Ezri Dax


 * For the mirror universe counterpart, see $𝜇$.

Ezri Dax was a joined female Trill, born as Ezri Tigan on the world of New Sydney in the year 2354. She served aboard the USS Destiny, starbase Deep Space 9, the original USS Defiant and its successor and the USS Aventine.

New Sydney
Ezri's mother, Yanas, was the owner of a very successful mining concern on the world of New Sydney. Ezri and her mother, who wanted Ezri to help run the family business, argued constantly.

Ezri refused to let her mother control her the way she did her two brothers and refused to join the family business. Instead, she enrolled in Starfleet Academy and studied to become a counselor. (DS9 episode: "Prodigal Daughter")

Starfleet
In late 2374, Ezri was serving as ensign and assistant counselor aboard the starship USS Destiny when the ship was diverted by a medical emergency and traveled to Deep Space 9. Upon arrival, the Destiny docked with a runabout that contained the Trill symbiont, Dax, who had been separated from its previous host, Jadzia, after she had been brutally murdered by Cardassian gul, Skrain Dukat. The Dax symbiont was escorted by DS9's chief of security, the Changeling, Odo. Dax needed to a new host in a matter of weeks or it wouldn't survive.

When a shape-shifting Founder of the Dominion impersonated Ezri's lover, Ensign Brinner Finok, and attempted to kidnap the Dax symbiont, Ezri was the first to realize that something was wrong.

Soon after the foiling of the kidnapping and the capture of the Changeling, the ship was attacked by Jem'Hadar vessels. Dax's condition worsened, and needed to be joined immediately.

Ezri had never wanted to be joined, but as Brenner Finok was still missing, Ezri was the only available Trill to join Dax with. Ezri agreed to undergo the joining procedure, and became the ninth host of the Dax symbiont, Ezri Dax.

Brinner Finok would later be found safe in a medical supply closet, but their relationship did not continue after Ezri's joining. (DS9 short stories: "Second star to the right...", "... and straight on 'til morning")

2375
Ezri, confused by all of her new memories, sought out the one constant in her previous, two incarnations- Starfleet Captain Benjamin Sisko, on Earth. Dax's host Ezri preferred not to be called "Old Man" by her new mentor and longtime friend, Ben Sisko. (DS9 episodes: "Image in the Sand", "Shadows and Symbols", "Afterimage")

Dax returned to DS9 with Sisko where she received the rank of lieutenant and position of station's Counselor. She served in the position through the end of the war. (DS9 episodes: "Image in the Sand", "Shadows and Symbols")

After "returning" to DS9, she began counseling Elim Garak for his claustrophobia. After some time and work, they discovered his attacks were triggered by his guilt for helping the Federation attack Cardassian targets. (DS9 episode: "Afterimage")

Just prior to the end of the war in 2375, Ezri began a relationship with Dr. Julian Bashir, who may have had unresolved feelings for her previous host, Jadzia. (DS9 episode: "The Dogs of War")

2376
In January of 2376, Ezri brought the legendary Sword of Kahless into the possession of the new Klingon Chancellor, Martok, on the world of Boreth at a pivotal moment of a Klingon civil war. (DS9 novel: The Left Hand of Destiny, Book Two)

In April of 2376, Dax was onboard the USS Defiant when a surprise attack by the Jem'Hadar killed the ship's new CO, Commander Tiris Jast. Drawing on the memories of Dax's previous hosts, Ezri took command and defeated the attacking Jem'Hadar. The experience made Ezri realize that she was capable of so much more now that she was joined, and made the switch to the Command Track. It also earned her a nomination to receive the Starfleet Citation for Conspicuous Gallantry.

April also saw a strain on Dax's relationship with Bashir when she began to explore the connection with her previous hosts and momentarily took on the personality of Jadzia Dax when they were making love. The incident spooked and offended Bashir who stormed out of Dax's quarters. The pair later reconciled after Bashir nearly died. (DS9 novel: Avatar)

Ezri and Julian traveled to the world of Sindorin to destroy the laboratory of Dr. Ethan Locken, a rogue former agent of Section 31, who was breeding an army of Jem'Hadar Soldiers. (DS9 novel: Abyss)

Ezri was given the position of First officer aboard the USS Defiant for its three-month exploratory mission of the Gamma Quadrant by mission Commander, Elias Vaughn.

During the Gamma Quadrant mission, Ezri commanded a shuttle mission attempting to protect the Vahni Vahltupali from the debris of their shattered moon (an effort that tragically led to the mission's only casualty, Ensign Gerda Roness), mediated a solution to a caste conflict between the Checka and Yrythny species, encountered an ancient alien artifact that actually separated her from Dax for a time, and confronted Commander Vaughn when he was letting personal desires get in the way of the mission. (DS9 novels: Mission Gamma series)

Upon her return to the Alpha Quadrant, Ezri found herself in the middle of the Bajoran Parasite crisis. The alien Parasites had a genetic link to the Trill symbionts and had been encountered by a previous Dax host, Audrid. (DS9 novel: Unity)

The revelations about the origins of the Parasites brought major civil unrest to the world of Trill when Ezri returned there to testify about the Parasite affair. After a radical faction killed a large percentage of the symbiont population, the Trill President, Lirisse Maz, ordered a moratorium on joining, allowing the symbionts to replenish their population.

