Collaborator

A collaborator was an individual who was, almost always, willing to serve or sympathize with the people who conquered their lands. For this, they were often hated by their own.

History

On Kaminar, Kelpien priests were described as unwitting collaborators due to their enforcement of the grip of the Ba'ul on their Kelpien prey. These individuals included Aradar and his daughter Siranna, who later sought to build a "true balance" after she learnt the truth about vahar'ai, which Kelpiens had believed was a signal that they were to be culled as a means to maintain the Great Balance. In truth, vahar'ai was a stage of their natural evolution, which had once made Kelpiens the dominant predators of the Ba'ul. (DIS: "The Sound of Thunder")

In a holoprogram kept onboard the USS Voyager, which was set while France was under the control of the Third Reich during World War II, a holographic French citizen spat at Brigitte, showing contempt towards the woman for her perceived collaboration with their Nazi occupiers. (VOY: "The Killing Game")

During the Occupation of Bajor, several Bajorans served as Cardassian collaborators, including Secretary Kubus Oak and Basso. (DS9: "The Collaborator", "Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night") These collaborators either served the Cardassians directly or provided the Cardassians with information on the Bajoran Resistance. The presence of such informants inside the Higa Metar sect allowed the occupying forces to discover that Surmak Ren was a covert member of the Kohn-Ma splinter faction. (DS9: "Babel") After the Cardassian Empire withdrew from the planet, every member of the Bajoran Occupational Government was sentenced to exile in the Ilvian Proclamation, although Major Kira Nerys — a veteran from the Resistance — believed that the likes of Kubus Oak had received gentler treatment that they deserved, since his signing of work orders had condemned other Bajorans to service in mines that some had not walked out from. As a result, on the freed Bajor, individuals that were known for having collaborated with the Cardassians were considered the lowest of the low. (DS9: "The Collaborator") However, some colluders — including Ches'sarro Seeto — were able to dodge the same fate because their collaboration was never discovered. (DS9: "Necessary Evil") Oak justified his work with the Cardassians, claiming that without the puppet government, the occupation of Bajor would have been far worse, although he also admitted that his decision to cooperate had also allowed him to survive. Prylar Bek — a liaison who represented the Vedek Assembly within the Cooperative Government — claimed to have been responsible for the events that led to the Kendra Valley Massacre in a note that he wrote before committing suicide. In reality, however, Bek had framed himself — condemning his legacy to be remembered as that of a traitor and collaborator — to protect Kai Opaka, who had chosen to surrender the location of her son and the forty-two other rebels hidden at the valley to protect the thousands of innocent villagers that would have been otherwise slaughtered. (DS9: "The Collaborator")

In 2365, a Bajoran chemist named Vaatrik, who lived on Terok Nor during the Occupation, served as a direct link between Gul Dukat and at least eight Bajoran sympathizers (i.e. Ches'sarro Seeto). Vaatrik would be executed by Kira Nerys when he discovered her while in the act of attempting to retrieve his list of contacts, though his murder had not been her first objective and was one of self-defence, rather than targeted assassination. (DS9: "Necessary Evil") During her involvement with efforts to resist the Occupation, Nerys was hesitant to attack facilities that housed even one Bajoran worker, but did so all the same, reminding herself that those who worked with the Cardassians were collaborators. Indeed, a popular phrase emerged within the Bajoran Underground that justified when their attacks endangered the lives of their countrymen: "If you're not fighting them, you're helping them." Years later, after becoming a tactical advisor to the Cardassian Liberation Front, Kira noted this fact when Gul Rusot protested her suggestion about having their faction attack installations that was guarded Cardassian soldiers that had not joined the rebellion. In response, Kira told both him and Legate Damar that the Dominion would use this against the rebels by posting other members of their kind within their facilities. (DS9: "Rocks and Shoals", "When It Rains...")

