Numerous Aegis aboard one of their starships
The Aegis were a mysterious group of highly-advanced aliens who lived on a hidden planet and attempted to safeguard the timeline and the fates of many races and cultures throughout the galaxy.
Overview
The Aegis have been seen in various forms, their natural form appears to be a large non-humanoid species with numerous shaggy tentacles - the same species which makes up forces of the Aegis's enemies, Counter Strike. (TOS comic: "We Have Met The Enemy...")
Aegis in gigantic humanoid form
A group of Aegis have also been seen to appear as giant humanoids when interacting with the crews of the USS Enterprise-A and USS Enterprise-D following a temporal incident with Devidians. One Aegis visiting Earth following the successful thwarting of a Counter Strike attack altered his form to appear as Human for the benefit of Roberta Lincoln. (TOS comics: "Future Imperiled", "We Have Met The Enemy...")
Modus Operandi
The Aegis' goals were to maintain the timeline to what they considered to be the correct course, and to guide the development of other civilizations. The Aegis themselves preferred to work from behind the scenes only intervening directly on rare occasions when dealing with larger threats. For most operations the Aegis used operatives from numerous species: They abducted members of various species and bred and genetically engineered their children, before reintroducing them into their societies. These agents would then covertly move to prevent their races from destroying or harming themselves. (TOS comics: "The Peacekeeper", "We Have Met The Enemy..."; TOS episode: "Assignment: Earth")
The Aegis homeworld was located in a cloaked star system some fifty thousand light-years away from Earth. The planet was cosmopolitan and the Aegis had various advanced technologies, including long range transporters which allowed them to deploy their agents light-years away. They also had the ability to move their operatives through time. (TOS novels: The Rise and Fall of Khan Noonien Singh, Volume 1, The Rise and Fall of Khan Noonien Singh, Volume 2; TOS episode: "Assignment: Earth"; TOS comics: "The Peacekeeper", "Split Infinities", "Future Imperiled")
The Aegis were "unbound by the limits of time" and could move through it as easily as other races could traverse space. They maintained scanning facilities which allowed their agents to monitor thousands of years back and forth in time and intervene when necessary. As such the Aegis and their operatives had a wide knowledge of the galaxy throughout history, allowing them to determine what was the correct state of affairs. (TOS comic: "The Peacekeeper")
Indeed, they were very strict about preserving the timeline, going so far as to keep certain information about future events secret from their own agents working in the field, so that there would be no risk of contaminating foreign eras. (DTI novel: Watching the Clock)
Intervention specialists
The Aegis' intervention specialists, came from a variety of species and were augmented, trained and equipped by the Aegis - Human operative Gary Seven expected to live for about a thousand years and had access to advanced computer and teleportation technology. The majority of Aegis agents were also equipped with a multipurpose tool and weapon, the servo. (TOS comics: "The Peacekeeper", "Brighter Than a Thousand Suns"; et al.)
There were at least three ranks of specialist: agent, supervisor and senior supervisor. It was also common for a specialist to have a partner in the form of what ordinarily appeared to be a cat, though these "cats" could take on humanoid form. (TOS comics: "The Peacekeeper", "Split Infinities", "Future Imperiled", "Too Many Presidents"; et al.)
Earth operatives
Prior to 1968 there were at least two agents assigned to Earth; Agent 201 and Agent 347, both Human. In 1968 both agents were killed in an automobile "accident" engineered by Counter Strike when they discovered evidence of the Aegis' nemesis working on Earth.
When the Aegis lost contact with the agents, Supervisor 194, a Human named Gary Seven, was sent to investigate and adopt the Earth assignment (though it was not until several years later that the truth of the agents' deaths was uncovered). Seven was accompanied by his cat Isis. Seven was also assisted by the previous agents' secretary, Roberta Lincoln, an Earth native Human who continued to work with Seven for many years. (TOS episode: "Assignment: Earth"; TOS comic: "We Have Met the Enemy..."; et al.)
After Gary Seven's departure, Roberta Lincoln became Supervisor, and hired Rain Robinson as her new sidekick; they were sent Ramses to replace Isis. (TOS novel: The Rise and Fall of Khan Noonien Singh, Volume 2)
Other operatives
Other Aegis intervention specialists included:
- Septos, a Romulan who operated both on Vulcan and in Romulan space, and his partner, Osiris. (TOS novel: Assignment: Eternity)
- Exana, a senior supervisor, and her cat Nova. Exana at times partnered with, and was romantically involved with, Gary Seven. Exana and Nova were both instrumental in stopping the temporal meddling of the Devidians. (TOS/TNG comics: "Split Infinities", "Future Imperiled")
- Shopay, Evad and Koob, who rebelled against the Aegis and planned to destroy them. They were stopped by Gary Seven and the crew of the USS Enterprise before they could complete their plans. (TOS comic: "The Peacekeeper")
- Cyral Nine, a Cardassian woman, working in Cardassian space prior to the Dominion War; after the devastation caused by that event, she left the Aegis. (DTI novel: Watching the Clock)
- Rodal Eight, a Cardassian man, Cyral Nine's replacement, and his partner, Meneth. (DTI novel: Watching the Clock)
History
One of the groups the Aegis kept in check were Counter Strike, who were the same species as the Aegis but operated under a very different philosophy. Like the Aegis, Counter Strike monitored growing civilizations, but rather than guide and protect them Counter Strike looked to destroy any civilization it saw as growing too fast and/or too far.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s Counter Strike set its sights on Earth, seeking to lead it to destruction by seeding new technologies leading to the unbalancing of delicate political scales. Fortunately Supervisor 194 was stationed on Earth and had undone much of their work, eventually uncovering evidence of the plot, and with the assistance of an Aegis starship was able to apprehend the Counter Strike vessel in Earth orbit and prevent further interference. (TOS comic: "We Have Met The Enemy...")
In 2290, a group of rogue agents of the Aegis attempted to capture the starship Pacific which contained a protomatter weapon. The rebels intended to use it against their Aegis masters as they had abandoned the use of weapons long ago and would not have expected the use of the protomatter. Intervention Specialist Gary Seven worked with the crew of the USS Enterprise and destroyed the Pacific along with the protomatter which ended the plot of the rebels. (TOS comic: "The Peacekeeper")