- This article is about Elim Garak in the First Splinter timeline ended by the Devidian temporal apocalypse. You may be looking for Elim Garak in the prime timeline.
Elim Garak was a 24th century Cardassian, an alternate version of Elim Garak in the First Splinter timeline. After the Dominion War, he became a political figure, then served as Cardassian Ambassador to the United Federation of Planets, and eventually Castellan of the Cardassian Union.
Biography[]
The original divergence event that created the First Splinter was during the 2373 mission against the Borg following the Battle of Sector 001. Garak's history prior to that point was identical to the prime timeline Elim Garak. (TNG movie, novelization & comic adaptation: Star Trek: First Contact; ST - Coda novel: Oblivion's Gate)
After the Dominion War[]
Garak and Bashir met at the Dominion Headquarters. There, depressed over and aghast at the initial 800 million death toll from the Cardassian genocide, Garak bid his friend farewell.
Following the end of the war, Garak settled into the ruins of Tain's house. He began a letter to Bashir, both accounting for his current life in a diary-like form, and also included an autobiography of his life. (DS9 novel: A Stitch in Time)
Garak lived in the garden shed of his uncle Tolan and began making stone sculptures as memorials to the dead. Garak joined a medical unit, where he was reunited with Enabran Tain's doctor, Kelas Parmak. Despite their past, Parmak forgave him and they became good friends. Parmak, a political liberal, was a member of the political Reunion Project of Alon Ghemor. Attending Ghemor's rallies with Parmak, Garak remained initially cautious of the Federation-inspired fledgling democratic movement. However he was surprised to discover that Ghemor, the nephew of Tekeny Ghemor, had been "Five Lubak" at the Bamarren decades before. When he was contacted by Gul Madred of the politically conservative Directorate, representing the old military and intelligence apparatus of the pre-Dukat state, Garak at first wondered if he had found familiar company. He went to a meeting headed by Legate Parn at Madred's ruined Coranum Sector manse. There he encountered solid if lost commanders like Guls Evek and Ocett, the conservative politician Korbath Mondrig, and his old friend, Pythas (now terribly disfigured) and his aide, Nal Dejar. Hearing the guls and legate argue with one another about the nature of the Union going forth, Garak had an epiphany:
- "And then a strange sensation went through me, Doctor. I looked at the faces of these people. Here we are, I thought, sitting in the basement of a ruined civilization and conducting business as if nothing significant had changed. The enemies were still the same, somewhere "out there," plotting how to "destroy our character" and colonize us with their political system. And we were down in the basement with our own plots and shifting alliances, tenaciously holding on to the very ideas that had brought us here. But what ideas, Doctor? There's nothing left. Only fantasies of power. These faces with their masks. With the ironic exception of the disfigured face, the masks hadn't changed. They reflected the usual range of hidden agendas, each competing for dominance and ascendancy with an energy commensurate to the amount of fear and self-loathing that fueled and motivated that person. I started to laugh."
In the face of the figures, Garak committed to the democratic movement:
- "Are you willing to help us?" Parn asked harshly, his attention still focused on my loyalty to his cause. I remembered my conversation with Tolan about the price of "status." "Or are you sympathetic with these people?"
- "Yes," I replied, taking my eyes away from Pythas. "I am indeed." I rose from my chair. "I shouldn't be here. This is not my place. I apologize for the intrusion."
Garak's reactions convinced Pythas of the Reunion Project's potential. The Directorate had Mondrig and other leading figures publically debate with Ghemor and Parmak. After hearing Parmak especially, Pythas came to Garak's at his memorial the day before the election and announce his support for them. Like Garak he realised too he had become very bitter, and that the Reunion Project represented for both of them, and the Union, "Healing on every level". The next day the Reunion Project won two-thirds majority in the first democratic elections on post-war Cardassia, forming a government under Ghemor.
