Akharin is an immortal human, born on ancient Earth. He is most well-known by the name he took in the mid-23rd century, Flint the Immortal. (TOS: "Requiem for Methuselah")
Among his claimed identities were Methuselah, Solomon, Alexander the Great, Lazarus, Merlin, Leonardo da Vinci, Johannes Brahms, William Abramson, Sten of Marcos II. (TOS: "Requiem for Methuselah") Some of those claims are questionable, but Flint could have assumed the identities of other persons at some point. (Star Trek: Pendragon)
Akharin's confirmed identities include Wilson Evergreen, Micah Brack, and Emil Vaslovik. (TOS novel: The Eugenics Wars: The Rise and Fall of Khan Noonien Singh, ST novel: Federation, TNG novel: Immortal Coil)
He also met people like Moses, Socrates and Galileo, and witnessed the bubonic plague spreading over Europe in the 1340s, killing nearly half the European population at the time. He was married hundreds of times, and had to watch his beloved ones grow old and die repeatedly.
Over the centuries, he gathered a large collection of original artworks from his many lives -- some of them his own creation. Among it were a Shakespeare first folio, a Guttenberg Bible, the creation lithographs by Taranullus of Centauri VII, several of his own original da Vinci works, some paintings of Reginald Pollack and some of the painter Sten from Marcus II. (TOS: "Requiem for Methuselah")
Ancient times[]
Akharin[]
Akharin was born in 3834 BCE in Mesopotamia, on Earth.
He grew up as a bully and a soldier. During battle, he was slain; however, he realized that his injury did not kill him, as it should have—this lead Akharin to realize that he was immortal due to some unknown Earth phenomenon.
Upon this realization, he improved his life and would continue to live for another six thousand years under several aliases, often playing a role in human history.
Star Trek: Pendragon continuity[]
Akharin was descended a line of "watchmen" planted on Earth by the Aegis to observe and defend the human race. The ancient Sumerians referred to the Aegis and their offspring as the Anunnaki, "those who came from Heaven to Earth."
As a child, he constantly "got into trouble" with several boyhood friends, including Saladin, Vandar and Et-Maros.
At the age of 25, Akharin became a caretaker of a Preserver artifact that would one day be called the Holy Grail. Several years later, after Saladin was killed in battle, Akharin used the Grail to restore him to life. The process also granted Saladin a form of immortality, as long as he possessed the artifact, and thus was born great enmity between the two friends.
When Akharin was 50, still a young man in those ancient times, Saladin attacked the Aegis temple, seeking to take the artifact by force. Many watchmen died defending it, and Akharin himself was stuck down. Saladin stood over his dying body, cursed him, and took the Grail.
Hours later, however, Akharin revived. He initially thought it was because of the artifact, but soon realized that it was an innate ability in himself (passed down from his Preserver lineage), rendering him effectively immortal.
Akharin devoted himself to recovering the Grail and fulfilling his oath to the Aegis by defending humanity. The years brought him into conflict with Saladin many times, and the artifact passed between them on numerous occasions, and often was lost to both of them at various times.
Akharin eventually became a chieftain among his people, but after leading them for nearly a hundred years, he realized that they were beginning to worship him as a god, so he faked his own death, and disappeared, wandering in search of Saladin and the artifact.
Early Common Era[]
Joseph of Arimathea[]
Star Trek: Pendragon continuity[]
Sometime shortly before the first century AD, Akharin took the name Joseph and set himself up as a man of influence in the town of Arimathea in Roman-occupied Judea. During that period, he somehow recovered the Grail, with the aid of "three old men from the east."
In this guise, circa 30 AD, "Joseph of Arimathea" became involved with nascent Christianity, and took the body of the crucified Jesus Christ for burial. Shortly thereafter, his enemies discovered him, and he "fled to Britain with the Gospel and the Grail."
Dark Ages[]
Merlin[]
Akharin claimed to have lived this period as the wizard Merlin of Arthurian legend. (TOS: "Requiem for Methuselah", Star Trek: Pendragon)
Middle ages[]
Leonardo da Vinci[]
Leonardo da Vinci was a scientist and artist in Italy, on Earth's continent of Europe, living in the 15th century. Among other works, he painted The Last Supper and the Mona Lisa.
