- This character is a member of the Dukat family.
- For the mirror universe counterpart, see Akellen Macet (mirror).
Akellen Macet was a male Cardassian in the 24th century. He served in the Cardassian Guard throughout the latter half of the century and eventually attained the rank of gul, commanding the Galor-class ship CDS Trager in the 2360s, 70s and 80s. (TNG episode: "The Wounded"; et al.)
Biography[]
Family and upbringing[]
Macet was the cousin of Skrain Dukat, on his mother's side of the family, and shared a striking resemblance with him that has caused many Bajorans and those familiar with Dukat to distrust him on first sight. However, this mistrust was generally put aside when such individuals got to know him and learned he was a very different man—more sincere in his speech and motivations, and markedly less arrogant. He had considered his resemblance to Dukat a liability both in and out of the Cardassian Union, ever more so as Dukat's notoriety grew. (DS9 - Gateways novel: Demons of Air and Darkness, DS9 - Mission Gamma novel: This Gray Spirit)
Macet was devoted to the Cardassian Union, but not to the extent that he followed blindly: though patriotic and loyal, he has not always agreed with the means the Union has used to accomplish its ends and over time grew to see that some of the Union's policies may have been detrimental to his people. Following the Dominion War, Macet aligned himself with the democratic Alon Ghemor government and made efforts to build friendly relations between his people and the Bajorans. (DS9 - Gateways novel: Demons of Air and Darkness, DS9 - Mission Gamma novels: This Gray Spirit, Cathedral)
Macet was also an atypical Cardassian in that he sported a beard. When the young Iliana Ghemor encountered both Macet and Dukat in 2357 she wondered if he might have worn the beard to help distinguish himself from his cousin. (DS9 novel: Fearful Symmetry)
History[]
By 2357 Macet was serving along the Cardassian-Federation border, and subsequently wore the distinctive uniform used by forces on that front. In that year he attended a party at the State Museum of Natural History on Cardassia. At the party his cousin, Skrain Dukat, used him to deflect a barb from Gul Trepar. (DS9 novel: Fearful Symmetry)
In 2364, he and Tekeny Ghemor were members of the Cardassian Union delegation that attended a secret meeting held by Spock and Sarek on an asteroid in the Romulan Neutral Zone to discuss the recent destruction of Romulan outposts along the Neutral Zone. (TOS - Vulcan's Soul novel: Exodus)
The Phoenix Incident[]
In 2367, Federation captain Benjamin Maxwell of the USS Phoenix turned rogue and began attacking Cardassian targets without the sanction of Starfleet. The CDS Trager, under the command of Macet, was sent to the Federation border to deal with the situation, where he encountered the USS Enterprise and opened fire, assuming the Enterprise was the culprit.
Captain Picard contacted Macet and suggested that they cease hostilities and attempt to sort out the situation together, an offer that Macet accepted. As it turned out, the attacker was Captain Maxwell of the Phoenix. Despite Macet's initial distrust of Picard and his crew, he came to realize that like him, Picard was a man interested in preserving the peace between their peoples even if it meant preserving Cardassian life over that of his own people, and that based on that, the two of them need not develop an adversarial relationship. Working together, the two of them managed to stop the Phoenix and bring Maxwell into custody without destroying the treaty between their peoples. (TNG episode: "The Wounded")
Maxwell had based his attacks upon suspicions that the Cardassian Union was re-arming along the border with the Federation—a suspicion that Macet knew to be correct. Though Macet obeyed the orders of Central Command and said nothing of this to Picard, the truth was that he both knew and disapproved of the move. As a result of the Phoenix incident, Gul Macet came to believe that Central Command's behavior, like that of Maxwell, was ultimately counterproductive to the good of Cardassia by working at self-aggrandizement against the rest of the galaxy instead of growing as peaceful neighbors to other powers. (TNG episode: "The Wounded"; DS9 - Gateways novel: Demons of Air and Darkness)
The Dominion War[]
In the later stages of the Dominion War Macet was part of Corat Damar's resistance against Cardassia's Dominion oppressors. It was Macet's ship that destroyed the Jem'Hadar cloning facility on Rondac III, an engagement in which the Trager suffered serious damage that even a year after the war could not be repaired due to lack of resources in the Cardassian Union. (DS9 - Gateways novel: Demons of Air and Darkness)
First Splinter timeline[]
In May of 2376, Macet and the Trager aided in the evacuation of the Europa Nova Colony. This was Macet's first encounter with Kira Nerys, one that began with Kira nearly opening fire on the Trager when she mistook Macet for his more infamous cousin. When Macet offered his aid in the evacuation, he found it difficult at first to convince Kira of the sincerity of his intentions—especially after he compared his own unfortunate relationship to Dukat to that of his half-Bajoran niece Tora Ziyal. Though this angered Kira, she conceded to his logic regarding the importance of allowing another starship to take part in the evacuation effort regardless of whose flag the ship flew under. Thanks to this, Macet and the Trager also became the first Cardassian crew to enter the Europa Nova system without being treated as hostiles.
