Elias Vaughn

Commander Elias Vaughn was a Starfleet officer with eighty years experience in Starfleet Intelligence, Special Operations and Tactical.

Vaughn was a critical player in several crucial events in Starfleet history. Among them, the Tomed Incident, the Betreka Nebula Incident, the disaster at Arvada III, the civil war on Beta 3 and the liberation of Betazed from the Dominion, to name but a few.

Early Life
Elias Vaughn was born Saturday, October 24th, 2274, and was raised on the planet Berengaria VII. He was taught about the stars by his mother, which fueled his early passion for exploration. While he was quite young, Vaughn's mother died of Burkhardt's disease.

Vaughn joined Starfleet Academy in the year 2293, and discovered that he had a talent for intelligence and tactical operations. Vaughn gave up his dreams of exploration for a career in Starfleet Intelligence. (DS9 novel: Section 31: Abyss)

Starfleet Operations
Most of the first ten years of Vaughn's service to Starfleet Intelligence was spent behind a desk, analyzing data and writing reports. The few times he did manage to get into the field his assignments included shadowing a Benzite engineer eventually found innocent of trading stolen technology, the infiltration of a Tellarite mining facility, and the recovery of a container with a stolen Linellian Fluid Effigy inside. (novels: TLE: Serpents Among the Ruins, DS9: Avatar)

In the year 2319, Vaughn first partnered with T'Prynn of Vulcan and the two formed a loose partnership that lasted off and on for thirty years. (DS9 novel: Lesser Evil)

When the Cardassian Union and Klingon Empire threatened to go to war over the planet Raknal V in 2328, Vaughn was part of the Starfleet-hosted arbitration aboard the USS Carthage. Federation Ambassador Curzon Dax proposed an agreement where whichever power could best develop the world's resources would ultimately take the planet. Vaughn was very skeptical about this plan, and his skepticism was proved out when the "Betreka Nebula Incident" stretched out for eighteen years. It was aboard the Carthage that Vaughn first met Starfleet officer Ian Andrew Troi, with whom which he began a friendship. (TLE: The Art of the Impossible)

In 2339, Vaughn played a role in the aftermath of the disaster on Arvada III. (Avatar)

In 2343, Vaughn fist met Starfleet Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the USS Stargazer. The two would meet several times over the ensuing years, once during a coup on Darnak VII. (The Art of the Impossible; Divided We Fall comic)

In late 2343, after Vaughn's promotion to Lieutenant Commander, Vaughn and T'Prynn saved Special Emmissary Raisa Tartovsky from the planet Devniad in Cardassian space. His superior in Starfleet Intelligence at this time was Captain Uhura.

Soon after, Vaughn and Troi returned to Betreka, where Troi was killed in an explosion caused by Romulan sabotage. Vaughn was injured and spent several months in rehabilitation. After informing Dax of the Romulan involvement at Raknal V, the two teamed up and discovered the truth about Ch'gran, thus convincing Klingon Chancellor K'mpec to ceded the planet to Cardassia. (The Art of the Impossible)

In 2347 Vaughn met rival SI agent Ruriko Tenmei on the planet Kora II in Cardassian space. The two were sent to help a Cardassian scientist by the name of Crem Veruda defect to the Federation. Veruda had developed an Artificial Intelligence for Cardassia that would give the Cardassians a significant tactical advantage over the Federation. Tenmei and Veruda managed to neutralize the Cardassian AI.

Two years later, following the death of T'Prynn in a transporter accident, Vaughn began a romantic relationship with Tenmei. In 2350, the two had a daughter, Prynn Tenmei, named in honor of their late colleague. While Tenmei took a leave of absence from SI to raise her daughter, Vaughn continued to be heavily involved in intelligence matters, to the detriment of his family life. In one instance, Vaughn was called away from his daughter's fifth birthday celebration by Admiral Presley to deal with a coup on the Elaysian homeworld. (Lesser Evil)

In 2367, Vaughn took part in a classified mission to Alexandras Planet involving Romulans and an Iconian Gateway. (DS9 novel: Demons of Air and Darkness)

In 2369, Vaughn was promoted to Commander. On a mission to Uridi'si, in order to keep a copy of Crem Veruda's AI from falling into the hands of the Borg, Vaughn was forced to send Ruriko Tenmei on a one-way mission to a Borg ship to ensure that the AI was destroyed. Ruriko Tenmei was believed dead. (Lesser Evil)

In 2375, Vaughn participated in the liberation of Betazed from Dominion control. (TNG novel The Battle of Betazed)

At some point in Vaughn's career he became aware of the rogue agency that called itself Section 31, a branch of SI that dealt in black ops and the kind of activities that went against everything that the Federation stood for. Vaughn joined a small cabal of Starfleet officers who had dedicated themselves to the destruction of Section 31. In 2375, this cabal obtained an illegal 'holo-ship' used in a failed Section 31 operation in the Briar Patch. (Section 31: Abyss)

In early 2376, Vaughn was sent to search the Badlands with the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-E) in response to a rumored Breen incursion. While there, Vaughn discovered one of the missing Bajoran Orbs Of the Prophets. The orb, the Orb of Memory, reminded Vaughn of his lost dream of being an explorer. Vaughn began to re-evaluate his life and career at that point. (Avatar)

Off and on, Vaughn taught courses at Starfleet Academy, and in the late 2350s, they modelled the Advanced Tactical Training Program on his cirriculum.

Pendragon timeline
During the Federation Civil War of 2372 to 2374, Vaughn played a crucial role in defeating Admiral James Leyton.

In October 2372, Vaughn and Picard led a commando team past the blockade of Sector 001. The team included Lt. Commanders Data and La Forge, Lieutenant Neal Hawk, and Chief Miles O'Brien. Their mission was to steal the new Sovereign-class USS Enterprise from Utopia Planitia, or if necessary to prevent the ship from falling into Leyton's hands, destroy her. With the help of Captains Montgomery Scott and Morgan Bateson, the mission was a success and the Enterprise was delivered into the hands of the patriots, leveling the odds against Leyton.

Vaughn had become so jaded by fighting his fellow officers that after the war, he supported Admiral Alynna Nechayev's policies of withdrawing Starfleet within the Federation borders and turning a blind eye to the rest of the galaxy.

In 2379, Vaughn attended the commissioning of the new Deep Space 9. During that visit, he had an encounter with the Orb of Memory which reawakened his love of exploration, and he began to move away from the cynicsism that had marked the last four decades of his life.