Ezri and Julian ended their relationship soon after, when Ezri began to believe that his feelings for her were a by-product of his unrequited feelings for Jadzia. (DS9 novel: "Trill: Unjoined")



2380
By 2380 Ezri had been promoted to Lieutenant Commander and transferred to the USS Aventine as second officer. 

2381
Ezri took command of the USS Aventine after the ship's Captain and Executive Officer were killed while defending the Acamar System from the Borg. This left Dax the highest ranking crewmember from the original chain of command still aboard the ship. A week later, Starfleet Command field-promoted Ezri to Captain and granted her command of the USS Aventine.

Ezri convinced Starfleet that the wreckage of the Columbia, discovered eight years previously by Jadzia Dax, could hold the key to understanding the Borg's new ability to travel vast distances without being detected, and the Aventine was assigned to a salvage mission. The mission was cut short after Admiral Jellico reassigned the Aventine to the fleet defending Trill against further Borg attacks. However, the Caeliar Arithon hid in the Columbia wreckage to board the ship, stole the runabout USS Seine and opened a subspace tunnel, hoping to find his former planet Erigol, and merely found the supernova remnant now the Azure Nebula. 

This placed the Aventine in position to answer the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-E) distress call and assist them in defeating a Borg cube. Captain Jean-Luc Picard ordered the two crews to investigate the tunnels to find ways to mine the nebula and collapse them to prevent further Borg incursions, despite the protests of Dax and the feelings of several of the Enterprise senior staff who considered the tunnels to be too valuable as an exploratory tool. Ezri initially felt awkward around the Enterprise, and in particular Worf, whom she had not seen since her promotion. She also began to doubt her abilities to command a starship. Her first officer, Sam Bowers, convinced her to speak to Worf, and the two reconciled, with Worf indicating that her continued success did honor to Jadzia's memories.

Scientific analysis performed by Dina Elfiki and Gruhn Helkara determined that attempts to collapse the subspace tunnels could cause catastrophic reverberations, and the dynamics of the supernova remnant proved to thwart any attempts to create a minefield. After consulting with Admiral Nechayev and requesting reinforcements, Picard ceased production of the self-replicating mines Dax had suggested and instead had the ships focus on opening the tunnels, hoping to locate the staging area of the Borg, with the Aventine entering the first tunnels able to be opened. After the arrival of an allied fleet of several hundred ships, the Enterprise and Aventine traversed one of the tunnels together, and ended up near the Carina Arm near the median between the Delta and Gamma Quadrants, where they fought and were boarded by Hirogen hunters. When the two vessels returned to the nebula, they found a graveyard of ships from an invading force of seven thousand Borg cubes. Captain Dax, certain that the advanced weaponry of the Aventine could be of use in saving something from the Collective, set course for Earth, forcing the Enterprise to chase after. 

Picard manages to convince Ezri to stand down and contact Starfleet for new orders. Unfortunately, Starfleet has no new orders for them, and instead gives them authorization to do whatever it takes to stop the Borg. Shortly afterward, the Titan under the command of Captain Riker appears, with Captain Erika Hernandez - long considered dead after the Columbia vanished 200 years earlier.

Ezri and Hernandez work together to devise a plan to stop the Borg by using Hernandez - now infused with Caeliar Catoms - to impersonate the Borg Queen by accessing a Borg Vinculum. Despite Picard's disapproval of the plan, Ezri and Hernandez proceed, anyway. Worf attempts to convince Ezri to call off the attack, but is unsuccessful.

Hernandez locates a lone Borg scout ship to attack. The Aventine ambushes, disables and boards the Borg vessel. Ezri's plan is successful, and Hernandez accesses the ship's Viniculum, using her Catoms to impersonate the Queen. Under Hernandez's influence, the Borg turn on themselves, and half the invasion force is destroyed. However, the real Queen quickly reasserts control over the Collective and takes personal control over the scout ship. The Aventine is attacked by the reawakened scout ship, but manages to beam its strike teams back aboard. An explosive device inside the Borg scout ship is then detonated, destroying the vessel.

After the mission, Hernandez informs Ezri of a startling revelation: The Borg are the product of a botched fusion between Caeliar and humans from the Columbia who were thrown back in time in the cataclysm that destroyed the Caeliar's homeworld two hundred years prior. Ezri and Hernandez then come up with another plan to enlist the Caeliar's aid in dismantling the Collective. Although Picard initially disapproves of this plan, Riker is able to convince him otherwise.

Ezri is present on the bridge of the Enterprise to witness the end of the Borg invasion, and of the Borg Collective itself at the hands of the Caeliar. 

Alternate versions
During Kira Nerys' vision from the Prophets, Ezri was represented by a woman named Zeir. (DS9 novel: Warpath)