Worf

As the first Klingon to join Starfleet, Worf has already achieved an illustrious and honorable career aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise as well as played a key role in Empire politics, but he keenly feels the effects of an often tragic life caught uniquely between the two conflicting cultures - immediately evidenced by the traditional Klingon baldrics he wears over his Starfleet uniform. This inner-felt conflict stems in part from his perception of honor as taught but not always practiced by his native people, and is complicated by family relationships which echo his duality of culture in both his personal and public life. Worf has even been put on report.

He was born into a powerful political house on Qo'noS and carries vivid memories of a typical Klingon childhood. On his first ritual hunt before the age of six with his father's friend L'Kor, he attacked a large beast and it mauled his arm, providing a lifelong scar.

However, Worf's life was changed forever in 2346 when his family was wiped out by Romulans at the Khitomer Outpost along their border; he has no memory of his father. The young man was thought to be the only survivor, and was soon adopted by Chief Sergey Rozhenko, a human engineer nearing retirement aboard the U.S.S. Intrepid, which provided the first assistance at the scene.

The next year Worf lived with him, his wife Helena, and their son Nikolai among 20,000 colonists on the farm world Gault and later Earth, where the bigger and stronger Worf had a hard time adjusting to less-violent human culture and the two boys often disagreed. Finally, at the age of 13 while playing in a championship game as captain of his school soccer team, he unintentionally broke the neck of an opponent and the boy died a day later - forever guilting him into a life of restraint among humans. On the other hand, the Khitomer incident instilled in him a life-long hatred of Romulans.

To feed his thirst for his native people's culture, the Rozhenkos consciously exposed Worf to as much as they possibly could - serving him Klingon food, including his favorite rokeg blood pie, and sending him to Qo'noS for his initial Age of Ascension ceremony in 2355, at age 15. As usual, when on the homeworld he stayed with a cousins' family but felt rejected and ran away to the nearby mountains. There, while undergoing the Rite of MajQua in the lava caves of No'Mat, the vision of the original Klingon warrior Kahless came to him, prophesying that Worf would do what no other Klingon had done.

Worf entered Starfleet Academy with Nikolai in 2357, but his impetuous brother left school and returned to Gault while Worf went on to graduate in 2361. The fear of depending on others to protect him had been the prime point of his own entrance exam's psych test.

In 2364 he signed aboard Picard's U.S.S. Enterprise in command division as a junior-grade lieutenant, at the time wearing a century-old Klingon baldric. After the death of Security Chief Tasha Yar, he became acting chief and then assumed the post full-time in early 2365, switching to security full-time n the operations division and gaining a promotion to full lieutenant. His shipmates formally promoted him to lieutenant commander six years later with a ceremonial holographic ocean-dunking on an ancient Terran naval vessel.

Aside from a few weeks of dating fellow officer Deanna Troi in 2370 on the U.S.S. Enterprise, his most serious romance to date involved the half-human Ambassador K'Ehleyr. Worf had ended their initial affair in 2359, during his Academy years, but K'Ehleyr refused to begin anew and take vows after they mated in 2365 during her mission regarding the T'Ong sleeper ship incident.

Worf's family tree took on surprising twists during his U.S.S. Enterprise career, beginning with the trumped-up charge that Mogh had betrayed Khitomer to the Romulans. The resulting probe turned up not only a second survivor and eyewitness to the massacre, his old nursemaid, but a younger brother who'd been left behind on Qo'noS, Kurn. Even when the traitor was proven to be not Mogh but Jared, father of the powerful Duras, Worf later accepted discommendation from Klingon society rather than cause an uproar in Empire politics had the cover-up been revealed.

Worf was shocked to discover in 2367 that his interludes with K'Ehleyr had fostered a son, Alexander, when she accompanied the dying Klingon Chancellor K'mpec while old foe Duras, a challenger for succession, was a suspect. With her mate and son present, K'Ehleyr died after being attacked by Duras when she drew too close to the truth about Khitomer, and Worf in anguish killed Duras on his own ship. His captain was more than understanding, as he had been when Worf refused to donate blood to save a Romulan, but he was put on formal report for his actions.

