Rat refers to a type of rodent, on Earth originating in family Muridae, although the species does exist in otherworldly forms.
Brown rats (Rattus norvegicus) originated in Central Asia and arrived in Great Britain in 1730, reaching the United States of America in 1775.
Before he shot Klaang in April 2151, rats were one of the only things that Richard Moore had ever shot in his life. (ST reference: Federation: The First 150 Years)
Rats were considered extinct - though by uncertain means - by 2267; however, this was proved to be incorrect when Hikaru Sulu brought one on board the USS Enterprise, which he had acquired on Vishnu and named Mickey. (TOS novel: Mission to Horatius)
The idiom to smell a rat was to suspect that an individual or group was guilty of some sort of deception. Doctor Leonard McCoy once commented that the odor of rat was getting stronger when informed of political maneuvering by Romulans in the wake of the death of their Praetor. (TOS novel: Probe)
Q once turned Jean-Luc Picard into a rat, in order to unobtrusively watch the events of an alternate timeline. (TNG comic: "The Gift")
Odo would often disguise himself as a rat when needing to eavesdrop on others. Odo once disguised himself as a rat in order to listen to a conversation between the Kohn-Ma terrorist Tahna Los and the Duras sisters Lursa and B'Etor. He later disguised himself as a rat while hiding on a Kressari freighter, and while in that form witnessed a Cardassian gul transferring weapons meant for the Bajoran Alliance for Global Unity movement. (DS9 episodes: "Past Prologue", "The Circle")
In addition to eavesdropping, Odo would adopt the form of a rat when needing to move rapidly through areas where his regular humanoid form would not fit. Odo used the form of a rat to catch Nog in a crawlspace after Nog played a prank on the station security forces. (DS9 novel: The Siege) Odo also turned into a rat when he had to dive into some spreading mold that was overtaking Quark. (DS9 comic: "Stowaway")
External links[]
- Rat article at Memory Alpha, the wiki for canon Star Trek.
- Rat article at Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.