Elias Vaughn

Captain Elias A. Vaughn (2274-2383) was a Starfleet officer who served for more than eight decades in a variety of branches, including Starfleet Intelligence, Special Operations and Tactical. Despite his relativity low rank (retained in order 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, including the Tomed Incident, the Betreka Nebula Incident, the disaster at Arvada III, the civil war on Beta VI, the liberation of Betazed from the Dominion, and the Borg Invasion of 2381.

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 Officer's position at Federation starbase Deep Space 9 at age 101, Elias Vaughn commanded the USS Defiant (NX-74205) (II) on a three-month mission of exploration in the Gamma Quadrant and continued to contribute to Starfleet. He would eventually rise to command DS9 for a period before accepting command of the USS James T. Kirk (Akira class). Seriously injured during the Borg invasion and left in a comatose state for two years, Vaughn finally succumbed to his injuries late in 2383, at the age of 109.

Early life
Elias Vaughn was born Saturday, October 24, 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.

On Berengaria, Vaughn was once attacked by a species of animal known as Draco Berengarius. The creature penetrated into the back of Vaughn's skull, causing some slight brain damage and leaving behind its own DNA traces and a scar running from his neck to his left ear. 

Vaughn had a dog as a child. 

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. 

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, and the infiltration of a Tellarite mining facility. 

At the age of 24 he was charged with the recovery of a container with a stolen Linellian fluid effigy inside. Before returning the vessel to the embassy he experienced a vision, one of the most peaceful experiences he ever knew. 

In 2300, Vaughn was working in the "Jigsaw department" at Starfleet Intelligence, part of a group of intelligence analysts. He disobeyed orders from his commander and went into the field to help resolve a crisis on the Federation/Klingon border caused by Romulan-funded Kriosian terrorists. After the mission was completed, Malla Tancreda of Section 31 attempted to recruit Vaughn in the organization, although Vaughn refused the offer. 

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, the 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. 

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. 

The Betreka Nebula Incident
In 2328, the Cardassian Union and Klingon Empire threatened to go to war over the planet Raknal V near the Betreka Nebula. The Cardassians claimed the world as their own, but the Klingons disputed the claim after the remains of the vessel of the legendary Klingon Captain Ch'gran were discovered on the surface. The Klingons, who wished to recover the legendary hero's vessel, argued that the presence of Ch'gran's ship on the planet constituted a prior claim to the planet.

Vaughn was assigned to the Starfleet-hosted arbitration delegation for the dispute aboard the USS Carthage (Miranda class). Federation Ambassador Curzon Dax arranged an agreement between the two powers wherein whichever government could best develop the world's resources would ultimately take the planet. Vaughn was very skeptical about this plan, and said so. His skepticism was proved out as the so-called "Betreka Nebula Incident" stretched out for eighteen years with few tangible results.

It was aboard the Carthage that Vaughn first met the ship's science officer Lieutenant Ian Andrew Troi, with whom he began a long friendship. Vaughn would eventually be introduced to Troi's wife Lwaxana, and children, Kestra and Deanna. He attended Kestra's funeral on Betazed in 2336. 

Further operations
Vaughn's travels exposed him to many tragedies; Verillian children orphaned by war, the hopelessness of a Lethean veteran asylum and the genocidal holocaust on Arvada III.
 * The established 2339 as the date for the Arvada III tragedy, however it also established the tragedy as a plague outbreak, which may either be inconsistent with what Vaughn experienced or indicate another period of strife on the world which Vaughn was involved with, or this may have been the means of genocide.

Vaughn's mission also brought frustration, he was unable to do anything as he witnessed the deaths of eleven thousand men in the civil war on Beta VI and could not have foreseen the assassination of an Elaysian governor. 

In 2343, Vaughn first met Starfleet Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the USS Stargazer (NCC-2893). The two would meet several times over the ensuing years, including during a coup d'état on Darnak VII. 

In late 2343, after Vaughn's promotion to Lieutenant Commander, Vaughn and T'Prynn retrieved Special Emissary Raisa Tartovsky from the planet Devniad as the Cardassian Union annexed the planet. Tartovsky was uncooperative, believing Vaughn to be a disguised Cardassian, forcing Vaughn to stun her and carry her back to his ship. Vaughn delivered Tartovsky to Starbase 47, where he reported to his superior in Starfleet Intelligence, Captain Uhura.

