First Steps

Lela Dax, a newly joined Trill woman and member of the Trill ruling council, defies her fellow legislators when an unknown alien vessel appears in orbit and refuses to leave.

SummaryEdit

Lela Dax has been called to the Trill space center, where she finds the scientists in an uproar. The cause is an alien ship that has arrived in orbit. While Trill made first contact with the Vulcans decades earlier, the arrival of any alien vessel is an unexpected event. Trill sends a message to the alien vessel to leave, but Lela is keen to find out the reason that the aliens have come to their world. Contact with the aliens is difficult, and just after Lela tries to talk with them, the aliens attack Trill and steal acelon from a processing centre. Lela asks for information on the aliens from T'Pau of Vulcan.

ReferencesEdit

CharactersEdit

Lela Dax • Lytus • Darzen Odan • Sitlas • T'Pau

Referenced only 

Zefram Cochrane • Dax

Starships and vehiclesEdit

L'Dira starship

Referenced only 

Phoenix • T'Plana-Hath

LocationsEdit

Caves of Mak'ala • Trill

Referenced only 

Earth • Vulcan

Races and culturesEdit

L'Dira • Trill • Trill symbiont • Vulcan

Referenced only 

Human

States and organizationsEdit

Guardians of the Caves of Mak'ala • Symbiosis Evaluation Board • Trill Council • Trill Diplomatic Corps • Trill Spaceflight Center

Other referencesEdit

acelon • first contact • holo • IDIC • planetary defense grid • Trill councillor • Vulcan emissary • Vulcan salute • World War III

AppendicesEdit

Background informationEdit

• Kristine Kathryn Rusch commented "I was working in a relatively uncharted part of Trek history. I didn't have much lore to go on, and we don't know a lot about Trill. So I made some things up, and I worried about that. I needn't have worried , I guess. Everything went through very well". (Star Trek: Communicator, issue #126, p. 60)
• In the story, T'Pau describes Vulcan's "most recent encounter" with a new race, clearly describing humans and the events of that first contact in 2063. It was left unclear exactly how "recent" this was, but given the repeated references to Lela's youth, it is reasonable to place this story fairly close to that event. The timeline in Voyages of Imagination gives the year as 2075.

Related storiesEdit

• "Facets" - Lela's position on the Council was established in the episode.
• "Amok Time" - T'Pau's first appearance.
• "The Host" (TNG episode)
• Star Trek: First Contact (movie)

External linkEdit

• First Steps article at Memory Alpha, the wiki for canon Star Trek.

ConnectionsEdit

published order
Previous story: Second star to the right...	The Lives of Dax	Next story: Dead Man's Hand
chronological order
Previous Adventure: The Valiant Book Three	Pocket	Next Adventure: Federation 2078