In addition, Pythas and Garak also forgave one another for their actions in the cause of Garak's disgrace and exile - Pythas had been Tain's spy who had observed Garak and Palandine's affair, and had wanted to warn his friend but did not. Garak, hoping that she may be alive, asked Pythas if he knew where she might be found - and was directed to the Oralian Way meeting they once attended. Garak instead found that Palandine's daughter, Kel, was an assistant to the Guide of the meeting. Garak did not pursue a friendship with Palandine's daughter: "I wanted to introduce myself and ask her about Paladine—but I didn't dare. I was afraid that if she knew the truth, she'd only be able to see me as the man who killed her father and destroyed her family." But, in a private letter to Bashir, Garak announced that he had become a follower of the Oralian Way both to see the daughter of his life's love, and to explore Tolan's heritage. More so, he began extending Tolan's shed, building in it his new home and an Oralian homage to his uncle and spiritual father:
- "I have expanded my shed in the never-ending quest to find my place. I feel that I'm getting closer, Doctor, especially as I continue to refine the structures. One, which began as a memorial to Tolan, has a crude but effective representation of the winged creature from the Hebitian sun disc—turned toward the radiating sun, reaching, striving, while the sun-fed filaments stream down from the body and connect with the bodies of people standing on a globe and looking up to the creature for this divine connection . . . . I've attached the recitation mask he gave me to the creature's face, and somehow it has become my personal totem."
By 2385 (and presumably 2378, when he was sent to Earth), Garak had completed his house begun with Tolan's shed. (DS9 novel: A Stitch in Time, ST - The Fall novel: The Crimson Shadow)
The Ghemor Government[]
When Captain Jean-Luc Picard contacted Cardassia in May of 2376 in hopes of getting Cardassian assistance in the Gateways Crisis, Garak had to politely refuse, as the post-war Cardassia didn't have the resources to spare. (TNG - Gateways novel: Doors Into Chaos)
Soon after the Gateways Crisis, Garak traveled to Earth in hopes of returning to Cardassia with more Federation relief efforts. Garak debated with Lwaxana Troi on the floor of the Federation Council over the matter with both Cardassia and Betazed having been devastated by the Dominion war. (TNG - The Brave and the Bold, Book Two novella: The Final Artifact)
By 2380, the debate with Ambassador Troi was considered to be one of the most legendary debates the Council had seen in recent times. (ST novel: Articles of the Federation)
Garak assisted Bajoran Vedek Yevir Linjarin in finding the last of the missing Bajoran Orbs, which were being held in an abandoned Obsidian Order lab. (DS9 - Mission Gamma novel: Cathedral)
Garak returned to DS9 in September of 2376, to witness the exhibition of Ziyal's paintings, which were being displayed in his old tailor's shop. (DS9 novel: Unity)
In December of 2376, he assisted in defusing a hostage situation that was designed to discredit the fledgling Ghemor government. (DS9 - Worlds of Deep Space Nine novel: Cardassia: The Lotus Flower)
In early 2377, Kira and Bashir contacted Garak to see if he could shed light on the plot to replace Kira with Iliana Ghemor. (DS9 novel: Fearful Symmetry)
Another exile[]
By 2378, he had become the Cardassian Ambassador to the United Federation of Planets. The Federation provided for him a residence in Paris that had been used by the Nazi regime of twentieth-century Germany (78 Rue de Lille), suggesting how they viewed the Cardassian Union. Garak would accept it, knowing the sins of the Union. (DS9 novel: The Never-Ending Sacrifice)
In October that year, with the testimony of Keiko O'Brien, he helped Rugal Pa'Dar become the first Cardassian Federation citizen. He viewed it as a chance to make up for his own sins regarding the boy, and for that of Skrain Dukat. (DS9 novel: The Never-Ending Sacrifice)
Years later, in 2385, he and Rakena Garan reflected that his role of ambassador was his second exile - that Garak's troubled and terrifying past as a member of the Obsidian Order had forced Ghemor and his successors to keep Garak as far away from government as possible. (ST - The Fall novel: The Crimson Shadow)
