Carlin Drel

Carlin Agran redirects here.

Carlin Drel was a joined Trill and the third host of the Drel symbiont. She served first as junior medical officer and later as senior science officer aboard the USS Nautilus. She was joined following the death of the previous host, Antori. (Star Trek Online: Valkyries)

History

Origins and Early Career

Carlin was conceived in 2383 from the illicit union of Jorel Onx and Lindri Agran. Both were initiates in the Symbiosis Program at the time, and their relationship constituted a violation of the Symbiosis Commission's policies against fraternization between initiates. When the pregnancy came to light, Lendri was removed from the Symbiosis Program while Jorel lied and faked a DNA test in order to avoid the same fate. Jorel went on to be joined with the Quinn symbiont, while Lendri was forced to move to the Beta Rigel colony to make a living and support her daughter.

Carlin's mother eventually told her about Jorel and Carlin developed a deep-seated hatred for him because of his abandonment. She dedicated much of her life from her teens to early twenties trying to prove herself worthy of Jorel and get revenge on him.

She applied to the Symbiosis Commission and enrolled in Starfleet Academy, where she studied Astrophysics and Xenobiology--the latter because it was the degree Jorel had studied at the Academy. She worked hard on her degrees, especially Xenobiology which came less naturally to her and in which she repeated at least one class (Molecular Biology of Humanoids) in order to surpass Jorel's test scores. ("The Best Revenge")

One of the few friendships she developed during this time was with her human roommate Samantha Hayashi. Sam and Carlin were opposites in almost every way, but they helped to balance out each others extremes, with Carlin getting Sam to buckle down and do her homework and Sam dragging Carlin down to Quantum Café to relax and check out the cute guys. ("Survivors of Yamatai")

Carlin graduated in 2405. She was in the top 10% of her class with advanced degrees in Astrophysics and Xenobiology. Unfortunately her plan to use her success to upset Jorel backfired when Jorel Quinn mistook her academic mimicry for a desire to follow in his footsteps and attempted to take her under his wing. Carlin was unwilling to forgive him for his unrepentant abandonment of her and her mother, though, and impulsively chose Drel to act as her field docent, knowing that Quinn and Drel had a longstanding hatred for each other. ("The Best Revenge")

Aboard the Nautilus

Following her graduation and request of field docent, Carlin Agran was assigned to the USS Nautilus. Although she had the qualifications and aptitude to be assigned to the bridge as a science officer, she instead requested a posting as junior medical officer under the ship's doctor, James Howard, because it was almost identical to Jorel's first posting. She did good work in sickbay, but the work clearly bored her, prompting Howard to privately request she be transferred to the bridge twice.

Her main focus, however, was on impressing her field docent and the ship's first officer: Commander Antori Drel. When Drel requested Carlin's presence at a senior staff meeting in order to observe her character, Carlin was initially intimidated but rose to the challenge, coming up with a plan for rescuing the crew of a Ferengi freighter the Nautilus had found trapped in a protostellar nebula.

She subsequently participated in the rescue effort, taking a shuttle over to the freighter despite her tendency to become airsick in shuttlecraft. She beamed aboard with Lieutenant Emma Frost in order to set up transport enhancers to beam back the crew. While Frost headed for the bridge, Carlin headed for engineering and found the warp core sabotaged to leak dangerous radiation and the crew viciously murdered. Despite the fact that further investigation was against the letter of her orders (which were to make the rescue as quickly as possible) and her own feeling that Jorel would never have bothered to investigate, Carlin examined the bodies of the victims and collected an alien genetic sample from one of the victims before returning to the shuttle.

