Star Trek Expanded Universe
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Banti Awokou was captain of the Nebula-class USS Phoenix in February 2376, when Cardassian militants in the Crolsa System attacked the ship with a neuro-pathogen. The pathogen left Awokou in a coma. (Dark Territory; Star Trek: Gibraltar)

Awokou was a venerable Starfleet officer, with a four-decade career in Starfleet. He served as Executive Officer aboard the USS Kitty Hawk, taking a young Terrence S. Glover under his wing.

Awokou took command of the Phoenix in 2368 after its previous captain, Benjamin Maxwell, was removed for his renegade actions in the Cardassian Cuellar system. Awokou, a staunch defender of Starfleet and the Federation, would become one of Admiral Alynna Nechayev's troubleshooters in facilitating the ratification of the Federation-Cardassian Treaty of 2370.

To that end, he recruited then-Lieutenant Commander Terrence Glover to serve aboard the USS Cuffe, a suspected hotbed of proto-Maquis dissent against peace with the Cardassians.

In February 2376, the starship Phoenix was assigned as the command ship for a three-vessel Starfleet relief team to the Cardassian colony of Lakesh in the Crolsa system. While in orbit of Lakesh, Cardassian insurgents from the Crimson Order crippled the Nova-class vessel USS Sojourner with gravitic mines, then attacked the Phoenix with a virulent biogenic neurotoxin delivered by means of a dimensional shift transporter. Captain Awokou and over 400 members of his crew suffered immediate and irreparable brain damage from the toxin, resulting in paralysis and complete loss of voluntary muscle control.

In May 2376, Awokou and the other survivors of the attack were transported to Starfleet Medical Headquarters for further study in the hopes of finding a cure.

Awokou is married to Rozi Awokou. The couple have no children.

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