Lu'kat
Name Lu'kat
Position Diplomatic Officer
Character Information
| Gender | Male | |
| Species | Cardassian | |
| Age | 37 |
Physical Appearance
| Height | 1.90 | |
| Weight | 80 | |
| Hair Color | Brown | |
| Eye Color | Brown | |
| Physical Description | Having less pronounced neck and brow ridges Luke was the object of ridicule while growing up. |
Family
| Spouse | - | |
| Children | - | |
| Father | Presumed dead | |
| Mother | Deceased | |
| Brother(s) | Presumed dead | |
| Sister(s) | Presumed dead | |
| Other Family | Unknown |
Personality & Traits
| General Overview | ||
| Strengths & Weaknesses | Photographic memory (not an uncommon Cardassian trait). Able to (temporarily) resist a Vulcan mind meld. Observant. Excellent ability to hide and avoid detection. Suspicious, as a rule does not trust anyone. Rarely smiles |
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| Ambitions | Repair his reputation. Regain his previous status in Cardassian Society. Get re-instituted into the Cardassian Intelligence Bureau. |
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| Hobbies & Interests | Chess Keeping informed on the latest intergalactic developments Keeps a pet Regnar (a small blind reptilian species which can be found in the Mekar Wilderness of Cardassia. They have an impressive facility for camouflage which is enhanced by their consistently calm demeanour, they only move when the wind or shadow can conceal their displacement and use a chameleon like ability to blend into the surroundings making them nearly invisible) Languages Modern Bajoran, Federation Standard, and Cardassian (both formal and informal dialects). |
| Personal History | Lu’kat was born in a Cardassian compound on Bajor in 2352 during the height of the Bajoran Occupation. Despite Cardassian ambitions, the Union never succeeded in fully colonising the planet, this made Luke’s family one of only a few successful Cardassian colonists on the occupied planet. Lu’kat was forced to grow up fast due to the constant threat of the Bajoran Resistance. Explosions and the rattling of weapons fire, sometimes distant, sometimes close, were a daily reality. News of death and destruction, the loss of friends and family were not a rarity. Life was tense on the compound and the few Bajoran servants were eyed with distrust and suspicion. Yet the family prospered and managed to experience some degree of a peaceful life, if only within the few hundred square meters that made up their compound. The finer workings of Cardassian propaganda were quite visible in little Lu’kat, who idolised Gul Dukat, savior of the Bajoran people. Being kept far away from Bajor’s labour camps and atrocities committed by his people, Lu’kat couldn’t understand why so many Bajorans kept on resisting superior Cardassian rule. Ofcourse, the only Bajorans he came into contact with were the submissive servants and Bajoran collaborators, who were always cordial in the hopes of profiting from the family’s good graces. In 2364, at the age of 12, Lu’kat was sent be fostered by relatives on Cardassia Prime. This was a difficult time for him. He was ridiculed for his undeveloped neck and brow ridges and even though his upbringing on Bajor was firmly kept secret, he was easily singled out as being ‘different’ from the other kids who’d grown up in the heart of Cardassian society. He often hid in a nearby park to escape his bullies. Here he befriended a regnar, a small and blind reptilian species that had mastered the art of camouflage. By observing and mimicking the creature Lu’kat found a way to render himself nearly undetectable for anyone not directly looking at him. Later he would view being bullied as a positive thing, because it made him strive more to become accepted and respected by his people. He quickly developed a near perfect Cardassian attitude and character. In addition, if he’d never been bullied, he’d never discovered the regnar from which he learned a great deal, and who he still keeps as a pet to this day. When he reached his Age of Emergence in 2368 Lu’kat was sent to the Cardassian Institute for State Policy, his initial incomprehension of Bajoran hostility having developed into a profound interest in the shaping of society and politics of peoples. His concerns and feelings for Bajor and its people, be they Cardassian or Bajoran, were genuine. But even though during his studies he learned more about the true nature of the Cardassian occupation of Bajor, he remained a staunch supporter of Gul Dukat under whose rule, despite ongoing atrocities, brought down the death rate in labor camps by 20 per cent, had abolished child labour, improved medical care and food rations to the people of Bajor. The fact that Gul Dukat kept these policies in place despite the ongoing attacks by the Bajoran Resistance convinced Lu’kat of the superiority of Cardassian society over that of Bajor. Lu’kat was a firmly against the retreat of Cardassia from Bajor. Despite his awareness of the situation on Bajor becoming increasingly untenable for the Union, he felt a full retreat was shameful. He viewed Bajor’s relationship to Cardassia as that of a child to its father; a father abandoning his children is a most dishonourable act that is simply not done among Cardassians, for whom family provides one of the cornerstones of their society. In