Back aboard the Nautilus, Carlin was haunted by questions about the Ferengi crew's death. Lacking solid evidence and unwilling to involve her superiors, she launched her own private investigation. She found the only match for the genetic sample she'd taken was Species 8472 and that the manner in which the freighter collapsed was consistent with sabotage or even a bomb. She called Frost to the holodeck late at night to discuss her findings. Frost was dismissive at first, then became agitated, finally revealing herself to be an Undine infiltrator who had killed the real Emma Frost and the crew of the Ferengi freighter in order to assume their identities. The infiltrator then attempted to kill and replace Carlin, but she created a holographic maze between herself and the Undine, hampering its efforts while she reported her findings to Antori and called for his help. When Antori arrived, the infiltrator attempted to deceive him by assuming the form of Carlin. The real Carlin suggested telling them apart by subtle mistakes of personality and memory, then confessed her relation to and hatred of Jorel Quinn as her "most embarrassing secret." She was successful in persuading Drel that she was the real Carlin and the impostor was exposed a moment later when it was discovered to still be wearing the combadge of Emma Frost. Carlin helped Antori fight the Undine until Captain Sokar arrived with a security detail to kill it.

Thereafter, Carlin participated in a shipwide screening for other infiltrators which turned up nothing. Starfleet Security's response to the crisis was a classified private message to Captain Sokar, which he nonetheless shared with his first officer, Antori, and Antori shared it with Carlin, as she had been directly involved in uncovering the infiltrator. Antori and Carlin also talked about her obsession with Jorel Quinn and he persuaded her to give it up and live her own life, pursuing her passions. She transferred to the bridge as a science officer and quit the Symbiosis Program until she could be sure it was what she really wanted. She also gave in to the mutual attraction between herself and Antori and they began a dating relationship. ("The Best Revenge")

During the next two years, Carlin Agran was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant and replaced Lieutenant Randal Moore as senior science officer aboard the Nautilus. Her relationship with Antori continued to develop. She joined him occasionally for some of his milder combat training sessions on the holodeck and learned to fight from him. They also became interested in rock climbing and climbed the north face of the Crag in the Tenaran Ice Cliffs on Trill for their first anniversary of dating. At the time, Carlin's fear almost kept her from completing the route.

At some point in early 2407, Carlin saved Crewman Hanes' life when the latter fell on glass from a broken bottle and punctured the femoral artery. Carlin was able to staunch the bleeding long enough for a medical team to arrive. Also during this time, Carlin reconsidered applying for a symbiont, but decided against it for fear of complicating her relationship with Antori.

In May of 2407, with the two month anniversary of their first date only a week away, Carlin decided to propose marriage to Antori, planning on replicating a ring for the occasion. ("Survivors of Yamatai")

On Yamatai and Joining

These plans were dashed when Carlin along with Antori and her friend Sam Hayashi became trapped on the planet Yamatai in the Dragon's Head Nebula. The stranded Starfleet officers were forced to fight the violent Solarii cultists in order to survive. Carlin was very reluctant to kill at first, questioning the morality of it, but eventually decided they had no other choice. She still preferred non-lethal means wherever possible, though.

On the planet, Carlin was instrumental in raiding the Solarii communications base and getting out a distress signal, as well as rescuing her fellow officers Lieutenant Sam Hayashi, and Ensign McKensey and Doctor Howard of the second away team from the hands of the Solarii. She was among the first to realize that something was keeping them on the planet and to insist that they deal with it before attempting to leave again. When the Starfleet survivors were briefly captured by Orion agents aboard the OSS Cluros, she tried unsuccessfully to convince them to turn around before their ship was forced down and crashed.

Unfortunately, Antori was killed by the Solarii shortly after the crash, sacrificing himself to save Carlin. The two of them confessed their love for each other and Antori charged her with getting the rest of the survivors home before dying in her arms. Moments later Doctor Howard arrived and determined that, while Antori was dead, the Drel symbiont was still alive, but could only be saved by immediate transfer to a new host. Carlin immediately volunteered, despite the risks of the procedure.

Circumstances forced Carlin Drel to adjust quickly to her new life as a joined host. She assumed leadership of the Starfleet survivors and led a successful rescue effort to retrieve Ensign McKensey, who had been trapped in the engineering section of the Cluros when it went down. During this rescue, Carlin forged an uneasy alliance between the Starfleet survivors and the surviving command crew of the Orion ship—Atria D'blae and Commander Ursan. She was also forced to fight and kill the ship's insane Gorn engineer in melee combat.

