- For the primary universe counterpart, see T'Pau.
- For other uses, see T'Pau.
In the mirror universe, T'Pau was a Vulcan female who lived during the 22nd and 23rd centuries.
Biography[]
Star Trek: Mirror Universe continuity[]
She was a minister at the Vulcan monastery on P'Jem sometime before becoming a leader of a rebel cell on planet Vulcan. As such, T'Pau ordered the death of T'Les, a pacifist member of the rebellion and the mother of T'Pol.
In the year 2155, T'Pol delivered schematics from the USS Defiant to T'Pau, as well as the knowledge that the Defiant was from a parallel universe, news which convinced the rebel leader theirs was not a lost cause. T'Pau brought together fellow rebels Gral and Navaar, who united forces to capture Empress Hoshi Sato and put her on public trial.
T'Pau gave T'Pol command of the starship Ni'Var, but eventually came to question her loyalties, and ordered fellow rebel Staal to murder her. T'Pol survived the attempt on her life, and instead killed T'Pau in the caverns underneath Aldus Prime. (ENT - Mirror Universe novel: Age of the Empress)
Through a Glass, Darkly continuity[]
- In the RPG "Through a Glass, Darkly", T'Pau is portrayed as having been born sometime in the 2040s, which contradicts her canonical date of birth being 2122.
Rise to Power[]
In 2063, T'Pau was a junior member of the diplomatic delegation when the Vulcans made first contact with the Terran Empire, in which they offered themselves up as vassals rather than full partners. The exact reason as to why the Vulcan leadership decided to assume the supine position when dealing with the Terrans was unknown, with T'Pau ultimately being the only one who knew for sure, as everyone else who was present eventually died or went missing.
In the intervening years, T'Pau brilliantly managed her relationships with one Terran Emperor after another, always preserving her world's position as vassal among vassals. The Vulcans followed T'Pau because it was logical to obey the strongest leader, as such leaders brought order, without which there could be no logic. By the same token, they claimed that it was eminently logical to follow an obviously superior empire, rather than be conquered. However, the full extent of T'Pau's capabilities were uncertain, and it was unknown whether she truly obeyed the Emperor out of perceived weakness, or always just using them as a screen for her own machinations. After all, it was seen as logical to have a figurehead attract attention, and assassination attempt, while one ruled the galaxy in seclusion.
By the 2260s, at two hundred and twenty-two years old, T'Pau no longer lured Emperors to her bedchambers like she used to, instead having a cadre of younger Vulcan seductresses stalk the halls of the Imperial palace, bending Senators and cabinet officials to their will and coaxing them into seeing them the inescapable logic of their positions.
Those immune to Vulcan charms learned to fear them. Wielding psionic powers subtler, yet more insidiously deadly, than those of the Betazoids, Vulcan mind-warpers didn't need to fear the Beatty Method. T'Pau's enemies also had to worry about the vast catalogue of ancient Vulcan poisons, many of which eluded detection to all but the most skillful coroners. There were also the dozens of Vulcan snakes, insects, and lizards, often boasting nasty toxins of their own, who skittered about in response to their trainers' mental commands.
T'Pau lived a reclusive existence in a citadel on the desolate Plain of Tai-La, while her minions were everywhere. Only a fraction of them were Vulcans. Would-be lackeys came from the far corners of the Galaxy to offer themselves to her, body and soul. She snared just as many unwilling servitors through blackmail, mind control, and outright coercion. The dungeons of her citadel held hostage dozens of people whose family members served T'Pau, hoping to earn their freedom. Some said that her network of conspirators shaped every significant event within the Empire. Others wisely feared her but denied her quite that degree of omnipresence. Senator Sarek maintained his distance from her, doing her bidding from Earth, but almost never traveling to Vulcan.
Dealings with Spock[]
In 2268, Spock, having become captain of the ISS Enterprise after killing its former captain James T. Kirk, used an anti-matter bomb to kill a giant space amoeba that threatened to destroy the Vulcan-crewed ISS Intrepid. Its captain, Yevok, reasoned that Spock had to succeed T'Pau as ruler of Vulcan. Yevok returned to Vulcan and recruited other minions of T'Pau to form cells in preparation for an eventual coup.
