Name: Luma Tam
Rank: Lt.Cmdr.
Species: Bajoran
Gender: Female
Age: 34 (2349)
Birthplace: Verenn Province, Bajor
Height: 5'8"
Weight: 137lbs
hair color: lt. auburn
eye color: green

Education:
    Limited homeschooling to age 9
    Religious schooling from age 9-15
    Starfleet Academy

Service Record:
    Starfleet Academy 2367-71
    Cadet Cruise; terraforming, Volara III, 2371
    Ens.; USS Cochrane, deep space, 2372-2374
    Lt.(j.g.); USS Curie, medical/rescue, Assist. CSO, 2374-2377
    Lt.; USS Reliant, exploration, Chief Science Officer, 2377-2379
    Lt.-Lt.Cmdr.; USS Lexington, exploration, Chief Sci. Officer, 2379-2380
    Lt. Cmdr.; USS Marakesh, Chief Sci Officer, 2380
    

Commendations:
    Silver Palm with Clusters

Personal History:
    Tam was born in a Labor Camp on Bajor during the Occupation. She was very close
to her family; her mother Zhan, father Chay & a brother 4 years her senior, Jadal.
They were all each other had. The family took a terrible blow when Tam was 6. Her father
was worked to death. Tam grew vengeful to the Cardassians she saw responsible for his death.
For her part, Zhan did what she could for her own children & even helped several orphans
from the camp. She taught the children what skills she could in the camp & oral histories.
Zhan sang to the children to keep their spirits up. Even in adulthood, music will be a
source of comfort & strength to Tam.

    She learned all she could without any formal education. Tam learned to heal minor
wounds & how to help fix equipment & various other needed skills to help her community.
In the camps everyone worked. When she was 9 some members of a local Resistance Cell came
to see Zhan. Tam didn't know what they wanted, just that her mother & brother were upset
by the visit. Three days later she & a handful of other children were led to storage
area. She didn't understand what was going on, Jadal kept looking at the floor &
her mother tried to hold back tears. Her brother hugged her & said everything would be ok
& teased about how she still owed him a piece of candied Jumja root from a bet she'd lost
the week previous. He gave her another hug then ran toward a noise down the corridor.
Around her, other children were being hugged & spoken softly to by family or
people from the camp. Everyone looked sad & kept glancing down the corridor.Tam was
getting scared & her mother crouched down & gave her a long hug before picking her up
& walking towards some of the boxes marked 'replicator parts'. Tam looked around & saw the
other kids being placed in boxes as well. Her mother handed her to a man she knew vaguely
& placed her in a box & handed her a metal rod that was black on the ends & glowing blue in
the middle. She was told to be very quiet & not to touch the glowing part of the stick.
He lifted the lid to the crate & Zhan held up a hand for him to stop, she reached in,
caressed her daughter's cheek & said "I love you, Blossom. Always remember that. Walk with
the Prophets, my daughter." The lid was sealed & it was the last time Tam saw Bajor,
Jadal or her mother for close to twenty years.

    The next thing Tam saw was a Vedek. He opened the crate she'd been in & smiled softly at
her as he lifted her out. He told her she was safe on a religious transport. When she was a
bit older she heard the circumstances of her 'liberation' were quite an event. The local Cell
had orchestrated a brief distraction for the Cardassians usually guarding the supply room.
Several children were smuggled to various safe locations that the Resistance had contacts with.
The shiny stick turned out to be a Thoron generator, which would throw off any lifesign
readings from the boxes contents. Over the next few years the Vedeks became her family.
She missed her brother & mother terribly, but the Vedeks were good to her. They taught her
about the Prophets & helped her get past some of the hate she'd been holding since her father's
death. She did some missionary type work & even participated in a few rescue missions similar
to the one that saved her. When the Prophets told her it was time she left her beloved Vedeks
& went out to seek her fortune. 

  She spent the next couple of years making her way across  the galaxy. She hopped transports & shuttles, worked odd jobs & part time crews on freighters, merchant ships & many others. She learned all she could & gained a basic knowledge
of computers, transporters, dealing with other cultures, stellar cartography, piloting & many
other useful skills. Eventually she found her way to DS5 & while waiting for a new transport
the Prophets took a hand. They sent her a future in the form of Xera Mahr, then Chief Science
Officer of the Coustuea.  Upon seeing the little refugee, Xera saw potential in Tam & sponsored
her application to the Academy. She went into science to learn more about the stars she'd
traveled for so long. Her Cadet Cruise was spent terraforming because she has great sympathy
for those without a home.  
 
  Luma Tam worked her way up the chain of command, through the Cochrane to the Reliant
where she had her most significant experiences, both personal & professional. During the
Reliant's refit at DS9 she, a newly minted CSO herself, designed new sensor palettes to
enhance range and resolution for their trip into the Gamma Quadrant. Tam also got to go
to home to Bajor for a time & found her family, including someone she'd never met....her half
Cardassian sister Terah. After a tearful reunion with her mother & brother, Zhan told
her about Terah. She'd been born 3 years after Tam left. Zahn told her eldest daughter
not to let the rather nasty circumstances that brought her into the world diminish the
person she was. She's just as much a Luma as the rest of us, her mother said, with the
same good heart. Terah is cloistered in a Bajoran monastery & is studying to become a
Prylar.  

    Tam left Bajor to return to her ship & a new mission into the Gamma Quadrant,
thankful to have found her family, but conflicted about her new sibling. The mission didn't
turn out quite as planned & ended in the Reliant being attacked & only the saucer section
making it through the Wormhole. What was left of the crew were transferred to the USS
Lexington, which was about to leave spacedock near Earth. Tam worked on the ship as CSO until
her recent transfer orders to the Marakesh

Personality:
    Tam is a fairly easy going person. She's got an easy laugh & runs a slightly informal
department. She's outgoing & in true Bajoran fasion, tends to speak her mind. She can
sometimes be a bit blunt in her observations, especially when dealing with bureaucracy.
She's curious & open & dedicated to her work. She's also deeply spiritual. She tries to
hold everyone on an even plane until they prove they should be treated otherwise,
but still wrestles with some issues when dealing with Cardassians.  Tam is a pacifist.  
She believes she's seen more than enough bloodshed for her lifetime.  She practices martial
arts, but only as a discipline, not a weapon.   She'll use force only as protection &
only in exstreme cases.  On the rare occassions she's had to use more deadly force,
she was deeply regretful & spent a time meditating, praying & visiting the couselor.  

Hobbies:
    Music, Mok'bara, archeology, rock climbing, meditation & darts.