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| WARNING! This article contains MAJOR spoilers for the recently released novel Zero Sum Game. Caution is advised. |
- See Ro for other articles with titles that contain, either by relationship or by coincidence, this character's surname.
Ro Laren was a female Bajoran in the 24th century, she was born on January 17, 2340 on Cardassian-occupied Bajor to Ro Talia and Ro Gale. She later joined Starfleet and served aboard the USS Wellington and the USS Enterprise-D before joining the Maquis. She returned to Bajor following the Dominion War and joined the Bajoran Militia serving aboard starbase Deep Space 9 where she eventually rejoined Starfleet with Bajor's admittance into the Federation.
History
Early Life
Ro was raised in Bajoran re-settlement camps under the watchful eyes of the Cardassian overseers. When she was seven, a Cardassian named Joer Varc lured her into a tent with a piece of candy, and she was forced to watch as the Cardassians tortured her father for hours until he died.
After Ro Gale's death, Ro's mother fell into such a state of despair, that she was no longer able to watch after Laren and Laren was sent to live with her uncle.
Eventually, Ro struck out on her own and quickly learned how to avoid Cardassian orphan catchers and pick their pockets at the same time. She picked up a skill with computers and was able to manipulate security systems and other Cardassian systems.
She lived on the streets of Bajor until she was taken in by a man named Bram Adir, leader of the Bram resistance cell, who was impressed with Ro's talent with Cardassian computers. When Ro was fourteen in 2354, Bram took Ro on a salvage operation, in an attempt to bring a derelict Ferengi vessel into the resistance's armory.
Instead, they discovered a Bajoran refugee named Darrah Mace on board, who lived at the Bajoran refugee camp on Valo II. Darrah took Ro and Bram back to Valo, where she was recruited to hack into a Cardassian computer system on Valo VI. Ro successfully infiltrated the Cardassian facility, but was unable to secure the information that she had been sent to retrieve as she again encountered Joer Varc, the man who killed her father. Ro killed Varc and another Cardassian, but left behind the data rod that was her objective.
By 2357 Bram had been killed by the Cardassians, and the rest of the cell, who never cared for Ro in the first place, eventually asked her to leave.
She returned to Valo, where she joined up with a resistance fighter named Akhere Bis, who had a plan to destroy the Cardassian ore processing center on the space-station Terok Nor. At first, Ro went along with the plan, even going so far as to plant a bomb on a ship heading from Valo to Terok Nor. However, upon considering the Bajoran lives that would be lost in the attack, Ro warned the vessel's captain of the plan.
Realizing that she would not be welcome back with Akhere's cell, Ro took one of the Valo settlement's warp-capable shuttles and headed for space beyond the Bajoran and Cardassian sectors. (TN novel: Night of the Wolves)
Starfleet
Ro eventually made her way to Federation space, where she entered Starfleet Academy, hoping for a career in Starfleet, in 2358.
Ro's Starfleet career turned out differently than expected. Her time as an ensign aboard the USS Wellington was riddled with disciplinary measures, and after dis-obeying orders on the planet Garon II, eight members of an away team were killed. (TNG episode: "Ensign Ro") A later reconstruction of the affair says, that Ro was sent with an away team to help catch a Seraphami freedom fighter cell. She secretly sympathized with the goal of the revolutionists, and when a deadly weapon fight occurred between the away team and the cell, she was the first who realized that the wounded Seraphami could have fallen into a healing stasis, in which they could be mortally wounded by accident even with a phaser set on stun. She wanted to warn her teammates about this, thus giving away their hiding place, but in the end, it was a Seraphami deceit, and a wounded-looking Seraphami shot Ro's teammates. (TNG - Special #2 comic: "The Choice")
Ro was subsequently court martialed and imprisoned at the penal facility at Jaros II. One of the officers presiding over her court martial was Admiral Leonard James Akaar. (DS9 novel: Lesser Evil)
In 2368, she was offered a deal by Admiral Kenelly; her freedom in exchange for her assisting the USS Enterprise-D in finding the Bajoran terrorist Orta, who was believed to be responsible for attacking Federation targets.
