Who Was T’POL? A STAR TREK PERSONNEL FILE REPORT

 T’Pol was a female Vulcan and the first one to serve on board a Starfleet Starship as an official member of its crew 

Early Life

T’Pol was a Vulcan born in 2088 to T’Les and her spouse on Vulcan. She was raised in the capital city on the planet Vulcan. She grew up hearing stories about her ancestor, T’Mir about her time on Earth after crash landing in Carbon Creek, Pennsylvania. They were treated as family secrets along with T’Mire’s human purse she had brought back from Earth.

Early Career

During the early part of her career, T'Pol joined the Ministry of Security and was trained in reconnaissance and retrieval. During her time, she worked with Klingons within the Empire, some of those would help her locate the Klingon penal colony, Rura Penthe, years later. In 2135, she was sent to capture a group of rogue Vulcan operatives. She nearly captured them all, tracking the remaining operatives, Menos and Jossen down on Risa. Menos escaped her. She shot Jossen believing he was about to attack by pulling out a weapon. She resigned from her position with the Ministry and went to P'Jem for guidance. There T'Pol underwent the Fullara Ceremony, which erased her memory of having killed Jossen, along with any emotions from the incident.

 Later T'Pol served as part of the Vulcan High Command's Science Council aboard the starship Seleya as the ship's deputy science officer, commanded by Captain Voris and assisting Chief Engineer Commander Solin. T'Pol also worked during this time with the Vulcan military during the Tomed mission with Talok was under her command.

T'Pol also assisted the Ministry of Information on Vulcan as well.

Assigned to Earth

In 2149, T'Pol was assigned to Earth, by that time, she had already been on thirty-six different Minshara class planets. Her residence within the Vulcan Compound in Sausalito, she and Ambassador Soval formed a solid working relationship built on their shared understanding of humans, believing they were too "volatile" and "provincial" to leave their solar system.

In 2150, T'Pol went on a walk outside the Vulcan Compound and found herself at the Fusion restaurant. She had been drawn to the "unusual, chaotic" jazz music and followed it. She listened to the saxophonist playing. She felt emotions from the music that she had never before felt and also never forgot.

She did also go visit the setting of her childhood stories of Earth and T’Mir by visiting Carbon Creek, Pennsylvania, spending five days exploring. She visited as well during her stay on Earth geological points of interest such as Yellowstone and Carlsbad Caverns.

Klingon First Contact

In 2151, Earth made first contact with the Klingons, through the Klingon courier Klaang. T’Pol was reassigned to the Earth Starfleet vessel Enterprise with the rank of sub-commander. She acted as a “chaperone” to keep an eye on the species she felt wasn’t ready to be out among the stars. In exchange for her position on the Enterprise, the Vulcans released their star charts and a Klingon linguistic database. Because she was forced onto the ship as well as her position to watch the crew, she was dubbed a spy by the chief engineer, Commander Charles Tucker, and was not readily accepted by the crew.

She assisted the crew as they transported the injured Klaang home. She was part of the away mission to Rigel X. During this mission she used much of her past experiences with different cultures in order to assist her crewmates through their investigation.
She also took command of the Enterprise as she became the Senior officer when Captain Archer was incapacitated. She had studied Archer enough to anticipate what his orders would be, despite her personal feelings on what she considered a “foolish mission”.
She soon learned she was wrong about the Mission (and Human’s readiness) when she aided a recovered Archer in uncovering the plot that the Cabal had created to destabilize the Klingon Empire. They successfully returned Klaang to his people. With the mission completed, Archer persuaded T’Pol to join his crew as his first officer. She accepted.

Enterprise

T’Pol as a full member of the crew led an away mission to an uninhabited planet that would later be known as Archer IV. The alien fauna had toxic hallucinogenic properties that caused the human crew members to become impaired by their delusions and paranoia. Trapped on the planet with a raging storm, she was able to find shelter and hold her composure while dealing with the effects herself. Phlox comes up with an antidote and it is brought to the team. Tucker refuses to take it. T’Pol being given directions by Sato in Vulcan because the effects have regressed her verbally, understands the situation and overwhelms Tucker, and administers the antidote to all stranded crewmembers.

Her spycraft helped her playact with Ferengi pirates in 2151 and gained the trust and sympathies of Ferengi Pirates. She, Archer, and Tucker were able to convince them not only to leave the Enterprise but return stolen materials as well.

T’Pol accompanied Archer and Tucker to P’Jem, the Vulcan monastery. They found it overtaken by Andorian commandos under the command of Thy’lek Shran. They were taken hostage and interrogated. Shran believed there was a sensor array being used to spy on Andoria and he was right. During a firefight in the temple, T’Pol discoverd the entrance, a hatch, leading to the facility. Captain Archer was deeply angered at the deception from the Vulcans and ordered the scans done by T’Pol of the array handed over to the Andorians. They destroyed the sanctuary and the array.

Vulcan High Command issued ordered to recall T’Pol after the destruction of their secret facility. They sent the starship Ni’Var under the command of Captain Sopek.

Archer, learning that he was losing T’Pol, decided to explore one last planet with her in the Coridan system. They were captured and discovered the planet was in the midst of a civil war. They didn’t know of humans but they did recognize the Vulcans as being supporters of their opposition. Their leader, Traeg questioned them about their weapons and transport. He assumed that T’Pol was in charge and she allowed this deception to protect Archer.

Sopek and the Ni’Var arrived to the Coridan system and discussed the situation with Tucker. He met with them on the bridge of the Enterprise about how the Vulcans intend to proceed. Tucker suggested a different approach but ran into typical Vulcan stubbornness about their logic. After Sopek left, Tucker started arranging his own plan.