Uhura ordered Vaughn to return to Raknal V and give her his assessment of the situation there. Vaughn returned to Raknal V on the Carthage, and he and Ian Troi went down to the planet's surface together. Vaughn and Troi became trapped as a building collapsed on them due to Romulan sabotage. All evidence of the Romulan involvement was destroyed and Ian Troi died from his injuries.

Vaughn was severely injured and spent several months in recovery. After returning to duty, he tracked down Dax on Risa and informed him of the Romulan involvement at Raknal V. The two pooled their resources and discovered the truth about Ch'gran, thus convincing Klingon Chancellor K'mpec to cede the planet to Cardassia, finally ending the "Betreka Nebula Incident". 

At some point in his career Vaughn designed part of the curriculum for Starfleet's Advanced Tactical Training course. 

Ruriko Tenmei
In 2347, Vaughn and T'Prynn met rival SI agent Ruriko Tenmei on the planet Kora II in Cardassian space. Vaughn and Tenmei were familiar with each other through their impressive after-action reports, and considered each other rivals.

Vaughn and T'Prynn were tasked with assisting in the defection of Cardassian scientist Cren Veruda, the developer of an artificial intelligence that would give Cardassia a significant tactical advantage over the Federation.

The mission went bad, and Vaughn found himself captured and brought to a glinn named Madred for interrogation. Vaughn was rescued by Tenmei who was on the scene undercover as an agent of the Obsidian Order named Kree Omiturin (An amalgram of "Ruriko Tenmei"). After being freed by Tenmei, the pair of S.I. agents freed Veruda from his confinement and managed to disable Veruda's A.I. system.

Vaughn found himself irritated not only by the fact that he met his chief rival as she rescued him from an operation gone bad, but also by the fact that he found himself attracted to Tenmei.

Tenmei worked with Vaughn and T'Prynn frequently after that, and both were present when T'Prynn was tragically killed in a transporter accident aboard the USS T'Plana-Hath in 2349. Following T'Prynn's funeral on Vulcan, Vaughn and Tenmei began a romantic relationship.

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 Gemworld, the Elaysian homeworld. 

Bajor, the Gateway and the Borg
In 2365, while working a mission specialist gathering and analyzing intelligence from the Federation/Cardassian border, the ship Vaughn was working on was contacted by a Cardassian dissident named Gaten Russol, who hoped to change Cardassia's policy toward other worlds, including Bajor and the disputed border colonies. Although Vaughn was ordered by Admiral Alynna Nechayev not to directly involve himself in the Bajoran situation, Nechayev nevertheless re-assigned Vaughn to Starbase 375, and ordered him to regain contact with Russol and establish a dialogue with him. 

In 2367, Vaughn took part in a classified mission to Alexandra's Planet involving Romulans and an Iconian gateway. No other details of this operation have been released to the general public, although certain Starship captains, including Jean-Luc Picard, viewed the case-file during the Gateways Crisis of 2376. 

In 2368, Vaughn was assigned to Starbase 621, analyzing starship movement along the Tzenkethi border, when he was again contacted by Gaten Russol, with whom which Vaughn had maintained sporadic contact. Russol informed Vaughn that the Cardassian prefect on Bajor, Gul Skrain Dukat, was about to make a fraudulent offer of peace and withdrawal to the Bajoran people in exchange for the Bajoran Resistance movement standing down and ceasing hostilities.

Russol explained that Dukat's position in regards to the Bajoran resistance had grown desperate, and if the Bajorans really wanted the Cardassians to leave Bajor, now was the time to push their efforts. Vaughn passed this information on to the Bajoran refugee Keeve Falor at the Valo II re-settlement camp. Falor then passed the information on to the resistance on Bajor, who made their final push against the Cardassians, finally driving them out of Bajoran space. 

In 2369, after Vaughn was promoted to Commander, a rogue copy of Crem Veruda's AI software matrix re-constituted itself on the planet Uridi'si. Vaughn and Ruriko Tenmei (who had just returned to active duty after 19 years) were sent on the T-Plana-Hath to deal with the A.I. as they had before.

The T'Plana-Hath and the USS Valkyrie (NCC-68816) arrived at Uridi'si just as a Borg cube summoned by the A.I. arrived on the scene. The A.I. believed itself to be sophisticated enough to assimilate the Borg rather than be assimilated by them. After a pitched battle that left the T'Plana-Hath crippled and forced the Valkyrie to retreat, the Borg ship linked with the planet-side computer where the A.I. resided, and uploaded the A.I.

