Captain Ro Laren
ro.png

Name: Ro Laren
Rank: Captain
Position: Commanding Officer USS Aventine
Age: 40

Starfleet History
2358: Enters Starfleet Academy
2362: Graduates Starfleet Academy
2363: Assigned USS Wellington
23??: Out of Starfleet in prison
2368: Regains rank of Ensign and assigned to USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) as Special Advisor
2368: Becomes Helm Officer on USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D)
pre 2370: Leaves for Tactical Training
2370: Promoted to Lieutenant and reassigned to USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D)
2376: Promoted to Commander and reassigned to Deep Space Nine as First Officer/Security Chief
2380: Promoted to Captain and reassigned to USS Aventine as Commanding Officer

Personal History
Ro was born on January 17, 2340 on Bajor to Ro Talia and Ro Gale. Recalling her childhood as "a long, depressing period of [her] life, [she] was grateful when it was finally over." Ro had grown up in the Bajoran diaspora, as one of the thousands displaced into refugee camps by the Cardassian occupation of her homeworld. During her youth, she spent some time in the camps on Valo II. In all, she spent ten years in the camps. Although most of the time she didn't even have a bed while living in the camps, there were times she did, when she was very young, and she would be afraid of the imaginary monsters that were under her bed. To help ease her fears, Ro's father would play the belaklavion for her, which he told her had "special powers" and that "monsters were afraid of it, and they'd disappear whenever they heard it." She recalled that when she heard her father's music, she was never afraid to go to sleep. In 2347, Ro was shown the true nature of the occupation when she was given a piece of sugar candy by a Cardassian, who led her to a room where she found her father sitting inside. For the next two hours she was forced to sit and watch as a Cardassian questioned and tortured her father until he died. Throughout the entire ordeal, Ro felt ashamed of being a Bajoran. She was ashamed of her father for being so weak, as she watched him beg for mercy. Laren eventually found that she could not live in an environment where her people were unable to feed and clothe themselves. Because of this, she ran away. After his death, she finally realized that even her father could not make all the monsters in her life go away. Over time, Ro began to understand how misguided her feelings of shame were, and eventually she chose to no longer be ashamed of her heritage. Ro decided to keep her name in traditional form: family name first, given name second. She did this despite the fact that most Bajorans accepted the distortion of their names in order to assimilate. She also strongly favored wearing the traditional Bajoran earring, albeit on the left ear as opposed to the traditional right ear. Later in her life, she revealed that she never really drew a picture of her mother.

Ro Laren entered Starfleet Academy in 2358 and graduated with the class of 2362. Her Starfleet service serial number was HL-2133-8947 (APL). One of Ro's early assignments was aboard the USS Wellington. During that assignment in the mid-2360s, Ro was a member of the disastrous away team mission to Garon II. During the mission, Ro disobeyed direct orders, causing the eight other members of the away team to die. Ro was court-martialed for her actions and refused to speak in her own defense. With little alternative, the court found Ro guilty and sentenced her to imprisonment in the stockade on Jaros II. Jean-Luc Picard felt that, had Ro not lost her rank following her court martial, she could have been a lieutenant commander by late 2368.

