T'Ama was the product of an unexpected pon farr when her mother was serving on board her father's mining vessel in deep space. Her mother returned to Vulcan during the pregnancy and she was born and raised on Vulcan for her early childhood and teen years. Her parent's co-parenting relationship was contentious, and her mother was often the victor in their disagreements on how to raise their daughter, if only because Gavin was usually off-world and not physically there much. She chafed at her restrictive Vulcan upbringing, made worse by the fact she was not pure Vulcan and not well accepted amongst her mother's family. As a result she was much closer to her father and treasured his visits and frequent video calls.
Her Vulcan family considered her a difficult and rebellious child, which became more intense when her mother and step-father had her younger brother. By the time she was 15 tensions at home were so high she begged to be allowed to go live with her father. Eventually she got her wish with no small amount of drama, and went to live with her father as a civilian aboard a Federation ship where she met her grandmother for the first time - a retired admiral who had served in Starfleet just after the Federation was founded. She immediately found a role model in her grandmother and her stories of adventure in Starfleet, and decided she wanted nothing more than to join Starfleet and follow in her grandmother's footsteps.
In early 2394 she met Quentin Beck at a mining trade conference on Earth that their fathers had business at. She pulled him away from his abusive father and they spent the conference becoming fast friends. She shared her dream of a Starfleet career and he joined up that fall, though it took her until 2396 to work up the nerve to do so herself. They were best friends at the Academy until they tried their hand at romance. Their first kiss abruptly ended with her pushing him away because she had seen how he'd built up their relationship in his mind. With little explanation she avoided him until she graduated and was stationed on the USS Constitution.
In early 2401, T'Ama was invited to the wedding of Is’Kah and Ghee’looth Xiron, friends from the Academy, on the USS Ronin. Quentin Beck crashed the bachelorette party on Ferenginar, half naked and pursued by Ferengi bounty hunters. T'Ama lead the group to her El-Aurian family's safehouse and helped him make a subspace call to his father to clear the bounty. Later he came by her guest quarters on the Ronin and they made up, agreeing to be just friends, after two years of estrangement. Before leaving to return to the Constitution, T'Ama was partially responsible for the break up of Quentin Beck and Luxa Lorana after her attempt at wingmanning went horribly wrong.
While planetside during an away mission on Drever IV, T'Ama was hit in the right eye by a large piece of hail. Despite treatment it continued to be painful, sensitive to bright lights, and produced double vision and subsequently chronic headaches when uncovered. T'Ama took to covering it with an eyepatch while on duty despite the danger of atrophy to the optic nerve.
I mid 2401 T'Ama was temporarily assigned to the USS Artemis for Frontier Day, where she ran into her old friend Quentin Beck again, also on temporary assignment from the Ronin.
