Zarroc Thakrass

Early Life

Zarroc was born to a father serving in Starfleet who would later die over the course of the Federation-Cardassian war during the skirmishes that followed Setlik III.  His mother was a nurse who remained behind in their subterranean home on Andoria.  Zarroc grew up playing in the frozen tunnels and tundras of his homeworld.  Disregarding the concerns of his family, he would disappear for days on end to camp out in the frozen wilds of both the deep underground as well as the surface.  This obsession with surviving in the outdoors began with an innocent ritual among Andorian children to scare and haze one another.  Similar to a human legend known as ‘Bloody Mary’, it is said that a banshee called Ahrasath Grela dwells in the furthest depths of Andoria’s underground.  Her name roughly translates to ‘Messenger of Hell’, and it is said if you go deeper than the Andorian settlements plumb in order to issue forth a challenge and spend the night, then she will visit you while you sleep.  While most children fear Ahrasath Grela, Zarroc had a reckless obsession with catching a sighting of her.  He would often sneak out to spend a night down in the deeps, issue his challenge, and stay awake for as long as he could.  He never did get his sighting.  But as he grew older and accepted the legend for what it was, this obsession shifted to a love of the outdoors and honing his skills of survival.

Starfleet Academy

Zarroc felt like he would be honoring his father’s memory by joining Starfleet and following in the footsteps of his service.  Wanting only the absolute best, he set his sights on the Starfleet Academy located in Earth’s San Francisco Bay.  When he turned 17 he arranged to go to the Sol system and move in with an uncle who worked out of Tycho City on Earth’s moon.  Thus establishing his residency in the Sol system, he spent a year there studying for the entrance exams.  At 18 years of age, he joined with a focus on serving in security.

Early Starfleet

Ensign Thakrass had dreams of serving valiantly in war and living up to the martial traditions that his father and many other Andorians embraced.  Shortly after graduating from the Academy and accepting a posting on the USS Lexington, Zarroc was granted his wish and found that it was far the from the glamour and glory he had anticipated.  In a prelude to the Dominion War, the Federation found its self in another war with the Klingons as a consequence of the Federation rescuing the Cardassian Detapa Council and later defending Cardassian humanitarian convoys.  When the Klingons used that as an excuse to repossess the Archanis sector, the USS Lexington was among the ships sent in to defend the territories.  The fighting was long and hard.  And when it seemed that the Lexington might get a temporary reprieve from the constant space and ground battles in order to return to Earth and rotate out, the Borg sent its assault to Sector 001 where the Lexington received even more casualties.  The loss of crucial ships in that assault forced the war-weary crew of Lexington to quickly repair and restock, and go back to the Archanis front sooner than expected.

When peace was finally struck with the Klingons once more, it felt to Zarroc that it was only resolved out of necessity to face the Dominion threat.  The Federation had merely traded one war for an even larger war that was far more grittier and dirtier than the fighting with the Klingons had ever been.  Zarroc fought to survive and he quickly rose to the rank of Lieutenant Commander by the end of it.  But once these bloody struggles had played out, Zarroc had long since abandoned his romantic views of war.  His father had never wanted to share the gruesome tales of the Cardassian conflicts with Zarroc, as young as he had been at the time of his death.  Zarroc’s mother never wanted to approach the subject of his father’s death at all.  Zarroc had therefore been forced to discover the horrors of warfare for himself, and it had completely and utterly changed his entire outlook on life.

Diplomatic Career

Zarroc had his fill of warfare.  When the Dominion War finally ended, he nearly quit Starfleet altogether.  His motivations for joining had been to emulate his father’s footsteps, whom he had spent his entire youth regarding as some hero in the Cardassian-Federation war.  But the truth of war had shown him that there are no heroes.  There was only enduring, only the will to get through the ordeal and live to see another day.  Nobody ‘won’ wars.  One simply survived them.