Born on Edda in the Demarchy of Tavros, the child of one Doctor Ivar Onderra by an unknown egg donor, Valka Onderra elected to follow in her father’s footsteps and become a xenologist, with special interest on the so-called Quiet civilization—a highly dangerous line of work, as knowledge of the Quiet is strictly policed by the Holy Terran Chantry in those territories where it holds sway. As a young woman, Valka studied xenology—with especial focus on the extinct cultures of the galaxy, and completed her education, earning her doctoral degree at 19 (a feat not uncommon in the demarchy, where neurological implants and RNA indoctrination are the norm).

At the age of 20, Valka was enrolled in the Tavrosi Defense Force, as is the custom among her people, that being the pre-condition for participation in demarchist politics. There, Valka excelled, rising to the rank of kromnavi, or captain. She elected to renew her service for a second five-year term. It was during this time that the Prachars, members of a terrorist cell associated with the orthodox Hindu minority, seized a Durantine trading cog and threatened to smash into the planet’s orbital mirrors. Acting on orders from her command, Valka opened fire, destroying the ship and everyone aboard. For this, she was not lauded as a hero, but became the object of scorn and condemnation. This prompted her resignation from the Defense Force. It was during this time that her father, himself a xenologist, disappeared on a dig in the Norman Expanse. His disappearance, coupled with the situation at home after her engagement with the Prachars, prompted her departure from Edda and from the Demarchy at large.

She journeyed first to Ozymandias, where her father disappeared, but Valka failed to locate Doctor Ivar Onderra, and never saw him again. Her travels took her to Quiet sites across the Sollan Empire—always with some pretext, and the insulation of Tavrosi diplomatic immunity (though that had failed to protect her father). She visited Sadal Suud, and Judecca, and several other sites, forever careful to travel very publicly—her father’s mistake having been to move in secret, making it too easy for the Chantry to make him disappear. In time, her travels would bring her to the planet Emesh, where she would enjoy the patronage of Sir Elomas Redgrave, the once-famous adventurer, who sponsored her excavations on the southern continent at the famous site of Calagah. It would be on Emesh—during the rainy season that drove her from her work at Calagah—that Valka Onderra would meet a young Hadrian Marlowe, then disguised as a common myrmidon. Each would initially be quite skeptical of the other, but Marlowe and Onderra would come to regard one another first as colleagues, later as friends, and eventually, their entanglement would come to impact the broader galaxy for generations to come.