As Tenmei was the only officer aboard with enough experience with the A.I. to take it out, Vaughn was forced to send Ruriko Tenmei and the Valkyrie on a one-way mission to the Borg ship to ensure that the A.I. was destroyed.

Ruriko Tenmei was successful in her efforts in destroying the cube and the A.I., but was presumed killed in action. Prynn, who was at Starfleet Academy at the time, blamed Vaughn for her mother's death. 

The Dominion War
In 2375, Vaughn was aboard the USS Nautilus (NCC-31910) 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.

Working with the crew of the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-E) (including Deanna Troi the daughter of his deceased friend Ian Troi), Vaughn infiltrated Dominion-occupied Betazed, and freed murderer Hent Tevren from custody. Tevren knew of long-forgotten lethal mental techniques that the Betazed resistance could use against the Jem'Hadar. Although Tevren was killed during the escape, Troi learned enough from Tevren to teach the resistance how to defeat the Jem'Hadar by overloading their empathic centers, which shut down the soldiers minds. 

The War also saw Vaughn visiting Panora and witnessing the destruction of Jem'Hadar vessels over Tiburon. 

At some point in Vaughn's career he became aware of the rogue agency that called itself Section 31, a secretive organization which 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 holoship used in a failed Section 31 operation in the Briar Patch. 

Re-discovery of dreams and purpose
In April of 2376, Vaughn was sent to search the Badlands with the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-E) in response to a rumored Breen presence. At the time the war weary Vaughn was considering retirement. He confided in Captain Picard who suggested Vaughn would not be happy sitting back and letting worlds go by and suggested he turned to writing or teaching.

Shortly after the Enterprise found a wrecked Cardassian freighter, the Kamal, within which Vaughn discovered one of the missing Bajoran Orbs. The Orb, the Orb of Memory, flooded Vaughn's mind with long-forgotten memories and dreams of his youth, reminding him of his long-lost dream of being an explorer.

One memory that was not his was of the final moments of the Bajorans and Cardassians who died on the Kamal years earlier. In this vision, he also saw a man that he had never met, who he later identified as missing Starfleet captain, Benjamin Sisko.

Vaughn began to re-evaluate his life and career at that point. He became determined to live life for the moment, to enjoy it, even if that meant leaving Starfleet if they wouldn't agree to his wishes. 

Upon arrival at DS9, and Captain Picard returning the Orb of Memory to to Bajoran Colonel Kira Nerys, Vaughn assisted Kira and station personnel in saving the station when the rogue Jem'Hadar soldier Kitana'klan sabotaged the station's fusion core.

Vaughn later met with Kira, and told her of his experience with the Orb. Vaughn was astonished to discover that Kira had experienced the same vision of the Kamal and Sisko as Vaughn had. With that, Vaughn put in the request to leave SI behind, and fill the vacant first officer's postion on Deep Space 9.

At first, Vaughn's superiors were reluctant to grant him his request. But after Vaughn threatened to resign from Starfleet if they did not agree, they gave in, not wanting to lose a man of Vaughn's experience and knowledge. 

New challenges
Two weeks later, using the 'holo-ship' acquired the previous year, Vaughn assisted in the covert removal of the displaced Ingavi from the planet Sindorin, who had lived on Sindorin ever since the Cardassian Union annexed their homeword of Ingav decades earlier. Section 31 attempted to breed their own Jem'Hadar soldiers at lab located on the Badlands based world using the expertise of genetically enhanced scientist Ethan Locken. The situation grew out of Section 31's control when Locken betrayed them and established his own agenda. Section 31 informed the genetically-enhanced Dr. Julian Bashir of DS9 of the situation, hoping that the Doctor could clean up their mess for them. Following the operation, Vaughn recruited Dr. Bashir into the secret cabal of officers that wage the secret battle against Section 31. 

During the Gateway crisis in May, Vaughn commanded the USS Defiant (NX-74205) (II) during Starfleet's evacuation efforts at the planet Europa Nova after a lethal radiation coming from a gateway leading to the Delta Quadrant infected the planet's atmosphere. He later negotiated with the xenophobic Jarada for temporary use of their territory for displaced Europani refugees. Lieutenant Ezri Dax, Vaughn's first officer on the Defiant (and one of the successors to Curzon Dax), became drawn into events when rejected host-candidate Verad Kalon unleashed a virus designed to kill all Trill symbionts and start a civil war on Trill in a misguided attempt to "free" Trill from an imagined symbiont dictatorship. Colonel Kira sent Vaughn and the Defiant to assist Dax and the Trill government in any way they could. Vaughn and the crew of the Defiant worked along with the crew of the Enterprise to thwart Kalon's scheme and deal with the civil unrest that followed. 