In 2379, Alon Ghemor was assassinated, and Garak returned to Cardassia to aid the Reunion Project. He quickly became demoralized and depressed, and his poor mental health allowed the Directorate to orchestrate a riot at one of his speeches. Garak attempted to convince Pythas Lok that they needed to seek help from the Federation to stop the civil war, and planned to be surgically altered to visit Earth incognito. However, Garak was deceived into entering the Vinculum instead. According to a vision received by Garak in the Vinculum, Pythas ordered that he should be imprisoned there, after convincing Limor Prang that Garak should not be killed instead. After journeying through the Vinculum, he was rescued by and kept hidden by Kelas Parmak. (DS9 - Prophecy and Change short story: "The Calling")
In 2380 Garak was instrumental in getting the Andak Project green-lit despite stiff opposition from anti-Federation groups, including the True Way and a bloc led by Gul Akellen Macet. (STO website: The Path to 2409)
In 2381, he was summoned to an emergency summit on Earth by Federation President Nanietta Bacco, who was hoping to gather an allied fleet to defend from the Borg invasion. Garak initially refused to join the alliance, considering the Union too poor in land and food to allow them to commit to this costly action. However, President Bacco offered to have several Federation farming worlds in the Argaya, Lyshan and Solarion systems transferred to Cardassian control in return for the support of the Cardassian Union in the Federation's war against the Borg Collective. (ST - Destiny novel: Mere Mortals)
Following his tough dealing with President Bacco, Garak and she became close. He considered her an equal and a good friend. (ST - Typhon Pact novel: Brinkmanship; ST - The Fall novel: The Crimson Shadow)
In November 2383 Garak worked with President Bacco on a number of issues concerning the Tzenkethi and the Venette Convention, and Cardassian and Federation agents implanted on Ab-Tzenketh. (ST - Typhon Pact novel: Brinkmanship)
2385[]
In August 2385, Garak returned to Cardassia to finalize the agreement between the Federation and the Union about the removal of Starfleet personnel in the Union. He travelled on board the USS Enterprise-E on its way to Cardassia, and became good friends with Captain Picard. As the starship reached the planet, Garak gave Picard a copy of Eleta Preloc's Meditations on a Crimson Shadow, which he believed represented the triumph of hope over nationalism and xenophobia.
Garak returned to Tain's house, now rebuilt in a composite of Cardassian and Federation materials and styles. He would with dignity hang a painting of Tora Ziyal's that he took with him wherever he went. Also on Prime, he was reunited with his good friend, Dr. Parmak, who had maintained his garden during his absence. With Parmak he could be vulnerable, and it was the doctor who was especially worried for Garak's state of health and security. The two remained very close, and it was "my dearest friend Kelas" that Garak would include at a meal with Captain Picard and Dr. Beverly Crusher. There the four would discuss medicine, Preloc, the political situation and their hopes for Cardassia and the Federation.
On Prime, Garak hoped for a smooth transition, contacting Rakena Garan, the Castellan of the Cardassian Union, who was worried about her upcoming attempt to be reelected. A young conservative firebrand nationalist, Evek Temet, was increasing in popularity and there had been a riot in Lakarian City university, suggesting the instability of the homeworld. The Treaty Agreement contained potentially difficult policies, which could aid Temet's cause if revealed, and she wondered if she should return to Cardassia. Garak attempted to bolster her, saying that after appearing on stage with Nanietto Bacco, Chancellor Martok, Grand Nagus Rom, Praetor Gell Kamemor and the other interstellar leaders, Temet appeared insignificant compared to Garan. However when the Treaty Agreement was leaked, the press focused on Federation demands that there be only limited Cardassian militarization. Garan was aghast at the reaction, which was stridently critical, and decided to return. In addition, she instructed Garak to speak on a newscast discussion show about the Treaty, against Temet. Garak proceeded to both angrily rubbish Temet in a studio discussion - comparing him negatively to both Damar and Ghemor - and resurrect the ghost of his past by subtly threatening Temet. Immediately the ambassador became a household name on Cardassia, and a figurehead for liberal politics - yet his reputation was complicated by his association with the Order and the monstrous things he had done in the past. Fearing for his safety, Garak attempted to warn the Cardassian Intelligence Bureau director, Crell, but was ignored.
