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From: [e-mail] (james vassilakos)
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Subject: CHARACTER: ST-PBeM - Lt. Soroc
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Date: 3 Apr 1995 10:25:58 -0400
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                       Star Trek PBeM - Character Record
                                     Soroc
*******************************************************************************


Player:    Jeff Ellis
Character: Soroc tosiou Sothiros
Rank:      Lieutenant
Position:  Security Liaison, Albuquerque Station


Physical Description:
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Race: Half-Vulcan         Sex: Male               Handedness: Right
Age: 45                   Height: 5'9"            Weight: 200 lbs
Hair Color: Black         Eye Color: Brown        Skin Color: Tan


Family:
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Born 22/1408.08 at Iota Eridani. Father: Ahmed Sothiros, human xeno-cultural
anthropologist. Mother: T'dani, vulcan historian.


Service Record:
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3501-3812: Star Fleet Academy
           Terra, Sol                                            Cadet
           Dept. of Security, Performance: Satisfactory
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3901-3912: Cadet Cruise - Base Operations
           Starbase 2                                            Midshipman
           Security Trainee, Performance: Satisfactory
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4001-4012: 2nd Cadet Cruise - Fleet Operations
           USS Cook, NCC-4933 (Baker Destroyer)                  Midshipman
           Computer Security Trainee, Performance: Competent
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4101-4506: Fleet Operations
           USS Mirfak, NCC-1837 (Tikopai Cruiser)                Ensign
           Security Officer, Performance: Poor
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4507-5006: Justice Division
           Alcatraz Penal Colony, Phi Crucis V                   Ensign
           Security Guard, Performance: Competent
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5007-5208: Planetary Relations
           Federation Embassy, Sigma Zodix II                    Ensign
           Security Officer, Performance: Satisfactory
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5209-5408: Fleet Operations
           USS Repulse, NCC-2344 (Chandley Frigate)              Ensign
           Boarding Officer, Performance: Competent
           Commendation for Valor
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5409-5808: Colonial Operations
           USS Columbia, NCC-621 (Cygnus Scout)                  2nd Lieutenant
           Asst. Security Chief, Performance: Competent
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5809-6002: Base Operations
           Starbase 75                                           2nd Lieutenant
           Boarding Inspector, Performance: Outstanding
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6003-      Fleet Operations
           Albuquerque Station                                   Lieutenant
           Security Liaison, Performance: No rating


Personal History:
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Soroc lived on Iota Eridani for 20 years before moving to Earth. Life there was
somewhat difficult due to his human heritage. Many times, he felt that even his
father, a full-blooded human, made a better vulcan than he did. Logic came
easily, and Soroc had control over his emotions, but he did not hold the same
values as his culture. While he respected logic, he often made decisions on the
basis of his intuition. When asked to explain his actions, he could only
report, in as cold and calculating a demeanor as possible, that it "felt" like
the right thing to do.

Soroc developed a strange mix of values for a Vulcan. He respects life in all
of its diversity but has the human notion that life feeds on death. Soroc's
studies of the old pre-logic days of Vulcan were looked down upon by others,
though they were encouraged by both his parents. However, even they were
troubled by his fascination with ancient Vulcan weapons.

Perhaps due to his human heritage, Soroc never did test as a powerful telepath,
and so this potential was never developed. Instead, he turned his energies
toward team sports and personal combat.


Service History:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Soroc entered the Terran Academy shortly after his 20th birthday, his dual
citizenship (vulcan/terran) allowing him to enter either branch. He chose the
Terran Branch partly because he wanted to get away from Vulcan and the social
pressures inherent to that society. However, he'd soon learn that Earth had its
own set of social pressures.

At the academy, Soroc soon acquired a reputation for being cold and
calculating, a reputation common to Vulcans in general. However, his case was
unusual. He was within the College of Security, one in which few Vulcans
studied, and one which held a particular bigotry toward Vulcans who were viewed
as being too predictable and lacking in "guts". Although he always did well in
training exercises, keeping his cool and following instructions to a tee, he
was also often the target of student pranks, many of whom saw him as an upstart
or a jerk. Normally, a Vulcan would not retaliate, viewing the situation as an
opportunity to exercise the ancient discipline of logic and self-control.
However, Soroc "felt" retaliation would be the best course of action and
tailored his responses accordingly, always finding a way to shift the blame to
another one of his attackers. In fact, he had always taken opportunities to
plan ahead, finding ways to prepare retaliations months in advance of when they
might be needed. This included planting "root-gates" in computer systems,
taking photos of cadets engaging in "behavior unbecoming an officer", keeping
careful records of his fellow students, and, in general, obtaining access to
all variety of resources to use at a moment's notice.

Soroc's luck ran out, however, when he was discovered in a "secure area" by a
janitor. The location was a computer center, where he was tweaking the
operating system from a super-console in order to extend his range of access.
He was reported and made up an excuse, but the sysadmin found out and saw that
the logs had been erased. Soroc was placed on probation and given a choice.
Either tell the truth or get the boot. He decided to fess-up, realizing that
they'd probably boot him either way. However, the sysadmin (a former hacker
herself) was impressed enough that she offered Soroc a student-position at the
center. He promised to not take matters into his own hands without informing
her first, and he plugged the holes he found or created, making her system more
secure against the more malicious species of hackers. Of course, the pranks
eventually resumed, one of which involved pouring a vulcan pudding into the
circuits of a super computer where he worked. The sysadmin was incensed by the
senseless destruction against *her* system, and though they couldn't prove
anything, Soroc could finger the likely suspects. Instead of running to the
administration, they decided to use their computing powers make life hell for
the likely jokers. They slowed down critical paperwork, nuked off-campus visas,
screwed up class schedules, and in one case even suspended financial aid.
Everyone suddenly assumed that Soroc was god of the network, and for the rest
of his academy days, nobody dared to screw with him, lest the powers of the
computer descend like a swarm of killer bees.

