K'danz

K'danz was the executive officer of the USS Dauntless. (Star Trek: Dauntless)

Family and personal life

Met her future husband, the half-Klingon engineer Dar, shortly after being assigned to the starship Dauntless-74658 in 2372. The couple were married in a ceremony aboard the Dauntless-75310 in early 2375, during which she changed her name to K'danz to honor her new Klingon in-laws.

Starfleet career

K'danz entered Starfleet Academy in 2365 and graduated from the Security School in 2369, receiving an assignment to Advanced Security Training (AST) right after graduation. Posted as a Lieutenant Junior Grade to the Security Department aboard USS Sarek (NCC-72075) when the ship was assigned to explore the Gamma Quadrant in 2370. She was promoted to full Lieutenant in late 2371, following a major role in the ending of the first Qualen Incident when an alien race attempted to steal the starship Sarek and kill her entire crew.

Transferred to the Security Department aboard the starship USS Dauntless (NCC-74658) in mid-2372, where she was assigned as Beta Shift Tactical Officer. She was promoted shortly afterward to Lt Commander and Chief of Security when her department was divided into two separate departments, Security and Tactical. Engaged to marry Lt(JG) Dar, a diagnostic engineer aboard the Dauntless, shortly after stardate 51140. With respect to the Klingon traditions of her new husband-to-be's family, she changed her name to the Klingon form, K'danz, though close friends still call her Carrie. Both officers remained a part of the Dauntless-74658's crew until the ship was destroyed in late 2374.

K'danz was reassigned as Chief of Security upon the launch of the new starship USS Dauntless (NCC-75310) in early 2375. Several months later, she married Dar in a ceremony performed by the starship's commanding officer, Fleet Captain Peter J. Koester, in the 11-Forward lounge.

When the Dauntless was transferred to the command of a new captain in 2377, K'danz accepted reassignment to Starfleet Security headquarters in San Francisco, accepting the position of Assistant Head of Security for the entire Sol Sector, a job in which she excelled but considered less than challenging.

In mid-2380, K'danz was approached by her friend and former Commanding Officer Peter Koester, who was recently reinstated into Starfleet, and offered Executive Officer aboard a starship. K'danz quickly accepted, and both officers were surprised and delighted to discover their new command was once again the Sovereign-class starship Dauntless (NCC-75310).

Career highlights aboard USS Dauntless

In 2380, K'danz assumed command of the Dauntless and alerted Starfleet of an attempt by rogue Son'a militants to occupy the Ba'ku planet in the Brier Patch while Captain Koester and his away team were trapped and hunted on the planet's surface by the Son'a. She was also in command of the Dauntless when Koester was abducted by Kairn operatives while en route to vacation on Risa. K'danz's took the initiative to track down her commanding officer when she was informed he had not arrived at his intended destination, allowing for Koester's split-second rescue moments before he was recaptured and exploited for his strategic knowledge of Starfleet by the Kairn.

When the Dauntless was assigned as the temporary Academy Training Vessel in early 2381, K'danz was enthusiastic about her additional role as mentor and teacher to an entire class of Starfleet cadets. However, in particular, one cadet became a near-constant thorn in the Executive Officer's side for the whole six-month training cruise and often found himself on added duty cleaning the insides of the starship's torpedo tubes with a toothbrush.

During the Academy Training Cruise, K'danz was placed in charge of the away team, which investigated a distress call from the planet Gideon. She and the entire away team soon found themselves infected with a strain of Vegan coreomenengitis that had almost wiped out the entire population of the planet before a vaccine was discovered by Chief Medical Officer Rasa Palin. K'danz also discovered the origin of an extreme case of cultural contamination on the planet Sigma Iotia II when she located the 23rd century communicator left behind by the Enterprise-1701 in 2267 that allowed the imitative Iotian society to make a technological jump of over 400 years in less than a century.

K'danz found she had to come face to face with her fears when she lead a search and rescue team on the planetoid Oriaphus IV, a planetoid the Dauntless had visited six years earlier and which was inhabited by genetically engineered dinosaurs, to rescue the passengers and crew of the SS Half Moon. Having been attacked by vicious carnivorous dinosaurs during the previous visit six years earlier had left K'danz suffering from nightmares for months afterward.

On stardate 58455.5, K'danz was arrested and tried by court-martial for the murder of her husband, Chief Engineer Lt Dar. Following her conviction, she managed to escape custody and go underground in the Romulan Neutral Zone. While in hiding there, she contacted and joined a cell of the Orion Syndicate which was planning to detonate a large explosive device in the Romulan capital in order to cause enough chaos to hide their smuggling operations. However, K'danz was actually working undercover the entire time in a combined Starfleet/Romulan cooperative effort, which exposed the Syndicate, preventing the terrorist act and saving countless lives.

Shortly after returning to her position as XO aboard the Dauntless with her still very-much-alive husband, K'danz was badly injured when the Dauntless was attacked by a Kairn battlecruiser while investigating the loss of contact with Federation colonies in sector 428. The Dauntless managed to escape the attack, but K'danz disobeyed orders to remain at Starbase 82 and rescued the starship USS Providence NCC-81901, where her commanding officer was on temporary assignment to observe Kairn activity in the sector when the scout ship came under attack by Kairn forces on the verge of pushing further into Federation space.

In 2382, K'danz was one of thirty members of the Dauntless crew discovered in stasis aboard the century-old derelict Federation starship Independence. Several months later, the loop completed when, as part of an emergency engineering team trying to deactivate and remove several experimental reactors from a former Starfleet space station in the Adelphous star system, an explosion thrust K'danz and the other members of the Dauntless crew 106 years back in time. With the help of Captain James T. Kirk and the crew of the starship USS Enterprise (NCC-1701), the Dauntless castaways managed to steal the Independence from San Francisco Yards and return to their own proper time.

In late 2382, K'danz was offered promotion to captain and the command of the Ericsson-class scout ship USS LaSalle (NCC-81960). After several days of reflection and having to assume command of the Dauntless during a battle against Kairn forces when Captain Koester left the bridge to help repel boarders, K'danz came to a decision she was not yet ready for a command of her own and remained as First Officer of the starship Dauntless.

K'danz was once again severely injured when, during what was expected to be a normal diplomatic mission, the Dauntless was attacked by xenophobic terrorists and seriously damaged, the starship's bridge module destroyed by a kamikaze attack. While more than two dozen of the Dauntless crew were killed, K'danz survived and, upon the Dauntless entering Antares Shipyard, spent several weeks recovering on the planet's surface before returning to her duties as XO, overseeing the repairs and upgrades to her starship.