In 2369, Flint the Immortal claimed to have been Leonardo. (TOS: "Requiem for Methusalah")
Star Trek: Pendragon continuity[]
As he would later recall, during the early 1500s, Akharin was living in Italy, "enjoying the Renaissance" as a man of great influence. He had enjoyed a friendship with Leonardo da Vinci for over a decade.
In 1507, he came to Leonardo's studio, and found the artist dead, murdered in a "most gruesome fashion," a brush still in his hand. On a canvas in front of the body sat a portrait he had worked on for the last four years, finally completed, but unsigned. "Without thinking," Flint would later say, he used the brush in Leonardo's hand to sign the portrait, and assumed Leonardo's identity while searching for the murderer.
His works as Leonardo include the second rendition of the Virgin of the Rocks, a copy of Leda and the Swan, St. John the Baptist and Bacchus.
Though he never found the killer, Akharin continued to masquerade as Leonardo until his "death" in 1519, in the arms of King Francis I.
21st century[]
Micah Brack[]
In the mid-21st century, Akharin lived as billionaire industrialist Micah Brack, one of the wealthiest men in Earth's solar system. He used his fortune to finance Zefram Cochrane's warp research.
When Colonel Adrik Thorsen came after Cochrane, Brack urged him to leave the solar system aboard the SS Bonaventure after a layover at Brack's manufacturing setup on asteroid RG-1522.
Brack then transmitted all of Cochrane's design theories, blueprints, and manufacturing logs system-wide, allowing anyone with a few hundred thousand Eurodollars to retrofit existing space vessels into faster-than-light starships, ensuring humanity's spread to the stars despite impending war approaching on Earth between the World Party and the Optimum Movement.
After three attempts on his life by the Optimum Movement, Brack intentionally disappeared in 2070. He left the bulk of his fortune to the Cochrane Foundation for the Study of Multiphysics. Rumors placed him on Mars (helping to draft the Fundamental Declaration of the Martian Colonies), on Altair IV (excavating the ruins of an alien civilization: the Krell) and on Earth, leading any one of many resistance cells in regions ruled by the Optimum. (ST novel: Federation)
Brack had at least one child, who would lead a colonization effort to Iota Persei IV in the early 2100s. (Star Trek: Shadowstar Station)
22nd century[]
23rd century[]
In 2239, under the assumed name of Mr. Brack, he bought the uninhabited planet Holberg 917G in the Omega system. There he designed the female android Rayna Kapec, to become his eternal partner. (TOS: "Requiem for Methuselah")
Flint[]
The immortal Flint (2269)
In 2269 the Federation starship USS Enterprise, its crew plagued by Rigelian fever and in dire need for ryetalyn to cure the disease, visited Holberg 917G because it had rich natural deposits of the antidote. It was during that occasion that Akharin made himself known as Flint. Hoping to stir emotions in Rayna, he deliberately introduced her to Kirk whom she fell in love with and, unable to bear hurting Flint, she died.
During this visit, Spock deduced from a number of clues, like the presence of a recent but original Brahms manuscript and recent da Vinci paintings, that Flint in fact had to be immortal. However, it was also discovered that he was finally dying because his immortality had been induced by unknown Earth influences, not present at Holberg 917G. Flint stated that he would devote the remaining portion of his life to improving the human condition. (TOS: "Requiem for Methuselah")
In 2270, Kirk and the Enterprise encountered Flint again, in a crisis involving the Onlies and a prototype cloaking device that Flint had invented. In the aftermath, Flint adopted one of the Onlies, named Pal. (TOS novel: Cry of the Onlies)
According to Starfleet records, Flint died in 2312. Upon his death he donated a fully restored Pioneer-class corvette to the Starfleet Museum.
In actuality, Flint had faked both Dr. McCoy's tricorder readings and his death, and simply moved on to another identity. (TNG novel: Immortal Coil, Star Trek: Pendragon)
24th century[]
Emil Vaslovik[]
By the early 2300s, Akharin had established himself as Dr. Emil Vaslovik, a leading cyberneticist. As Vaslovik, he taught both Ira Graves and Noonien Soong.
