Loval
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Loval is a Vulcan and was the Chief Administrator of the Vulcan High Command from 2381 to 2403.
By 2403 Loval was in league with the remains of the Romulan Tal Shiar's former head, Admiral Alak tr'Kervek, who both attempted to reunify Vulcan with its distant cousins on Romulus and Remus. How long their plans had been in process was never revealed. Loval had seen Vulcan’s way out of surviving and coming out top from the Borg War was by re-unification as Kervek offered him defence technologies which would improve Vuclan’s chances of surviving the conflict.
As the head of state, Loval ordered research to be begun for Vulcan to develop cloaking technology based on Romulan devices. By 2396 the efforts of the Vulcan Defence Fleet defended Vulcan from assimilation. Loval’s plan had worked and many Vulcans in the military praised him for his plans to fortify Vulcan. At the end of the year all Vulcan ships and orbital stations were outfitted with cloaking technology without the Federation's knowledge. Loval gave the order for older classes of Vulcan ships to be brought out of mothball, then refitted and upgraded and the Vulcan Shipyards began high production of ships based on Vulcan designs.
By this time with help from his Romulan collaborates many Vulcans in the military including Loval were shown how to harness their emotional sides. Loval attempts to force this influence over the civilian population but came under heavy resistance from a former Starfleet officer called Julok.
Loval was under pressure by 2400 to make contact with Earth, Andoria and Tellar and re-establish a Federation "presence" in the region by many civilian authorities. The day the USS Triton arrived at Vulcan was the same day Loval was going to deliver a speech to the Vulcan Government denying their request to transfer power back away from the military to civilian hands as he felt "there was more work" for the High Command to secure Vulcan in long term projections. This speech was canceled as the Vulcan government and High Command opened diplomatic ties with the Triton. After the Triton had departed the USS Lexington arrived with a Federation Diplomatic team and Vulcan were the first world to re-join the Federation, Loval was signed the document as head of state.
It wasn’t until 2403 that Loval’s conspiracy and personal alliance with his Romulan aide start to come to light. The USS Miranda-C arrived at Vulcan to deliver several large industrial replicators at Loval’s request. While in orbit the Miranda detected unusual high energy spikes. When Captain Kelly Ryan inquired about them Loval insisted that it was nothing and only the Vulcan planetary shield grid, afterwards he asked the Miranda to leave as soon as possible to prevent any intervention from Starfleet. However his hopes that Starfleet wouldn’t send another ship for some time were shattered when the USS Enterprise-F arrived at Vulcan to locate two members of an elite Starfleet Corps of Engineers group called Project Harmony. Loval greeted Fleet Captain Zack Marshall-Bennet on the flagship and informed him the two members he was searching for were considered outlaws on Vulcan. One individual was Professor Anthony Starling who had recently been charged by the High Command for the murder of Loval's predecessor T’Mat. In fact it was Loval who had his Romulan allies kill T'Mat after he found out about the re-unification plans and planned on publicly shaming Loval. Starling was an easy scapegoat due to the fact he was colleagues with the other member of Project Harmony, Julok who had now formed an underground civilian organisation called the T’Plana-Hath Movement who were intent on returning all Vulcans back to the ways of logical thinking first started by Surak.
Loval wouldn’t at first allow Bennet to see either Starling or Julok (who was hiding out in the T'Kumbra Desert), but after pressure from President Spock and the Federation Council Loval gave Bennet the chance to search for Julok and speak briefly with Starling. This was a fatal mistake for Loval as Bennet and his crew began to see the truth over the fact that Starling’s charges were false. At this time also support for Julok’s movement was increasing in the civilian population and Loval was loosing his control over the Vulcan people as well as the non-Vulcans who resided on the planet during the war. Loval blamed Bennet’s presence on Vulcan as well as his ship for the unrest among the population. In attempt to restore support for the military from the civilians one of Loval’s ministers and close friend, Sojal who had been helping Loval in his re-unification plans had spies plant bombs in certain Vulcan cities and place evidence that it was the T’Plana-Hath Movement attempting to terrorise the people. Many people died and at first the plan had worked.
Loval was forced to deal with Bennet by displaying the military power he had built up around Vulcan and demanded that the Federation flagship left orbit at once. Bennet was unwilling to budge until he had his people who were on the surface were returned back. Loval gave him one hour. During this time a team from Enterprise was sent to find Julok and the movement, they succeeded but they were tracked by Loval’s people and the away team with everyone in the movement were taken as prisoners by the High Command. Bennet demanded that Loval return his people at once as he was now threatening Vulcan’s status quo with the rest of the Federation. This was when Loval finally snapped, told Bennet that Vulcan revoked its membership and those who had been captured were deemed prisoners of war. He told Bennet to leave at once or Enterprise would be attacked and boarded. Bennet was reluctant to leave without his people and so Loval ordered his ships to open fire and take the flagship. This move proved fatal for Loval as his other senior minister T'Poul who originally supported him decided to take it upon herself to stop him. She went awol, publicly released the evidence that showed it was Loval and Sojal who ordered the bombings of the Vulcan cities as well as his orders to attack Enterprise.
Loval’s days as head of state of Vulcan came to an end shortly, he and Sojal were arrested on acts of treason, man-slaughter and direct violation of Vulcan customs. T’Poul took over the position of Chief Administrator of the High Command and ordered all Vulcan forces to stand down and avoid all confrontation with Starfleet forces. However Loval’s influence had spread like a plague through the Vulcan military and he many supporters who didn’t respond to T'Poul's orders (DS1: "The Vulcan Connection").
With help from his Romulan allies who had spread through the Vulcan High Command Loval was able to escape from prison and Vulcan. He escaped with his Admiral Kervek to Weytahn, an abandoned Andorian colony. However he was finally caught with Kervek by the Enterprise and the Vulcan cruiser Sarek in mid-2403 (DS1: "Along The Stream").