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Ghelann was born to father Malfin Vazaas, a professor of quantum mechanics at the University of Hefasteus, and mother
Seelan Vazaas, owner and head chef of the world-renowned Vazaas Skyway bistro.
Ghelann had a pretty typical childhood for an Elaysian, playing air ball, going wave diving from the veriid cliffs,
learning sky sailing techniques. He was an only child, and had the full attention of his parents, who tried to ensure
that he had the best teaching as a child and a teen.
As Ghelann grew, he became more and more interested in astronomy and physics, and spent most of his time looking up to
the stars. He also became an avid follower of the career of Melora Pazlar, the first person from Elaysia to ever leave
the planet and join Starfleet.
After graduating from second form school, he followed his father's wishes, and signed up at Hefasteus University in an
advanced physics program. While he succeeded in his courses, he didn't excel nearly as far as he had proven in the past
that he was capable. While at University, Ghelann gained employment working with the crews working on the Elaysian
orbital platforms. He helped with their maintenance crews, as well as working with their science team and getting some
experience flying their ground to orbit flyers.
But this brush with astronomic pursuits wasn't enough to satisfy Ghelann. So one night, at dinner, he informed his
parents that he wanted to follow Melora's footsteps into Starfleet. For about a week after that his father wouldn't
talk to him and his mother broke into tears every time she saw him. But eventually his mother calmed down and told him
that if this was what he really wanted, she'd support him, and convince his father to do likewise. Three weeks later,
his parents waved good bye to him as he boarded a transport bound for Starbase 231, where Ghelann wrote the Starfleet
entrance exam, achieving a very high score. A week later, he was bound for earth, outfitted in an anti-grav exoskeleton
and a powered wheel chair, which would allow him to move under the super-high gravity-fields which were standard on all
Starfleet out-posts.
When Ghelann began studying with the Engineering Corps at Starfleet academy, he had unusual difficulty fitting in. Melora
had been through the academy several years before Ghelann, and by the time Ghelann joined the academy none of the students
at the academy had been around long enough to remember the first time an Elaysian had attended, although many of the
professors still remembered the stoic, independent woman with the chip on her shoulder who had impressed them all with
her drive to succeed.
Ghelann wasn't nearly so standoffish as his contemporary, in fact he tried very hard to find a way to fit in, often
resorting to humor and practical jokes. But for the first year, he had very few friends, because most students at the
academy shied away from him. Only his squad members became friends. But even then he wasn't very much part of things,
since he had to have special quarters to himself so that he could spend his off hours recuperating in a low G
environment. The stress of the high gravity of earth was deteriorating on his bone structure and joints. Ghelann also
spent several hours a week with medical personnel who treated him for bone stress micro fractures, swelling of the joints,
and torn muscles.
In his second year, Ghelann learned about the game of G-ball, a game played in zero gravity in a cubical room (rounded
corners), the walls of which are painted with a special scoring grid. Three courts had recently been constructed at the
academy in an effort to initiate an academy varsity team that could play-off against the several other academic
institutions on earth, as well as a few planets outside the Sol system that had expressed interest in joining the
league. Ghelann decided to participate, since he had the edge of having lived his first 20 years in an ultra-low
gravity environment. He was a smashing success, easily becoming the number one player in the league.
This success won Ghelann the acclaim of many of his classmates, and suddenly he was no
longer "the-only-person-on-earth-in-a-wheel-chair". It did a lot to improve his confidence, and his marks went up from
this point forward. Ghelann was still self-conscious about his wheel chair, but he could handle it a lot better, now
that he had found a way to excel.
After graduating in the top 10% of his class, Ghelann went on his Cadet assignment at the Pluto observatory for research
in gravitational manipulation. He had tried everything he could to get an assignment on a Starship, but no one seemed to
be interested in taking on an engineer with a 'maneuverability deficiency'.
For the most part, Ghelann had no problems taking care of the mechanisms and equipment at the observatory, as he had
complete access to the gravitation controls and was able to adjust local gravity whereever he needed to allow him easy
access to all the observatory's systems.
Late in the assignment, a problem occurred. There had been gravitational fluctuations for the last week throughout the
station, which were thought to be brought on by a combination of two effects, the frequent manipulation of the gravity
plates by Cadet Vazaas, and the recent experiments which were being conducted in rapid polarity changes to gravity
producing deck - plates, (a concept which would allow for a special implement attached to Security phasers allowing
security personnel to immediately effect deck gravity plates in the pursuit of criminals or fugitives on board Starships
or Starbases - This could cause gravity to increase 15 fold, pinning a person to the deck, or cause it to change
direction, causing a person to suddenly be faced with an 85 degree incline.)
Ghelann spent several long shifts re-calibrating gravity generating plating all over the station with the help of the
other maintenance staff of the observatory. They thought they had it fixed - it had been a whole day since the last
gravity surge, and all the sensors were reporting that the gravity was "within normal operating limits". And then the
horror occurred. Three scientists were in the gravity lab operating room when the gravity fields went haywire, catching
them in a three-way gravity field, roughly 50 times more powerful than the earth's gravity. They died almost
instantaneously, compressed in one direction, and torn apart in the other two.
At this point the gravity all across the base went haywire, subjecting occupants to periods of weightlessness and sudden
bursts of gravitational pull. Fortunately Ghelann was equipped with the equipment he used to negate the local gravity
fields, and he led an engineering team in repairing the gravity of the observatory before any more deaths could occur.
Because of his quick thinking and speed to react, Ghelann was awarded a commendation, but he was haunted by the knowledge
that had they only checked the problem more thoroughly, rather than trusting the sensor readings, the deaths would have
never occurred.
Ghelann gained his desire to work on a Starship after the commendation was put into his record, and served on the U.S.S.
Lexington. But the command staff of the Lexington was wary about the abilities of a wheelchair bound person to perform
engineering duties on a Starship, and so he was given a position with their science staff as a quantum dynamics and
spatial - temporal mechanics research assistant. It wasn't the job he'd trained for, nor the one he'd hoped for, but it
put to good use his science background, so he took the posting.
It took Ghelann 4 years to finally convince the staff of the Lexington that he was capable of doing the same things as
anyone else on board the ship, just in a slightly different manner. An old friend, Lt. (JG) Vance Talus who had been in
engineer's corps around the same time as Ghelann, happened to be posted to the Lexington's engineering crew. With his
help, Ghelann constructed a belt which would completely negate the effects of ship gravity, allowing Ghelann complete
access to all areas of the ship. Ghelann was preparing to propose a transfer to engineering once again when the ship was
caught in a previously undetected quantum string, which tore a large portion away from the ship. Ghelann knew that with
communications being out, the only way to keep life support running on the ship was for every available hand to help out.
He put on the belt and went to work, surprising several engineering teams with his quick thinking and skill.
When Ghelann was finally promoted to Lt. (JG.), he heard about a treatment that had been developed by Dr. Bashere to
compensate for low-gravity bred species, and he applied for a year's leave of absence to undergo the full spectrum of the
treatments. Ghelann knew that he was good enough to merit advancement much quicker than he had, but he was always passed
over, and he knew that the only way for him to get ahead in Starfleet was to undergo treatments to make him closer to the
norm.
When he returned to active duty, Ghelann excelled in his positions, and found himself a short 3 years later in the
position of Chief Engineer of the Sarasota.
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