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Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow: The following content contains spoilers!
See Ro for other articles with titles that contain, either by relationship or by coincidence, this character's surname.
This page details Ro Laren in the primary universe; for the Ro Laren in the mirror universe see Ro Laren (mirror); for the Ro Laren in the First Splinter timeline ended by the Devidian temporal apocalypse, see Ro Laren (1ST); for the Ro Laren in all other alternate universes see Ro Laren (alternates).

Ro Laren was a Bajoran woman in the 24th century, born on 17 January, 2340 on Cardassian-occupied Bajor to Ro Talia and Ro Gale. She later joined Starfleet and served aboard the USS Wellington and the USS Enterprise-D, before joining the Maquis. Decades later, she rejoined Starfleet and was paramount in the investigation of a Changeling conspiracy.

Biography[]

Early life[]

Ro was born in Jo'kala on Bajor, but was raised in Bajoran resettlement camps under the watchful eyes of the Cardassian overseers. When she was seven, a Cardassian named Joer Varc lured her into a tent with a piece of milaberry candy, then she was forced to watch as the Cardassians tortured her father for hours until he died.

After Ro Gale's death, Ro's mother fell into such a state of despair, that she was no longer able to watch after Laren and Laren was sent to live with her uncle.

Eventually, Ro struck out on her own and quickly learned how to avoid Cardassian orphan catchers and pick their pockets at the same time. She picked up a skill with computers and was able to manipulate security systems and other Cardassian systems.

She lived on the streets of Bajor until she was taken in by a man named Bram Adir, leader of the Bram resistance cell, who was impressed with Ro's talent with Cardassian computers. In 2353, Bram took the teenaged Ro on a salvage operation, in an attempt to bring a derelict Ferengi vessel into the resistance's armory.

Instead, they discovered a Bajoran refugee named Darrah Mace on board, who lived at the Bajoran refugee camp on Valo II. Darrah took Ro and Bram back to Valo, where she was recruited to hack into a Cardassian computer system on Valo VI. Ro successfully infiltrated the Cardassian facility, but was unable to secure the information that she had been sent to retrieve as she again encountered Joer Varc, the man who killed her father. Ro killed Varc and another Cardassian, but left behind the data rod that was her objective.

By 2357, Bram had been killed by the Cardassians, and the rest of the cell, who never cared for Ro in the first place, eventually asked her to leave.

She returned to Valo, where she joined up with a resistance fighter named Akhere Bis, who had a plan to destroy the Cardassian ore processing center on the space-station Terok Nor. At first, Ro went along with the plan, even going so far as to plant a bomb on a ship heading from Valo to Terok Nor. However, upon considering the Bajoran lives that would be lost in the attack, Ro warned the vessel's captain of the plan.

Realizing that she would not be welcome back with Akhere's cell, Ro took one of the Valo settlement's warp-capable shuttles and headed for space beyond the Bajoran and Cardassian sectors. (TLE - Terok Nor novel: Night of the Wolves)

Starfleet[]

Ro eventually made her way to Federation space where, in 2358, she entered Starfleet Academy hoping for a career in Starfleet. She graduated from the academy in 2362. Her Starfleet service serial number was HL-2133-8947 (APL). (TNG episode: "The Next Phase")

Ro's Starfleet career turned out differently than expected. Her time as an ensign aboard the USS Wellington was riddled with disciplinary measures. After disobeying orders on the planet Garon II, eight members of an away team were killed. (TNG episode: "Ensign Ro")

In a later reconstruction of the affair, it was accounted that Ro was sent with an away team to help catch a Seriphami freedom fighter cell. She secretly sympathized with the goal of the revolutionists. When a deadly weapon fight occurred between the away team and the cell, she was the first who realized that the wounded Seriphami could have fallen into a healing stasis, which they could be mortally wounded by accident even with a phaser set on stun. She wanted to warn her teammates about this, thus giving away their hiding place. In the end, it was a Seriphami deceit, and a wounded-looking Seriphami shot Ro's teammates. (TNG - Special #2 comic: "The Choice")

Ro was subsequently court-martialed and imprisoned at the penal facility at Jaros II. One of the officers presiding over her court martial was Admiral Leonard James Akaar. (DS9 novel: Lesser Evil)

In 2368, she was offered a deal by Admiral Kennelly; her freedom in exchange for her assisting the USS Enterprise-D in finding the Bajoran terrorist Orta, who was believed to be responsible for attacking Federation targets.

When Ro discovered that the attackers of the Federation facilities were actually Cardassians, she turned to Enterprise captain Jean-Luc Picard to uncover the truth. (TNG episode: "Ensign Ro")

Ro was at the conn when the Enterprise discovered the nature of a temporal causality loop and escaped from a predestined collision with the USS Bozeman. Due to the repetitive effects of the temporal distortion, Ro was killed and the Enterprise had been destroyed numerous times before this. (TNG episode: "Cause and Effect")

Later in 2368, (stardate 45934.7), Lieutenant Worf requested that Ro join him on an away team to Votar VII, to settle a conflict between the colonists there, due to her experience with insurrections. She assisted Worf and participated in a failed, non-lethal assault on a Kaylar-held dam. (TNG comic: "A Matter of Dates")

Ro Worf Dracon fight

Ro and Worf fighting the monks.