After their successful escape from the remains of the Cluros, Carlin led the survivors to an old Dominion research base where she was able to use Perciv Drel's memories and experiences to access information on the last and most important discovery of the doomed Dominion expedition to the planet: the tomb of an ancient Japanese general which they believed gave the location for the Star of Yamatai, the source of the Sun Queen Himiko's power and the cause of the planet's unnatural storms. She took the survivors to explore the tomb themselves, but was ambushed by the Solarii. Sam realized that the only way out for the survivors was for her to surrender, and did so, over Carlin's objections. Carlin herself managed to escape and immediately began planning Sam's rescue.

Under her direction, the survivors set up an ambush for the Solarii at on the road to the ancient monastery mentioned in the tomb as the location of the Star of Yamatai. Carlin meanwhile followed Matan and Sam into the monastery another way. She managed to sneak past most of the Oni, but was forced to fight and kill a giant Oni when it heard her communicator go off. She proceeded to the Chamber of the Sun where she found Matan, leader of the Solarii, transferring the non-corporeal Sun Queen Himiko from a dead and preserved body to Sam. Carlin killed Matan and then used the ancient Japanese short-sword Sam had discovered in the general's tomb to shatter the Star of Yamatai, effectively killing Himiko and stopping the transfer.

While Carlin thought that killing Himiko would assure the safety of the survivors, it actually caused an energy buildup in the subspace nexus the polaric ion energy being had inhabited. Carlin and the others were able to escape due to Sam's retention of some of Himiko's memories, which allowed her to commandeer Himiko's starship and fly it out of the nebula in time to be rescued by the USS Nautilus. ("Survivors of Yamatai")

First Officer of the Nautilus

A month after returning from Yamatai, Carlin Drel attended Antori Drel's memorial service, placing her old grav harness which she'd used climbing the Tenaran Ice Cliffs in the empty casket as a sentimental gesture. Captain Sokar confronted her before the service and asked her to replace T'Paie as the ship's first officer, saying he was impressed with the leadership she'd displayed on Yamatai and that the crew would be comforted by having another "Commander Drel" in charge. Carlin accepted and was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Commander. Her first act was to deal with Sam Hayashi's successful attempt to free Atria and Ursan from the ship's brig. Carlin decided to overlook the infraction and let the Orions go since they had saved each others lives on Yamatai. ("Survivors of Yamatai")

Other Appearances

By 2412, Carlin Drel had reached the rank of Captain and commanded the USS Wayfarer, which provided reconnaissance on the approaching Borg fleet leading up to the Second Battle of Wolf 359. (Star Trek: Justice: "Vengeance")

Personality

Carlin Agran had a fairly reserved and serious nature prior to joining. She was notably more merciful than other characters and had a very high aptitude for science combined with strong medical competency. She was, however, capable of harboring a longstanding animosity toward her father, Jorel Quinn. When nervous or agitated, she had a habit of pulling or playing with her hair, a "tell" that took conscious effort to suppress even after an accident on Yamatai left her with significantly shorter hair. After joining, though Carlin became much more confident and more comfortable with leadership, and her nervous habit seemed to disappear. However, she did continue to struggle with airsickness in shuttles, much to her personal chagrin. ("The Best Revenge," "Survivors of Yamatai")

Quotes

"We're getting nowhere like this. Let's try something different. How about most embarrassing secret?"

"I hate shuttle rides."

"You knew that because I told you I get airsick in them when you were pretending to be Emma."

"Fine, your turn."

"Jorel Quinn is my father."

— Antori trying to differentiate the real Carlin Agran from an Undine duplicate

"I will still be your friend."

— Carlin Agran to Sam, just before becoming joined with the Drel symbiont

"How do you feel?"

"Short."

— Carlin Drel to Doctor Howard, after becoming newly joined.

"His last words were to tell me he'd always love me. By sending him this memento, I'm saying I'll always love him back."

— Carlin Drel at Antori Drel's memorial