Gamma Quadrant exploration
Vaughn later commanded the USS Defiant on a three month mission of exploration in the Gamma Quadrant. Vaughn's daughter Prynn had been assigned to the Defiant as Conn officer prior to Vaughn's arrival at the station, and before departing on the mission, Vaughn made it clear to Prynn that her personal feelings about him notwithstanding, she would have to treat him with the respect due a superior officer if she wanted to participate in the mission.

Vaughn and Prynn had a more personal reunion after Vaughn had a near-death experience on an un-named world in the Gamma quadrant that helped to release a lifeform known as the Inamuri into this plane of existence, and saved the world of the Vahni Vahltupani from destruction. The reality of almost losing her father made Prynn realize how much Vaughn meant to her, and the two began to heal their wounds together. 

The reconciliation was short-lived, however, as the Defiant soon discovered a crashed Borg vessel, the assimilated USS Valkyrie, in the Gamma Quadrant and an assimilated and still-alive Ruriko Tenmei within. Vaughn brought Ruriko back to the Defiant, hoping that her humanity could be restored. When the Assimilation imperative proved too strong for Ruriko to resist, Vaughn was forced to kill her in order to prevent her from assimilating Prynn, her own daughter. Prynn, not believing that her mother would have assimilated her, once again blamed Vaughn for her mother's death, and once again stopped speaking to him. 

Other notable incidents of the expedition included the aversion of a genocidal civil war on the homeworld of the Yrythny, and an encounter with an ancient spaceborn artifact that had trans-temporal repercussions for several of his crew. 

Upon returning to the Gamma Quadrant end of the Bajoran wormhole, Vaughn and the Defiant arrived in the aftermath of the seemingly impossible: The closest star, Idran, had moved three light-years closer to the wormhole. The species native to Idran, the Eav'oq, shared a link to the Bajoran Prophets similar to the one possesed by the Bajoran people. 

During the Gamma Quadrant expedition, Vaughn commanded the Defiant through eleven direct first contacts, exchanged sub-space friendship messages with sixteen other species, recorded or obtained 644 new types of life, and (with the help of probes) mapped over 1200 cubic light-years of space. 

Return to the Alpha Quadrant
After returning to the Alpha Quadrant, Vaughn was despondent over the renewed loss of both his wife and daughter, and sought the counsel of former Bajoran Kai Opaka Sulan at the monastery at Ashalla. Vaughn had met the former Kai during the Gamma Quadrant mission, and then at her request happily agreed to return her home to Bajor. 

Agreeing to help Vaughn, Opaka exposed him to another Orb, this time the Orb of Unity. During the encounter, the temple was seized by parasite infected monks who hoped to take over Bajor for their own purposes. This left Vaughn trapped in his own orb experience, in which he came to terms with his grief in a prophet created simulation of a mental institution in Earth's 1950s. During his orb experience, he met Captain Benjamin Sisko during his own sojourn with the Bajoran Prophets. Together, Vaughn and Sisko sought to leave the celestial temple behind, and return to linear existence.

With the assistance of Kira Nerys, who had flung open the arks of all of the Orbs at once in a confrontation with the alien queen parasite, Vaughn and Sisko returned to Bajor just in time to deal with the parasite threat. 

After returning to the linear plane with Sisko, Vaughn approached Prynn, not wanting to be separated from her again for any reason. Prynn agreed to accompany Vaughn to induction of Bajor into the United Federation of Planets, but despite this promising start Prynn remained distant from Vaughn, canceling three separate dinner dates with her father over the next several months. 

After the induction of Bajor into the United Federation of Planets, Vaughn assisted with the integration of Bajor's militia into Starfleet by conducting interviews and making evaluations. Vaughn, during that time, celebrated his 102nd birthday. 

Taran'atar and the mirror universe
In early 2377, after the mind-controlled Taran'atar brutally attacked Captain Kira and Lieutenant Ro Laren, Taran'tar hijacked the runabout USS 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 Harkoum. 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 a Cardassian woman who appeared to be the Mirror Universe's version of Iliana Ghemor. 

After returning from Harkorum, Captain Kira relieved him from duty because she thought he made going after Taran'atar personal. After Sisko talked to Kira and he talked to Vaughn, she reinstated him and ordered him to ops to talk to the Terran Rebellion with the senior staff. He offered and accepted to go with Kira to the mirror-Bajor to stop Ghemor. 