In 2368, Ro was released by Admiral Kennelly and reinstated into Starfleet in exchange for helping locate a Bajoran terrorist. While secretly conducting her mission, Ro was assigned to assist the USS Enterprise-D on stardate 45076.3. Due to her familiarity with the Valo system, she was initially assigned as flight controller. Upon reaching Valo II, she suggested the best route for them to take would be to go to the camp on the southern continent to find a man named Keeve Falor. Ro sits alone in Ten Forward, sipping her beverage and turning people away when they offer to sit with her. As Geordi La Forge at the bar nearby expresses his displeasure at Ro's presence to Guinan, she decides to get to know Ro. During their conversation, Ro reveals that she was court-martialed for disobeying a direct order, resulting in the death of eight fellow officers. Guinan persists despite Ro's efforts to push her away. In her quarters, Ro receives a transmission from Kennelly and tells him that all is going according to plan. When it comes time to beam to the surface, Picard finds Ro is gone and the terrorists never showed up at the designated meeting location. He beams down anyway with an away team, where they find themselves surrounded by armed Bajorans, with Ro among them. Orta emerges, his face mutilated and vocal cords cut by the Cardassians. He tells them that the Bajorans did not attack Solarion IV and lets them go. Back on the Enterprise's bridge, Ro discusses the issue of who attacked Solarion IV with the other officers until Picard asks her into his ready room. There he ang rily asks her to explain her actions. While her intentions appear to have been good – she hoped to avoid bloodshed by talking to Orta before the meeting – Picard confines her to her quarters for the rest of the mission. That night, Guinan visits Ro to talk about what has happened. She observes that Ro seems to trust no one, least of all herself. After a brief conversation, Guinan recalls a time in her life when she got herself into a bad situation and that she would probably still be there if she had not put her trust in one man. Despite Ro being confined to her quarters, Guinan takes her to Picard's ready room. Guinan leaves the two of them to talk, and Ro reveals a secret about her purpose aboard the Enterprise: Admiral Kennelly wanted her to make a secret deal with Orta, in direct violation of the Prime Directive. So long as Orta stopped attacking the Federation, Kennelly would supply him and his fellows with weapons and ships. However, when she learned Orta was not responsible, she did not know what to do. Ro shares a story about how her father was tortured to death in front of her at the hands of the Cardassians, explaining that she felt ashamed to be Bajoran. She and Picard decide to find a way for Orta to help them expose the ones who really attacked the Federation colony. Picard, reluctant to let go of an officer with Ro's potential, requests that Ro remain on board for the Enterprise's next scheduled mission to survey Sector 21305.

Not long after Ro's transfer to the Enterprise, a quantum filament caused major damage to the ship. Unable to communicate with the rest of the crew, Ro, Lieutenant Commander Troi, Chief O'Brien and Ensign Mandel were trapped on the bridge. The quantum resonance of the filament caused a polarity shift in the ship's antimatter containment fields, leading to a progressive degeneration in the fields, threatening the ship. Before Commander Riker and Lieutenant Commander Data were able to restore control over the containment field, Ro suggested a saucer separation to save the saucer section, while sacrificing the stardrive section, stating that she was not sure whether anyone was still alive there. After Lieutenant Commander. Troi rejected Ro's proposal, the Enterprise's main computer was brought back online and the antimatter containment was fully restored. On stardate 45571.2, Ro Laren was at the helm of the Enterprise when one of the vessel's shuttlecraft crashed on the surface of a moon orbiting Mab-Bu VI. There, a number of the crew became possessed by anionic energy lifeforms superimposing neural patterns. During their attempted takeover of the bridge Ro shot at the possessed Miles O'Brien, but missed. She was in turn stunned by O'Brien. After the lifeform-possessed crew members took over Ten Forward, Ro suggested giving them a plasma shock as a means of causing pain to the beings without causing any physical harm. If the plan worked and they were able to hit all three with a single discharge, they would cause the beings to evacuate the crew members. Geordi La Forge and Ro Laren later attempted a rescue in the small access area between decks 9 and 10, above Ten Forward. When they finally made their attempt, they were unable to get all three crew members in the beam, which eventually led to the abortion of their rescue attempt.

On stardate 45652.1, Ro served on the bridge during an encounter with a temporal causality loop. She interrupted a staff meeting to report that sensors were getting unusual readings twenty thousand kilometers off the port bow. She noted that sensors did not detect the phenomenon until the ship was almost on top of it. As she attempted to back the Enterprise off from the phenomenon, she reported that the maneuvering thrusters were not responding, and as a ship emerged and she attempted to back the ship off, she reported that the helm was not responding. While investigating a damaged Romulan ship, Ro and Geordi La Forge were presumed dead in a transporter accident. Finding themselves freely walking around the ship but passing through other objects, Ro suspected that they were dead and simply remaining behind to say their goodbyes to their former lives, but La Forge refused to accept that. Eventually, La Forge figured out that they had actually been sent out of phase with the rest of the ship due to a flawed Romulan attempt to create a new kind of cloaking device, a theory that was proved when they confronted a Romulan in the same position as they. Learning of a Romulan plot to sabotage the Enterprise, Ro and La Forge managed to work out a means of canceling out the phase and restoring themselves to normal, thus allowing them to warn their shipmates of the danger. During a survey mission on stardate 46235.7, Ro, Picard, Guinan and Keiko O'Brien were briefly transformed into twelve-year-olds due to a transporter accident. Although Ro initially found the experience frustrating, when the ship was captured by a crew of rogue Ferengi, she took full advantage of her childish appearance to deal with the problem, such as slapping com badges onto the Ferengi to allow them to be transported, while declaring, "Tag – you're it!" After a process was discovered to return everyone to their proper ages, Ro actually spent a few hours longer in her childhood body, drawing pictures of her mother – something she'd never done during her actual childhood.

