Hirek tr’Aimne

Personnel File
Name:	Hirek Kejail ei-Alth'Indor i-Korthre tr’Aimne
Rank:	Specialist
Position:	Bioengineering Scientist
Species:	Romulan
Age:	82
Gender:	Male
Orientation:	Bicurious
Birthplace:	i-Korthre City, Uulma Islands, ch'Rihan
Height:	6ft 0in / 1.83m
Weight:	165lbs / 75kg
Hair:	Greyish Blonde, with a trimmed salt-and-pepper beard
Eye color:	Blue hazel
Played by:	James Badge Dale
Writer:	Ellen Fitz
Interests
Sailing Free-diving Spear-fishing Master Blender Botany Zoology Zhal Makh
Education
2347 - 2351: Imperial War College 2352 - 2354: Imperial War College, Advanced degree
Service Record
2326 - 2327: Recruit, Botany, Keldrak 2327 - 2340: Technician, Science, Ter’ak 2340 - 2346: Uhlan, Science, Melanth 2347 – 2347: Uhlan, Science, Vrekess 2375 – 2375: Erei'erein, Science, Ar’Hael 2375 – 2375: Specialist, Science, USS Theurgy
Decorations
2327: Band of Merit 2335: Ribbon of Distinction 2346: Crest of Valor

Having been used as a Star Fleet Intelligence contact off and on since the 2360s, Hirek was requested to join Praetor Tal’aura’s forces on the Klingon homeworld, Qo’Nos, in 2380. Here he remained, feeding intel to Star Fleet until April 2381, when the USS Theurgy arrived in orbit and revealed the truth of the Infested. Fueled with the desire to stop the Infested from destroying the galaxy and with it his homeworld of Romulus, and the discovery of an age-old blood debt in need of payment with a Theurgy crewmember, Hirek sought to remain with the Theurgy crew, capitalizing on his contacts with Intelligence as an avenue for defection into Star Fleet where he aided in the opposition against the parasites.

Biography

Born in the cool autumn moonlight of Pirek and Elvreng in 2299, Hirek Kejail i-Korthre tr’Aimne was the only child of Nuhir i-Valkarja t'Aimne, a lauded Imperial War college professor of military medicine, and Taev e’Jeiai tr’Aimne, a former Commander in the Romulan guard and senator representing the Uluma islands. On both clan sides, family history was steeped in centuries of provincial leadership and landed wealth, granting many privileges to Hirek from a young age. For example, while closer to the capital and in larger provinces, the cultural indoctrination and physical training common to the Romulan populace began at age five and lasted until fifteen, Hirek spent most of his youth learning directly from his parents or from those in service to his clan. His love for the ocean and watersports began with learning how to build traditional sailing vessels that skipped through the clear waters around his island home. In between the necessary lessons to placate those officials who took time to care, Hirek would be free diving to harvest the jumbo mollusk that favored the reefs and rocks near the Uluma islands. Or he would be spearfishing and specimen collecting, developing a youthful affinity for both botany and zoology. Hirek also discovered a talent for blending the distilled liquor the island residents were famous for producing, creating unique flavors that could be found in most homes around the islands.

By the time he was 20, and compulsory military service loomed overhead, Hirek had become a free-spirited man, loyal to his clan more than to the Senate, eager to make a name for himself outside of the legacy of his parents. Even with the acknowledgment of hypocrisy—given the freedom of his youth--Hirek was determined to do things on his own merit, instead of basking in the privileges his clan status afforded him. As such, Hirek first served at the bottom of the enlisted ranks aboard the Kaur'el Tennahrex, a massive orbital defense platform over Romulus, from 2319 to 2324 before transferring to the scout ship Keldrak. Hirek earned a Band of Merit in 2327, just before finishing his time aboard the Keldrak, for performing well under pressure and leading fellow crew members to overcome unexpected obstacles during a ship-wide emergency.

