None on record.
T'Vara was born to Sepek and T'Pen, both instructors at the prestigious Shi'Kahr Academy on Vulcan. As an only child, she received a great deal of instruction and attention from both her parents. However, due to their sometimes demanding schedules T'Vara was often left alone, and had to find ways to occupy her time. Because of this she grew to be a strong-willed, independent young woman with an almost unmatched appetite for learning.
After completing her primary studies and before entering secondary school she successfully completed the kahs-wan ritual. The history of the ritual intrigued her as much as did the ritual itself, and this became the spark of interest that would eventually grow into her life-long study of Vulcan history. It is also during this time when she became interested in music, another interest which would remain with her throughout her life.
At age 20 T'Vara entered Shi'Kahr Academy, where she continued to study Vulcan history, as well as literature and philosophy. Her ambition was to follow in the footsteps of her parents and teach at the Academy, and so she spent eight years there, steadily working her way through the various levels of education, training and certification required of all teachers at the Academy.
At age 21 T'Vara was bonded in marriage with Sitok, the mate who had been chosen for her when she was a child. T'Vara and Sitok had grown up together and had already developed a deep bond, and so both welcomed the opportunity to cement that bond. At the time Sitok was also a student at the Academy, so the two made an agreement to postpone starting a family until both had graduated and were settled in their careers.
Sadly, just three years later Sitok was among a group of six researchers killed in a shuttle accident on the planet Coridan. Their shuttle's systems failed during descent, causing the craft to crash into the planet, immediately killing all those aboard. Although some suspected that foul play caused the somewhat implausible chain of events which brought down the shuttle, nothing was ever proven. T'Vara mourned his loss for the expected period of time, and then did what she knew Sitok would have wanted her to do: she got on with her life.
T'Vara graduated Shi'Kahr Academy with honors and was immediately offered a teaching position, which she accepted. For the next twenty-four years she taught history and philosophy at the Academy. During this time, her courses focusing on pre-Surakian philosophical movements became quite popular with the students.
After a time she became somewhat disinterested in the work, feeling almost stagnant in her position. She realized that there was only so much she could learn while still on her home planet, and that venturing off-world might give her the spark she needed to reignite her love of learning. But rather than taking a conventional approach to this and traveling the Federation on sabbatical, T'Vara instead decided to enter Starfleet Academy. In her mind, Starfleet was the best way to see the galaxy-- exploring strange new worlds, seeking out new life and new civilizations-- and so to her the decision was a perfectly logical one.
She entered the Academy in 2335, initially choosing the Sciences track and intending to specialize as a historian. However, after less than a year she transferred to the Operations track, reasoning that Operations was the best fit for a generalist such as herself. At first she found Starfleet Academy to be a strange place; she had rarely interacted with non-Vulcans and the Academy's style of teaching was vastly different than anything she had experienced before, and so it took her a good deal of time to grow accustomed to the environment. T'Vara completed her Academy coursework in the standard four years, just barely placing outside the top 20 percent of her class. Her academic advisor, Commander Sopek, recommended that she attend Command School, and so after her Cadet Cruise aboard the USS Excelsior, T'Vara returned to Earth for an additional two years. Now more accustomed to the environment on Earth, T'Vara excelled in her studies, earning a Commandant's Letter of Commendation in her second year.
After graduation she was assigned as an Operations Officer to the USS Drake for two years before being transferred to the USS Cheyenne in 2343. While not a particularly impressive officer when compared with some others on board, T'Vara was nonetheless one of the most dependable members of the department, a trait which the Chief of the occasionally understaffed department appreciated greatly. Because of this, she received a Commendation for Excellence in 2344.
However, despite her outstanding service record thus far, T'Vara was beginning to have second thoughts about her decision to join Starfleet. Serving alongside so many different races, with their unpredictability and their emotions and 'hunches' and 'gut instincts', began to wear on the orderly, methodical, painfully logical Vulcan. Determining that this problem could be corrected by serving with a greater number of her own people, in 2344 T'Vara requested and received a transfer to the USS Intrepid II, one of the few ships in Starfleet with an entirely Vulcan crew.
As expected, it was during this time that T'Vara really began to shine. In a ship full of logicians and overachievers she still managed to stand out, earning the praise of her superiors at nearly every turn. In less than two years she was promoted to the position of Assistant Chief Operations Officer, a post at which she served for an additional four years. She was then promoted to full Lieutenant and transferred to the USS Hera, another ship crewed almost entirely by Vulcans, where she served as its Assistant Chief of Operations for five years before taking over as Chief Operations Officer in 2355.
In 2357 she was again promoted, this time to Lieutenant Commander, and transferred to the USS Vah'Kol as its Chief Operations Officer. A newly commissioned Nebula-class ship, the Vah'Kol was less than six months old at the time, and like T'Vara's previous two assignments, it also had a majority Vulcan crew. It had recently been assigned to undertake a seven year survey mission in the galactic barrier regions, and T'Vara looked forward to this assignment with as much excitement as an emotionless Vulcan could muster.
As expected, T'Vara continued to impress her superiors, both with her dedication to her work and her uncanny ability to turn mediocre officers into outstanding ones. In 2363, six years into the mission, the Executive Officer was killed during an away mission to an uncharted planet. Naturally, T'Vara was the captain's top-- and only-- pick for a replacement.