During the Klingon Civil War of 2367-68 Worf felt compelled to resign his Starfleet commission to become involved, but it was reactivated after the war. During that time he persuaded Kurn to support Gowron against Duras' sisters and their Romulan backers, standing up to the sisters when abducted and tortured. His aid of the victor Gowron eventually restored his family's honor, and Kurn won a seat on the High Council.

Mogh was later rumored to be alive in a secret Romulan prison on Carraya IV, but though Worf's covert 2369 mission found the rumor to indeed be false he did discover - and agree to keep secret - a colony of shamed Klingon survivors from Khitomer, led by his father's old friend, L'Kor, and their Romulans guards who'd resigned to live with them.

Worf dipped back into Klingon politics in 2370 after he questioned his own faith in the teaching of Kahless following the Carraya IV incident. His visit to the caves of Boreth, the legendary site of the great warrior's predicted return, was shaken up when Kahless did appear to return. Although later found to be cloned from ancient relics of the original Klingon warrior by the Boreth clerics, the response of spiritually empty Klingons to his presence led Worf to insist that Gowron accept the cloned Kahless as a returned Emperor and moral leader - in effect creating a constitutional theo-monarchy.

He was even reunited with his foster brother Nikolai in 2370, when the two clashed again over the human's saving of the doomed Borallan village against Picard's orders and the Prime Directive to save his pregnant mate, a native. The two parted more amicably after the incident, however.

After his mother's death Alexander was initially sent to live with the Rozhenkos on Earth, but a year later Helena returned with him to plead that Worf take him back for support and guidance. The two shared a testy relationship at first, but thanks to sessions with the ship's counselor - whom he eventually selected as the boy's foster parent if need be - they fared better. When a shipboard accident left him paralyzed, Worf considered the ritual Hegh'bat suicide until both Riker and Troi talked him out of it, pointing to Alexander's need for a parent; an experimental genotronic spine later restored his health. Shocked in 2370 to find his son returned through a time loop from 40 years in the future, be began allowing Alexander to find his own way - even if it was not the way of a Klingon warrior.

During his U.S.S. Enterprise tenure, he birthed Keiko O'Brien's baby in Ten-Forward during a shipwide crisis in 2368, his only prior experience having been a Starfleet emergency first aid class. He dislikes surprise parties and diplomatic duty.

He also taught mok'bara classes to those interested aboard ship, won a bat'tleh tournament on Forkas III in 2370, and for a time tutored Doctor Crusher on the weapon; there is no word that he took her offer to join her acting workshop. He trains with a multi-level holo-program of personal combat "calisthenics," has also played Parrises Squares, and picked up the nickname "Iceman" from his USS Enterprise poker play. Other interests include Klingon novels, love poetry, and a love of Klingon opera. His favorite beverage, christened as a "warrior's drink" when introduced to it by Guinan, is prune juice.

After the destruction of the Enterprise-D and his break-up with Deanna, Worf took a leave of absence from Starfleet and travelled to the Klingon monastary on Boreth. It was there that he recieved his orders to report to Starbase Deep Space 9 in the Bajor sector in early 2372. Klingon Chancellor Gowron had amassed a large fleet of ships for reasons unknown, and the stations commander, Captain Benjamin Sisko, had requested Worf's assistance in discovering the truth.

When Worf discovered that the Klingons were planning on attacking Cardassia, Worf relayed this information to Sisko. Gowron was willing to forgive Worf for this, but only if he accompanied Gowron for the assault on Cardassia. When Worf refused, Gowron stripped his family of land and title, effectively restoring his state of discommendation. Sisko offered Worf the position of station's strategic operations officer, coordinating Federation assets throughout the bustling Bajor sector, as well as the position of first officer of the USS Defiant -- a switch to the command track. Worf accepted.

Early on in the assignment Worf admitted to continued bouts of depression over the end of what he perceived as glory days on the Enterprise, and countered it somewhat by taking quarters on the station's starship, the U.S.S. Defiant, and finding a kinship with Dax, who trains with the bat'tleh and mek'leth as well.

He soon got the chance to meet Klingon legend Kor, but that honor too was ripped away when image gave way to reality as the two fought over the Sword of Kahless relic they found on a quest.

