Dr. Klara Zel is one of the main characters featured in the graphic novel The OUTPOST.

Early Life

Klarissa Zendaya Zelimhanova was born to a middle class family near the South Pole of Azor. Her father, Richard was frequently absent from home due to his demanding occupation of a planet-famous heart surgeon. Klarissa’s mother, Lena was a nurse, but she chose to abandon her job and focus on raising her baby girl at home. Richard’s income was more then enough to support their family, but he refused to have more children with Lena as he was uncomfortable with being the single provider in the house.

Lena believed that early separation would lead to unavoidable mental harm for Klarissa and stayed at home with her daughter up until she was five. Be it because of early home schooling, or genetics, Klarissa showed to be one of the best performing students through all her school years. After finishing the high school, Klarissa was granted a fully pre-paid tuition to study in the prestigious privately owned BioStar Science Academy.

Before departing to the college, Klarissa was met with devastating news that her parents are filing for a divorce. The procedure was initiated by Richard as he saw daughter’s departure as a sign that his commitment to Lena could be voided without any extensive harm to her or their common child.

Regardless of her father’s ethical reasoning, Klarissa felt that she and her mother were betrayed by Richard. A month later, Klarissa Zendaya Zelimhanova have registered a name change to a much simpler Klara Zel. She motivated it with desired ease of pronunciation. In reality though, Klara wanted to defy her father’s will – Zendaya was his favorite name of hers. They never spoke ever since. By mutual initiative.

Academic Studies

Despite dramatic developments in her biological family, Klara’s performance in the college was merely affected. Soon she became one of the most prominent students in her class and graduated with highest distinction. After receiving her diploma, Klara immediately got a job offer from BioStar Inc. The corporation offered her to become a junior research assistant in their highly esteemed Off-World Perspective Research Division. Klara accepted this life changing offer and was assigned to Dr. Archibald Carlyle who later became her friend and mentor.

Career at BioStar Inc.

After defending her doctoral dissertation, Dr. Klara Zel chose to invest few years into curating research projects all over the Federal Space. Despite her travels, during all this time she kept close contact with Dr. Carlyle. Klara returned to Azor only during the review of her postdoctoral research on Universal Laws of Evolution Among Mammals. When the paper was published, Dr. Klara Zel took some downtime and became a lecturer at her alma mater, BioStar Science Academy.

Proximity to the Off-World Perspective Research Division allowed Klara to have frequent lunches with her old friend Dr. Archibald Carlyle. Soon, he invited her to conduct a joined research on Perspective Means for Accelerated Evolution. Because of the highest secrecy of this research, Klara had to go through a long vetting process by the BioStar Inc. and sign an extended contract that included strict non-competition- and non-disclosure agreements.

The project was exciting, but extremely intense, so in order to cut the travel time, Klara have moved in to Dr. Carlyle’s spacious house. Commute was merely an official reason though. In reality, Archibald became Klara’s only possible company, as NDA prohibited her from talking even slightest about her work with anyone outside the project team. This relocation went easy though as both Dr. Zel and Dr. Carlyle were single. Soon, Klara and Archibald became lovers.

When the project concluded, Klara was eager make her relationship with Archibald official, but the man refused to even speak about it. Instead, Dr. Carlyle suggested to tackle a new multi-year research together. Klara was upset, but agreed. They continued living together for years.

Breakup and Resignation

On her 40th birthday, Klara have asked Archibald for the only present she ever desired from him – to make her with a child. In response he silently left the house and never returned. On the next day, Klara got a message through BioStar employee intranet that she should vacate Dr. Carlyle’s house. She tried to reach Archibald, but he never responded.

Dr. Carlyle have disappeared from work and was replaced on their project by another researcher after a week of downtime. In a month he was officially promoted to become a head of the whole Off-World Perspective Research Division. Only then since their weird breakup, Klara got the first message from Archibald. He wrote that he was excited to work with her again and hoped that no past misunderstandings will taint their future relationship. That day Dr. Klara Zel resigned from BioStar Inc.

Life After Resignation

Because of binding agreements were still active despite her resignation, Klara was restricted from seeking employment in any governmental- or private research institutions, nor provide consultations or conduct research on her own. Up until this moment most of Klara’s hefty corporate salaries were spent on paying off her mother’s apartment, so Klara was broke. She had no choice, but to move in with her aging mother and apply for a job as a biology teacher in a local high school. Lena encouraged her daughter to start dating again, but for Klara it felt like a torture.

Five years later, Klara’s non-competition contract with BioStar Inc. has expired. Despite becoming free to pursue a scientific career once again, Dr. Zel was still legally restricted from disclosing anything regarding the classified BioStar projects. It means that a whole decade became a blank space in Klara’s resume.

Still given her excellent research merits from time before, Dr. Klara Zel managed to secure a part-time position of a lecturer at the South Pole State University of Azor. She gave up on any possibility to fix her private life, but Klara’s career have began anew with long and exciting years ahead! At least she thought so…

Behind the Scenes

Appearance of Dr. Klara zel was heavily inspired by a character of Dr. Barbara Glaser from a sci-fi B-movie Forbidden World (1982). Her personality and backstory though are based on multiple real life prototypes and designed to serve the narrative direction of The OUTPOST.

Gallery: Dr. Klara Zel in Comics (Concept)