Bajoran "comfort women" were also often accused of being collaborators. (DS9: "Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night")

However, not all that worked beneath the Cardassian Union were subject to condemnation as colluders. Although he served as the chief of security onboard Terok Nor when the space station was a Cardassian mining facility, Odo was not considered a collaborator and retained his position after Bajor was liberated. While the constable had worked beneath the Cardassian Union, individuals that ranged from friends like Major Kira Nerys to Quark - his long-time opponent - denied the accusations that Odo had been a collaborator. Indeed, the latter once stated that, whatever Odo was, he had not been a collaborator. (DS9: "A Man Alone") When Gul Rusot accused the Changeling of being one, Kira claimed that Odo was not a colluder, though Rusot argued that this fact differed depending on the person's interpretation of the term. (DS9: "When It Rains...") Odo voiced contempt for the Bajoran collaborators that had been "selling out their own world" to make a profit, which he considered a crime that not even a Ferengi would stoop to. (DS9: "Necessary Evil") Trentin Fala, though she worked as a cleaner for a Cardassian records office, utilised her position to become an informer for the Shakaar resistance cell, supplying them with intelligence that included the means to assassinate Gul Pirak, though this later made her a target for murder at the hands of Silaran Prin. (DS9: "The Darkness and the Light")

Kevin Uxbridge was suspected of being a collaborator after the whole Rana IV colony was destroyed by the Husnock and only the Uxbridges' house was spared. (TNG: "The Survivors")

Mizar II had been conquered six times in three centuries due to the Mizarian never resisting their conquerors. When Esoqq, Kova Tholl and Jean-Luc Picard were captured together in an alien cell in 2366, Esoqq suspected that Tholl might be a collaborator with their abductors. When he indirectly suggested this idea, Tholl asked outright if he was accusing him of collaborating with their abductors and he replied that collaboration was what his species did best. Later, when identifying each member of the group's roles in the "laboratory maze" that their captors had structured, Picard described Tholl as the collaborator who would defer to whoever has control. (TNG: "Allegiance")

In 2370, listing Quark's faults and why she despised him, Kira included collaborating with the Cardassians. (DS9: "Shadowplay")

Though the Open Sky terrorist group had little resources with their efforts to supplant the current Akritirian government with one that answered to the people, the planet authorities on Akritiri claimed to have suspected that the rebel movement had been working hand-in-hand with collaborators who were located offworld. When the USS Voyager was drawn into the local conflict, ambassador Liria accused her crew of having colluded with the Open Sky as their long-theorised allies. The terrorists had been in possession of a trilithium based explosive, even though their sector housed no source for this substance. Voyager, on the other hand, was powered with dilithium, which could be converted to the compound that had been weaponised. With this 'evidence' in mind, the Akritirian authorities prepared to impound the starship and arrest her crew, but Captain Kathryn Janeway elected to order a withdrawal from local space. (VOY: "The Chute")

Despite the fact that their culture was built upon a strict code of honor, there were several historic cases when individual Klingons chose to betray their people and cooperate with their enemies. The most infamous example of such collaboration was the House of Duras. Though influential and well-connected to Imperial politics, during the 24th century, the Duras had become a regular front for Romulan efforts to manipulate and destabilise the Klingon Empire through clandestine tactics. These ties were prevalent for at least three generations, running from Ja'rod — who supplied the Romulan Star Empire with the defense codes of the colony at Khitomer, resulting in a massacre that claimed the lives of 4,000 Klingons, including the collaborator himself — down to his illegitimate grandson Toral. However, the greater instance of collusion between the Duras ruling family and the longtime enemies of their people was represented with the three children of Ja'rod: Duras, Lursa and B'Etor, who called for Romulan assistance in several attempts to bring the Empire under the control of their house. (TNG: "Redemption", "Redemption II", "Sins of The Father") In 2366, evidence was brought to light that could expose the individual that had betrayed the access codes at Khitomer to the Romulan Empire. Although Ja'rod was the real collaborator, Duras — who was now the reigning head of House Duras — was unwilling to allow his power to be diminished by being exposed as the son of a traitor. Alongside Chancellor K'mpec, who feared the civil war that might materialise if this evidence was revealed to the Klingon High Council, Duras framed the late Mogh — a sworn enemy of his father — for the deed. Despite initial resistance from Worf and his brother Kurn, who sought to clear their family name and discovered that Ja'rod was the real perpetrator, the sons of Mogh could not expose this information for fear that it would tear the Empire apart. (TNG: "Sins of The Father") Nonetheless, because of the actions his father had been accused of, some individuals, like the Betazoid investigator Sabin Genestra, expressed concerns about putting their faith in the child of a "Romulan collaborator". (TNG: "The Drumhead")