addition, he was born and raised on Bajor and he knew that if the occupation would come to an end he’d never be able to return home. When Bajor finally became independent in 2369 Lu’kat’s family repatriated back to Cardassia Prime. The Federation occupying Terok Nor and renaming it Deep Space 9 added to the insult. Cardassia’s power and influence in the quadrant was dwindling and Lu’kat felt determined to put a stop to it. In 2370 Luke was recruited by the Obsidian Order, who had recognised Lu’kat’s intelligence and his commitment to the Union. He had only been in training for a few weeks when the Order collapsed after the utter destruction of the combined Obsidian Order and Tal Shiar fleet at the Founder’s Homeworld in the Gamma Quadrant. Realising the downfall of the Obsidian Order would seriously destabilise the power structure Cardassian leadership was built on, Luke supported the overthrow of Cardassian Central Command by the Cardassian Dissident Movement, which succeeded in restoring authority to the civilian Detapa Council. He then played a key role in setting up the Cardassian Intelligence Bureau which was to replace the Obsidian Order. Because the most experienced and senior Obsidian Order operatives perished in the Battle of the Omarion Nebula in the Gamma Quadrant, Lu’kat managed to secure a respectable position within the new organisation despite having little experience. When in 2373 Gul Dukat announced the overthrow of the Detapa Council and the absorption of the Cardassian Union into the Dominion, Lu’kat was sceptical. The CIB was now operating under the auspices of ‘outsiders’ and Cardassia was reduced to a member state in a dominion not its own, this was very hard for Lu’kat to swallow. However, because of his high opinion of Gul Dukat he decided to give him the benefit of the doubt and see if Dukat would make good on his promises. Indeed, the first few months saw the Klingons expelled from Cardassian space, the destruction of the Maquis and the recapture of Terok Nor. The tables turned when Gul Dukat was captured by the Federation and the war turned sour for the Dominion. Lu’kat and his fellow Cardassians within the CIB were slowly but surely reduced to mere servants, Vorta and Jem’Hadar taking over the daily operations of the organisation and removing Cardassians from every position of authority. By the time Damar openly rebelled against the Dominion, Lu’kat and the other Cardassians he worked side by side with had no choice but to sit by and watch, the Jem’Hadar keeping them under such a tight leash that any transgression meant execution on the spot. He survived the Genocide of Cardassia by employing his technique of masking himself which he learned from his pet regnar many years before, though he had to watch many of his friends and co-workers die. Having not been able to help them (which would have cost him his own life), Lu’kat feels a deep regret and shame at paying for his life over theirs. After the Dominion War the Cardassian Union was in shambles, 800 million Cardassians massacred by the Jem’Hadar (not counting the ones lost during the course of the war), its leadership gone, its economy crippled, its cities reduced to rubble. Its military a mere shadow of its former might. Famine and disease raged through Cardassia Prime and the other Cardassian planets, adding to the body count for months and even years after. Like countless others Lu’kat was going from rubble pile to rubble pile, looking for anything salvageable, locating survivors, finding out how many of his family and friends had survived. As a former CIB operative he was one of only a few people with some level of authority over his district. In the first days after the Genocide, before Federation, Klingon and Romulan troops could consolidate their occupation of Cardassia, Lu’kat, along with a small group of others, kept his area from falling into complete anarchy and give some small sense of direction towards the devastated lives of their fellow survivors. A few weeks after the onslaught he was contacted by another surviving operative of the CIB, who asked him to return to his post at the organisation and continue to aid the rebuilding of Cardassia in this way. Lu’kat agreed and resumed his post. The years that followed were tough and hard for all Cardassians, but by the year 2380, 5 years after the war, some sense of normalcy had returned to the daily lives of Cardassians. Cardassians had been given back control of their own territory, though their military strength was severely curtailed through intergalactic sanctions, giving them just enough strength to patrol their own borders. The sites of destruction and other scars of the war had mostly been cleared and replaced by construction and memorial sites. Famine and disease were still a chronic problem, aid and relief missions from the other powers in the galaxy were still necessary and would likely continue for the next decade. Lu’kat was part of a special taskforce within the CIB dedicated solely to the recovery of Cardassian artifacts and valuables looted during the war, as well as a branch that specialised in reuniting war victims separated by the war. Through his expertise and the recruitment of other talented people, the CIB managed to acquire the same level of efficiency as its predecessor. Time would prove if it