Meloneus

Meloneus was a Gul-ranked officer of the Cardassian Guard until his exile from the Cardassian Union in the late 24th century. He had a short-lived membership with a group of space pirates before eventually joining the True Way. (Star Trek: Phoenix-X)

History

Childhood

When Meloneus was young, he was very attached to a Cardassian baby toy. One cold and rainy night, on Cardassia, while about to board a hover-transport with his mother, two changelings (disguised as Cardassians) took notice of Meloneus. As they spoke to each other, they spoke as though they weren't Cardassians at all; and they revealed their connection to an alien group known as the Founders. Due to pure fascination, the two changelings stole Meloneus' baby toy, reverted to their generic changeling forms, and ran off. Meloneus was left, crying in the rain, thus forever scarred by changelings for the rest of his life. ("Cardassian Sunrise")

It is not explained how two changelings made their way into the Alpha Quadrant this early on (before the discovery of the wormhole). But it is insinuated that this encounter gave the Founder`s foreknowledge of the Cardassians.

Commander of the Tarak

Years later, Meloneus became a gul-level officer in the Cardassian Union. He commanded the starship Tarak, with his nephew, Tellus, who was an executive officer. ("Secret Shuttles, Part II")

Sometime before 2374, the Tarak came into conflict with a Romulan starship. It wasn't long before they opened fire on each other when the USS Xena arrived to aid the Tarak`s distress call. It was at this point Meloneus met Captain Aeris and Commander Gotens, who were commanding the Xena at the time. The Xena was used as a distraction while Meloneus took over the Romulan starship. With this turn of events, Meloneus turned against the Xena, despite the fact they came to aid his distress call. ("Missed the Mishap")

In 2374, Meloneus somehow discovered that Captain Daniel was a Changeling and was prepared to capture him and hold him under an anti-shapeshifting emitter. Meloneus attacked the Phoenix-X and beamed Daniel over, right after the Phoenix-X had beamed over one of Meloneus' men: an officer named Agenos. Gotens contended to a prisoner exchange, where both Agenos and Daniel would be returned to their respective ships. Unfortunately, as the exchange was supposedly going through, Daniel was not beamed back, and both Agenos and Gotens were transported onto the Tarak. In time, both Daniel and Gotens were able to escape their holding cells and take over the Tarak. Unfortunately, during the commotion and battle with the Phoenix-X, Meloneus' wife, Carella, who was aboard the Tarak, was accidentally killed by plasma when a plasma containment cell shattered in Engineering. Both Meloneus and the ship were taken into custody. ("Missed the Mishap", "Secret Shuttles, Part III")

Prisoner

Not long after, the Second Maquis came into existence and paid two criminals, an Andorian named Kotah, and a Klingon named Ragon, to hijack the Phoenix-X for their own uses. To establish relations with the Second Maquis, the Cardassians opened a back-door agreement with them, which enabled an agreement for Meloneus to be saved during Kotah's and Ragon's mission. During a fierce battle with the Second Maquis, Ragon was successful in stealing a consolation Starfleet shuttle, the Roche, from the Phoenix-X and saving Meloneus. He rendezvoused with the Tarak and Gul Dukat in orbit of one of the last Second Maquis bases and delivered Meloneus to Dukat. ("Cookies")

First in Command of the Lyngon-2752

In 2375, Meloneus worked with the Dominion in an isolated fleet equipped with cloaking devices, serving aboard the Jem'Hadar heavy raider Lyngon-2752 for an attack on Flortarios III. There, he was thwarted again by the Phoenix-X and Task Force Epsilon. ("The Bajoran Trove")

Commander of the Isotope

By the next year, Meloneus was in command of a new ship, the Isotope. During a space voyage, he was contacted by one of his enemies, a Romulan named Plutark, and was negotiated a chance for peace between them. Plutark informed Meloneus of the Slipstream torpedoes that they had recently discovered the Phoenix-X was developing. The two teamed up to steal the torpedo schematics and build it themselves but were ultimately foiled by their inexperience with the torpedoes. Both Meloneus and Plutark were supposedly killed in a retaliatory attack from the Phoenix-X. ("Warfare")

Back from the dead

In 2377, two years after Meloneus' death, Tellus, Meloneus' nephew, teamed up with Klokian in an effort to steal back Klokian's timeship from the Phoenix-X. They used the timeship to return to the moment before Meloneus' death (by the Slipstream torpedo, in 2375) and beam him aboard the timeship to safety. ("Secret Shuttles, Parts I & II")

After this was successful, Meloneus opted to return to 2374, to the point before his wife's death when the Phoenix-X and the Tarak were in battle with each other. Unfortunately for Meloneus, the Phoenix-X from the present (2377) had been time-jumping with Klokian's timeship at every jump, and had been following Meloneus' every move: Shane infiltrated the Tarak and accidentally distracted Meloneus' mission, thus preventing Meloneus from saving his wife from death. Meloneus was forced to return to the present, in failure. ("Secret Shuttles, Part III")

Though the miraculous return of his life, the Cardassian Central Command was quick to exile Tellus and Meloneus for conflicting against Cardassian interests when Tellus used the Scorpion to steal Klokian's timeship from the Phoenix-X. ("Secret Shuttles, Part II", "Cardassian Sunrise")

Commander of the Scorpion

Months later, after Meloneus' exile, Meloneus left the Cardassians, along with his crew, took over command of the Scorpion, and joined the Fragma Alliance. His ship was re-engineered with pirated technology to the point where it was a perfect combative match to the Phoenix-X. He soon booked time away from the Alliance to contest the Phoenix-X and fulfill one of his life goals: to find the Changeling homeworld. The crew of the Phoenix-X decided to fake the destruction of the ship in order to escape Meloneus once and for all, while Daniel allowed himself to be captured by Meloneus.

Feeling sorry for Meloneus, Daniel gave him the location of the Changeling homeworld before escaping. But Meloneus had over-extended his time away from the Fragma Alliance and became the target of their aggression. Meloneus was last seen aboard the Scorpion, being chased by the Fragma Alliance. ("Cardassian Sunrise")

The Scorpion was chased into the Vlugta asteroid field before being destroyed by the Fragma Alliance. Meloneus escaped in an escape pod and remained in it until a passing Pakled ship picking him up. ("The Nemesis Factor")

Commander of the Serket

By the year 2391, Meloneus was in service of the True Way and in command of the Galor-class starship Serket. He used Romulan relay stations to assist in masking himself as Tal Shiar so he could order Tressa into gathering thalaron technology from the Remans. When attempting to load his new thalaron weapon, Meloneus was easily defeated by a combination of the Phoenix-X, the Remans, and the weapon's extensive loading-time. ("The Nemesis Factor")