Once it returned to Federation space, T'Vara continued to serve on the Vah'Kol for another three years, until in 2367 she was transferred to the Akira-class USS Tar'Hana, a ship which, not unexpectedly, had a crew that was nearly two-thirds Vulcan. She was on the Tar'Hana when it fought in the Battle of Sector 001, and she impressed the Admiralty when she successfully took command of the ship after several senior officers, including the CO, had been assimilated by the Borg.
After the battle, she found herself promoted to the rank of Captain and became Commanding Officer of the Tar'Hana. She continued to serve as its CO through the end of the Dominion War, where the ship distinguished itself by being one of the deciding factors in the Battle for Cardassia, a distinction which earned its crew an Outstanding Unit Citation from Starfleet Command.
Once the Dominion War ended, T'Vara requested a position at Starfleet Academy, now believing that she would be more useful molding cadets' minds, rather than sending them into battle. She was given a position at the Command School, where for the next six years she taught advanced courses in interpretation of Starfleet Regulations. However, conflict once more threatened the Federation, and late in 2382 she took command of the newly commissioned USS Argus Panoptes, an Intrepid-class vessel. However, unlike all her previous assignments, this vessel's crew complement was no more than 15% Vulcan.
The Argus Panoptes spent most of its time patrolling the Federation-Breen border in anticipation of escalating tensions with the Triad forces. During this time, T'Vara struggled to adapt to the unpredictabilities of her new crew, just as she focused on adapting them to her command style. It was slow going at first, but eventually, after several crew transfers and reorganizations, everything seemed to fall into place. In 2384, the Panoptes was part of the force sent to retake Corvallis and Starbase 447 from the Breen: T'Vara's first real combat action since the Battle for Cardassia. Shortly after the new year in 2385, T'Vara was awarded the Act of Distinction for her continued superlative service to Starfleet.
Two months later she received an unexpected call from Starfleet Command. Due to the unexpected injury of Captain Daren M'Kantu at the Battle of the Kateren Nebula, the USS Galaxy found itself without a Commanding Officer. And to her surprise, they wanted her to fill the position.
If T'Vara was capable of being passionate about anything, it would certainly be rules and regulations. She has memorized the entire text of the Federation Charter, the Articles of the Federation, Starfleet's General Orders, Directives, and Code of Conduct. She lives her life by these documents, and does not make a single command decision without weighing it against them.
T'Vara could be considered a balanced, yet demanding, commanding officer. She gives her best to her job each and every day, and expects the same from all under her command. She does not tolerate laziness, ignorance of regulations, or those who do not live up to their true potential. Her years as a teacher, both at Shi'Kahr Academy and Starfleet Academy, have given her an incredible ability to know exactly how far she can push subordinates to turn them from mediocre officers into outstanding ones.
T'Vara is not particularly innovative or imaginative, though she has from time to time come up with unique solutions to problems, but always within the bounds of Starfleet Regulations. While an instructor at Starfleet Academy she taught this method of thinking in Applied Rules and Regulations, a course that trained commanders to actually use and apply the Starfleet Codes in many different situations, rather than simply being able to recite them from memory.
She has a reputation for being cold and distant, though this is as much a product of her Vulcan upbringing as it is a comment about her personality. She develops strong working relationships with her subordinates but has few friends, believing that a commanding officer must remain above the crew.
Politically, she is considered a moderate by most members of Starfleet Command, as are many full-blooded Vulcans. She believes that the ends often justify the means and can be very thorough and efficient when her ship or crew are threatened and must defend themselves, but she has no real aggressive tendencies and will never shoot first. In the eyes of Command, her balanced nature and seemingly infinite patience with so-called 'fringe officers' and 'troublemakers' make her the perfect choice to command, mold, and reign in the often eccentric crewmembers of the USS Galaxy.
T'Vara's appearance, as one might expect from any Vulcan, is always perfectly polished. She is tall and statuesque, with close cropped ebony hair framing a flawless face. Her uniforms are always perfect; when on duty she wears the Class A uniform, and expects all bridge officers to do the same. She is never seen in anything but her uniform, even when off-duty; the only time she wears anything but a Starfleet uniform is in the privacy of her quarters.
T'Vara is an accomplished musician, particularly with pre-Surakian woodwinds and several instruments of the Terran Renaissance period. Oftentimes she prefers musical practice over standard Vulcan meditation. She has recently attempted to compose pieces for her preferred instruments, but has concluded that she needs further instruction in music theory before she can produce anything worthy of publication or public performance.
Among her personal items in her quarters, T'Vara has a replica of a Terran harpsichord, which she commissioned from an instrument maker on Earth while teaching at the Academy, as well as a small collection of Vulcan flutes: some authentic, others replicas. She also has a 15-stringed Japanese koto which she keeps in her Ready Room. Though she plays all her instruments regularly, the koto is mostly for show, as she had the maker inlay an image of the Fire Plains of Vulcan on its surface when it was made.
She still enjoys studying the history and various philosophical movements of Vulcan, though nowadays she does not devote as much time to this pursuit as she would like. In addition to her fluency in Unified Vulcan, the form of the language spoken before and during the time of Surak (spoken c. 4500 - 6500 in the Vulcan calendar), she has taught herself to read High Proto-Unified Vulcan (c. 3200 - 4500), Low Vulcan (c. 6400 - 6900), and Middle Vulcan (c. 6900 - 7500). Her theory is that it is preferable to read historical documents in the language in which they were originally written, and so she is slowly teaching herself the various forms of written Vulcan language as she needs them.
