Stephen April (mirror)

For the primary universe counterpart, see Stephen April. Stephen April (known also as Hev'BetoQ, Lord Stephen April, The Overlord), was a Terran warlord and former slave, gladiator and bounty hunter in the mirror universe, and the counterpart of the Federation universe's Stephen April.

Born into slavery, April grew up in harsh conditions, like most slaves of the Klingon-Cardassian Alliance. Along with his mother he was the property of Cardassian Gul Edet, commandant of a labor camp on Khefka IV. Camp personnel and other slaves routinely assaulted, raped, and psychologically abused April and his mother. April's father was executed before his son's birth, after being caught in an illicit affair with Edet's wife, earning a torturous, lasting punishment for his family. While still a child, April killed his own mother in order to end her suffering.

During his teens April met a Klingon criminal, Kortok, sentenced to the labor camp. A former gladiator in arena-style sports known as the "Blood Games", Kortok taught April personal combat skills as part of a long-term escape plan. Once he felt that his skills were proficient, April betrayed Kortok, turning him in to win favor from the camp overseers. April adopted Kortok's plan for himself, earning a reputation in staged duels which drew the attention of "talent scouts" for the Games. As a participant, he was allowed to travel off-world for interplanetary matches. Gaining renown under the name "Hev'BetoQ" (loosely translated, "blood warrior") for a record of impressive victories, April, as a Terran slave, posed a political danger to the establishment. At age 24, he was conditionally allowed to buy his freedom, and took employment as a bounty hunter for the Alliance. This led him to meet Ilona, a Khalindarian opportunist and Alliance spy assigned to "keep tabs" on April. Ilona mothered a daughter, Neria, by April in 2363. Later, learning of Ilona's mission, April killed her in a fit of rage, and turned Neria over to the Alliance as a ward of the state.

April rarely questioned his place in life until the slave uprising at Terok Nor in 2370. Charged with apprehending members of the Terran rebellion, April was influenced to join them. Leading rebel forces in the war for freedom from the Alliance, April found his calling. He personally led the liberation of the Khefka IV labor camp, killing Gul Edet and taking his adolescent daughter, Luna, as a "prize". While many rebel leaders focused their operations from Terok Nor, April made a point of avoiding the station, preferring field service at the forefront of battle, where the "action" was.

When rebel planets finally won independence as the Imperial Union of Planets, April fomented the creation of "Shado", a covert operations/intelligence agency (similar to Cardassia's Obsidian Order) dedicated to protecting the IUP from destabilizing elements which led to the Terran Empire's collapse. Under April's direction, Shado infiltrated the parallel universe of the Federation, stealing starship designs and schematics for quantum slipstream drive, which catapulted the "new Empire" to the status of a quadrant superpower, rivaling the old Empire.

Shado achieved the power to make or break political leaders, rendering the title of "emperor" meaningless in the "new order", yet grew corrupt. April personally dismantled the organization, hunting down any member who refused to renounce it. Capitalizing on this, he made himself an imperial overlord or "executor", responsible for overseeing Imperial security. Not trusting the fallibility of his fellow Terrans and other humanoids, and to eliminate greater threats, he recruited a mysterious faction known as the "Overlords", who, operating behind the scenes, usurped ultimate control of the Empire. With their support, April became the Empire's de facto ruler, known as "The Overlord", and believed that this status quo would prevent the Empire from ever falling again.

In 2385, after a ten-year war of attrition had succeeded in bringing down the Alliance, April finally met his fate. Using Borg nanoprobes (another design purloined from the "primary" universe) (see Borg (mirror)), April sought to create a force of cyborg soldiers who would be unquestionably loyal to him and to the Empire. At Ty'gokor, he was ambushed by Neria, who had grown up hating him and worked for the Alliance as an agent of espionage. Using a Camian mind-transfer device, she "switched bodies" with her father, and used his power to launch a devastating attack with the "mirror-Borg" as her servants. April, in Neria's body, killed her (thus killing his own body) as an act of revenge. "He" in turn was killed by Eresh'ta, an Andorian member of the ISS Arcadia crew whom April had controlled through fear and neuralizer conditioning.

By 2386, Neria's plan to destroy the Empire had apparently failed, as the Empire occupied Romulus, where a statue of April had been erected in the Romulan capital city. (Star Trek: New Empire)

Relationships

 * Mirror-April was a notorious womanizer. By the end of his life he had "gone through" a number of women, including Alyssa Muniz, Sunni Moon, Brenda, Tabatha Brisk and Lynnyn.  Many of his "women" (such as Alyssa Muniz) met with unpleasant ends when he no longer had an interest or use for them.  Of all his women, he maintained a close relationship with Tabatha Brisk the longest.  In 2385, not long before his demise, he granted Brisk a transfer to another ship as a rare act of mercy, after she voiced dissatisfaction with their relationship.
 * April maintained another kind of "intimate" relationship with Eve Ordalani, a Bartokian soldier-for-hire who often took assignments for him personally, based on Imperial interests. They shared a mad bloodlust, savagery and disregard for life which few ever parallelled.
 * The mysterious agenda of the Overlords (from whom April's title of "Overlord" was derived) indicates the possibility that April was not truly killed, or may live again. They seemed to share a special relationship with April, the nature of which has never fully been determined.  He acted as their "mouthpiece" to the Empire and the Empire's subjects and personnel, voicing their wishes and dictates when they wanted them to be known, and promised him that, in return for his loyalty to them (which rarely wavered), they would continue to make him the most powerful Terran in the history of either Empire.  His death seems to preclude that possibility, unless he is not truly dead.
 * April had a Cardassian half-sister, Elita, born of his father and the wife of Gul Edet. They shared an ambiguous relationship, seeming to love and hate each other at the same time due to their racial ethnicities.  Despite her intense disgust with her Terran half-brother, Elita was not above having sex with him.
 * April once kept Gul Edet's daughter, Luna, on a leash and chain, as a symbol of Terran triumph over Alliance slave-masters. He raped, tortured and terrified Luna routinely.  Years later, finding her living with Elita, he still found himself attracted by her fear.
 * Ostensibly, April was descended from mirror universe counterparts of Robert and Sarah April.

Background

 * In Star Trek: Arcadia's previous continuity (2378-2380), there existed an earlier, very similar version of Stephen April (also going by the title "Overlord"). This April led the Empire's expansion into the mirror universe Delta Quadrant, where he came into conflict with a mirror counterpart of Kes, an Ocampa who ruled a Delta Quadrant-equivalent of the Empire called "the Imperium".
 * On Star Trek: New Empire, images of real-life actors were used to simulate characters. In this sense Lord April was "played" by actor Mel Gibson.