Ro Laren

Ro Laren was a Bajoran Starfleet officer and later renegade Maquis member.

History

Ro Laren was born during the Cardassian occupation of Bajor. She was raised in a Bajoran refugee camp on Valo II. At the age of 7, she was forced to watch as Cardassian guards tortured her father to death. (TNG: "Ensign Ro", "Rascals")

This spurred Ro to attend Starfleet Academy, from which she graduated in 2362. (TNG: "The Next Phase")

One of her first assignments was aboard the USS Wellington. During a mission to Garon II, she disobeyed orders, resulting in the deaths of eight away team members. At her resulting court martial, Ro declined to defend herself. She was found guilty and sent to Jaros II. (TNG: "Ensign Ro")

In 2368, Admiral Kennelly ordered Ro's release for work on a secret mission aboard the USS Enterprise-D: to offer Federation weapons in exchange for Bajoran groups, led by Orta, halting their attacks on Federation colonies, in breach of the Prime Directive. She came clean with Enterprise Captain Jean-Luc Picard, and, with further help from the Enterprise crew and the Bajoran groups, they discover the Cardassians had destroyed the Federation colony.

Picard requested she stay aboard as a crew member, and Ro took the flight controller position. (TNG: "Ensign Ro")

During her time aboard the Enterprise, she became a valuable member of the crew, assisting during several crises. (TNG: "Power Play", "Cause and Effect", "Rascals", "The Next Phase")

Picard recommended Ro for Starfleet's Advanced Tactical Training in 2370. She returned to the Enterprise with the rank of lieutenant and an assignment to infiltrate a Maquis resistance cell.

The mission called her loyalties into question, and, towards the mission's end, she admitted to Enterprise first officer William Riker that, with the Maquis, she finally felt like she belonged. Instead of betraying the Maquis to a Starfleet trap, Ro revealed the trap and joined the Maquis. (TNG: "Preemptive Strike")

Pocket Books novelverse

Following the Maquis' near-extermination at the hands of the Jem'Hadar, Ro and a few survivors continued a guerrilla war against the Cardassians and their new Dominion allies. After the end of the Dominion War, Ro returned to Bajor and was given the rank of Lieutenant in the Bajoran Militia. She was assigned to Deep Space 9 as Security Chief. Over the next few months, she became very close with the station's first officer, Elias Vaughn, and developed an odd sort of friendship with Quark. (DS9 relaunch novel: Avatar)

When Bajor was about to join the Federation, Ro made plans to leave DS9 with Quark, believing that once the Militia was integrated into Starfleet, she would no longer have a place there. However, Captain Picard persuaded Starfleet otherwise, and she remained on DS9, recommissioned in the fleet. (DS9 relaunch novel: Unity)

	Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

In 2379, Elias Vaughn became DS9's commanding officer, and he asked Ro to serve as his executive officer. She served in that post until Vaughn left to assume command of the USS James T. Kirk, at which time she was assigned to command Deep Space 9. By 2382, she had been promoted to the rank of captain. (Star Trek: Typhon Pact novel: Plagues of Night)

Deep Space 9 was destroyed by the Typhon Pact in 2383, though most of the station's inhabitants escaped. Captain Ro remained in command of her crew on Bajor while the new station was under construction for the next year. Once the station became operational in September, 2384, Ro and the others assumed their former positions aboard the new station. (Star Trek: Typhon Pact novel: Raise the Dawn)

Star Trek Online

Ro Laren survived the destruction of the Maquis by the Jem'Hadar and turned herself into Starfleet on stardate 58370.4 (2380). She pled guilty to desertion and was sentenced to two years in a penal colony on Earth. Upon the completion of her sentence in 2382, she was granted a commission in the Bajoran Militia and took the post of chief of security for Deep Space 9. (The Path to 2409)

Non-Canon Timelines

Star Trek: The Cantabrian Expeditions

Olivia De Luca, Antonio Fernandes's partner, was one of the officers killed as a result of Ro disobeying orders. As soon as Ro and the survivors were aboard the Wellington, Fernandes, the highest-ranking officer not incapacitated or killed in the fight, ordered Ro be thrown into the brig and stay there until the Wellington reached safe haven. (Star Trek: The Cantabrian Expeditions: "Catalyst, Part One", "An Innocent Time", "Salvation")

Star Trek: Pendragon

Captain Ro of the Colonial Alliance

Ro Laren served in Nebula Squadron while in Starfleet Academy.

During the Federation Civil War, Ro was one of the Maquis cell leaders that joined with the patriot Starfleet in opposing Admiral James Leyton. Like the rest of the Maquis, she felt betrayed when Starfleet and the Federation once again turned their backs on the Demilitarized Zone.

During the late 2370s, she provided support to Michael Eddington's colony on Volan III, and in the 2380s was instrumental in founding the Colonial Alliance. In 2386, Ro became Captain of the CAS Independence. She was also romantically involved with Thomas Riker for a time. (Star Trek: Sons of Liberty)

Star Trek: Hidden Frontier

Ro Laren had a brother named Ro Nevin, also a Starfleet officer.

United Trek fan fiction universe

Shortly after the Dominion War, the USS Independence was sent to a forced labor camp, where Ro was found alive. After the war ended, Ro and her group murdered their captors. She was again sent to prison for a few months for hampering an investigation. (Star Trek: Independence: "Retributions")

The Federation, in order to help restore relations with the Cardassian, reinstated the boundary created by the 2370 Federation-Cardassian Treaty. Upon her release, Ro joined a new Maquis movement. (Star Trek: Gibraltar: "Backup")

Bait and Switch

"'Maybe the Prophets have gas or something, Captain,' Ro suggests in a sarcastic tone. I don't dignify it with a response. Brigadier General Ro Laren’s an atheist, and she’s been a bit of a thorn in my side since I landed the gig here at DS9 two years ago."

— Captain Kanril Eleya

In an alternate timeline Ro Laren held the rank of brigadier general in the Bajoran Militia by 2409. ("The Road Not Taken")

External links

• Ro Laren article at Memory Alpha, the canon Star Trek wiki.
• Ro Laren article at Memory Beta, the non-canon Star Trek wiki.