In early 2369, Ro, Geordi and Worf took the shuttlecraft Goddard to receive Starfleet briefings. On their return journey, the shuttle was forced to drop out of warp, due to solar flare activity and crash-landed on the planet Riat. The shuttle, damaged beyond immediate repair, the planet inhospitably cold, the away team sought shelter in a nearby Dracon monastery. Unfortunately, the order of monks in the monastery had become violent and cannibalistic, due to radiation from the solar flares causing a mutation in an algae in their water supply. The team was forced to fight the monks off, several times, before another shuttle from the Enterprise arrived to rescue them. (TNG comic: "Light of the Day")

Also in 2369, Ro was the acting first officer of the Enterprise-D, while Will Riker was in command, due to Captain Picard having been transported into the past. She suggested abandoning the search, to ensure that the Enterprise arrived at the Gorn Summit in time. Once Riker showed his determination to continue, she would suggest asking the Bon Amar for help in the search. (TNG novel: Requiem)

After the encounter with Orta and the Cardassians, Ro served aboard the Enterprise for over a year (it's closer if we say, two years), before returning to the Academy for Advanced Tactical Training. (TNG episode: "Preemptive Strike")

Her final mission on the Enterprise-D, before the Advanced Tactical Training, was a flight with a shuttle to transport an ambassador to a near starbase. Her shuttle was shot down by raiders. She awoke in a "fairy castle" with a mysterious landlord, the "Beast," who gave his life for her, when the raiders arrived once again. After Ro was rescued by the Enterprise-D, she found out that the mysterious "Beast" was a Cardassian war criminal in exile. (TNG comic: "The Bajoran and the Beast")

At the Academy, one of her instructors was Lieutenant Commander Chakotay, who told of her of the resistance movement known as the Maquis. (TNG reference: Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion; ST website : StarTrek.com)

The Maquis[]

Ro Preemptive Strike

Ro working for the Maquis.

Upon her return to the Enterprise in late 2370, Ro had been promoted to full lieutenant. She was assigned to infiltrate the Maquis, a group of Federation citizens and former Starfleet officers. The Maquis were fighting off the Cardassians in the Demilitarized Zone, in defiance of a recent Federation treaty with the Cardassian Union.

Ro found that she both sympathized and fit in better with the Maquis more than she ever did in Starfleet, so she once again defied orders, betraying Starfleet and joining the Maquis. (TNG episode: "Preemptive Strike")

Ro quickly became a legend among the Maquis, with even the senior members of the organization looking upon her with awe. The reclusive figure who had abandoned Starfleet and who went on to join their hopeless cause led many to see her as the Maquis' greatest hero. (TNG - The Dominion War novel: Behind Enemy Lines) As of stardate 47891.1 (late 2370), Ro had been given the codename Architect and was the leader of New Hope's Maquis. (TNG novel: Rogue Saucer)

Ro snuck aboard Deep Space 9 in mid-2371, in order to prevent Aela, a Maquis extremist, from assassinating Gul Engor and destroying the station, in an attempt to destabilize the peace treaty between the Federation and Cardassians. (DS9 comic: "Friend and Foe Alike")

Later that year, Ro joined Kira Nerys in her search for mapping the black market routes of Bajor, in the hopes of finding the origin of the Wrath of the Prophets epidemic.(DS9 novel: Wrath of the Prophets)

With the relative peace that was granted to the Maquis in 2372, following the start of the war between the Klingon Empire and the Cardassians, Ro was offered the opportunity to move up the Maquis ranks. She turned down the opportunity, instead settling on the Maquis colony on Galion, where she built a small house and a vegetable patch where she grew tomatoes. Despite settling down, she did occasionally leave Galion to perform missions for the Maquis. (TNG - The Dominion War novel: Behind Enemy Lines)

In the year 2373, Ro and her Maquis cell joined forces with Will Riker, who had apparently turned renegade, but who was actually on an undercover mission to find a group of Klingon weapons dealers. These weapons merchants wanted to make a business with Genesis technology, which had been forbidden for the better part of a century. (TNG comic: "The Enemy of My Enemy")

After some years with the Maquis, Ro deserted from the Maquis and turned herself in to be imprisoned. (PIC episode: "Imposters")

Somehow, Worf got a hold of her and secretly recruited her to help him hunt down Kahless. (ST comic: "Defiant, Issue 1")

Ro the Bajoran[]

Ro was a Bajoran, but often stood out of the crowd, due to her determination to be herself and not just another member of the flock.