During this time, Hirek felt the first rein of tradition and culture tighten around his neck. Nuhir and Taev Aimne followed Romulan custom and, in childhood, promised Hirek to a distant clan member, Llaiir i-Mirek t’Aimne. Though they rarely met, Llaiir lived up to her namesake, possessing a fiery affect that clashed more than complemented with Hirek’s own free-spirited ways. Their marriage in 2327 was volatile and brief, and going against Romulan custom, Hirek did not mourn when Llaiir died in an unexplained ship explosion in 2330, where she had served in the engineering department.

Hirek served from 2327 until 2340 on the science vessel Ter’ak. He received a promotion to Technician and the Ribbon of Distinction in 2335 for leading his department in solving a bio-engineering crisis created by experimental technology from the Tal Shiar Research and Development Division. This near-death experience because of Tal Shiar arrogance was just the beginning of his lifelong hatred for the secret police of Romulus. In 2340, Hirek transferred to another science vessel, the Melanth, where he served until 2346, receiving his last promotion in service, that of uhlan. During his service aboard the Melanth, Hirek experienced firsthand the truth of the common phrase, “Never turn your back on a Breen,” as he was grievously wounded while protecting a fellow department member on an away mission involving the Breen in mid-2346. It was only because of his family’s clan connections that Hirek received state-of-the-art lifesaving medical care, which allowed him to return to service in early 2347 with the shiny Crest of Valor on his uniform for his actions.

Hirek’s time aboard the science vessel Vrekess lasted only seven months before his twenty-year enlisted contract ended. Hirek was uninterested in beginning a new one. While his paternal side had always favored politics or naval life for lofty aspirations, his maternal side veered towards more scholarly recognition. And so, Hirek stepped away from naval life to pursue a more academic one. Though by this time, Hirek had proven his own merit apart from the legacy of his father’s clan or his mother’s, his speedy acceptance into the prestigious Imperial War College was partially due to Nuhir Aimne’s position as a favored lecturer and his father Taev Aimne’s status on the Romulan Senate.

Hirek finished his degree in Biotechnology and Biosynthetics near the top of his class in 2351. This would prove to be the second time the Tal Shiar interfered with his life in the guise of Sindari i-Kir Baratan t’Nal, a member of the Research and Development Division. Sindari Nal sought out Hirek and several of his graduating peers to recruit them into her division, promising privileges and prestige not found in the military or civilian life. Still remembering the near-disaster aboard the Ter’ak, Hirek rebuffed her offer in favor of pursuing an advanced degree in Bioengineering. After taking a brief sabbatical, Hirek re-enrolled in the Imperial War College in 2352. He finished his advanced degree in 2354 and later accepted an associate lecturing position at the College.

But what Hirek thought were to be golden years of his life quickly turned sour through the machinations of his uncle. His uncle, Maec e’Jeiai tr'Ethien was a member of the Continuing Committee, elected there on account of his wife’s clan status, and his personal friendship with members of the Praetor’s family. Nearly from the moment of his election, Maec Ethien found himself on opposing sides with a distant cousin from his maternal clan, Terrh ir-Pel’drath tr’Jeiai, a member of the Internal Security Division for the Tal Shiar. Maec Ethien, like his brother, Taev Aimne, felt the Tal Shiar were too arrogant and operated too freely against the Romulan people. While they believed there was a time and place for the Tal Shiar to operate, they both believed the weapon of the Tal Shiar was best pointed to Romulus’ enemies, not at their own people. Terrh Jeiai knew of this discontent and, fueled by his own personal jealousy against the prestige and power that both Maec and Taev enjoyed despite these sentiments, Teerh Jeiai set out to destroy Maec Ethien through any means possible.

