Dazz Dakkal

Early Life (2367-2385)

Dazz grew up on the Orion homeworld under a different name. His mother was a mid-level boss in the Orion Syndicate. As far as anyone knew, their family had been in the Syndicate since its inception. Dazz is the youngest of his eight siblings (five sisters, three brothers). They all were trained in the ways of the Syndicate from a very young age, engaging in all sorts of petty crime, even before they were able to join. Dazz was a particularly adept pickpocket by age five, an accomplished hacker by 12, and he stole his first warp-capable vessel at thirteen. Thus began his love-affair with ships. He loved the work he did because he loved his family, and he believed he was doing the best thing for them. He thought he was stealing from those who had plenty, and never truly considered he was doing harm.

As the baby of the family, however, his mother shielded him from the more brutal side of criminal enterprise; that was, until he was sixteen. Wanting to prepare him for joining the Syndicate, his mother had him accompany one of his older sisters on a slave transport run. He’d heard of slave ships, but in his mind he always pictured that slaves were bad people who deserved the fate they found themselves in. He quickly was disabused of that notion, clearly seeing that the slaves were regular people, destitute and powerless, ripped from their lives to serve the already rich and powerful. As time went on he only saw more, and worse. He wanted to speak up about it, planned to even, but was afraid of how his mother would react. Before he knew it, he was 18 – old enough to join the Syndicate – a foregone conclusion for him.

Time in the Orion Syndicate (2385-2387)

At this time, his mother was beginning to fall out of favor within the Syndicate for a lack of results. Eager to regain her reputation, she worked towards the Syndicate regaining a foothold in Federation territory; something the organization had not had for generations. Hoping that this plan would not only help her regain her standing, but also help her son gain his own reputation and rise through the ranks, she sent him to meet with a contact within the Federation willing to help them smuggle various types of contraband into and out of the Federation with only the intention to make introductions and report back. When Dazz arrived, however, he discovered it was a sting operation by Starfleet Intelligence, hoping to prevent the very thing his mother wanted.

Starfleet knew that if they arrested Dazz, he had only done enough to warrant incarceration in a Federation penal colony for a short time. If they turned him into a Confidential Informant, however, they could strike a much larger blow to the Syndicate, and hopefully keep them out of Federation space for generations more. Dazz saw the opportunity to make amends for the harm his family had caused, and agreed.

He spent a year funnelling information about his family’s and the Syndicate’s activities to Starfleet Intelligence before his family started to get suspicious. Fearing for his life, he worked with Starfleet to fake his death in a staged firefight with Starfleet.

Acclimating to Life on Earth (2387-2390)

Dazz was put into a witness protection program, changing his name to Dazzrek Dakkal. He was placed with a couple of retired Starfleet Officers: Retired Science Officer Commander Owen Cole and Retired Engineer Lt. Commander Guillermo Nunez. Though adjusting to life on Earth was difficult at first, the three became extremely close over the course of two years. He learned much from them, and particularly took to learning much more about Starship engineering from Guillermo than he ever did with his family or the Syndicate. Eventually, he expressed interest in applying to Starfleet Academy. His former handler within Starfleet Intelligence sponsored his application.

Starfleet Academy (2390-2394)

Dazz took to his studies readily, but had trouble with taking orders from superiors. Rank and seniority was something that he was very familiar with via his experience with the Syndicate, yet given the egalitarian utopia that was the rest of the Federation, the rigidly hierarchical structure of Starfleet seemed incongruous to him. In his second year, he nearly got kicked out of the Academy for insubordination. On the evening before the hearing that would decide if he would be allowed to remain, he had a visit from his former handler. Dazz has never told anyone that this visit occurred, let alone what happened during, but the hearing decided in his favor, and he never had issues with insubordination at the Academy again.

He did well across many science and engineering disciplines, but largely eschewed a singular focus, preferring the varied nature of Operations.

Dazz’s extracurricular interests included flying (though he was never interested in becoming a pilot within Starfleet), historical fencing, ancient Orion history, political philosophy, and artificial intelligence.

U.S.S. Santa Barbara (2394-2396)

Dazz’s first post was aboard the U.S.S. Santa Barbara where he was very well liked and never had a bad review from a superior. After serving there for two years, seeing an opportunity to serve aboard a larger ship with more challenging opportunities, he applied for and was granted a position aboard the U.S.S. Corbenic.

U.S.S. Corbenic (2396-2397)

While there, however, he may have gotten a little too comfortable in his position and spoke out of turn a few too many times. After a year, he began to be viewed as a problem among some of his direct superiors, word of which made its way to the upper command. Before his reputation could spread farther than the ship, he requested and was granted a transfer to the U.S.S. Havamal.

U.S.S. Havamal (2397-2401)

He made sure to keep his nose clean, and had a similar experience aboard the Havamal as he did the Santa Barbara. After five years aboard the Havamal, however, he became bored with his work, and his opportunities for rank advancement aboard the ship had apparently run their course. From there, he applied for and was granted the Chief Operations Officer position aboard the U.S.S. Alhambra.

U.S.S. Alhambra (2401-Present)

Dazz has been greatly enjoying his time as a bridge officer, and finally feels like he truly fits in on the ship.