Aloran

Early Life (2293-2318)

Aloran had a conventional and stable childhood on Vulcan. His father, a structural engineer, had a modest practice focused on restoring historic buildings across the planet, particularly those with religious and spiritual significance. His mother was an administrator in the T’LingShar municipal government, with responsibility for supporting the successful integration of alien humanoid species into local society. A curious and intellectual child, Aloran exhibited an unconventional empathy – for a Vulcan – for the thoughts, feeling and behaviours of others. Given their respective professions, his parents would often host visitors from across the Federation and from the many monastic groups across Vulcan. The young Aloran’s mindset during these engagements was such that his parents, and their friends, assumed that he would devote his life to study and contemplation in one of Vulcan’s monasteries.

Diplomatic Service (2318-2364)

Eschewing the contemplative life, after his formal education Aloran chose to enter the Federation diplomatic service, encouraged and mentored to do so by the cultural attaché at the Federation embassy on Vulcan, James Mandeville. He travelled to Earth, preparing for the examinations and then subsequently living in Paris and London for the opening years of a moderately successful forty-six years of diplomatic service.

His first posting after a year of training was to the moon of a Klingon colony world that served as a consulate to support Federation citizens engaged in trade and investment with the many worlds of the Klingon Empire. This was a baptism of fire, in a cultural sense, for a contemplative Vulcan to learn that passions unleashed at the right time can alter the course of a negotiation. Aloran learnt that practicing diplomacy in a galaxy with a multitude of species, each with unique and colourful expressions of emotion, is far more complicated than in the textbooks.

Four years on that remote moon were followed by twelve more years of postings to consulates across the Klingon Empire, specialising in the facilitation of increasingly complex commercial relationships between the many worlds of the Federation, and eventually the Federation itself, and the warlike empire. Aloran became practiced not only in interstellar economics, but in the deliberate and theatrical use of his own emotions – sometimes explosive! – as a valuable part of bringing parties together to find a common resolution.

After sixteen years living on Klingon worlds, Aloran’s old mentor, now ambassador James Mandeville, called upon him to join him as part of a roving diplomatic mission. They were to be focused on the post-war reconstruction of worlds and societies that the Federation Council hoped could walk the path of one day becoming a member of the Federation. Mandeville believed, as did Aloran himself, that so many years living amongst violence tempered with a strong sense of honour, was a perfect preparation for the challenge of newly-won peace.

The next thirty-years of his diplomatic service was devoted to this roving mission of supporting worlds to come to terms with post-conflict settlements, the reconstruction of infrastructure and societies, and the rehabilitation of old combatants into future citizens of the Federation. In the intervening years he married, becoming a father of a daughter, and his family would accompany him on these missions of peace and reconstruction.

Wilderness and Starfleet Academy (2364-2376)

Living in environments so close to war, with the scars as visible on the people as they were the landscape, alters the perspective of even the most rational Vulcan. Environments that many would find threatening become commonplace. The perception of threat may be heightened but so too is the tolerance of threatening circumstances. This was the case for Aloran and his family. Often surrounded by Starfleet and local security forces, Aloran’s success in avoiding and averting skirmishes made him complacent about his safety and that of his family. While on a freighter travelling between two faraway, insignificant planets recently embroiled in a decades-long war, his wife and daughter were murdered by a former soldier in the throes of psychosis. Aloran continued working for three days before a young Starfleet officer brought him the news. Two days later he left the planet and diplomatic service without a single word to his friends and colleagues.

The next eight years were spent wandering the galaxy, visiting shrines and religious sites wherever he could find them. And finding no peace at any. He was a stranger to himself and to the people he met with, conversing with them at great length about their beliefs and customs and giving none of his story in return. This could have continued were it not for serendipity. A message reached him over subspace from the daughter of his former mentor, Eliza Mandeville, that she was on shore-leave from Starfleet and would like to see him. Aloran had never hidden his travels but neither had he sought out connection from his friends and family. But for some reason, the rationale still obscure to him, he agreed to see Eliza. They spoke about a great many topics; the missions shared with her father, the cultures that Aloran had visited, and Eliza’s aspirations for her career in Starfleet. By the end of a week spent together in casual and easy conversation, Eliza – decades younger than Aloran – had convinced him to apply to Starfleet Academy.

Starfleet Command (2376-2382)

Graduating from the Academy at the age of eighty-three was unconventional but not unheard of in a galaxy with a number of long-lived species. But nearly half a century of diplomatic experience in hazardous environments caught the attention of Starfleet Intelligence, perhaps with some influence exerted by some of Aloran’s friends and former colleagues. And so his first posting as a newly-commissioned junior officer was as an intelligence analyst at Starfleet Command. An extensive network of contacts and the instincts and wisdom that come with experience made Aloran as much an insightful and valuable officer as an irritation to those of his peers less acquainted with the diversity of the galaxy. His presence and contributions were as evenly welcomed as they were dismissed, a challenging experience for Aloran even with the wisdom of years and decades of mental discipline.

USS Bower (2382-2402)

The USS Bower and its captain, Xavier Darwin, had spent several years as the Starfleet escort for the missions to which Aloran was assigned. Captain Darwin had been Aloran’s sponsor to the Academy and, keeping in touch with the now junior officer, observed his struggle of being an old Vulcan in a young game. When another officer was promoted and reassigned, Darwin requested that Aloran be posted as diplomatic officer on the Bower.

The ten years spent aboard the Bower was transformative for Aloran. The feeling that he was a stranger to himself gradually faded and as a consequence he became more comfortable with – and proud of – his identity as a Starfleet officer. No longer did he feel like the former diplomat masquerading on a starship. Instead, he came to see his past experience as one part of the rich tapestry of a long life.

Starbase Bravo (2402-)

Having rediscovered himself on the Bower, Aloran determined that he was ready to return to a place full of the activity and variety of the galaxy. And that Starbase Bravo was the place to begin that new adventure.