Valok

Valok was a Vulcan Starfleet officer.

History
Valok was born in 2339 on Vulcan to Solen and Keris. His parents separated when he was very young, and Valok was raised by his mother, Keris, a diplomat.

He attended Starfleet Academy from 2357 to 2361. His first post was on the USS Exeter; after three years as an operations officer, he received a promotion to lieutenant junior grade and advanced to assistant chief operations officer.

In 2367, Valok was promoted to full lieutenant and transferred to the USS Pioneer. He served as assistant chief under Lieutenant Sara Thales for one year, and took over her position after her move to Earth. Another increase in rank, to lieutenant commander, came in 2374.

After the end of the Dominion War, Valok was one of many Pioneer crewmembers reassigned, in his case, to the USS Farrand.

T'Val
At the age of seven, Valok was betrothed to T'Val, the daughter of one of his mother's associates, in the traditional bonding ceremony. In 2363, during his time on the Exeter, Valok experienced his first pon farr, the Vulcan mating urge. T'Val had also pursued a career in Starfleet, but as an engineer, and both departed their ships and met on Vulcan for the koon-ut-kal-if-fee ceremony, the Vulcan equivalent of a wedding. At the end of their leave, they parted ways again and returned to their respective assignments. Unfortunately, two years later, T'Val was killed in an accident during an away mission.

Haria Lyron
In 2370, Valok, by now assigned to the Pioneer, again experienced the pon farr. After a fruitless attempt to control his urges with intensive meditation, he reluctantly came to the decision that it would be necessary to take another mate. With the Pioneer busy with a survey mission in a far flung star system, his choices were limited to his shipmates. Valok soon settled on a the most suitable prospective mate: Lieutenant Haria Lyron, chief of security. However, upon further research, he uncovered a problem: the vast difference between Bolian and Vulcan biochemistries.

By this time, the pressures of the pon farr were weighing heavily on him and he was unwilling to give up his chance. He consulted the chief medical officer, Dr. Robert Dalton about his dilemma. Dalton was initially surprised, even with the question couched as a hypothetical, but acknowledged that the pairing of a Vulcan and a Bolian would be difficult and medically dangerous to some degree to either or both. He hesitated to speculate further, but on Valok's urging, he agreed that with research, he ought to be able to anticipate the likely side effects of such an encounter and either prevent or treat them if it were necessary. Even so, Dalton maintained that the risk involved would be significant and that he could not recommend that Valok go through with the idea. Valok's obvious distress at hearing this confirmed the doctor's suspicion about his condition. Reluctantly, he agreed to treat the couple if Lyron wished to go through with it.

This problem solved as far as he was concerned, Valok immediately approached Lyron to declare koon-ut so'lik, the marriage proposal. Lyron was understandably taken aback by this, but Valok pressed on; he explained his situation and detailed the reasons why he admired her: he considered her intelligent, emotionally balanced, hard-working, forthright, and overall, impressive. At her urging, he admitted he would die if the urges were not satisfied. Lyron accepted the proposal, but as she said later, life or death situation or not, she wouldn't have done it if she didn't like him.

The next year, Valok and Lyron traveled to Vulcan to complete the traditional marriage ceremony and formally begin their life together. His mother, Keris, was initially skeptical of the couple's chances together, but eventually came to accept Lyron.