He was raised to believe that defense was the only form of offence and that to achieve anything would be to avoid the bloodshed that their Romulan cousins and even their own history had shown. With this in mind, he was allowed to train in some of the defensive forms of Vulcan Martial Arts, where incapacitation is preferred over death.

Despite having grown up and lived his entire life on Vulcan, and being satisfied with his life - Ai'Pal required something more - Vulcan didn't have anything interesting to study, that Ai'Pal had not performed some form of research into or was not intrigued by - it seemed only logical that the best place to continue his studies was in Starfleet. His first application to the academy was rejected, that the year was oversubscribed, so he waited until the following year to submit his application, which was accepted.

Throughout his Academy Days, Ai'Pal had proven that he could easily outclass his peers. He developed a fascination with Humans who appeared to have little control over the most primitive of emotions. It was clear that human emotion was far more intrusive than he had ever believed. They were rude and made rash, headstrong decisions only to change in the next moment, to be upset and incapable of performing simple tasks. This culture fascinated Ai'Pal. Studying Humans would be a most interesting project.

It was during his third year that he discovered the Human Ego. During an early class he had proved a peer's theory on Warp Travel flawed, and in the next breath represented his own theory, which had proved to be the correct answer. An argument had pursued, but the Human was unable to break through Ai'Pal's logic. In the last ditch the Human student had thrown a punch out of sheer frustration, which Ai'Pal had neglected to avoid. Ai'Pal was fine and suffered only a small bruise. The human was expelled.. Curious that someone would waste so much time of study just for one small theory?

At graduation, Ai'Pal opted to take a position on a Oberth Class Starship, studying a gravitational well near the border of the Neutral Zone. The study went well and was almost complete when one of the ship's stablisers worked loose and sent the starship on a dangerous course towards the Well itself. Ai'Pal was on bridge at the time when the red alert status was given. The captain had made the decision to try and pull away from the well that they were being drawn to. This solution was not working and it was only Ai'Pal's suggestion that saved the ship from being lost, he had figured that they could manipulate the gravitational forces of the well to move the ship out of danger, by using the ships minimal weapon systems to create pressure on the wall of the well. The plan had worked and the ship had been averted from danger. Starfleet Command had decided that the best course of action would be to bring the Oberthian back to the nearest starbase and allow the crew to make a decision on whether to stay or transfer to another ship.

Ai'Pal's decision was to transfer to another starship. On his departure from the Oberthian, he was presented with an award for fast thinking - for his contribution to the safety of the ship, an award that he would like to add to if this is the way that other races recognise good work.

Both Parents are still alive and reside on Vulcan, and there is proof that he writes to them regularly.

He is not perfect and will not admit to be, but will not give up on finding an answer to a problem if he knows it can be solved.