Karl Graylock was a human male serving in United Earth's Starfleet in the late 22nd century. Graylock was from Austria on Earth.

By 2156, Graylock had attained the rank of Lieutenant and succeeded Charles Tucker as chief engineer aboard the Columbia (NX-02). After a disastrous surprise attack on the Columbia by Romulan forces, Graylock proposed detonating a photonic torpedo and making a micro warp jump to make the attackers think they had self-destructed. The plan allowed them to escape from the Romulans, but left the vessel crippled, and was forced to make a high impulse journey to the nearest class M world. The chief engineer was part of the away team to beam down to Erigol and made first contact with the Caeliar.

Karl found the forced residence on Erigol to be unsatisfying, and allied with MACO commander Major Stephen Foyle to formulate a plan of escape, despite the wishes of Captain Hernandez. As the MACOs set off explosives and attempted to force the Caeliar to do their bidding, Graylock worked with one of the scientists to open a tunnel for the Columbia to escape through. After a massive feedback pulse through the Great Work caused the planet to destabilize, his meddling threw the entire system for creating subspace tunnels off, resulting in the destruction of a significant portion of the Caeliar's city-ships. The city Graylock was in, Mantilis, managed to escape and crash land on an unknown planet in the far reaches of the universe, but all but twelve Caeliar gave their lives to protect the away team members. (ST - Destiny novel: Gods of Night)

The ship entered a temporal anomaly and crashed into an arctic wasteland several millenia before the present. Of the six rebels, Graylock was one of the last three to survive. Finally, he and fellow crewmember Kiona Thayer were possessed by the last surviving Caeliar, Sedín. Under her control, they killed and ate the third survivor, Pembleton, to avoid starvation. The fusion between human and Caeliar produced the first Borg, and they promptly started assimilating the sentient natives of the planet on which they had crashed. Graylock therefore became one of the two ancestors of all Borg.(ST - Destiny novel: Lost Souls)

Ironically, it was Graylock who unintentionally gave the Borg their name, as his last free thought was I won't be... won't become... a... cy- Borg.

Columbia personnel
United Earth (civilian registry)	SS Columbia	Theodore Haskins • Vina
United Earth Starfleet	Columbia (NX-02)	Reiko Akagi • Diane Atlagic • Erika Hernandez • Trip Tucker • Karl Graylock • Veronica Fletcher • Kalil el-Rashad • Johanna Metzger • Brynn Mealia • Sidra Valerian • Kiona Thayer • Katrin Gunnarsdóttir • Biggs • Stewart Rivers • Strong • Russell Hexter • Claudia Siguenza • MACO personnel: Eric Crichlow • Stephen Foyle • Niccolo Mazzetti • Hossad Mottaki • Ndufe Otumbo • Gage Pembleton • Thom Steinhauer • Vincenzo Yacavino
Federation, Starfleet	USS Columbia (NCC-621)	Clark Terrell