was to become as notorious as well. Lu’kat’s rise to power within the CIB did not go unnoticed, especially by the Head of the CIB, who felt threatened by Lu’kat’s popularity. When there was an explosion in his office, killing several people, Lu’kat was given the blame for failing to intercept information that would have prevented the bombing. All of Lu’kat’s years of service and dedication to the rebuilding of the Cardassian Union was suddenly pulled into doubt, the Head further exacerbated these concerns to discredit him. It worked. He was sent safely out of the way as a Liason and Representative of the Cardassian Union to Star Base 42, an old mothballed Federation Base recalled into service in an area called ‘the Shoal’, near the Cardassian/Bajoran border. The reasons for this replacement were his knowledge of Bajoran culture and his expertise in Cardassian – Federation relations. Lu’kat knew better than that and has vowed to take his revenge someday. In the meantime he would have no other choice but to go where he was ordered. He saw a certain irony in his predicament. For so many years he worked to see Cardassia restored to glory, though that day was far from near, the political nature of the accusations against him told Lu’kat one important thing: Cardassia was now doing well enough for political ambitions and vendetta’s to take precedence over its reconstruction. Lu’kat might have gotten the short end of the stick, but he took it as a sign that Cardassia was strengthening. Lu’kat took his new position at SB 42 quite seriously, as he would have any other assignment. As one of the few Cardassians on a Starfleet Starbase, he was in a unique position to watch, learn, and observe. Until then Starfleet was always an abstract to him, he had never been to Federation space, and the Starfleet Officers occupying the post-war ruins of Cardassia mostly ignored Lu’kat. Cardassians were distrusted and regarded with suspicion. So Lu’kat could not blame the Starfleet Officers at the Starbase avoiding him in the beginning. He did much of the same, not knowing quite what to expect there. Over time, however, he got to know the people on the base a bit better, and they grew accustomed to him. It wouldn’t be long before they started to see how his intelligence and knowledge of Cardassian and Bajoran society and politics proved very useful. Lu’kat remained an outsider, more by choice than by circumstance. As someone whose very heart and soul was Cardassian and as someone who wanted nothing more than for his Cardassia to return to its former power, it was difficult for Lu’kat to have to observe this from the sidelines. As the years went by on SB 42, Cardassia did become stronger, and it did re-establish itself as a major power in the galaxy. But for Lu’kat it was bittersweet. His duty was to the Cardassian Union, and would remain tied to the Union, but he was supposed to have been part of it. Instead, he was alone among humans and Bajorans, checking cargo manifests and liasing between Bajoran and Cardassian communications. The tables seemed to turn however, when he was contacted by a former CIB colleague and friend who offered to re-open his old case and call for Lu’kat’s reinstatement into the intelligence organisation. Lu’kat was suspicious about the offer; those never came without a price. And indeed the price was soon named, as his friend revealed to Lu’kat that he was secretly working for the Order of 12, a militant faction within Cardassia that seeks to progress Cardassia’s ambitions through coercion and terrorism. And while Lu’kat had plenty of reason to dislike Cardassia’s ruling elites and their treatment of him, and even while Oo12’s vision had a large overlap with Lu’kat’s ideas for the Cardassian Union, he could not condone Oo12’s methods and its tendency not to care for the safeguarding of innocent lives caught in the cross-fire. However, he saw an opportunity, if he joined them, he could secretly relay Oo12 intelligence to the Cardassian High Command, he would gain leverage to negotiate his return to the Cardassian fold honorably. So Lu’kat joined Oo12 and effectively became a spy. While continuing his regular duties at SB 42, he relayed intelligence on Bajor and local Starfleet operations to Oo12, while reporting any intelligence he discovered on Oo12 to a contact within the High Command. This was risky operation, if he was found out by Oo12 he would be dead within the day. But then his former CIB colleague and secret Oo12 operative ended up dead instead, and Lu’kat, not wanting to be next, requested a formal transfer back to Cardassia Prime. He had been an informant for the Cardassian Union for some years now, it was time they reciprocated. True enough, they seemed to do just that. They formally ended his assignment to SB 42 and had sent a transport to take him to Cardassia Prime. Little did Lu’kat know that this was not its actual destination… |
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| Service Record | 2368-2370: Cardassian Institute for State Policy, Majored in Diplomatic and Intergalactic Relations 2370-2371: Recruited by the Obsidian Order 2371-2380: Cardassian Intelligence Bureau Operative 2380-2388: Liason and Representative of the Cardassian Union to Star Base 42 2388-present: Representative of the Cardassian Union to Canopus Station |