Starfleet Cadet Edam Astrun was a 24th century Betazoid man who, as a youth, entered Starfleet Academy mid-term in the year 2372.
Biography[]
Family[]
Edam was born to Florn and Sytalla Astrun on the planet Betazed with the highest Psi-Q in his planet's recorded history, and frequently had to take the medicine somalin to dull his telepathic senses in crowded areas.
Florn and Sytalla were devout pacifists who desired that their son attend the University of Betazed. The rebellious Edam instead joined Starfleet Academy under a plan to recruit more telepathic cadets in order to root out Changeling infiltrators within Starfleet. Edam would initially claim that he joined Starfleet simply to annoy his parents. (SA comics: "Passages", "Parents' Day")
Starfleet Academy[]
Edam joined Starfleet Academy in mid-2372 and was assigned to Omega Squad under the command of Commander Kyethn Zund of the planet Trill. Astrun, dressed in civilian clothes, first appeared to his fellow cadets at the funeral of Cadet Goldstein and immediately caused friction with his other cadets for his disrespectful behavior at the services. Astrun telepathically absorbed the lessons he had missed and shortly caught up with the rest of his class.
Astrun made little effort at first to get along with his squad-mates (claiming Starfleet to be overly violent and warlike), except for the Vulcan T'Priell, to whom which he was immediately attracted and sensed the conflicted nature of her soul.
An attempt on Astrun's life was made shortly after his arrival by a Changeling who had infiltrated the Academy. The shape-shifter had assumed the form of Astrun's squad-mate Nog in an attempt to divert suspicion from itself. However, Astrun was able to send Nog a telepathic warning about his attacker's true identity, and soon after recovering from his wounds helped Omega defeat to the Changeling while working as a part of a team for the first time. As Astrun probed the Changeling's mind, Astrun began to see the details of a complex Dominion plot against the Federation, but the Changeling took his own life before allowing Astrun to make sense of what he saw. (SA comics: "Passages", "Hide and Seek")
The Telepathy War[]
Talos IV[]
Over the weeks that followed, Astrun attempted unsuccessfully to make sense of the images he had seen in the Changeling's mind, until he received a compulsive telepathic distress call from the forbidden world of Talos IV. The only remaining death penalty on the books in Starfleet was travel to Talos IV.
With the assistance of the Talosians, Astrun was able to commandeer a Starfleet runabout, and set course for Talos with his squad-mates in tow. After regaining control of his own mind, Astrun convinced Omega Squad leader Matt Decker that the Talosians were in real danger and that they needed to help them. Decker and the rest of Omega Squad unanimously agreed to help the desperate Talosian people.
Upon arriving at Talos, the cadets discovered the Talosians in pitched battle with invading Jem'Hadar soldiers, who were using the Talosians and their world as a testbed for an experimental new telepathic virus designed to incapacitate all of the telepathic species of the Alpha Quadrant.
With the assistance of the Talosians and a telepathic illusion of the late Christopher Pike, the cadets turned the tide of battle by destroying the Jem'Hadar's supply of the drug ketracel-white. Astrun telepathically guided squad-mate Pava Ek'Noor sh'Aqabaa in hand-to-hand combat against the Jem'Hadar by telepathically informing Pava of the Jem'Hadar's movements before they made them.
The cadets then returned to Earth to sound the alarm about this new threat to the Federation, but instead found themselves arrested for violating General Order 7. (SA comics: "Return to the Forbidden Planet", "A Prelude to War")
Renegades[]
Astrun was unable to attend the court martial proceeding that followed, as he had been given an apparently accidental dosage of somalin that left him unable to function. The proceedings went on without him, and despite the best efforts of their legal defense, the legendary Spock of Vulcan, Omega Squad was sentenced to death. (SA comic: "Judgment")
Believing that Omega Squad was being unfairly condemned, Commander Zund, along with Boothby, Academy Doctor Kataba and cadet Yoshi Mishima, arranged for Astrun to be given a counter-agent to the somalin and aided Omega Squad in their escape in a runabout. (SA comic: "Renegades")
Omega Squad made their way to starbase Deep Space 9, where with Nog's assistance, they went to station commander Captain Benjamin Sisko for help. The cadets helped station personnel repel a Jem'Hadar attack force and gained Sisko's confidence. However, Sisko was forced to turn the cadets over to Admiral Dennis Decker, father of Omega Squadron's squadron leader.
Admiral Decker agreed to allow Astrun to stay on-station to assist in the treatment of his Vulcan squad-mate T'Priell, who had succumbed to the Dominion virus, while the rest of the squad accompanied the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-E) in search of the Jem'Hadar. (DS9 comics: "Command Decisions", "Day of Honor")
Soon after, Enterprise Counselor Deanna Troi fell prey to the virus as well. Astrun had developed an immunity to the virus with his prior contact with the mind of the Changeling, and while trying to reach Deanna telepathically, helped DS9 CMO Dr. Julian Bashir isolate and cure what became known as the meme virus. Edam then telepathically forwarded the cure to the Talosians, who helped the Federation forces prevail at the conference of telepathic species on Alaya II, which was under siege by the Jem'Hadar.
