by herself, and did everything he could to support her dreams. When she joined Starfleet, he was right there beside her.
Sorlik went straight into the medical track, while T’kres pursued training in the Engineering department. As her education progressed, however, her interests took her back and forth a bit on the Operations paths and she spent a little longer than most as before concluding that her first love was the truest one. She thus graduated a few years behind her betrothed and was not there when the vessel of his first posting went missing in action, their betrothal link thinning too much to tell if distance or death was the cause.
In the aftermath of this event, she attracted the attention of Lieutenant Commander Niklaren Hadstrom, a sympathetic senior engineer who took it up to guide a promising young cadet through what was clearly a tough time. It was the first time she’d really had a father figure in her life, and she treasured his advice greatly. Hadstrom was from Umoth III, a world on the Cardassian border, and as she grew closer to graduation the situation in the area deteriorated fast. Her mentor’s upset over the events back home eventually persuaded her that he was correct- the Federation should not have abandoned those worlds to the Cardassians. The need of the many for peace might logically trump the needs of the few for safety and freedom, but was it truly peace to let bullies terrorize good people? Was that what ethical beings should allow to happen?
No. Logic dictated that did not truly serve the many- a false peace was no peace at all.
So when her mentor stole equipment and supplies in preparation for defecting to the Maquis, she arranged the engineering accident that covered up his crimes and flight. The injury received in the resulting explosion set her graduation back six months as she recovered from the trauma. Thereafter she experienced large gaps or fuzziness in treasured childhood memories, and complete aphasia regarding her native Vulcanur language.
It only made the decision to follow her mentor easier. Her first post-graduation assignment was to assist a civilian engineering project on Aldebaran III, but she planned to jump ship along the way.