Later service
Sometime before 2379, Vaughn was promoted to captain and commanded Deep Space Nine, before accepting a reassignment to the USS James T. Kirk (Akira class) on a deep space assignment. His ship was called into service during the Borg Invasion of 2381 as part of a task force led by Benjamin Sisko, commanding the USS New York (Nebula class), defending the planet Alonis. Vaughn was severely injured in an attack and taken to Deep Space Nine for treatment by Doctor Julian Bashir. Sisko personally relayed a message to Prynn Tenmei regarding her father's condition.

Bashir was unable to revive the captain and as of August 2382, Captain Vaughn was still in a coma. His attending doctor, Julian Bashir, considered his prospects for recovery dim. Prynn, who remained at his bedside during his treatment, ultimately acceded to Doctor Bashir's recommendations that she deactivate the life support system keeping Vaughn alive. Vaughn was found to be able to breathe on his own. 

As of August 2383 Captain Vaughn had still shown no improvement in his condition. Having come to terms with her father's condition, Prynn accepted an offer from Kira Nerys to allow her father to move to a hospice on Bajor. 

By September of that year, Vaughn had been moved to the hospice at the Vanadwan Monastery, where Prynn had agreed to allow her father to die naturally, without any medical aids. In due course, many of Vaughn's friends and colleagues came to sit by his bedside to read passages from several forms of literature; Benjamin Sisko read Ulysses by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. 

Alternate realities
In an alternate timeline in which the Federation had been conquered by the Klingon Empire following the outbreak of war after the Khitomer Accords were not successfully signed, Elias Vaughn had become a member of the Terran resistance on Earth. Vaughn was considered an "in-the-shadows" operator by Jean-Luc Picard. By the 2360s, he had taken his people underground in response to the Klingon's starting to use carpet bombing tactics. Around then members of Picard's cell considered approaching Vaughn's group after they took heavy losses, but as Vaughn and his group were at the time in hiding, and due to Vaughn's less direct tactics, Picard considered it an unlikely prospect. 

In September 2376, during his second orb experience Vaughn took on the identity of Eli Underwood, a patient at the same insane asylum as Benny Russell on 1950s Earth. While there he interacted with numerous members of the staff and other patients, all of whom were representations of his friends and family. Vaughn ended the experience when he and Benjamin Sisko returned to the real world. 

In January 2377, Kira Nerys experienced a vision set in ancient Bajor where she encountered a man named Ghavun, a representation of Vaughn. 

In another alternate timeline in which Earth was a member of the Andorian-led Interstellar Union, Vaughn served in the Union's military, the Interstellar Guard, where he held the rank of Trooper. 

Background
Elias Vaughn first appeared in the first novel of the Deep Space Nine relaunch series: Avatar. He was one of several major new characters introduced to the series to compensate for characters who had moved on from Deep Space 9 by the end of the television series.

From that first introduction Vaughn has appeared throughout the DS9 relaunch and made an appearance in the Star Trek: Corps of Engineers eBook Lost Time which crossed-over with Deep Space Nine. Vaughn's history prior to Deep Space 9 has also been fleshed out by appearances in several The Lost Era stories and the TNG Dominion War novel The Battle of Betazed.

Appearances and references
In publication order:
 * (first appearance)
 * DS9/TNG comic miniseries: Divided We Fall
 * DS9/
 * DS9/
 * DS9/
 * DS9/
 * ST prose miniseries: :
 * (cameo)
 * (cameo)
 * DS9 - What Lay Beyond novella: "Horn and Ivory" (referenced only)
 * TNG - What Lay Beyond novella: "The Other Side"
 * DS9 novel miniseries: Mission: Gamma
 * (cameo)
 * DS9 novel miniseries: Worlds of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
 * Volume Two:
 * Volume Three:
 * Volume Three: (referenced only)
 * (referenced only)
 * (referenced only)
 * (earliest chronological appearance to date)
 * DS9 novel miniseries: Worlds of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
 * Volume Two:
 * Volume Three:
 * Volume Three: (referenced only)
 * (referenced only)
 * (referenced only)
 * (earliest chronological appearance to date)
 * (referenced only)
 * (referenced only)
 * (earliest chronological appearance to date)
 * (referenced only)
 * (earliest chronological appearance to date)
 * (referenced only)
 * (earliest chronological appearance to date)
 * (earliest chronological appearance to date)