Maec Ethien made this effort easy in that, unbeknownst to anyone at the time, he was secretly working with Starfleet Intelligence to counter-destabilize the Tal Shiar efforts against the Klingons in the Klingon-Romulan war. Maec Ethien felt it better for the Romulan people to have a temporary working relationship with Star Fleet if it meant securing their borders and ending hostilities without the Tal Shiar gaining further power. This led to an undercover operative, Lieutenant Commander Isa Leigh Madsen, making direct contact with Maec Ethien sometime in the mid-2350s, starting a multi-year operation that should have resulted in the toppling of the Tal Shiar power and a quicker end to hostilities. However, neither Isa Madsen nor Maec Ethien were expecting the tenacity of Terrh Jeiai to win out.

In 2358, Lieutenant Commander Isa Leigh Madsen took her own life to prevent intel leakage if brought to the Citadel Val’Theldun for brutal interrogation. For his treasonous crimes against the Senate and the assumed personal betrayal against the Praetor, Maec Ethien was sentenced to death. During his Right of Statement, Maec Ethien implicated Terrh Jeiai in a plot to assassinate the Praetor. Though untrue, the implication caused enough internal uproar within the Tal Shiar ranks that Terrh Jeiai lost his privileged status within his division and was exiled from Romulus for a time. Maec Ethien honorably died with a smile on his face, having the last laugh against his political enemy.

Hirek’s family did not come through this ordeal unscathed. Because of the close familial ties, beginning in early 2359, both he and his parents were required to make weekly reports to the Tal Shiar of their comings and goings. Though his parents retained their positions in the senate and the College, and Hirek also kept his position, much of their social life was restricted because of fear. Friends and family alike were afraid of growing too close to them since Hirek’s uncle had publicly betrayed the Empire. As frustrating as this was, Hirek bided his time, believing everything would eventually return to a semblance of normal. However, just has his uncle had underestimated Terrh Jeiai’s lust for power, Hirek had misjudged the Tal Shiar’s definition of “exile.” By 2362, Terrh Jeai was back and more formidable, this time setting his sights on the ruination of Taev Aimne.

Enraged at Terrh Jeiai’s malevolent influence in the Senate, resulting in his father’s senatorial position being revoked, and his mother’s dismissal from the College, Hirek decided on a reckless but decisive course of action. As his parents retreated from society to their clan residence on the Uluma islands, Hirek could not stand idly by while his parents were disgraced unto death. Using his uncle’s old contacts to reestablish connections with Starfleet Intelligence, Hirek volunteered himself as a contact for future needs only if Intelligence operatives helped him get rid of Terrh Jeiai once and for all. What followed was a quick succession of events culminating in the death of Terrh Jeiai at the hands of Starfleet Intelligence Operative, Lieutenant Commander Ernan Lars Madsen, and subsequently Lieutenant Commander Madsen at the hands of Hirek. Madsen forced Hirek to kill him when they were discovered by Romulan guards, and with no way of escape for either of them, Madsen calculated his death would protect the intel operation and Hirek’s family.

With his political enemy gone and his parents unthreatened, Hirek could have foregone further work with Star Fleet. However, in the brief time he had known Ernan Madsen, Hirek had developed a respect for the man, especially when he connected this Madsen with the woman who had died with his uncle. That Ernan Madsen had been willing to die to protect Hirek, his family, and the operation, was honorable enough. But to have died on a mission, hoping to find the truth of his wife’s disappearance for the sake of their daughter, built within Hirek newfound regard for humans and, through them, Star Fleet.

Throughout the 2360s and on into the early 2370s, Hirek used his clan connections and family legacy to assist Star Fleet Intelligence when it proved advantageous to him and his family or further secured the safety of the Romulan people. When the Dominion War broke out, Hirek was drafted back into service in 2375 as an erei'erein, where he served aboard the Ar’Hael until the war’s end. Hirek returned to the Imperial War College but found he no longer had a passion for his work and subsequently resigned his position and retreated to the Uluma Islands. Hirek lived a fairly secluded life with his aging parents and clan members for the next few years, honing his skills in personally built labs and again biding his time. Hirek sensed something “else” was coming. And he was not disappointed.

