Th'lora Vehl

Th’lora is a woman who had a string of bad luck from an early age. Th’lora’s birth mother had become dependant on multiple substances and as a result, she was born into an orphanage. When she was five, the owners of the orphanage began to suffer from a rare degenerative bone disease. With their deteriorating health, the orphanage was forced into closure. Fortunately, Mavin and Jenna, some friends of the owners offered to help during such times of difficulty and Th’lora spent the next two years with them until a more permanent family could be found. While Mavin and Jenna had not planned on raising children long term due to their age, the couple and Th’lora thought of themselves as close to family as possible.

It was during a beautiful night one summer on Trill that the triangle of bad luck became complete when Jenna forgot to blow out some candles in the bedroom before going to sleep and the house caught fire. Emergency personnel managed to rescue Th’lora, but Mavin and Jenna became trapped in the house and they were killed as the house burned to the ground. This time, however, Th’lora did not have to spend any more time in another orphanage. Tevon and Gwen a young couple incapable of having children had read of the horror in the news and decided this was the answer to their prayers.

As Th’lora grew up with Tevon and Gwen, she learned of the host program and decided she would do whatever it took to join. Doing what it took, however, did not require much effort as it was deemed that Th’lora was a perfect candidate as she not only met the ethical qualifications, but her physiological compatibility was a perfect match. While she prepared to become a host for a symbiont, she also began studies to take the Starfleet Academy entrance exam.

Trying to balance Academy life as well as learning all there was to becoming a host to a symbiont was challenging. So much so, that while in her first year she had discovered her calling; piloting. She was so good, that her instructors accused her of cheating to get a passing grade as they believed she couldn’t possibly handle both the studies with the Trill Symbiosis Commission and Starfleet. An accusation that nearly got her expelled from the Academy, but after a formal inquiry she was found not guilty and permitted to continue her studies. She was subsequently offered an opportunity to take advanced pilot training after graduation. She graciously accepted with the stipulation that her studies would need to be interrupted so that she could travel back to Trill to accept her new symbiont and adjust to life as a joined Trill.

Upon completion of her advanced studies, Th’lora was finally given her first active duty assignment aboard the USS Triton under the command of Captain Nathan Patterson. However, in her second year aboard the ship, Th’lora had been assigned to assist with the transport and settlement of Earth colonists on their new home of Veela III. During this assignment, an unpredictable earthquake struck and the away teams and colonists sought shelter in some nearby caves. While in the caves, there was an aftershock. To her commanding officer, it appeared that the structural integrity of the rock above was going to collapse completely. Th’lora was ordered to get her group out of the area immediately. However, Th’lora having a better vantage point could see that if any rock was to fall, The group was safer where they were. Between her commanding officer yelling and Th’lora refusing to move her group, the group was uncertain where they should be standing. The rocks gave way and the ensuing rockslide struck a father and his newborn son killing them instantly. She had disobeyed a direct order from her superior officer and two civilians died. However, forty-eight survived. While the outcome of the incident turned out for the better, this incident stained Th’lora’s permanent record for some time. She had been passed up for promotion twice in her first five years aboard the ship.

For some time after that, Th’lora decided she did not want any further stains on her record. She was going to meet or exceed whatever task was going to be assigned to her. This philosophy worked well for quite some time until Th’lora found herself on yet another away mission, this time in service to the USS Ramses under Captain William Scottsdale as his Chief Flight Control Officer and his second in command. The Ramses had been in orbit of Tesnia III, a planet with very harsh living conditions, but an ample source of antimatter, of which the Ramses was running low. Storms on the planet prevented safe transport of the antimatter even if using a portable magnetic vacuum field chamber. While she waited for the cargo to be loaded and the storms to clear enough for her to pilot the shuttle back to the ship, she got to know the planet’s inhabitants. The Tesnians were pleasant people mostly. However many were displeased with the working conditions and disproportionate amount of compensation for the work they were doing. The planet’s Prime Minister was known by the people for making unsubstantiated claims that he was working to make things better. When Th’lora heard this she felt sympathy for the miners. In the tens of hours that she spent on the planet, Th’lora unbeknownst to her managed to rally the Tesnians into a civil uprising.