Ro believed in the Prophets as entities, and believed they were involved with the Bajoran people. However, she did not believe that beings living in a wormhole and occasionally interfering with a people was reason enough to worship them as gods. Nor did she appreciate that most Bajorans frowned upon any other Bajoran who did not follow the faith to the letter. (TNG episode: "The Next Phase")

Her father was proud to be Bajoran and in a way, so was she and to that end, she wore a Bajoran earring. She did not follow the Bajoran faith, so wore the earring on the wrong ear to discourage vedeks from trying to feel her pagh, which was normally done by squeezing the left ear. (DS9 novel: Avatar, Book One)

On the Enterprise-D, she celebrated a Bajoran holiday once, but it was a kind of national holiday commemorating a local freedom fight based on the traditions of Ro's area of origin, and not a religious/spiritual holiday. (TNG comic: "Restoration")

Alternate timelines and realities[]

When Elias Vaughn was having his second orb experience, he became Eli Underwood, a patient at the same insane asylum as Benny Russell. While there, he interacted with a nurse named Lauren, who was the representation of Ro. (DS9 novel: Unity)

In an alternate timeline in which the Cardassian Union never withdrew from Bajor and discovered the Bajoran wormhole, Ro became Chief of Security aboard the Enterprise-D and later the first officer of the USS Enterprise-E. (TNG - Myriad Universes novel: A Gutted World)

In another alternate timeline, Ro never joined the Maquis and replaced Worf as chief security officer aboard the USS Enterprise-D. She rose to the rank of Lieutenant Commander and continued to serve aboard the ship into 2378. (TNG - Myriad Universes novel: Brave New World)

In another alternate timeline, the Klingons conquered Earth when the Khitomer Conference failed in 2293. Ro was involved with the resistance on Earth and engaged in a relationship with Tasha Yar. She later sacrificed herself to save Yar and the rebels, when they were betrayed by Wesley Crusher and his followers, who preferred to try and destroy the Klingons instead of negotiating peace. (TNG - The Last Generation comic: "What Happens Now")

In an alternate reality, Ro was the flight controller of the US Enterprise, which was under the command of Wesley Crusher, in 2380. (TNG novel: Q & A)

Service record[]

location assignment dates rank or rate assignment insignia rank insignia
Starfleet Academy student officer 2358-2362 cadet Assignment badge. Collar rank.
USS Wellington junior officer early 2360s ensign Collar rank.
Inmate at Garon II until 2368 Rank and position revoked
USS Enterprise-D flight controller 23682370 ensign Assignment badge. Collar rank.
Advanced Tactical Training 2370
USS Enterprise-D tactical officer 2370 lieutenant Collar rank.
AWOL (defected to Maquis) 2370 Rank and position revoked
USS Defiant flight controller 2378 Rank and position revoked

Appendices[]

Background[]

Ro promo

The 2001 promo for the new Star Trek: Deep Space Nine novels featuring Ro.

Ro Laren was portrayed by American actress Michelle ForbesMA in Star Trek: The Next Generation from 1991-1994.

In 2001, Pocket Books released a promo for the new Star Trek: Deep Space Nine novels featuring Ro and the caption "Given time, anyone can change. Almost anyone."

Connections[]

USS Wellington personnel
Emblem of the United Federation of Planets. CaputoConnorsThomas PucerRo LarenWaid Seal of the Federation Starfleet.
USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) flight control personnel
Emblem of the United Federation of Planets. AllenbyAnayaBrooksCalanClancyW. CrusherDernFarmerFeltonFochGatesGawelskiGibsonGrahamHalloranHaskellJaeKarpLa ForgeLavelleLinMcKnightMonroeO'BrienReelRoRagerSolisTorresVasquezWallaceWorfWright Seal of the Federation Starfleet.
see also: engineering personnelmedical personneloperations personnelsecurity & tactical personnelsciences personnelsenior staffunnamed
First officers of the starships Enterprise
Enterprise (NX-01) TuckerT'Pol Enterprise assignment patch.
USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) KirkShundreshSimonPikeNumber OneSpockDeckerSulu USS Enterprise assignment insignia.
USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) (alternate reality) SpockKirk 2250s alt cmd badge
USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) (other alternate realities) ThelinKirkGav USS Enterprise assignment insignia.
USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-A) SuluSpock Starfleet 2280s insignia
USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-B) DaneSuluLinojj
USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-C) CarmonaHolmesal-HalakTholav
USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) RikerKurnStoneShelbyData Starfleet 2360s insignia
USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) (alternate realities) PicardRikerWorfLa Forge
USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-E) RikerDataMaddenWorf Starfleet 2370s insignia
USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-E) (alternate realities) RikerPicardDataMaddenRo
USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-F) (STO alternate reality) Winters STO alt cmd badge
ISS Enterprise (NX-01) ArcherT'Pol Emblem of the Terran Empire.
ISS Enterprise (NCC-1701) Number OneKirkSpockScottDeckerRileySaavikXon
ISS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) Riker
ISS Enterprise (NCC-1701-E) RikerLore
Free Starship Enterprise K'Ehleyr

Images[]

Appearances[]

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External links[]

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