Elias Vaughn

Commander Elias Vaughn was a Starfleet officer with eighty years experience in Starfleet Intelligence, Special Operations and Tactical.

Despite his low rank (kept to maintain a low profile), Vaughn was on a first name basis with most of the Admiralty and had a higher security clearance than some.

Vaughn was a critical player in several crucial events in Starfleet history. Among them, the Tomed Incident, the Betreka Nebula Incident, the disaster at Arvada III, the civil war on Beta 3 and the liberation of Betazed from the Dominion to name a few.

Then, after a chance encounter with the Bajoran Orb of Memory, Vaughn decided to pursue his lost dream of being an explorer.

After taking the vacant First Officers position at Federation starbase Deep Space 9 at age 101, Elias Vaughn commanded the USS Defiant on a three-month mission of exploration in the Gamma Quadrant and continued to contribute to Starfleet.

Early Life
Elias Vaughn was born Saturday, October 24th, 2274, and was raised on the planet Berengaria VII. He was taught about the stars by his mother, which fueled his early passion for exploration. Vaughn's mother died early in his life of Burkhardt's disease.

Vaughn joined Starfleet Academy in the year 2293, and discovered that he had a talent for intelligence and tactical operations. Vaughn gave up his dreams of exploration for a career in Starfleet Intelligence. (S31 novel: Abyss)

Starfleet Operations
Most of the first ten years of Vaughn's service to Starfleet Intelligence was spent behind a desk, analyzing data and writing reports. The few times he did manage to get into the field his assignments included shadowing a Benzite engineer eventually found innocent of trading stolen technology, the infiltration of a Tellarite mining facility, and the recovery of a container with a stolen Linellian Fluid Effigy inside. (TLE novel: Serpents Among the Ruins, DS9 novel: Avatar Book One)

Tomed
After a decade of deskbound analysis with Starfleet special operations, Vaughn, holding the rank of lieutenant was sent on his first major field assignment in the year 2311. He was to accompany Captain John Harriman and Commander Drysi Gravenor, a woman he thought of as a mentor, on a mission to capture the Romulan flagship Tomed.

Vaughn's responsibility during the Tomed mission was to steal a shuttle for the three operatives to escape in. Vaughn was nearly killed when the shuttlebay was decompressed, and later had to fight Renka Linavil inside the shuttle. He was later somewhat distraught that he was forced to kill her.

Following the successful completion of the mission, Vaughn was one one of only a handful of people who knew the full truth about the events that became known as the Tomed Incident.(TLE novel: Serpents Among the Ruins)

In the year 2319, Vaughn first partnered with T'Prynn of Vulcan and the two formed a loose partnership that lasted off and on for thirty years. (DS9 novel: Lesser Evil)

The Betreka Nebula Incident
When the Cardassian Union and Klingon Empire threatened to go to war over the planet Raknal V in 2328, Vaughn was part of the Starfleet-hosted arbitration aboard the USS Carthage. Federation Ambassador Curzon Dax proposed an agreement where whichever power could best develop the world's resources would ultimately take the planet. Vaughn was very skeptical about this plan, and his skepticism was proved out when the "Betreka Nebula Incident" stretched out for eighteen years. It was aboard the Carthage that Vaughn first met Starfleet officer Ian Andrew Troi, with whom which he began a friendship. (TLE novel: The Art of the Impossible)

In 2339, Vaughn played a role in the aftermath of the disaster on Arvada III. (DS9 novel: Avatar, Book One)


 * (The 2339 date for the Arvada III tragedy was established in the TNG novel: Death in Winter.'')

In 2343, Vaughn first met Starfleet Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the USS Stargazer. The two would meet several times over the ensuing years, including during a coup on Darnak VII. (TLE novel: The Art of the Impossible, comic: Divided We Fall)

In late 2343, after Vaughn's promotion to Lieutenant Commander, Vaughn and T'Prynn saved Special Emissary Raisa Tartovsky from the planet Devniad in Cardassian space. His superior in Starfleet Intelligence at this time was Captain Uhura.

Soon after, Vaughn and Troi returned to Betreka, where Troi was killed in an explosion caused by Romulan sabotage. Vaughn was injured and spent several months in rehabilitation. After informing Dax of the Romulan involvement at Raknal V, the two teamed up and discovered the truth about Ch'gran, thus convincing Klingon Chancellor K'mpec to ceded the planet to Cardassia. (TLE novel: The Art of the Impossible)

Ruriko Tenmei
In 2347 Vaughn met rival SI agent Ruriko Tenmei on the planet Kora II in Cardassian space. The two were sent to help a Cardassian scientist by the name of Crem Veruda defect to the Federation. Veruda had developed an Artificial Intelligence for Cardassia that would give the Cardassians a significant tactical advantage over the Federation. Tenmei and Veruda managed to neutralize the Cardassian AI.