After a failed attempt to escape, the pair were retied separately. Food was delivered and oddly, a communications device was in Archer’s food.
Tucker and Reed discovered the Andorian Shran on the surface. Wanting to work off the debt he felt he owed to Archer for what happened at P’Jem, he wanted to help him as the Dissidents who had him didn’t plan on releasing him alive.

As the rescue team is leaving, the Vulcans of the ship Ni'Var confront and accuse the Andorians of violating the Tau Ceti Accords. The injured Traeg, despite his wounds, sneaks into the argument, aiming his plasma pistol at Sopek. T'Pol notices and moves to defend him, she is instead hit by the blast, causing her to be gravely injured. Archer orders his crew to take T'Pol back to the ship for medical treatment. Sopek stops him, saying she's no longer Archer's responsibility. Archer ignores him, taking his crew back to the Enterprise, T'Pol included. Sopek agrees to convince High Command that she should stay with the Enterprise.

The Enterprise came upon rogue Vulcans, who initially were very friendly until it was revealed that one Vulcan, Tolaris, had forced a mind meld on T’Pol that also infected her with a neural disease, Pa'nar Syndrome, which resulted in the degradation of the synaptic pathways. This syndrome was treated on Vulcan with revulsion, much like the leppers of Earth. This was until the Syrranite leader T’Pau in 2154, who explained and shared the cure with the Enterprise. The disease was caused by Vulcans improperly trained in mind melds

In 2152, the Suliban, the enemy behind the attack on Klaang, framed the Enterprise for the destruction of a settlement and the deaths of 3,600 colonists on Paraagan II. T’Pol was instrumental in proving her crew’s innocence by detecting a cloaked Suliban vessel. However, the Suliban captured the Enterprise and tortured T’Pol for information on time travel. She cited the Vulcan Science Directorate’s findings, maintaining it being impossible. She escaped and led the crew to retake the Enterprise by freeing it from the Suliban helix. She was also able to convince Soval and Starfleet to continue Enterprises’ mission afterward.

She assisted a deuterium mining colony in training them in self-defense to fend off Klingon marauders. She lent her extensive past training to the crew as well, leading to a much more prepared crew.

Being Vulcan came with advantages as she was the only crew member not incapacitated by a trinary star system that the Enterprise was too near. She alone was able to stave off the effects, revive her Captain and help him navigate away from a singularity.

Seventeen years after losing Menos on Risa, T’Pol located and proved that he was indeed a weapons smuggler, managing to end her doubts on the issue. Bringing in this fugitive brought closure to her and her past.

In 2153, after Earth was attacked by the Xindi, the Enterprise was recalled, refitted, and prepped for a mission into the Delphic Expanse. Vulcan Command, seeing no reason for a Vulcan to remain on board, recalled T’Pol to serve once again in the Ministry of Information. T’Pol resigned her commission to remain on board the Enterprise. She was a civilian until she officially joined Starfleet later on. Even so a civilian at first, she still retained her position and rank unofficially as a science officer and second in command.
She worked with the crew, especially Ensign Soto to crack and decipher the Xindi database. This work saved Earth from a second attack.

Soon after starting to explore the Expanse, the Enterprise came upon T’Pol’s former ship, the Seleya, with most of the crew dead. The Expanse has high amounts of the element trellium-D which affects Vulcan neurology and impairs their emotional control. Unfortunately, she became addicted to the substance, injecting herself with small doses to override her feelings. It caused permanent damage before she was caught dosing.

Her denial of time travel was upended when she, Captain Archer, and the temporal agent known as Daniels, traveled to the year 2004 and the town of Detroit in America. They stopped the Xindi present in that year from releasing a bio-weapon as well as exposing the involvement of the “Guardians” or Sphere-Builders.

In a two-pronged attack to stop the destruction of Earth, Archer and allies stopped them at Earth while T’Pol, Tucker, and Enterprise attacked Sphere 41, a central location that could destroy the network. They were all successful and Earth was saved. Afterward, T’Pol formalized her choice to join Starfleet. She was assigned the rank of Commander.

In 2154, the Enterprise was dispatched to investigate the bombing of the United Earth Embassy on Vulcan. The Syrranites had been blamed for the bombing and the deaths of forty-three people including Admiral Forrest. T’Pol discovered her Mother was among this group. She and Archer located them at the T'Karath Sanctuary, where T'Pol and Archer found the group to be peaceful, and not fanatics, as had been described by the Vulcan High Command. Soon after arriving the Sanctuary was bombed by the Vulcans government. This attack killed T’Les. the  Kir'Shara, which was an ancient artifact containing the teachings of Surak. They brought it to the High Command. With the revelation of Surak's true teachings, in whose delivery T'Pol had played an instrumental role. This brought a new time and era on Vulcan. With the dissolution of the government, all restrictions on Earth's exploration of space were lifted, along with the clearing of the Syrrannites.

A Romulan Drone ship attacking Tellarite and Andorian starships was discovered. Controlled by telepathic means, the crew, the Doctor, and Shran build a unit to disrupt the device. T’Pol was unable to control it. An Aenar named Jhamel can though, and the drone was destroyed, preventing any further attacks.
This cooperation between the different species was the first step in what would form the alliance that was known as the Federation.

The terrorist group Terra Prime revealed that they had stolen DNA from T'Pol and Commander Tucker to create a female, infant Human-Vulcan hybrid to stoke xenophobia as well as forced the dissolution of the group and expel all non-humans from Earth. T’Pol and Tucker were captured by the group and taken to Mars. Rescued by Archer, they returned to the Enterprise only to find that the process to create her was flawed and she died soon after.

T’Pol continued serving on the Enterprise through the foundation of the Federation of Planets.