However the situation came to a head when it was announced that President Nanietta Bacco had been assassinated at Deep Space 9 (II). The fateful death robbed Castellan Garan of her main interstellar ally, and both she and Garak realised how much more tenuous the situation on Cardassia was. The new Federation President Pro Tem, Ishan Anjar, was Bajoran and revealed his deep bias against Cardassia instantly. More so, riots threatened between nationalists and pro-Federation citizens. Garan, despite Garak's advice, declined to let Temet speak at a memorial to Bacco, and he and two of his associates mimed gagging movements at the event just as Garan was about to speak. Incensed, Garak whispered in rage "I will destroy him."
Months earlier, the Ambassador had dispatched Glinn Ravel Dygan to infiltrate nationalist groups in the Capital City on Cardassia Prime. Posing as Rakhat Blok, Dygan discovered that members of the gang of North Torr crimelord Velok Dekreny were claiming to be behind the assassination of President Nanietta Bacco. When Dygan was arrested by Arati Mhevet at the Battle for the Heartland he managed to contact Garak. Garak convinced Mhevet to release Dygan, and together they sought out to stop what seemed an impossibly deteriorating situation. Secretly, he realized this was the True Way, resurgent. When he confronted Castellan Garan about the accusation and suggesting the True Way, he learned she already knew about the claim whilst dismissing the True Way as part of Garak's paranoid ravings. More personally, she decided she could not trust Garak, who kept trying to interfere in government despite not being a member of it, and because she also felt that, like Temet, she did not compare to Corat Damar or Alon Ghemor for the ambassador. After a heated argument, Garak left the building, and got into his skimmer which subsequently exploded. The Assassination of Ambassador Garak by the True Way was intended to further their own political ends, not only by removing a troublesome opponent but allowing the insertion of conservative Cardassians like Temet into key government positions.
The assassination, however, was foiled by Captain Picard who had him beamed to safety at the HARF compound near the city before the explosion. When Dygan and Mhevet secured proof of the corruption within Cardassia, and were also rescued by Enterprise personnel, Garak revealed himself to be alive. Following this, he had Garan brought to HARF, and convinced her that Temet and his allies would destroy her by revealing her complicity in hiding Bacco's death to the Quadrant if she continued to stand for reelection. Garan, realising her career was over, acquiesced. After this conversation, Garak then had Dr. Parmak brought to his location, and surrendered his guilt to his closest friend and sought his forgiveness.
When Castellan Garan announced publicly that she was standing down, and Temet announced his own candidacy, Garak summoned the reporters, Edek Mayrat and Ista Nemeny to HARF. In an interview with them he announced both his survival and that he was going to run against Temet for her vacant office. Garak informed his friend Julian Bashir soon after that that he was still alive and that he was running for Castellan. Bashir would write back to him a critical letter pleading with Garak to not become like his father or indeed his old self, but to surround himself with others who he could trust to offer him advice. Whilst angry at Bashir's words, Garak accepted them, and read the letter continually throughout the election, musing that once he was castellan he would judge whether he was making the right decision by asking himself what Tora Ziyal would have approved of and then acting accordingly.
