Tal Celes (Dark Realm)

For other uses, see Celes Tal.

Celes Tal, daughter of Celes Meru and Celes Edon, and granddaughter of Celes Tal was born in 2350 in Dakhur, Dakhur Province on Bajor. Celes Tal served as a Crewman onboard the USS Voyager (NCC-74656) from 2371 to 2378 as a Sensor Analyst working in Astrometrics.

Biography

Early life

Orphaned as a toddler, Celes Tal was moved to a refugee camp where a sympathetic and influential and as yet unknown benefactor brought her to Federation space in 2353. She was adopted by the couple of Luon Naprem and Luon Aghab. Thanks to the experiments of Crell Moset, Luon Naprem was left infertile as a teenager. In 2343 she and her husband, Luon Aghab, owned a small yet successful Bajoran restaurant specializing in dishes from Dakhur Province in the city of Tanada Bay on the Federation colony of Ajilon Prime. Ten years later when Aghab was opening his shop he found a small toddler with a note pinned to her dress. Taken with sympathy he and his wife adopted Celes Tal and raised her on Ajilon Prime.

The Luon family did not allow the bitterness of the Occupation to overcome them, as many Bajorans of their generation had. Luon Naprem was often stated that in a way they were lucky that they received such a wonderful daughter in spite of the Occupation. They passed their values on to their adoptive daughter. The couple was honest about Tal's adoption and what they knew of her coming into their life.

While Tal loved her adoptive parents she was driven by curiousity about her family on Bajor and wondered what circumstances led to her adoption. It was this curiosity that drove her to enlist in Starfleet aboard the starship Voyager.

Starfleet

During training Tal suffered from a great deal of difficulty with the subject matter and had to work three times as hard as any of her classmates to graduate. She often believed that the only reason she made it into Starfleet was due to Federation sympathy towards the suffering on Bajor. She still often pulled all-nighters aboard Voyager often with the help of Crewman William Telfer.

It was during her first year in Starfleet that she changed the order of her name from Celes Tal to Tal Celes in order to fit in better.

Voyager

While on Voyager, Celes Tal was assigned to Astrometrics under Seven of Nine. It was there that she suffered from severe doubts as to her ability to perform assigned tasks, reinforced by Seven and her other co-workers double checking her work. Her frequent all-nighters and help from William Telfer got her through her time onboard the ship.

In 2376 Celes was singled out by Seven of Nine to Captain Kathryn Janeway as one of three crewmembers deemed unable to meet their duties to the required levels. Thanks to a highly unorthodox plan of Captain Janeway's, Celes found herself on her first away mission on the Delta Flyer. When the away mission went wrong thanks to attacks by dark matter lifeforms, Celes helped ascertain the cause of the attack and also remained with the Flyer even when ordered to leave by Janeway, stating: "And a crew does not abandon its Captain." (VOY: "Good Shepherd")

The Away Mission from Hell

Later that year Celes was assigned to another away mission on the Delta Flyer with Tom Paris, Henry Kano, William Telfer, and Kenneth Dalby. In what would later be known as The 'Away Mission from Hell', Celes and her teammates would play a pivotal role in preventing the Heartless from overrunning our galaxy.

During one stop on this visit, Celes was shot and severely wounded by 3D, a member of Biff Tannen's gang when she attempted to prevent 3D from shooting a running Clara Clayton. (Star Trek: Voyager - Dark Realm)

Personal life

Celes considered William Telfer to be her best friend on Voyager though their relationship never progressed beyond friendship. During their first six years onboard the two helped each other through their respective problems. Tal provided a comforting hand with Billy's hypochondria and Billy provided her help with her job. The relationship deepened into a close friendship.

In 2371 she would first meet fellow Voyager crew member Lieutenant j.g. Henry Kano when every seat in the Mess Hall but the one at her table was occupied. The two struck up a conversation and by 2372 they often ate meals together, along with Billy Telfer. By 2376 she considered Henry Kano to be a close friend, and perhaps with the potential for something else. She developed feelings for him in 2375 but never acted on them because she feared he did not reciprocate. By 2376 a number of their colleagues noticed a certain romantic tension between the two, notably Michael Ayala and William Telfer.

Celes' feelings for Kano were revealed in a conversation with William Telfer in Voyager's mess hall, on the eve of the Away Mission from Hell. She would also confide those same feelings to Clara Clayton who encouraged her to follow up on those feelings. (Star Trek: Voyager - Dark Realm)

External links

• Star Trek: Voyager - Dark Realm
• Tal Celes article at Memory Alpha, the canon Star Trek wiki.