Editing Star Trek Hyperion:Valarei Chervan (section)

== Background ==

Valarei* is, overall, shockingly frank for a Romulan, which is still extremely cagey by Starfleet standards. While she openly admired the Qowat Milat in her youth (kicking her political prospects down a few notches, to the disappointment of her well-connected family) she quickly realized she could never be that blunt. Fortunately for her, she was also very good at taking things apart and figuring out what they do, as well as putting them back together without leaving anyone the wiser, which is a particularly valued skill among Romulan engineers. She genuinely wants to make friends, but has trouble opening up to people, at least to the extent that her new co-workers seem to expect.

Though technically still an exchange officer from the Imperial Romulan Navy, Centurion Valarei Chervan made the choice to help fend off the Tal Shiar attempt to steal the data on the Ancient Enigma so the eventual discoveries would remain open. To save political face, the Star Empire is pretending it was a rogue operation, they're pretending not to exile her, and she's pretending to still nominally be a part of the IRN. It's all very frustratingly Romulan. She leapt at the chance to be the chief engineer for this expedition, even going so far as to openly submit herself for consideration rather than circumspectly chat up the relevant personnel officers like a normal person.

She's also surprisingly optimistic about being able to return to Romulus eventually. After all, if she lives long enough, the winds of politics may change.

She was initially seconded to Starfleet and the Daystrom Institute after the Romulan Star Empire joined the Dominion War as part of the effort to reverse-engineer salvaged Dominion technology. She was, of course, tasked with sending back all the data the project uncovered, especially what Starfleet was keeping secret for itself. She, of course, fulfilled her orders, regularly dropping data packets consisting of the detailed weekly reports forwarded to every team lead on the project. When the project manager asked why it wouldn't just be simpler to CC the Romulan Corps of Engineers on the reports in the first place, Valarei tried to explain, but eventually gave up and said "It's a Romulan thing."

*She accepts being called Val informally, but really likes it if someone actually looks up Romulan nicknaming conventions and calls her Rei. She will not actively correct someone even if directly prompted. It's a Romulan thing.