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Personal
History: |
Born to a human
mother in Vancouver, British Columbia, Valeria never met her Vulcan father
and knows little about him. Growing up on Earth, she had a miserable
childhood. She felt out of place among humans and was often singled out and
teased by her classmates. As such, she came to feel revulsion for her Terran
heritage, and as a teenager she embraced her Vulcan half. Against her
mother's wishes, she adopted the name T'Paa and began to study at the local
Vulcan cultural center. In high school she developed an interest in science,
which she found a stable refuge from the chaos in her home and personal
life. She also discovered martial arts to be a helpful discipline in dealing
with her emotions, though her level of aggression proved too high for her
Vulcan instructors, who recommended Klingon Mok'bara as a channel for her
pent-up hostility.
After graduation from high school Valeria attended McGill University on a
physics scholarship. There she became involved in a serious relationship
with a human male. It was her first romance, and only reluctantly did she
make the decision to let her human emotions guide her. When the relationship
went sour she was badly hurt and blamed herself for opening up to him.
Deciding to close off her human half permanently, she dropped out of McGill
and applied to study at the Vulcan Science Academy.
Vulcan, however, turned out not to be the paradise Valeria imagined it to
be. Being half-human she found herself facing a whole new set of prejudices,
and she quickly became disillusioned with Vulcan culture, which she termed
"hypocritical." Her time there was made tolerable by the friendship of a
fellow student named T'Peth, who found it illogical that Valeria should be
treated any different than her full-blood peers. With T'Peth's encouragement
she remained for the full term and finished at the top of her class in
physics and also completed a study in medicine.
When her first year on Vulcan came to an end Valeria returned home to
Vancouver, unsure if she would return to the academy. She did not fit in on
Earth or Vulcan and felt it best to find a neutral path, a place where she
could be herself and follow her own destiny. While having lunch at an
outdoor cafe one afternoon, an Andorian and a human, both in Starfleet
uniform, sat down at the table next to her. Suddenly she knew which
direction to take. Two days later she applied for Starfleet Academy.
After graduating the academy with a double major in both science and
medicine, she choose to pursue a science career and was assigned to served
her first mission aboard the USS Comet. While on the Romulan planet Ecurai,
where both the Comet and the USS Gettysburg had traveled for talks with a
reformist faction of the empire, she met and developed a strong friendship
with Gettysburg science officer Sadie Hunter and later transferred to the
Gettysburg to serve beside her. Both women felt a connection to each other,
and during a shore leave trip to Vulcan they sealed their bond through a
deep mind meld, which allowed them intimate knowledge of each other's lives
and linked them telepathically. They now consider themselves sisters.
During that same trip Valeria also met freighter captain Jacen Lorien, whom
she and Sadie rescued from the Osana Caverns after an equipment failure had
left him stranded. A romance quickly grew between her and Jacen, and they
later pledged themselves to each other as mates. Valeria's friendship with
Sadie and her new relationship with Jacen brought many changes to her life.
It helped provide her with a sense of family and stability that she had
never experienced before. Her meld with Sadie also helped her better
comprehend the intricacies of her human half. She soon found herself better
able to control her emotions, though at the same time she felt less
threatened by them. The anger and disillusionment she had once known began
to decrease, and she began to find direction.
Her life was changed again when, during a mission on Starbase Charlie, she
rescued a Vulcan child whose parents had been murdered. She later accepted
guardianship of the little girl, whose name was T'Lara, and she and Jacen
soon decided to marry and adopted her. Further changes came when Valeria
decided to refocus her career path and switch from science to medical. The
move proved a positive step, and she soon earned a promotion to Chief
Medical Officer.
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