Gul Speros(2375)
Gul Surtak Speros (Ilojan transliteration: Surtăk Speros) was the commanding officer of the Galor-class warship Ghiletz. (Star Trek: Sigils and Unions)
Speros hails from the region of Hăzăk on Cardassia Prime, and as such has beige-tinted skin and the distinct ridging pattern of the Hăzăkda ethnic minority. His hair has also greyed with age, giving him an air of seniority that is highly respected in Cardassian society.
Gul Speros has the reputation of "creating" guls. He takes a great interest in bringing out the command potential of the glinns who serve under him, and several have gone on to become guls in their own right--one of them being Akellen Macet; his first officer, Glinn Bezerok Hatel, also became an acting commander, in his case of the rebel ship Zerayd. One or two of Speros' proteges have even become legates. Though he shows little of it, Speros is deeply proud of the success of those who leave his vessel to go on to greater things. Speros, however, is very unlikely to ever become a legate himself; even Speros himself believes his cantankerous nature means he has probably ruffled far too many feathers among the Cardassian Guard elite.
Speros is a staunch traditionalist; though he has stretched himself to become a member of the Thirteenth Order, to actively rebel and to accept Starfleet assistance in the process because he believes that the leaders of the Cardassian Union that formed the Dominion alliance have broken with true Cardassian tradition, there are certain lines he flatly refuses to cross. Only grudgingly--and because the man proposing the idea was Thouves Daro--did he accept the idea to name a ship the Order commandeered after fallen Starfleet ensign Ngaer. And he completely refused to allow the Starfleet officers to look upon the bodies of the Cardassian fallen, necessitating a memorial service where no remains were present. (Star Trek: Sigils and Unions--The Thirteenth Order)
Military career[]
Initial concept drawing of Speros by Nerys Ghemor
In 2375, Gul Speros joined an anti-Dominion conspiracy with Akellen Macet on grounds that Dominion-occupied Cardassia was only a mockery of the Union he knew and loved. Still, his disdain for the Starfleet officers with whom the plan required him to cooperate, especially the Bajorans among them, was immediately clear.
Speros would be one of the primary leaders of the main ground force during the battle for the Lessek shipyard. His relationship with Federation leader Makis Spirodopoulos was quite strained; Speros resented the perceived challenge to his authority inherent in Spirodopoulos' command of the Starfleet component of the Thirteenth Order.
Gul Speros would demonstrate his ruthlessness in dealing with the Cardassian prisoners taken by the Thirteenth Order: when one of them took aggressive action, Speros not only shot the offender but immediately killed six others he suspected of rising to her aid. He was also strongly in favor of allowing Ensign Ngaer to sacrifice herself when she volunteered to destroy a Jem'Hadar polaron cannon, and pushed Spirodopoulos to allow it; the human eventually relented. (Star Trek: Sigils and Unions--The Thirteenth Order)
Family and relationships[]
Gul Speros has fathered at least one son. Some of Speros' caustic personality may result from the death of his son and his fiancee on Bajor in one of the first attacks of the Bajoran Resistance. It is unknown whether the elder Speros was present on Bajor; however, the loss of his child and daughter-in-law-to-be greatly embittered him and caused him great resentment towards Bajorans. It may have been Speros Macet was speaking of when he had this to say about the hatred some Cardassians hold towards Bajorans:
- ""There are also those who hate the Bajorans not because they see them as vermin—but because they lost friends and relatives on that planet and grief is no respecter of the circumstances in which someone dies.""
- — --Gul Macet
Other relationships[]
- Gul Akellen Macet: Macet is one of Speros' proteges, and now that he has become a gul in his own right, Speros holds him in sufficient respect to be willing to join him in the Cardassian resistance.
- Glinn Thouves Daro: It is unclear how well the two men actually know each other; however, Speros holds Daro in high respect and was one of the few guls to publicly back Macet's decision to bring Daro on as his first officer on the Trager.
- Gul Tayben Berat: These two greatly dislike each other--Speros despising Berat because he believes a physically disabled man has no place continuing his service in the Cardassian Guard, and Berat despising him (though hiding it a bit more effectively) because of this and his generally acrimonious conduct.
Memorable quotes[]
- "Never try to be gul of someone else’s ship—it’s about as effective as poking a rhirzum nest and just as likely to earn you a jet of acid up your waste pipe."
- — Speros on command philosophy. (The Thirteenth Order)
- "Your Klingon allies slaughtered five hundred thousand Cardassian reservists down to the last man on the planet’s surface and left a burning husk of a planet behind, that’s what. These two commanders barely escaped with their ships intact, mainly because this one is crazy enough to tractor a damaged vessel when his own is barely hanging together, and engage his warp drive in a planetary gravity well not a second later. You should be grateful we’re still working with you, if those are the sorts of atrocities you allow your allies to perpetrate."
- — Speros vents his rage about the Septimus Massacre. (The Thirteenth Order)