Thanks to his ship's Dominion-upgraded sensors and transporters, Macet proved able to retrieve evacuees the Starfleet vessels would have been unable to easily reach on their own. When asked by Commander Elias Vaughn about his motivations after the immediate crisis, Macet recalled his lessons learned in the Phoenix incident and stated that he intended his actions as a way of forging the new sort of relationship between their peoples that he envisioned. (DS9 - Gateways novel: Demons of Air and Darkness)
In July, at the behest of the Alon Ghemor government, Macet returned to Deep Space 9 with Ambassador Natima Lang with an overture of peace to the Bajoran people: the paintings of his niece, Tora Ziyal. Macet and Lang then hoped to engage in peace talks with the Bajorans, to settle the differences and make peace between the two races before Bajor's admittance into the Federation dictated future negotiations be with the whole Federation. Unfortunately, Bajor's political leaders took a hard line in the negotiations, leading to them eventually closing without a successful resolution. (DS9 - Mission Gamma novel: This Gray Spirit)
Macet ferried Ambassador Lang back to Cardassia, but returned to DS9 himself hoping to encourage the re-opening of talks as soon as possible.
In August, at the request of Vedek Yevir Linjarin Macet returned to Cardassia with the Vedek to make contact with the Oralian Way, which the Vedek hoped would offer an alternate venue for talks between the Cardassians and Bajorans, forging new relations between the race's spiritual bodies. While on Cardassia, Elim Garak helped the group recover the final four missing Bajoran Orbs from an abandoned Obsidian Order laboratory which Macet, Yevir and Oralian Cleric Ekosha then returned to the Bajoran people. (DS9 - Mission Gamma novel: Cathedral)
Macet remained on DS9 to represent Cardassia at Bajor's signing ceremony for admittance into the Federation, but instead witnessed the assassination of the First Minister Shakaar Edon - who it turned out was under control of a Bluegill parasite. A short while later another parasite attempted to take control of Macet. (DS9 - Mission Gamma novels: Cathedral, Lesser Evil)
Fortunately, the parasite proved unable to infect Macet, and with the Cardassians apparently resistant to the parasites, Macet, at the request of Starfleet, led up a force of Cardassian ships to lock down the Bajoran sector in the hope of containing them. (DS9 novel: Unity)
In December, Macet was on Cardassia and was involved in a hostage negotiation. (DS9 - Worlds of Deep Space Nine novel: Cardassia: The Lotus Flower)
In 2377, Gul Macet sent Ro Laren information of Drune Omek and Strell Vekeer. (DS9 novel: Fearful Symmetry)
Gul Macet was still in command of the Trager in October, 2383, when he reported an explosion near the Cardassian-Tzenkethi border. (Star Trek: Typhon Pact novel: Raise the Dawn)
In 2385, he continued to command the Trager, which served as Castellan Rakena Garan's flagship. He took her to the new Deep Space 9, in advance of its ceremonial opening in August that year. Fearing the political instability on Prime, in the face of Even Temet's rise, Garan ordered Macet to take her home before the ceremony. (Star Trek: The Fall novel: Revelation and Dust)
Appendices[]
Connections[]
CDS Trager personnel | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Akellen Macet • Daro • Telle |
Background[]
This section is written from the Real World point of view. |
Gul Macet was portrayed on screen by Marc Alaimo, who later portrayed Dukat, thus the resemblance between the two.
Gul Macet is the only Cardassian seen to possess a beard. In Demons of Air and Darkness Kira makes an observation that he is the only member of the Cardassian military she had seen with facial hair. While in Fearful Symmetry Iliana Ghemor's inner thoughts describe the beard as atypical. Both seem to enforce the impression that Cardassians with facial hair is unusual. Fearful Symmetry goes onto to imply that Macet deliberately grew the facial hair in an effort to lessen his similarity to his cousin.
Macet is one of very few Cardassians shown wearing old-style Cardassian uniform. In the real world this is simply because the Cardassian uniforms were redesigned after their first two appearances to the more highly crafted and familiar uniform seen subsequently (and in flashbacks to periods chronologically earlier) and which Macet is shown wearing on the cover of This Gray Spirit. Fearful Symmetry offers an in-universe explanation in that the earlier uniforms were worn exclusively by Cardassian personnel serving along the Federation-Cardassian border.
Appearances[]
- DS9 novel: Fearful Symmetry
- ST - Vulcan's Soul novel: Exodus
- TNG episode: "The Wounded"
- DS9 - Gateways novel: Demons of Air and Darkness
- DS9 - Mission Gamma novel: Twilight
- DS9 - Mission Gamma novel: This Gray Spirit
- DS9 - Mission Gamma novel: Cathedral
- DS9 - Mission Gamma novel: Lesser Evil
- DS9 novel: Unity
- DS9 - Worlds of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine novel: Cardassia: The Lotus Flower
External link[]
- Akellen Macet article at Memory Alpha, the wiki for canon Star Trek.