Review/Summary Written by Thomas Sharp
Star Trek: The Lives of Dax, an anthology edited by Marco Palmieri, tells one story from each of Dax’s previous hosts, minus Verad. Of course, Verad is mentioned, since he did host the Dax symbiont for a few hours in DS9 ‘Invasive Procedures’. But, he wasn’t a permanent host, so his omission is acceptable. Each story in the novel manages to tell the story of a host close to or during a major event in Trill and Federation history, or in the case of Emony, a major Star Trek character.
The anthology begins and ends with Lieutenant Ezri Dax as she is looking over a holosuite program, the Siege of Las Vegas during World War III, for herself & Doctor Julian Bashir, the station’s chief medical officer. After becoming frustrated with her dress and high heels & getting lost in a neon sign graveyard, Ezri encounters Vic Fontaine, the period-specific hologram from 1962 Las Vegas. Through their conversation, the reader learns that the war with the Dominion ended just a few weeks ago.
Ezri asks Vic what it’s like to be a hologram, and in return, he asks what it’s like to be a joined Trill. She begins to talk about all the previous hosts, but he wants to hear her story.
Ezri Tigan was a young ensign onboard the Destiny, a Federation starship that didn’t even get the chance to dock at Deep Space Nine. She & her boyfriend, another Trill named Brinner Finok, were briefed by the Vulcan doctor about the Dax symbiont that they were transporting to Trill after Jadzia Dax’s death in DS9 ‘Tears of the Prophets’. Ezri never wanted to be joined, but Brinner did, so he was placed in medical quarantine. After a few days, Ezri decided to visit him, and through his reactions, learned that he was a Founder. He attacked her, and she lost consciousness. A short time later, the captain of the ship tells Ezri that the symbiont had to be placed in a host, but it had to be her decision, not an order. Ezri agrees.
After telling Vic her story, she goes on to tell a story from each of the previous hosts, from Lela to Jadzia.
Lela Dax the first of the hosts for the symbiont, and the only woman member of Trill’s ruling council. The people of Trill were xenophobic, and had only been contacted by the Vulcans. The Trill are contacted by an unknown race, later called the L’Dina. The council refuses to negotiate with the aliens, and are soon attacked. During the attack, raw minerals are beamed from the surface and the aliens leave. The attack convinces the council that Lela may have been right when she pushed for contact with the aliens, and they agree to ask for an alien race database from the Vulcans, to avoid future attacks and misunderstandings. A couple of familiar names show up in the story, T’Pau from TOS ‘Amok Time’ and Darzen Odan, the eighth host for the symbiont that would resurface in TNG ‘The Host’.
Tobin Dax, a nervously shy engineer, was on his way to the Cochrane Institute of Alpha Centauri with twenty other physicists and engineers when their ship was boarded by Romulans. The reason for the attack – the Heisenberg has a prototype transporter, the first of it’s kind and the Romulans want it for their own. Tobin & a Vulcan engineer named Skon are able to stop the invasion, after Tobin is the first humanoid to be transported, and they blow up the engineering half of the ship to save the habitat, with the ship’s crew on board.
Emony Dax was a gymnastics judge at a competition being held at Ole Miss’. A young college student named Leonard McCoy, there to see his roommate compete, is attracted to the older woman. They have a brief affair, and she tells him about her symbiont. He is disgusted, at first, but realizes the error in his ways the next day, and manages to save her life after his roommate tries to kill her.
Audrid Dax, loving mother and former head of the Symbiosis Commission, writes a letter to her daughter Neema Lyl, telling her the truth about what happened to Neema’s father during a scientific mission. A familiar face during this story is Fleet Captain Christopher Pike, seen in TOS ‘The Cage’ and ‘Menagerie, Parts One and Two’.
Torias Dax was a successful shuttle pilot and married to Nilani Kahn. He is the test pilot for the first transwarp shuttle, Infinity. The test flight is set before the events in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, and onboard the Excelsior under the command of Captain Styles. Saavik is part of the engineering team, which didn’t make any sense to me, so I just figured it was a different Vulcan than the one seen in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, & Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. Another character from ST III is Admiral Morrow, who visits the Excelsior on the eve of the test flight.
Joran Dax was a murderer. Jadzia suffered from his flashbacks in DS9 ‘Equilibrium’, and Ezri had to use his memories to track a killer on the station in DS9 ‘Field of Fire’. The story tells the tale of the investigation into the murders committed by a joined Trill.
Curzon Dax was a diplomat for the Federation, and Ensign Benjamin Sisko was assigned to be his adjunct at Pelios Station. The story is told from Sisko’s point of view, and focuses on a negotiation between the Federation and two alien races, the Azzizi & the Bactrica. The story also has Ensign Cal Hudson, Sisko’s life long friend who would later leave Starfleet in DS9 ‘The Maqui, Parts One and Two’, and Admiral Janeway, whose image was used to lure Captain Kathryn Janeway into an alien matrix for nourishment in ST: Voyager ‘Coda’. Another character in the story is “that dancer”.
Jadzia Dax was Deep Space Nine’s science officer & pilot on the Defiant. Shortly after the events in DS9 ‘Paradise Lost’, the Defiant goes to Trill. Jadzia’s sister, Ziranne, has a symbiont, and she wasn’t supposed to ever be a host. They don’t know which symbiont it is, or where it came from, or how she got it. Over the course of the story, Verad shows up, and once again stopped by the DS9 crew.
Okay, that’s the summary, now for my opinion. If one author had written these stories, they never would have achieved the tone of Dax’s life in each host. A different writer tells each story, but S.D. Perry wrote one, and co-wrote another. They are well told, and each interesting in their own way. The only major problem I had was with Saavik, since they had her ranked as a cadet, instead of a lieutenant. Other than that, it’s a great book, and well worth the time to read.
ST: The Lives of Dax - Writers
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