Soroc passed and received his commission as an Ensign. His first real post was
on the USS Mirfak. The Mirfak was primarily outfitted as a muscle ship, sent
from one hot spot to another to keep interplanetary hostilities to a minimum.
As is well known, the Federation is composed of numerous divergent cultures,
many of whom would be at each others throats were it not for Star Fleet. While
the Prime directive applies to evolving planetary societies, it often does not
apply to interplanetary ones, ones which are capable of waging interstellar
war. The Mirfak was caught in such an incident in the Zodix Cluster, and the
Captain, hoping to observe the facts of a situation without the locals
realizing that Star Fleet was watching over their shoulder, decided to send a
small shuttle team to collect the necessary recon. The shuttle was attacked,
however, and was forced to crash-land on a nearby planet. When a starship
landed to investigate, Soroc killed several of the aliens and obtained control
of their bridge. It was later realized that the ship that landed was not the
same ship that attacked, however. The two, while being of identical design,
were from different sides in the conflict. Soroc was formally reprimanded for
the incident, however, seeing as it was a mistake (and seeing that prosecuting
a Star Fleet Officer would strain relations with the Federation from whom they
were requested military aid) the government on Sigma Zodix decided not to press
charges or pursue extradition.

Soroc was not let off the hook so easily, however. He was sent to a penal
colony run by Star Fleet where he served as a security guard for five years, in
essence, as much a prisoner as those he was guarding. After that, he served two
years at the Federation Embassy on Sigma Zodix. Finally, he was transferred
back to a starship, the USS Repulse, commonly known as a ship not only sent to
trouble spots, but one which had a trigger-happy commander, Capt. Lloyd S.
Stark.

Stark had read about Soroc's reprimand while searching through a database of
officers not promoted in over ten years (his favorite method for selecting
personnel). He decided that a shoot-first, think-later Vulcan was just the sort
of officer he needed to fill out his racial quotas without diminishing the
character of his crew. Within a year, Soroc found himself taking part in a
rescue mission deep within Cardassian space, a move which almost sparked a war
and which failed to retrieve any "live" prisoners. Nonetheless, his team
escaped without sustaining losses, a remarkable achievement considering what
they were up against. He received both a promotion and a commendation for
valor.

Soroc was next positioned as assistant chief of security aboard the USS
Columbia, a small scout ship operating under the colonial operations command.
The Columbia's job was to go around from planet to planet, updating previous
survey data and zooming in to study particular aspects/regions of especially
noteworthy worlds. It also checked-up on existing colonies, in some cases off-
loading critical supplies. This was the case in one peculiar incident, where
the colony in question, Alpha Mercury IV, was suffering from intense doses of
radiation being "pulsed" into the stellar wind by it's primary. The reason for
these disturbances were unknown, and there was talk of abandoning the colony.

The Columbia's head of helm operations, a Lt. T'lar, asked Soroc to help her on
a mission to study the phenomenon at close range. They left the ship in a
heavily armored shuttle, T'lar piloting and Soroc operating the sensors and
shields. They discovered that a cloaked vessel was dropping salvos of
antimatter into the star, intensifying fractures in the "stellar skin" which in
turn caused the solar phenomenon to occur. They managed to evade capture and
report the intruder, hence saving the colony from having to be abandoned.
However, upon returning, Soroc learned that T'lar had disregarded direct orders
in undertaking the mission. Her being a vulcan made such behavior seem doubly
erratic, and she received a thorough chewing-out over the incident. Privately,
however, Soroc told the Captain that the mission, while being her idea, had
been undertaken only because he talked her into doing it, a blatant lie, but
one which probably saved her career in Star Fleet. Since both officers were
essentially blaming themselves, and the Captain didn't know who was telling the
truth, both were spared the axe.

After completing his term of service aboard the Columbia, Soroc was sent up to
Starbase 75 where he served as a boarding inspector. Being a deep-space repair
dock near the Romulan Border, and the place where the Excalibur was being
reconstructed, starbase security was vitally concerned that no spies should get
a peek at the ship before its maiden voyage. In fact, three attempts were made
at sabotaging the vessel. In the first, a bomb was planted in Engineering. In
the second, a hacker tried to gain control of the ship through the starbase's
computer. And in the third, which Soroc was personally responsible for foiling,
a team of chameleons was sent to SB75 to pose as commanding officers of the
vessel. Only though sheer paranoia and absolute attention to detail did Soroc
discover them.

The date is now March of 2260. Soroc has travelled to Albuquerque Station, a
nearby refueling facility, to investigate intelligence that the Romulans are
about to attempt the assassination of a Federation Ambassador at or around the
station. Being the person most skilled in dealing with this race, he was chosen
to interrogate them and make recommendations to Commodore Ash at Albuquerque.
However, Commodore Srikanna at SB75 has given him leave to conduct whatever
further investigations he feels are necessary and appropriate, assuming Ash's
consent. For administrative purposes, he has been temporarily transferred under
Albuquerque command.


                      _   /|        Jim Vassilakos
                      \`o_O'        [e-mail]
                        ( )         [e-mail]
                         U          Riverside, California

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 This Star Trek PBeM is archived on ftp.cs.pdx.edu in pub/frp/stories/startrek
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