Worf's public opposition to Gowron's invasion left him largely unaffected until the Empire attempted to frame him for the so-called slaughter of 141 Klingon civilians amid a skirmish; the hoax was revealed only shortly before he would have been extradited for the crime and faced certain death. However, on Qo'noS his house was once again stripped of its honor and properties, including Kurn's seat on the High Council.

His depressed brother showed up on the station asking for his own suicide rite. Only Dax's interruption stopped the ritual Worf was aiding, but after Kurn's unsuccessful death wish as a Bajoran deputy Worf realized his brother had no future and, short of suicide, opted to have his memory wiped and replaced with another Klingon identity, sending him to live with a family friend. Even then he lived with the regret that his actions had been forever tainted by his human-learned values of mercy.

Sparked by his spurning by Grilka and his uncharacteristic aid to Quark on wooing her the Klingon way, Worf's immediate friendship with Lt. Cmdr. Dax has now blossomed into full-blown romance; luckily she is one of the few species on the station compatible with the physical demands of the situation. The arrangement with Dax as his Par'machkai has stopped short by mutual consent of the traditional mating step required and seems to be affecting Worf in a positive way, aside from the squabble on Risa when what was perceived as Worf's reactionary tendencies held sway during his brief alignment with some New Essentialist activists there.

Worf has encountered few further difficulties regarding his divided heritage. He had no problem helping to expose secret Klingon mining of the space around outer Bajoran colonies and fighting his brethren of a century ago when time-traveled to Station K-7. He was part of the covert team trying to prove Gowron was actually a Changeling double at one time, and sparked a challenge to the death with the chancellor. Although the team helped expose General Martok as a Founder, Worf left with the two still at odds over his defiance of Gowron a year earlier that cost the House of Mogh its official honor.

In 2373, Worf was ordered to take the USS Defiant and join the fleet of ships set to intercept a Borg cube in Sector 001 on a course for Earth. Along with the USS Bozeman and USS Lexington, the Defiant was heavily damaged by the cube and Worf was considering a kamikaze attack, when the USS Enterprise-E came to Worf's rescue. The Enterprise-E took on board the survivors of the Defiant, including Worf. Reunited with his old crewmates, Worf assisted in destroying the cube with the tactical information divulged by Picard. After it was destroyed, Worf discovered that a sphere was traveling back in time to 2063, in an attempt to prevent first contact between humans and Vulcans. After destroying the Borg sphere, Worf successfully helped destroy the Borg deflector array and prevented the Borg from changing history.

Worf helped rescue General Martok, son of Urthog, who had been replaced by a Founder, from a Dominion internment camp in 2373. The two became fast friends, and Worf eventually underwent a ritual making himself Martok's brother by blood and a member of the House of Martok.

Following the successful Operation Return in early 2374, Dax decided to marry Worf within the week. All she had to do was appease Lady Sirella, mistress of the House of Martok, and Sirella would wed the two. This proved more difficult than expected, since Sirella, not wanting aliens to pollute her house, opposed the marriage. When Dax refused to stop a party, an enraged Sirella screamed that there would be no Klingon wedding. When Dax asked for a Bajoran-style wedding led by Sisko, a quivering Worf decided to call the whole thing off. After some fence-mending by Sisko, Dax and Worf eventually resumed the wedding, and the pair married in Quark's Bar. Later on, after Jadzia lost a game of tongo to Quark, Worf, who had also lost a bet on that game to Miles O'Brien, then told Jadzia afterward that he would rather lose a bet on her than win one on someone else. Jadzia felt that was one of the most romantic things Worf had ever said to her.

