Varyn K’lev

Varyn K’lev was born in 2378 on the colony world of Tyral IV.  His father, Tinox, was a nurse at the local hospital, and his mother, Felara, ran a small-but-successful shipping business; Varyn was the youngest of their 3 children.  From a young age, he showed signs of a sharp mind, which his parents encouraged, first with puzzles and other intellectually-stimulating toys and later by securing him a spot in a respected local school.  Sometimes he would come to work with one of his parents, usually if there was nobody available who could mind him, as his elder siblings were already in school and pursuing their own interests; he gravitated more towards his mother’s work than his father’s, showing a particular interest in the maintenance bay of the shipyard from which her shipping service operated.

Varyn was a good student in school; not valedictorian of his class, certainly, but not the bottom of it either.  His burgeoning interest in engineering led him to sign up for the school’s robotics club; he found the club greatly enjoyable for the technical challenges it presented.  He often enjoyed tinkering endlessly with his robots, and usually only barely finished them in time for the club’s competitions (in one case, finishing his robot on the walk to the check-in table).  His grades were good enough, and his engineering aptitude sufficient, to earn him a recommendation to Starfleet Academy.  His parents were sorry to see him go, but – as they had always done – encouraged him to follow his interests, and he enrolled as a member of the class of 2399.

Starfleet Academy presented its own challenges for Varyn; the coursework was certainly harder and the standards more strict, but he enjoyed the experience all the same.  A member of the Academy’s engineer training program, many of his classes focused on engineering, introducing him to far more sophisticated concepts than he had previously studied.  He still found time for making friends, though, both within and without the training program, and seeking new experiences.  He first met a young Trill named Ophelia Lotharys in an elective course he took on the sciences; she was one year behind him at the Academy, and had become his study partner for the course, the beginnings of a friendship that still continues today.

In his final year at the Academy, one of his engineering classmates, a Vulcan named T’rin, was accused of plagiarism by one of their instructors.  Varyn had known T’rin well, as the two had often taken classes together, and was certain of her innocence, but T’rin was expelled from the Academy nonetheless.  Angry and disillusioned, he decided to try and prove her innocence.  With some digging, he discovered that the paper that T’rin had been accused of plagiarism over had disproved a theory that was central to a project that the instructor had been working on for years; the instructor was angry and blamed T’rin for the cancellation of the project, and the accusation was his revenge.  Varyn presented his findings to the Academy and the instructor was fired.  After the hearing, he requested to shift his focus of study to command; given his proximity to graduation, the request was denied, but he was given dispensation to take some extra command electives and apply for command training on the posting he was to receive after a post-graduation training cruise.  He graduated in the upper half of his class.

He was en route to Starbase Bravo, to meet the ship he was assigned to for his training cruise, during Frontier Day 2401, and was among those unknowingly assimilated by the Borg during the Borg-Changeling crisis.  The assimilated young officers and crew aboard the civilian transport took over the ship, but were freed by the efforts of Admiral Jean-Luc Picard and the command crew of the starship Enterprise-D.  After a period of counseling on Starbase Bravo, and the removal of the hidden genetic modifications that enabled the assimilation, he was assigned to the USS Culver City, a California-class starship almost 50 years old, for his training cruise.

Assigned to the engineering division aboard Culver City, he was in main engineering when she came under attack by the Vaadwaur during her mission to Palix Bravo.  The chief engineer and other senior engineering officers were killed or incapacitated during the battle, leaving the young ensign the senior surviving officer in the section.  With no word coming from the bridge, Ensign K’lev assumed command of the Culver City from engineering; further word came in the form of a wounded now-Midshipman Lotharys, who had also been assigned for to the ship a training cruise, who had climbed down the port nacelle pylon from the saucer to the engineering section and told the engineers that the bridge had been destroyed, then joined them in a desperate attempt to save the ship and the colonists she was now evacuating.

The sacrifice of the USS Atlanta enabled Culver City to escape, limping her way to Starbase 86.  Detached from the ship after her arrival, K’lev was temporarily reassigned to Starbase Bravo, though he was transferred back when Command determined to return Culver City to service.