The year after Worf was forced to shoulder the blame for the crimes that his father had allegedly committed, Starfleet discovered further evidence that highlighted collaboration between elements within the Klingon and Romulan states after discovering a molecular decay detonator that Duras — who was now one of the two contenders for chancellorship after K'mpec died from poisoning — had planted to eliminate his rival, Gowron. Mere hours after the bomb was found, Duras was slain in single combat with Worf as retaliation for killing the latter's lover K'Ehleyr, who had been investigating the circumstances behind the discommendation before she was murdered. (TNG: "Reunion") However, the connections between the House of Duras and their Romulan allies lived on through his sisters. B'Etor and Lursa proceeded to present Toral — an illegitimate son the late Duras had fathered — as the legitimate heir to the position that his dead sire had held. With the influence that the family name still held over a decisive number of the Great Houses, the House of Duras challenged Gowron and sparked the Klingon Civil War, mustering support from their political allies. Through Toral was little more than a face for his two ambitious aunts, he shared their collaboration with the Romulan Star Empire, which supplied Duras' forces with material assistance, though their Klingon allies were unaware of this fact. Though Lursa and B'Etor were the masterminds of the war, both females were deferential to Commander Sela, an agent of the Tal Shiar that headed the Romulans' involvement in the power struggle. Thanks to a blockade the Starfleet had established on the Klingon-Romulan border to prevent cloaked ships from crossing into the Klingon Empire, the alliance that the House of Duras enjoyed with their benefactors was exposed, which caused support for the war to evaporate. With decades of collusion now exposed, the Duras were left in disgrace, allowing the House of Mogh to be vindicated of all false charges. (TNG: "Redemption", "Redemption II")

Although the House of Duras was the most infamous case of Klingon collaboration with outside powers, there were others. Ambassador Kell, a representative of the High Council, also lived a dual existence as an agent of the Romulan Empire. From his office, Kell worked as accomplice to the Romulan officer Taibak and his efforts to ferment distrust between the Klingon Empire and the United Federation of Planets, triggering all-out war. To do this, the conspirators attempted to frame the latter for having supplied weapons to support the Kriosian rebels attempting to liberate their planet from Imperial rule and Kell helped his accomplices implanted commands into the mind of Lieutenant Geordi La Forge that would compel him to assassinate Governor Vagh, further incriminating Starfleet. The plan — and Kell's role with it — was exposed, leading to Kell being taken into custody, despite his futile demands for political asylum. However, in a conversation before Kell and Worf that occurred before the latter was arrested, the ambassador showed little grief about the death of Duras, reporting that several members of the High Council had welcomed his sudden demise. (TNG: "The Mind's Eye") Another "traitorous p'tak" that collaborated with the Romulan people was Lieutenant J'Dan, a Klingon exobiologist that belonged to the Klingon Defense Force, but grown disillusioned with the state of his people, believing them to become weak and with "life blood as thick as water" since their alliance with the Federation. In contrast, J'Dan saw the Romulans as worthy allies and began to collaborate with them, spying for the Star Empire until he was exposed and taken to Qo'noS for trial. (TNG: "The Drumhead")

During the Dominion occupation of Deep Space 9, Kira initially worked alongside the Dominion in running the station in the belief that overt resistance would provide Dukat with the pretext to crack down on the station's Bajoran population. However, after Vedek Yassim killed herself on the Promenade in protest of the Dominion, Kira realized that, by making excuses for not fighting the Dominion, she had unknowingly become a collaborator, the very individual that she had hated for so long. She and Odo thus began a resistance movement on the station while continuing the pretence of working with the Dominion. (DS9: "Rocks and Shoals")