When Ro discovered that the attackers of the Federation facilities were actually Cardassians, she turned to Enterprise captain Jean-Luc Picard to uncover the truth. (TNG episode: "Ensign Ro")
Ro was at the conn when the Enterprise discovered the nature of a temporal causality loop and escaped from a predestined collision with the USS Bozeman. Due to the repetitive effects of the temporal distortion, Ro and the Enterprise had been destroyed numerous times before this. (TNG episode: "Cause and Effect")
Ro and Worf fighting the monks
In early-2369 Ro, Geordi and Worf took the shuttlecraft Goddard to receive Starfleet briefings. On their return journey the shuttle was forced to drop out of warp due to solar flare activity and crash landed on the planet Riat. The shuttle damaged beyond immediate repair and the planet inhospitably cold the away team sought shelter in a nearby Dracon monastery. Unfortunately the order of monks in the monastery had become violent and cannibalistic due to radiation from the solar flares causing a mutation in an algae in their water supply. The team were forced to fight the monks off several times before another shuttle from the Enterprise arrived to rescue them. (TNG comic: "Light of the Day")
Also in 2369, Ro was the acting first officer of the Enterprise-D while Will Riker was in command, due to Captain Picard having been transported into the past. She would suggest abandoning the search to ensure that the Enterprise arrived at the Gorn Summit in time, but once Riker showed his determination to continue she would suggest asking the Bon Amar for help in the search. (TNG novel: Requiem)
After the encounter with Orta and the Cardassians, Ro served aboard the Enterprise for over a year (its closer if we say, two years), before returning to the Academy for Advanced Tactical Training. (TNG episode: "Preemptive Strike") Her final mission on the Enterprise-D before the Advanced Tactical Training was a flight with a shuttle to transport an ambassador to a near starbase. Her shuttle was shot down by raiders, and she lived for weeks in a "fairy castle" with a mysterious landlord, the "Beast", who gave his life for her, when the raiders arrived once again. After Ro was rescued by the Enterprise-D, she found out, that the mysterious "Beast" was a Cardassian war criminal in exile. (TNG comic: "The Bajoran and the Beast")
The Maquis
Ro working for the Maquis
Upon her return to the Enterprise in late 2370, Ro -now a full Lieutenant- was assigned to infiltrate the Maquis, a group of Federation citizens and former Starfleet officers who were fighting off the Cardassians in the Demilitarized Zone in defiance of a recent Federation treaty with the Cardassian Union. Ro found that she both sympathized and fit in better with the Maquis more than she ever did in Starfleet, so she once again defied orders, betrayed Starfleet and joined the Maquis. (TNG episode: "Preemptive Strike")
Ro quickly became a legend to the Maquis, with even senior officers looking upon her with awe. This reclusive figure who had abandoned Starfleet and who went on to join their hopeless cause led to many to see her as the Maquis greatest hero. (TNG - The Dominion War novel: Behind Enemy Lines) As of stardate 47891.1 (late 2370), Ro had been given the codename Architect and was the leader of New Hope's Maquis. (TNG novel: Rogue Saucer)
In mid-2371, Ro sneaked aboard Deep Space 9 in order to prevent Aela, a Maquis extremist, from assassinating Gul Engor and destroying the station in an attempt to destabilize the peace treaty between the Federation and Cardassians. (DS9 comic: "Friend and Foe Alike")
- Note that this incident may not be consistent with the DS9 relaunch continuity.
In late-2371, Ro joined Kira Nerys in her search for mapping the black market routes of Bajor in hope to find the origin of the Wrath of the Prophets epidemic.(DS9 novel: Wrath of the Prophets)
- Note that this incident may not be consistent with the DS9 relaunch continuity.
With the relative peace that was granted to the Maquis in 2372 following the start of the war between the Klingon Empire and the Cardassians, Ro was offered the opportunity to move up the Maquis ranks. However, she turned down the opportunity, and settled on the Maquis colony on Galion where she built a small house and a vegetable patch where she grew tomatoes. Despite settling down, she did occasionally leave Galion to perform missions for the Maquis. (TNG - The Dominion War novel: Behind Enemy Lines)
In the year 2373, Ro and her Maquis cell joined forces with the original Will Riker-turned-renegade, who was in undercover mission to find a group of Klingon weapon-dealers who wanted to make business with forbidden Genesis-technology.(TNG comic: "The Enemy of My Enemy")
- Note that this incident may not be consistent with the DS9 relaunch continuity.
In the same year, the Maquis received information about a secret Dominion plan to construct a second artificial wormhole in the heart of the Cardassian territory. Ro made contact with the crew of the Enterprise-E to get help with the elimination of this project. (TNG - The Dominion War novels: Behind Enemy Lines, Tunnel Through the Stars)
- Note that this incident may not be consistent with the DS9 relaunch continuity.
In the same year, just before the destruction of the Maquis by new Cardassian allies, the Dominion, Ro found herself injured and alone on the planet Sindorin. She was nursed back to health by a tribe of Ingavi that had colonized the world after escaping the Cardassian occupation of their own world. (DS9 novel: Section 31 - Abyss)
After the destruction of the Maquis, Ro and a few other Maquis survivors fought their own, independent, war effort against the Dominion and their allies. After the war ended, Ro returned to Bajor, where she was given the rank of Lieutenant in the Bajoran Militia. Starfleet had originally wanted to have her arrested, but did not after the behind-the-scenes urging of Jean-Luc Picard. (DS9 novel: Avatar)
Deep Space 9
Ro in 2376
Her superiors in the Bajoran militia assigned her the job of Chief of security aboard the space station Deep Space 9, under the command of Colonel Kira Nerys in late February of 2376.
In April Istani Reyla and Gamon Vell were found dead on the Promenade. In the course of the murder investigation Ro discovered a book of prophecies that was written by the heretic Ohalu some 20,000 years previously that had been removed from the ruins of the city of B'Hala by Istani.
Shortly after the discovery Ro was injured in a Jem'Hadar attack on the station, she fell from the stairs in Quark's when the station was shook by the attack. Fortunately Quark witnessed her fall and took her to the Infirmary. He later sent her a bouquet of Argelian flowers.
