A gifted Betazoid telepath who acted as the Federation's specialist for first contact with the living ship Gomtuu.
Tam Elbrun had been born with full telepathic ability, which most Betazoids develop later in life. Unable to block the thoughts of others, he found it difficult to live among people, and Deanna Troi had known him on Betazed years earlier.
In Tin Man the Enterprise-D carried him to make contact with Gomtuu, a living spacecraft, while a Romulan warbird raced to reach it first. Elbrun discovered that Gomtuu was lonely and dying, and when the creature offered him companionship and peace from the noise of other minds, he chose to stay with it.