Originally a promising bioresearch specialist, Christine Chapel gave up her career in 2261 when her fiancé, Dr. Roger Korby, vanished whilst on a research mission on Exo III. Korby's last message spoke of discovering some caves, and Chapel was hopeful that he may somehow have survived. She judged correctly that eventually a Starship would be sent to investigate the planet, and so joined Starfleet in order to become a part of that mission.1Whilst in Starfleet Chapel served on board the USS Enterprise, where she met and fell in love with Mister Spock. Spock's Vulcan nature did not allow him to return the emotion, and Chapel found this a source of great sorrow.2 Despite her feelings for Spock she remained committed to finding Korby, and in 2266 the USS Enterprise was indeed assigned to investigate Exo III. Chapel was overjoyed when the ship apparently discovered Korby alive and well on the planet's surface, but her happiness was short lived - Dr. Korby had been very badly injured when his expedition failed, and had survived by using ancient technology he discovered on the planet to transfer his personality into the body of an android. Korby's violent actions on the planet led Chapel to conclude that the transfer had been imperfect, creating only a rough facsimile of her fiancé. When confronted with the reality of his existence Korby was destroyed along with the android Andrea by a phaser blast.1
Chapel remained in Starfleet after the incident, and by 2271 she had become a full M.D. and a physician on board the newly refitted Enterprise.3 By 2286 she was serving at Starfleet Command, where she directed operations on Earth during the Cetacean Probe incident.4
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