In 2305, Vaslovik, Graves and Soong went on a secret expedition to Exo III, and found an ancient, long-abandoned facility there. (TNG novel: Immortal Coil)
By 2340, Vaslovik had retreated into "seclusion," and would not reappear for more than twenty years. (Star Trek: Pendragon)
Robert Blaisdell[]
Star Trek: Pendragon continuity[]
Robert Blaisdell (2340s)
Under the name Robert Blaisdell, Flint worked at Enclave J-12 in 2341. He took control of Project Erion, and spent the better part of the next fifteen years raising, observing, and training Timothy Sinclair. (Star Trek: Pendragon: "Father to the Man")
After Sinclair left the Enclave in 2355, Blaisdell disappeared and Flint eventually returned to his identity as Vaslovik.
Chronology[]
Note: Names in italics are identities of persons that Flint claimed to be, but are unlikely actually to have been. Names in bold are those he is believed to have been.
- 39th-38th centuries BCE:
- 3834 BCE: Born as Akharin.
- 3724 BCE: "Dies" at the hands of Saladin.
- c. 33rd century BCE
- Life of Methuselah
- c. 25th century BCE: Lives as King Mesannepada of Ur. (Pendragon)
- c. 13th century BCE: Lives as Reuel (Jethro). (Pendragon)
- 10th century BCE:
- Lives as Nathan the Prophet. (Pendragon)
- 973 - 933 BCE: Life of King Solomon.
- 5th century BCE: Knows Socrates.
- 4th century BCE:
- 356 - 323 BCE: Lives as Alexander the Great.
- 1st century CE:
- Life of the Biblical Lazarus.
- Lives as Joseph of Arimathea. (Pendragon)
- 6th century:
- Lives as Merlin.
- 14th century:
- 1334 CE: Lives in Constantinople, where he views the horrors of the bubonic plague.
- 15th century:
- 1452 - 1519: Life of Leonardo da Vinci.
- c. 1455: Acquires a Gutenberg Bible.
- 17th century
- c. 1623: Acquires a Shakespeare first folio.
- 19th century
- 1833 - 1897: Life of Johannes Brahms.
- 20th century
- 1900s: Acquires a work of art produced by Reginald Pollack
- 1990s: Lives as Dr. Wilson Evergreen, survives the Eugenics Wars.
- 21st century
- 2050s-2070s: Lives as Micah Brack. Funds warp research.
- 2063: Witnesses first contact with Vulcan.
- 2050s-2070s: Lives as Micah Brack. Funds warp research.
- 22nd century
- Early 2100s: Lives as Sten of Marcus II
- 2161: Witnesses the founding of the United Federation of Planets.
- 2190: Supposed birth of William Abramson.
- 23rd century:
- Lives as Dr. William Ambramson
- 2210: The public career of Dr. William Abramson begins.
- 2237: Wins Nobel Prize with Richard Daystrom for work in duotronics; disappears shortly thereafter.
- 2239: As "Mr. Brack," purchases the uninhabited planet Holberg 917G.
- Lives as Mr. Flint.
- 2269: Discovered by the crew of the USS Enterprise.
- 2270: Adopts Pal.
- 2290s:
- Begins life as Emil Vaslovik, while continuing to "keep up appearances" as Flint for the benefit of Starfleet.
- Lives as Dr. William Ambramson
- 24th century
- 2305: As Vaslovik, leads secret expedition to Exo III.
- 2341 - 2355: Lives as Dr. Robert Blaisdell. (Pendragon)
- 2370s: As Vaslovik, works with Bruce Maddox and Reginald Barclay.
- 2375: Vaslovik "disappears." (Immortal Coil)
- 2384: As Blaisdell, reveals his identity to Timothy Sinclair and pursues the Grail Quest as Merlin. (Pendragon)
Notes[]
- Flint was played by actor James Daly. He is featured as a supporting character in the non-canon novel Federation, where his primary guise as a billionaire industrialist seems to have already begun devoting himself to the betterment of the human condition.
- In VOY: "Concerning Flight", Janeway comments that Kirk claimed to have met Leonardo da Vinci. This implies that he broke his promise to Flint not to reveal his identity.
- Flint is a recurring character in the Star Trek: Pendragon fan series, where he is "played" most often by Derek Jacobi.