In 2374, the Dominion entered into an alliance with the criminal Orion Syndicate, which conspired to manipulate circumstances that would motivate the Klingon Empire to withdraw from the Federation Alliance. To do so, the Vorta Gelnon met with individuals like Raimus and Liam Bilby to have the latter and his subordinates assassinate a prominent Klingon ambassador on Farius Prime, using Klingon disruptors to make it look like the target had been silenced for his anti-Federation sentiments. Unbeknownst to the conspirators, however, Starfleet Intelligence had been able to insert Miles O'Brien into the Syndicate, turning the mission into a death sentence for the Dominion collaborators, though O'Brien made a futile attempt to warn Bilby, who the spy had befriended, though he was unable to dissuade him because the other man feared the consequences that his wife and children would face from the Orion Syndicate. (DS9: "Honor Among Thieves") After his death, the Bilby family were recipients to financial support from the Syndicate, which provided assistance to the relatives of those who had perished in service to it. To ensure that the widowed Morica Bilby was cared for, the criminal organisation blackmailed Janel and Norvo Tigan to have her taken on as a "shipping consultant". Though the position required no actual work from Bilby, it allowed the Syndicate to keep her in relative luxury. (DS9: "Prodigal Daughter")

In his war against the Dominion's occupation of Cardassia, Damar initially refused to attack any Cardassian guards, but ex-resistance fighter Kira countered that they were collaborators, and that the Dominion would place a Cardassian garrison at every critical facility once they realized that he wouldn't attack his own people. In the words of Nerys, "anybody that is not fighting with you, is fighting against you". (DS9: "When It Rains...") True to these words, the Founders had help trying to crush the rebellion from Cardassian collaborators like Gul Revok and Broca, who was promoted to serve as the new leader of the Union, being eager to follow the orders of the Female Changeling and Weyoun 8 almost without question. (DS9: "The Dogs of War") After Cardassia was left in shambles and with a body count that ranged about eight hundred million casualties slaughtered on the instruction of the Female Changeling, Elim Garak observed that the Cardassian Union had collaborated with the Dominion to grant the latter a foothold within the Alpha Quadrant while listing the various crimes that his people were guilty of perpetrating. (DS9: "What You Leave Behind")

In the Q Continuum, collaborating with the enemy was punishable by death. (VOY: "The Q and the Grey")

In the mirror universe, several Terrans decided to collaborate with the Klingon-Cardassian Alliance for their own benefit or survival, including Benjamin Sisko. Once a slave that worked in their mines, Sisko was able to acquire employment with the Alliance as a privateer that collected duties from ships that passed through Bajoran space with his raiding ship, which as crewed by other Terrans. In addition, he also became romantically involved with Intendant Kira Nerys, though Sisko resented having to serve beneath his lover, despite having no initial wish to fight back against the regime. After he encountered the counterpart of Kira Nerys from the prime universe, however, Sisko realised that, despite his privileges, he was still as much a slave as he had ever been. This motivated him to mutiny and start the beginning of what became the Terran Rebellion, which his raiders joined as some of the earliest members. (DS9: "Crossover") His estranged wife Jennifer also worked for the Alliance beneath the Intendant, despite her familial connections to the rebellion's leader, and was later tasked with building a transpectral sensor array that could help find where the resistance was located in the Badlands. Before she could finish her work, Jennifer was convinced to defect over to the dissident forces after Miles O'Brien and a version of her late husband from the prime universe extracted Sisko from Terok Nor. (DS9: "Through the Looking Glass")

List of known collaborators

Bajorans during Cardassian Occupation

• Basso
• Ches'sarro Seeto
• Kira Meru
• Kubus Oak
• Opaka
• Vaatrik

Cardassians during Dominion War

• Dukat (former; later encouraged dissidence to the Dominion)
• Damar (former; later defected to Federation and rebelled against the Dominion)
• Broca
• Revok

Others

• Kelpien priests (unwittingly enforce the status quo on Kaminar)
  • Aradar
  • Siranna
• House of Duras, including:
  • Ja'rod
  • Duras, son of Ja'rod
  • B'Etor
  • Lursa
  • Toral, son of Duras

External links

• Collaborator at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• Collaborationism at Wikipedia