8-ball was born in Quebec to her Vulcan mother, T'Pol, and her human father, Thomas. Thomas and T'Pol's marriage only lasted two years, and T'Pol returned to her homeworld, leaving Thomas with 8-ball. Thomas was bitter about the divorce and taught 8-ball to be self-expressive and not repress any emotions at all like a normal Vulcan. This is one of the reasons 8-ball got into so many fights when she was younger. She refused to be called by her mother's name, and instead her dad nicknamed her 'Kahless', the way some fathers might nickname a dainty daughter 'Princess'. 8-ball was also very intelligent for a child, and easily picked up sciences and math without even trying. She really didn't try, because school was never particularly important to her.
8-ball's father died in a shuttle accident when she was 12. 8-ball was fairly devastated since her relationship with her father had been fairly close. Her mother brought 8-ball back to live with her on the Vulcan homeworld, and 8-ball, brought up to hate anything Vulcan, obviously detested it there. Finally, by the age of 14, 8-ball had had enough, and she ran away back to Earth.
8-ball came to live and work at a bar in New York under the owner and bartender Robert, more commonly known as Big Man. 8-ball grew close to Big Man and loved living at the bar. She played drinking games and poker with many of the regulars, but she soon excelled at pool and billiards, gaining the nickname 8-ball. She also improved on her fighting skills, and can defend herself with apparent ease, knowing how to use almost any normally harmless object as a weapon for defense.
When 8-ball was 17, a huge barfight escalated into a right and seven customers were killed. Big Man himself was also killed, and 8-ball, with no where to go, wandered around from place to place for a year. Finally, when she was 18, 8-ball decided that she might as well find somewhere at least semi-permanent to live, if just for the knowledge of dinner and a bed waiting for her. In the end, 8-ball decided to join the Academy because she really didn't have anything better to do. Working on the Galaxy is the same thing.