On the recommendation of Captain Picard, Ro attended Starfleet's Advanced Tactical Training, where she graduated in late 2370. Following her graduation she was reassigned to the Enterprise with the rank of lieutenant and given quarters on deck four, section eight. In 2370 Ro was assigned to infiltrate the Maquis. Although somewhat reluctant, she agreed, partially to validate Captain Jean-Luc Picard's belief in her. By having Lieutenant Commander Data and Lieutenant Worf faking pursuit on the pretext she had killed a Cardassian soldier, she gained the attention of the Maquis Santos in a DMZ settlement bar. She was kidnapped by Santos and was briefly questioned by him, Kalita and Macias. Macias immediately took a liking to Ro and trusted her even before her alibi was verified by Santos. He eventually became a fatherlike figure. She later gained the trust of the rest of the Maquis by "stealing" medical supplies from the Enterprise-D. After gaining the Maquis' trust, she had them plan to invest significant resources to attack a Yridian convoy, which in actuality was a Federation trap.

In 2376 she transferred to Deep Space 9, under the command of Colonel Kira Nerys to be the First Officer and Security Chief. In April of that year, 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 had been written by the heretic Ohalu, some 20,000 years previously, which had been removed from the ruins of the city of B'hala by Istani. Shortly after the discovery, Ro was injured falling from the stairs in Quark's when the station shook, as DS9 was attacked by a group of rogue Jem'Hadar, hoping to restart the Dominion War. Fortunately, Quark witnessed her fall and took her to the infirmary, later sending her a bouquet of Argelian flowers. Recovering quickly, she got back to work, discovering that Reyla was killed because several members of the Vedek Assembly, led by Vedek Yevir Linjarin, wanted the book suppressed. Stating the book was evidence in Istani's murder investigation, Ro refused to turn it over. Kira interceded by giving the book back to the Vedek Assembly, but uploaded its contents to the Bajoran comnet, making them public. A few weeks later, she then returned to Sindorin, when it was discovered that a rogue agent of the independent intelligence agency Section 31, named Ethan Locken, had refurbished a Dominion Jem'Hadar factory and was creating his own army. Traveling with Dr. Julian Bashir, Ezri Dax and the Jem'Hadar observer Taran'atar, they put a stop to Locken's plans and rescued the Ingavi tribe from Locken's Jem'Hadar troops.

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, managing to bring down the entire organization of the Orion crimelord Malic. She also freed an Orion Slave Girl named Treir from servitude. 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 she 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. 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.

Later, she accompanied Quark and his nephew Nog to Ferenginar, helping them maintain the rule of Grand Nagus Rom from a takeover attempt by Congressman Brunt. On 31 December 2376, Ro was attacked and critically injured by the Jem'Hadar observer Taran'atar, suffering spinal injuries and for a brief time, facing the possibility of spending the rest of her life confined to a wheelchair. Fortunately, Dr. Simon Tarses, a doctor in the station's infirmary, had developed an innovative technique that combined several experimental medical theories, which allowed her to return to duty in a matter of weeks. Despite her injuries, Ro led an investigation into Iliana Ghemor.

In 2380, Ro was promoted to Captain and assigned to command the USS Aventine after Captain Scott was injured and ended up in a coma. She still had duties to attend to on the station so she left the ship's Second Officer Lieutenant Commander Ezri Dax in command of the ship. It was attacked by the Progenitors. In the attack the bridge was destroyed killing all the senior officers except the Chief Engineer.

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