His announcement saw a sea of change in public fortunes on Cardassia. The secret agenda of the True Way seemed halted, as Temet's campaign foundered, and pro-Federation civil servants again came to the fore, for example Reta Kalanis taking over the Cardassian Intelligence Bureau. In the following weeks polls revealed that Garak would likely win the election. (ST - The Fall novel: The Crimson Shadow)
The Garak Government[]
The Fall[]
Garak was elected Castellan in early September. With him was Dr. Parmak, who helped him to offset a panic attack and to face the people he had been elected to lead. After a tender and affectionate kiss on Garak's head by the doctor, the new Castellan went out to meet the people gathering at his residence. (ST - The Fall novel: The Crimson Shadow)
Upon learning this fact several days later, Julian Bashir was overjoyed and glad that they had made a "good man" out of him eventually. (ST - The Fall novel: The Poisoned Chalice)
Following his election, his head of security advised Garak that he move from his house at Tain's residence to the Castellan's residence at the heart of the city. Although he regretted this, he did comply. (DS9 novel: Enigma Tales)
During October that year, Garak secured the capture of several True Way members, including a former Gul, Rakan Urkar. Unkar provided evidence to Garak and the Federation that the True Way had assassinated Bacco in collusion with President Ishan Anjar's chief of staff, Galif jav Velk. More shockingly, Urkar would be able to reveal that President Ishan was an imposter, having originally been a well-meaning, if callous and utilitarian, Bajoran resistance fighter named Baras Rodirya. Baras had encountered Urkar during the occupation of Jevalan, and acted as a double agent, sacrificing other Bajoran elements to see his people ultimately freed. Garak was therefore instrumental in securing Ishan/Baras' downfall, and aiding the Federation's move to a more optimistic diplomacy and foreign policy under its new president, Kellessar zh'Tarash. (ST - The Fall novel: Peaceable Kingdoms)
Completing the "Reconstruction" of Cardassia (2385-8)[]
Later in 2385, Castellan Garak dealt with Nestor Mhevita Pa'Dan's investigation into her son Terek's continued imprisonment after the Dominion War. (DS9 novel: The Missing)
About a year into his castellanship, Garak commissioned Assemblyperson Cernis to lead a deep enquiry of the Bajoran Occupation, including suggestions about prosecutions. The inquiry would take two years, presumably hampered by the loss of records during and after the Fire. Cernis was a member of the Cardassian Assembly, the parliamentary body which had replaced the Detapa Council as the democratic house of the Union after the Fire. (DS9 novel: Enigma Tales)
Late in 2386, Garak assisted Bashir, Sarina Douglas, Data, Lal and Ozla Graniv in their attempt to expose Section 31. He hosted them at his official residence, and gave them resources and personnel to help track down the dangerous Uraei code. Garak appeared to be jealous of Bashir's relationship with Douglas. He also warned Bashir about being embroiled in this conflict, and the costs it could have. When Section 31 attacked the residence using local assets, including members of his own security detail, the group left Cardassia Prime. After the group's success in deleting Uraei and exposing Section 31, Garak took on the duty of caring for Bashir, who had been rendered catatonic by losing Douglas. (Section 31 novel: Control)
Three years after his 2385 election, in 2388 Garak continued to serve as Castellan, and was living with Parmak at the official residence. Bashir was also present, catatonic, in the residence, although Garak was loathe to visit his dear friend. He wrote letters to Bashir, although never sent them, imagining guiding him through the rooms and districts of Cardassia City.
That year, Assemblyperson Cernis's report into war crimes by Cardassians during the Bajoran Occupation was complete. Both Parmak and Garak realised there needed to be prosecutions, but Garak was reluctant to set this in motion, given his own lack of moral authority as an ex-torturer. However, Parmak noted that:
It has to be done. It's the last part of the reconstruction, isn't it? Everything else—the rebuilding projects, the education and judicial reforms, the work done with the constabularies and the civil service, the Assembly, the press. It'll all be worth nothing if we don't confront this and make amends
Later Garak opened up the possibility of prosecutions, including of himself. He admitted to Parmak that prosecution of surviving war criminals was necessary for the Union to - one day, possibly after his own death - enter the Federation. (DS9 novel: Enigma Tales)
2389[]
In 2389, journalist Jake Sisko visited Garak on Cardassia Prime for an interview. Garak tried to distract the reporter by hinting at the possibility of tailoring the suit for Jake's upcoming wedding. (STO website: The Path to 2409)
Appendices[]
Connections[]
Preceded by: Rakena Garan |
Castellan of the Cardassian Union 2385-2387 |
Succeeded by: None |
Castellans of the Cardassian Union | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
primary universe | Eleta Kalis (2399) • Natima Lang (2401-2411) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
First Splinter timeline | Alon Ghemor (2376-2379) • Rakena Garan (2379-2385) • Elim Garak (2385-2387) |