Ro soon recovered and got back to work. Reyla was killed because the Vedek Assembly, led by Vedek Yevir Linjarin, wanted the book suppressed. Ro, stating the book was evidence in Istani's murder investigation, refused to turn it over. Kira interceded by giving the book back to Vedek Assembly, but uploaded the contents of the book to the bajoran comnet, making them public. (DS9 novel: Avatar)
Ro returned to Sindorin a few weeks later, when it was discovered that a rogue agent of the independent intelligence agency, Section 31, named Ethan Locken had re-furbished a Dominion Jem'Hadar factory, and was creating his own army. Ro traveled with Dr. Julian Bashir, Ezri Dax and the Jem'Hadar observer Taran'atar to Sindorin, where they put a stop to Locken's plans and rescued the Ingavi tribe from Locke's Jem'Hadar troops. (DS9 novel: Abyss)
Soon after, Ro went undercover as a Dabo girl when Quark, found himself in over his head with the Orion Syndicate on the world of Farius Prime. Ro managed to bring down the entire organization of the Orion crimelord, Malic, and freed an Orion Slave Girl named Treir from servitude. (DS9 novel: Demons of Air and Darkness)
Ro in 2376
When it was announced that the documentation admitting Bajor into the United Federation of Planets would be signed on the Promenade of Deep Space 9, Ro was put in charge of the security arrangements.
A member of the Trill contingent named Hiziki Gard was assigned to assist Ro, and Ro gave him full access to her security plans. When Gard assassinated Bajoran First Minister Shakaar Edon before the documents could be signed, there was nothing Ro could do to stop him. (DS9 novel: Cathedral)
Ro eventually brought Gard into custody only to find out that the creature that Gard had killed wasn't Shakaar at all, but an alien Parasite that had consumed his psyche. Shakaar had already been long dead. (DS9 novel: Lesser Evil)
Return to Starfleet
After the resolution to the parasite crisis, Ro was prepared to resign her commission and leave the Bajor sector with Quark, with whom which she had developed a friendship, as they both felt that they would have no place in the Bajoran sector after the planets admittance to the Federation.
It was only after the persuasion of Captain Picard that Ro stayed with the Bajoran militia as it was integrated into Starfleet. Ro was once again given the rank of Lieutenant in Starfleet. (DS9 novel: Unity)
Ro later accompanied Quark and his nephew Nog to Ferenginar and helped them maintain the rule of Grand Nagus Rom from a take-over attempt by Congressman Brunt. (DS9 novel: "Ferenginar: Satisfaction is Not Guaranteed")
On the final day of 2376, Ro was attacked and critically injured by the Jem'Hadar observer, Taran'atar. Ro suffered spinal injuries and briefly faced the possibility of life confined to a wheelchair. Fortunately for Ro, an innovative technique, combining several experimental medical theories, was developed by Dr. Simon Tarses of the station's infirmary that allowed her to return to duty in a matter of weeks. (DS9 novels: "The Dominion: Olympus Descending", Warpath)
By 2381, she held the rank of captain. That year, she replaced Elias Vaughn aso commander of Deep Space Nine. (ST novel: Zero Sum Game)
Ro the Bajoran
Ro was a Bajoran but often stood out of the crowd due to her determination to be herself and not just another member of the flock.
Ro believed in the Prophets as entities, and believed they were involved with the Bajoran people. However, she did not believe that beings living in a wormhole and occasionally interfering with a people was reason enough to worship them as gods. Nor did she appreciate that most Bajorans frowned upon any other Bajoran who did not follow the faith to the letter. (TNG episode: "The Next Phase")
Her father was a proud to be Bajoran, and in a way so was she and to that end wore a Bajoran earring. However she did not follow the Bajoran faith so wore the earring on the wrong ear to discourage vedeks trying to feel her pagh, which was normally done by squeezing the left ear. (DS9 novel: Avatar)
On the Enterprise-D, she celebrated once a Bajoran holiday, but it was a kind of national holiday commemorating a local freedom fight based on the traditions of Ro's area of origin, and not a religious/spiritual holiday. (TNG comic: Restoration)
Alternate Versions
When Elias Vaughn was having his second orb experience, he became Eli Underwood, a patient at the same insane asylum as Benny Russell. While there he interacted with a nurse named Lauren, who was the representation of Ro. (DS9 novel: Unity)
In another continuity Ro never joined the Maquis and replaced Worf as chief Security officer aboard the USS Enterprise-D. She rose to the rank of Lieutenant Commander and continued to serve on the ship into 2378. (TNG short story: "Brave New World")
In another reality where the Klingons took over Earth when the Khitomer Conference failed, Ro was involved with the resistance on Earth and engaged in a relationship with Tasha Yar and later sacrificed herself to save Yar and the rebels when they were betrayed by Wesley Crusher and his followers. (TNG - The Last Generation comic: "What Happens Now")
External link
- Ro Laren article at Memory Alpha, the wiki for canon Star Trek.