Two years later, following the death of T'Prynn in a transporter accident, Vaughn began a romantic relationship with Tenmei. In 2350, the two had a daughter, Prynn Tenmei, named in honor of their late colleague. While Tenmei took a leave of absence from SI to raise her daughter, Vaughn continued to be heavily involved in intelligence matters, to the detriment of his family life. In one instance, Vaughn was called away from his daughter's fifth birthday celebration by Admiral Presley to deal with a coup on the Elaysian homeworld. (DS9 novel: Lesser Evil)

In 2367, Vaughn took part in a classified mission to Alexandras Planet involving Romulans and an Iconian Gateway. (DS9 novel: Demons of Air and Darkness)

In 2369, Vaughn was promoted to Commander. On a mission to Uridi'si, in order to keep a copy of Crem Veruda's AI from falling into the hands of the Borg, Vaughn was forced to send Ruriko Tenmei on a one-way mission to a Borg ship to ensure that the AI was destroyed. Ruriko Tenmei was believed dead. (DS9 novel: Lesser Evil)

The Dominion War
In 2375, Vaughn was aboard the USS Nautilus as it, along with the Twelfth Fleet, prepared to liberate Betazed from Dominion control. This offensive was preempted when the Dominion attacked the Fleet at Starbase 19. However, during this battle, Vaughn received a message from the Betazed resistance proposing a new plan to overthrow the Dominion occupiers, which Vaughn then put into motion. (TNG novel: The Battle of Betazed)

At some point in Vaughn's career he became aware of the rogue agency that called itself Section 31, a branch of SI that dealt in black ops and the kind of activities that went against everything that the Federation stood for. Vaughn joined a small cabal of Starfleet officers who had dedicated themselves to the destruction of Section 31. In 2375, this cabal obtained an illegal 'holo-ship' used in a failed Section 31 operation in the Briar Patch. (S31 novel: Abyss)

2376
In early 2376, Vaughn was sent to search the Badlands with the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-E) in response to a rumored Breen incursion. While there, Vaughn discovered one of the missing Bajoran Orbs Of the Prophets. The orb, the Orb of Memory, reminded Vaughn of his lost dream of being an explorer. Vaughn began to re-evaluate his life and career at that point. (DS9 novel: Avatar, Book One)

After returning the lost orb to Bajoran Colonel Kira Nerys and saving station Deep Space 9 from Jem'Hadar sabotage, Vaughn requested to fill the vacant post of First Officer on the station.

Vaughn's superiors were reluctant to grant him his request at first, but gave in after Vaughn threatened to resign from Starfleet if they did not comply. (DS9 novel: Avatar book two)

Using the 'holo-ship' aquired the previous year, Vaughn assisted in the removal of the Ingavi from the planet Sindorin, after Section 31 attempted to breed their own Jem Hadar soldiers at lab located on the Badlands based world. Vaughn then recruited Dr. Julian Bashir for the secret battle against Section 31.

Vaughn later commanded the USS Defiant on a three month mission of exploration in the Gamma Quadrant.

After a near death experience helping to release a lifeform known as the Imnamuri into this plane of existence while in the Gamma Quadrant, Vaughn had a reconciliation with his daughter Prynn, who was assigned to the Defiant as Conn officer. (DS9 novel: Mission Gamma: Twilight)

The reconciliation was short-lived, however, as the Defiant discovered a crashed Borg vessel in the Gamma Quadrant and an assimilated and still alive Ruriko Tenmei. When the Assimilation imperitive proved too strong for Ruriko to resist, Vaughn was forced to kill her to prevent her from assimilating Prynn. Prynn once again blamed Vaughn for her mother's death, and once again stopped speaking to him. (DS9 novel: Mission Gamma: Lesser Evil)

After returning to the Alpha Quadrant, Vaughn had another encounter with a Bajoran orb, this time the Orb of Unity. During the encounter, he met Captain Benjamin Sisko during his sojourn with the Bajoran Prophets.

After returning with Sisko, Vaughn approached Prynn, not wanting to be separated from her again. Despite this promising start, and Prynn accompanying Vaughn to induction of Bajor into the United Federation of Planets, Prynn remained distant, cancelling three separate dinner dates with her father. (DS9 novels: Unity, Warpath)

After the induction of Bajor into the United Federation of Planets, Vaughn assisted with the integration of Bajor's militia into Starfleet. Vaughn, during that time, celebrated his 102nd birthday. (DS9 novel: WoDS9 Volume 2: "Bajor: Fragments and Omens")

2377
In early 2377, after the mind-controlled Taran'atar brutally attacked Captain Kira and Lieutenant Ro Laren, Taran'tar hijacked the runabout Euphrates and took Prynn hostage.

Vaughn immediately went in pursuit of Taran'atar in the Defiant, eventually catching up to him on the former Cardassian world of Harokoum. Upon locating Taran'atar, the two played a game of cat and mouse through the abandoned Obsidian Order prison known as Grennokar. A game that Vaughn lost.

Fortunately for Vaughn, Prynn had escaped from her confinement, found a weapon, and had caught up to Taran'atar and Vaughn. Before Prynn could incapacitate Taran'atar (or vice-versa), Taran'atar was transported out of the prison by the Intendant of the mirror universe (Who had believed Taran'tar to be an ally).

Vaughn and Prynn were rescued from the exploding prison by who appeared to be the Mirror Universe's version of the Cardassian woman named Iliana Ghemor. (DS9 novel Warpath)


 * The saga of Deep Space Nine will continue in Fearful Symmetry'' by Leanna Morrow  available in April 2007.

Vaughn
During Vaughn's second orb experience he took on the identity of Eli Underwood, a patient at the same insane asylum as Benny Russell. While there he interacted with numerous members of the staff and other patients, all of who were representations of his friends and family.(DS9 novel: Unity)

Kira
During her vision in Warpath, Kira encounters a man named Ghavun, who was a representation of Vaughn.