In 2274, the newly-selected Emperor Kodos arrested Ministers Spock and Cogley as traitors to the Empire and told them to expect execution shortly after the coronation. However, T'Pau unexpectedly came to their rescue, dispatching Yevok, now the new Vulcan ambassador, to seek a private audience with Kodos, in which she enumerated seven different methods by which his mistress T'Pau could smother his rule in its infancy. Yevok demanded the reinstatement of Spock and Cogley to their posts, to which a shaken Kodos agreed.
In 2277, T'Pau called in the favor Spock owed her. Having saved him from execution, she expected Spock to do her bidding. Like Sarek before her, she realized that Spock's reforms would bring about the Empire's downfall.
Showdown with Spock[]
Spock and Yevok concluded that no progress was possible until T'Pau was removed from the equation. For the next four years, they built Yevok's Vulcan Underground, securing from hundreds of T'Pau's minions a commitment to switch sides when the time was right.
In 2281, Spock underwent Pon farr and mated with Yevok's alluring sister, T'Jal. In doing so, he failed to account for the human emotions of Magda Kovacs, who continued to see herself as Spock's lover. Kovacs, still privy to his secrets, traveled to Vulcan and revealed his treachery to T'Pau. T'Pau sent assassins to kill Spock, Yevok, and Emperor Alex Danaher.
Only Spock survived, and he rallied his frightened Senators, convincing them that it was time to free the Empire from T'Pau's dread influence. He argued that it was time humans once again dictated the course of Terran history. He gained support from certain conservatives who hated T'Pau more than they did him. Another colorless Emperor, John Cray, took the throne. He declared T'Pau an enemy of the Empire, sending four Inquisition-class starships to bombard her citadel on the Vulcan Plain of Tai-La. The citadel was destroyed, but T'Pau's body was not found among its wreckage. Using information gathered by Yevok's underground, Imperial Security teams staged simultaneous, Empire-wide raids, arresting or killing hundreds of members of T'Pau's spy network. Only her closest aides escaped.
The Klingon-Cardassian Alliance took advantage of the Imperium's preoccupation with T'Pau, destroying a number of colonies and facilities, including even the mining installation on Rigel XII, in Earth's backyard. Spock wanted to hunt for T'Pau, but instead had to concentrate on driving back Alliance forces. Starfleet did so, but at the cost of many ships. By the end of 2283, the Alliance had retreated back to another cycle of rebuilding.
Starfleet got no such opportunity, as piracy increased throughout Terran space. At first, this seemed to be random opportunism, but intelligence sources increasingly pointed to a single leader behind the attacks. It was T'Pau, operating from bases in Romulan space. The Romulans neither hindered her nor fought by her side. However, she had another species to help her: the Metrons had lent her the bulk of their Gorn fleet.
From 2283 to 2285, Starfleet fought T'Pau's Vulcan loyalists and Gorn warriors. Her forces struck guerilla-style, quickly hitting shipping lanes, starbases and colonial installations, then retreating to hidden bases salted throughout the Romulan frontier. Attempts to chase them down put Starfleet in confrontation with Romulan vessels defending their airspace.
Genesis Weapon and Death[]
Spock commandeered the Enterprise when he learned that T'Pau's pirates had occupied the Imperial research base on Regula I. There Dr. Carol Marcus and her son David had been overseeing the Empire's top-secret Genesis Weapon project. The Genesis Weapon could destroy an entire planet by reducing it to subatomic particles. If desired, the target could then be remade as a perfectly terraformed planet suitable for immediate colonization. Spock and the surviving members of the Kirk-era Enterprise crew (now all committed Oswaldites) battled T'Pau and a complement of slavering Gorn for control of the weapon. Spock ended up alone in the weapon chamber with T'Pau and Magda Kovacs. Kovacs, equipped with an exoskeleton that gave her twice the strength of Spock, fought him hand-to-hand, seeking blood repayment for her romantic disappointment. However, T'Pau suffered an accidental blow from Kovacs' exo-suit and was mortally wounded. In the course of the fight, the Genesis Weapon was activated and aimed at the uninhabitable planet of Ceti Alpha V. Kovacs fell into the beam and was scattered to atoms; the beam feedback destroyed the weapon. A triumphant Spock demonstrated to a dying T'Pau the illogic of her plans, and was then himself slain by phaser fire. David Marcus, illegitimate son of Captain Kirk, had taken vengeance for Spock's murder of his father. However, Spock was later brought back to life by the revivifying energy of the Genesis Effect on the surface of Ceti Alpha V. (Decipher RPG module: Through a Glass, Darkly)