The marriage proved strong. When Lasaran, a Cardassian defector, contacted Starfleet Intelligence in 2374, Worf and Jadzia were ordered to rendezvous with him and return him safely to Federation space. During the mission Jadzia was seriously wounded by a Jem'Hadar energy weapon. The anticoagulant properties of the weapon put Jadzia's life in danger and Worf abandoned Lasaran in order to save her. The action caused Worf to receive a reprimand, and Captain Sisko believed it would prevent him from ever receiving his own command, but Worf stated he had no regrets. (DS9: "Change of Heart") By late 2374, Jadzia and Worf had decided to attempt parenthood, despite the extreme difficulties posed by the disparate biologies of Trill and Klingons. Worf had already proved his ability in fatherhood by babysitting the O'Briens' son, Kirayoshi, and with the help of Bashir, Jadzia and Worf could attempt to conceive. In thanks she visited the Bajoran temple on the Promenade, where she was attacked and killed by Gul Dukat, who was possessed by a Pah-wraith and was attempting to destroy the Orb kept in the temple.

In 2375, Worf led a mission to destroy a Dominion shipyard. He dedicated this mission to his late wife, in order to ease her entrance into Sto-vo-kor.

Also in that year, Worf visited the Federation colony on Manzar to establish a new defense perimeter against the Dominion. At this opportunity, however, he visited his old friends on the Enterprise-E, which was on a diplomatic mission nearby. For a brief period Worf rejoined his old crew to reveal Admiral Dougherty's conspiracy concerning the Ba'ku relocation.

Later that year, back in DS9, Worf became disillusioned with the leadership of Gowron. Gowron feared Martok's growing popularity and devised a plan to discredit Martok and end any potential threat to his authority. Gowron began ordering Martok on near-suicidal missions against Dominion forces, hoping that a string of defeats would weaken Martok's popularity and discredit him as a military leader. Recognizing that Gowron was jeopardizing the entire war effort, Worf tried to convince Martok that he should challenge Gowron for the leadership. After Martok refused, Worf decided to challenge Gowron himself, citing his faulty battle planning, his dishonorable conduct in trying to discredit Martok, and poor strategies at the later stages of the Dominion War. After a brief battle, Worf killed Gowron; by right he was proclaimed the new chancellor of the Klingon High Council. However, Worf immediately gave his position to Martok.

After the war was over in late 2375, Martok 'thanked' Worf by requesting that he be named as the new Federation Ambassador to the Klingon Empire. Worf had lived in between the two societies for his entire life. He was responsible for the installation of the last two Chancellors and an Emperor. Furthermore, both K'Ehleyr and Jadzia's previous host, Curzon Dax, had held the position. He was the perfect choice.

Before Worf could take on the position, he had to assist Martok in securing his position as Chancellor. A coup engineered by the Klingons Morjod and Gothmara destroyed the Great Hall and threw Qo'noS into chaos in early 2376. It was only when Ezri Dax brought the legendary Sword of Kahless into Martok's possession that Martok's position was solidified.

Worf's first assignment as Ambassador brought him to the world of taD, Klingon for "frozen," to settle a dispute between the indigenous population, who had appealed for recognition from the Federation after overthrowing the local Klingon government, and the Empire, who wished to have taD back under their own control.

With the assistance of his new attache, Giancarlo Wu, and the crew of the IKS Gorkon Worf, adapting to the needs of his new post, came up with a solution that pleased all parties and avoided bloodshed, installing a Klingon engineer from the Gorkon crew as a ceremonial emperor while granting practical autonomy to the populace. His new career was off to a good start.

A month after the Tezwa incident in 2379, the Federation Embassy on Qo'noS was seized by terrorists who demanded that Martok step down as Chancellor and the treaty with the Federation be terminated. The terrorist leader, a Klingon named Rov, also made the odd claim that Emperor Kahless had been replaced by a hologram. Worf eventually re-took the embassy from the terrorists.

Two weeks later, Worf discovered that Rov's claim of the Emperor being replaced by a hologram was actually true. When Worf returned to Earth to get the Federation's assurance that they had nothing to do with Kahless' disappearance, he left his son Alexander with his embassy duties.