Omega Squad was cleared of all charges and re-instated into the Academy upon their return to Earth. (SA comic: "Reality's End")
Family reunion[]
Astrun was reunited with his parents at the Academy's annual "Parents' Day", a Sophomore year tradition at the Academy. Florn and Sytalla met Edam on the Academy's holodeck, where Edam demonstrated some of the combat skills he had acquired. Florn and Sytalla were horrified, believing that the Academy had turned their son into a violent beast, and insisted that Edam transfer to the University of Betazed.
When Edam refused, Florn and Sytalla decided to take drastic action and project telepathic feelings of unease and hating one's surroundings, believing that Edam would subconsciously pick up on them and choose to leave on his own
Edam wasn't affected, but Pava's pet hybor (Smuggled in by Pava's mother, holo-novelist Undieela Noor.) and her litter picked up on the feelings of unease and transmuted into there "were"-form and rampaged throughout the campus.
After seeing how well their rebellious son handled himself during the crisis, working as a member of a team and taking orders, they realized that the Academy was a good fit for their son.
Edam was outraged when his parents confessed their actions, but Florn pointed out that the fact thet Edam didn't pick up on the telepathic feelings meant that, on some sub-conscience level, he actually did want to be at the Academy, despite his protestations to the contrary. (SA comic: "Parents' Day")
T'Priell[]
Soon after, "T'Priell" revealed herself to actually be a Tal Shiar spy named Selke, who had possessed the katra of the real T'Priell ever since her death two years prior.
Selke lured Astrun away from the rest of the squad, and pumped him full of jex, an illegal drug that made his mental powers overload. Selke then captured the rest of Omega Squad, and set her runabout's course for the location of Thokol, her Tal Shiar handler. (SA comic: "Betrayal")
When Astrun regained consciousness, he found himself in a Romulan laboratory near Romulan space being experimented on by Selke. Astrun had seen all of Selke's secrets when she administered the jex, and he knew that she was highly conflicted about her mission with the Tal Shiar, and that she harbored feelings for Astrun, despite her denials.
When Omega Squad escaped their confinement and came to Astrun's rescue, they found dozed of probes drilled into his skull, and initially believed him to be dead. (SA comic: "Origins")
Upon regaining consciousness, Astrun insisted that Omega Squad rescue Selke as well, claiming that she was two women in conflict, their friend and comrade in need. Finding Selke at the edge of a firefall, Astrun and Decker convinced the confused Selke to step back from the brink and accept Omega Squad's forgiveness. Astrun confesed his feelings for Selke at this time. The cadets were retrieved from Romulan space by the timely appearance of the USS Sagan. (SA comic: "The Fall")
Astrun accompanied Selke to Mount Seleya on Vulcan in order to finally have T'Priell's katra removed only to discover that it had been in residence within Selke's psyche for too long, and refused to be removed. Furthermore, the battle for dominance between the two "souls" was threatening to kill them both.
Astrun was able to use his mental abilities to stop the two personalities from fighting each other and convinced them to form a new coherent whole. The new, combined being chose to go by the name "T'Priell", and rejoined Omega Squad. (SA comic: "Culture Clash")
Captain Astrun[]
Astrun was seen in one possible future with the rank of captain, relating the tale of Omega Squad's second encounter with their Klingon rivals, First Cadre, to a Starfleet cadet named Fatima. (SA comics: "mangHom qaD", "Between Love and Hate")
Appendices[]
Connections[]
Omega Squad personnel | ||
---|---|---|
Class advisor | Kyethn Zund | |
Cadets (2350s) |
R. Donaldson • K. Osir • P. Rice • H. Thorp • N. Zand | |
Cadets (2370s) |
E. Astrun • M. Decker • K. Goldstein • Nog • P. sh'Aqabaa • T'Priell (Selke) |
Appearances and references[]
Appearances[]
- SA comic: "Passages"
- SA comic: "Hide and Seek"
- SA comic: "X²"
- SA comic: "Return to the Forbidden Planet"
- SA comic: "A Prelude to War"
- SA comic: "Judgment"
- SA - Telepathy War comic: "Renegades"
- DS9 - Telepathy War comic: "Command Decisions"
- DS9 - Telepathy War comic: "Day of Honor"
- ST - Telepathy War comic: "Reality's End"
- SA comic: "Parents' Day"
- SA - T'Priell Revealed comic: "Betrayal"
- SA - T'Priell Revealed comic: "Origins"
- SA - T'Priell Revealed comic: "The Fall"
- SA comic: "Culture Clash"
- SA comic: "mangHom qaD"
- SA comic: "Between Love and Hate"