After Shinzon’s defeat in 2379, Star Fleet Intelligence contacted Hirek and requested that he join Praetor Tal’aura’s forces on Qo’Nos for intel on the Romulan efforts Klingon homeworld. Hirek was in transit to Qo’Nos when the Romulan Civil War broke out between Donatra’s rebels and Tal’aura’s forces. Hirek remained on Qo’Nos until 2381 when the USS Theurgy arrived. He was among the Romulans attempting to flee Qo’Nos aboard the USS Theurgy through drastic actions, taking captive a Theurgy member on shore leave for collateral to guarantee their berth on the ship. When Hirek learned of the crew member’s name, Lieutenant Enyd Isolde Madsen, combined with the reality of the Infested looming over the galaxy, he sought to remain among the Theurgy crew. He believed he owed a blood debt to Lieutenant Madsen for her father and mother’s sacrifices, even if she did not know of it. And Hirek believed he could better protect his parents and his people through this ship’s direct efforts against the Infested.

Though he knew his integration into the crew would be difficult and fraught with idiotic assumptions against his character and his people, Hirek was willing to once more start at the bottom and work his way up if it meant saving the ones he truly cared about while paying off a years’ old debt.

Personality Profile

Born with privilege, Hirek had every reason to be cocky and arrogant, and while he had these distinct traits, he also possessed a single-minded tenacity to prove himself beyond the shadow of familial legacy that kept his ego in check to a manageable level.

With a preference for oceanic past times, Hirek enjoyed physical activities and adventure as much as he enjoyed quietly studying specimens in a lab. Pragmatic to the point of coming across as heartless, Hirek was a man of action after a thorough assessment of facts—unless angered, in which case, Hirek was more action than thought.

Due to his unorthodox upbringing, Hirek possessed more open curiosity and forthrightness than most of his peers, openly displaying his deviousness or wit instead of seeking to hide it. Also connected to the peculiarities of his childhood, Hirek had more loyalty to his family clan and to the ideal Romulan world than he did to the Romulan Senate and had within him a deep-seated loathing towards the Tal Shiar. Hard-working, tenacious, and innovative, Hirek excelled on his own merit in every position he ever took, living according to his internal motivation of proving himself beyond family legacy.

Both in his youth and in the years following his wife’s death, Hirek preferred the chase of a relationship to the nitty-gritty routine of maintaining one. As time drew on, with all the political mayhem surrounding his uncle’s implications in treason, and later, his own embroilment with espionage and duplicity for the sake of his family, even though Hirek’s heart had softened to the concept of the previously distasteful nitty-gritty, he was no longer in a position to offer anything more than a brief affair and a broken heart. As such, Hirek possessed a sardonic humor and charismatic charm that was equally repulsive and alluring, with the man wholly inexperienced in having a real romantic relationship.

Physical Profile

With the Northern trait of two brow ridges only slightly asserted in his genes, thanks to his mother, Hirek had the typical Romulan pointed ears and upswept eyebrows. His body strong, svelte, and powerful from years spent on and in the ocean around his home, Hirek moved with serpentine grace. He spoke in husky, clipped tones, his accent reflecting the lilt common to the Uluma Islands, and his skin was a consistent sun-bronzed tan as it spread over his muscled frame. Near his heart, Hirek has a series of small scars, the only remaining evidence of his near-death at the hands of the Breen. The same as the rest of the Uluma Island residents, Hirek preferred to wear loose-fitting tunics and robes over form-fitting trousers, the cloth colors always reflecting the turquoise sea, cerulean sky, or emerald and ebony islands.

Special Notes

Name Info: Hirek (given name) Kejail (the hidden name only close family knows) ei-Alth'Indor ( Hirek adopted this into his name when he officially began working with Star Fleet Intelligence in the 2360s, to represent his rebirth ) i-Korthre (locative name) tr'Aimne (clan name)

Hirek was aware of a centuries-distant link to humanity found in his maternal family lineage. Most of the information regarding this family secret has been lost to time; however, Hirek learned from his ailing mother before his transfer to Qo’Nos, that the human origins came from an area on Earth called Montana.