After the recovery of the Emperor and the election of new Federation President Nanietta Bacco, Worf tendered his resignation as Federation Ambassador to Qo'noS. Worf had done his duty for years and decided that he wanted to return to where he had been truly fulfilled- Starfleet. Impressed with the diplomatic skills shown by his son, Worf suggested that Alexander succeed him as Ambassador. President Bacco accepted the nomination. Upon his return to the fleet, Admiral William Ross offered Worf the position of First Officer on the USS Titan, under Captain William T. Riker. Worf initially accepted the assignment. He travelled with Riker and Deanna Troi to Betazed to attend their wedding there aboard the Enterprise, (he was also serving as acting chief of security/tactical officer as Christine Vale had taken shore leave on Earth). Following the Earth wedding and while en route to a second ceremony on Betazed, the second wedding was postponed as the Enterprise-E detected positronic signals from the Kolarin system. Following the discovery that the source of the positronic signals was the Soong-type android, B-4, Vice Admiral Kathryn Janeway of Starfleet Command assigned the Enterprise-E to Romulus to begin new peace talks with the new Praetor of the Romulan Star Empire, Shinzon, who was a human clone of Picard. The peace offer turned out to be a trap and in the end Worf, together with Romulans, had to face Shinzon and the Remans. Finally, he admitted that the Romulans fought with honor, possibly overcoming his life-long grudge against this species. After the death of Commander Data in battle with Reman warlord Shinzon, Captain Picard requested Worf remain aboard the Enterprise and Worf accepted, serving as acting first officer. Worf did not feel worthy to accept the position permanently when Picard offered him the job due to his actions on Soukara in 2374, when he abandoned an important mission in order to save his wife Jadzia.

When Captain Picard was transformed once again into Locutus in early 2380, Worf led the mission that rescued Picard. This and advice from ship's CMO Beverly Crusher convinced Worf to accept the promotion on a permanent basis. The promotion also increased Worf's rank from Lieutenant Commander to Commander.

Worf felt an immediate attraction to the Enterprise's new Counselor, the Vulcan T'Lana, when she first reported for duty. Despite T'Lana's initial dislike of the Klingon, the two seemed to be in the beginnings of a romantic relationship.

Worf was instrumental in saving this Universe from the beings know as 'Them', his experiences with a quantum fissure in the past allowing him to disrupt their initial 'assault' on the universe.

Any possibility of a relationship between Worf and T'Lana ended when, during the disabled Borg cube's attempts to attack Earth, T'Lana participated in a mutiny against Picard when, on the suggestion of Spock, he decided to attempt to activate the dormant planet killer rather than return to Earth to engage the cube. Despite the success of the mission to activate the machine, T'Lana nevertheless insisted that Picard's success did not negate the fact that they were right and he was wrong, and she requested a transfer which Picard ultimately granted.

In early 2381, Worf seemed to begin a relationship with the ship's new head of security, Jasminder Choudhury. He eventually renewed his relationship with Ba’el, the half-Romulan, half-Klingon survivor of Carraya IV who became a Federation Diplomatic Assistant on Q’onoS later that year. They were later married and now have two sons, Mogh and Martok.

When a brand new Akira-class heavy cruiser was commissioned out of Utopia Planitia Shipyards and christened the USS Bat’leth in 2384, Starfleet Command readily insisted Worf to assume command over it, which he readily accepted.

In December 2384, LaForge was field promoted to the rank of Captain and placed in command of the Akira-class Heavy Cruiser USS Bat’leth, one of the ships of Task Force Invincible, in the task force’s one month long shakedown cruise.

In 2385, Worf was permanently promoted to the rank of Captain upon permanently assuming as Commanding Officer of the USS Bat’leth. The opportunity to command a combat vessel as powerful as the Bat’leth, as well as serve as part of a permanent escort complement to the war-time flagship of Starfleet, which happened to be commanded by his old commanding officer Jean-Luc Picard, was too great to pass up.

His biggest qualm has been a quest for privacy, and took quarters on the usually empty Defiant to relieve the edginess he had felt ever since arriving here. He often can be found there listening to Klingon opera blaring over the com system, usually from his favorite singer Barak'karan -- not surprisingly, a traditionalist.

He continues to utilize the Holo-programs for recreation, including his combat "calisthenics," commanding the historic Battle of Tong Vey, but has no stomach for zero-G exercises. His posting on DS9 has broadened his horizons in at least two ways: he has renewed his study of the Ferengi Rules of Acquisition, and has admitted a healthy respect for native Bajoran beliefs concerning the Prophets based on his own spiritualism.