Jadzia Dax's History
Jadzia Dax was a joined Trill consisting of the Dax symbiont and the eighth host of the symbiont, Jadzia, from 2367 to 2374. She was a Starfleet science officer who served on space station Deep Space 9 under the command of Captain Benjamin Sisko.
Jadzia was born in 2341, on stardate 23634.1, on Trill, where she grew up with her mother, father and a sister. Although Jadzia was always a shy and quiet child, she was very driven by her ambitions to one day be joined to a symbiont. She spent much of her early life focusing on achieving her goals and would become the only member of her family to be joined. Prior to her joining, Jadzia attended Starfleet Academy and applied to the Trill Symbiosis Commission for joining after graduation. While at the Academy, she earned premier distinctions in astrophysics, exoarchaeology, exobiology and zoology.
After working hard, Jadzia was initially rejected for joining and eliminated from the program by her field docent Curzon Dax in 2364. The reason he gave for this decision was that Jadzia lacked purpose. After Curzon's initial decision, she successfully re-applied that same year and became the only Trill in history to successfully complete the program after having been rejected. She described herself as going as a "different woman" into the program and "tore through it with a passion." The experience of her initial rejection would haunt her for years to come and was one reason why she never had positive feelings about returning to Trill. She never could understand why she was washed out of the program by Curzon.
She was joined to Dax in 2367 after the death of Curzon. After being approved for joining, she had heard of Curzon's deteriorating health and requested that she receive the Dax symbiont after Curzon's death. Later, during her zhian'tara, she learned that Curzon's reasons for rejecting her original application were personal, since he had actually fallen in love with her.
After being joined to Dax, Jadzia's training and experiences made the adjustment to having seven different lifetimes of memories and experiences relatively easy. The once shy, hardworking and dedicated Jadzia became a lively, confident and outgoing person with a passion for life. After joining, Jadzia picked up on the habits of her previous hosts, such as clasping her hands behind her back, taking up Klingon martial arts, an interest in Klingon culture or playing tongo.
In 2369, twenty-eight-year-old Lieutenant Jadzia Dax was assigned as science officer aboard Deep Space 9, under the command of Benjamin Sisko, who had been a friend of Curzon. Shortly after her assignment to the station, Jadzia and Sisko discovered the Bajoran wormhole, opening a new era in Federation history. Later that year Jadzia stood trial for crimes that Curzon had allegedly committed during the Klaestron Civil War. Though she was ultimately cleared of the charges, Jadzia had been willing to accept a guilty verdict in order to protect the honor of Curzon and Enina Tandro.
In 2370, the Dax symbiont was removed from Jadzia and kidnapped by an unjoined Trill, Verad, who believed he had been cheated of being joined. He was briefly joined with the Dax symbiont, becoming Verad Dax before he was apprehended and Dax was rejoined with Jadzia. After she was rejoined with the symbiont, Verad's memories – cold and afraid – stayed with her for the rest of her life.
After landing on a planet in the Gamma Quadrant, Jadzia and Odo tried to solve a mystery. The people of the village were disappearing. They discovered that the people were holograms, created by Rurigan, whose village was wiped out by the Jem'Hadar. The hologenerator was malfunctioning, but they were able to fix it and bring the people back.
That same year, Jadzia took on the role that had caused her so much pain before, that of field docent for the Trill Symbiosis Commission. Her initiate, Arjin, boarded Deep Space 9 with a great deal of apprehension because of the legendary harshness of Dax as a field docent. Jadzia, however, was determined not to be the same kind of docent that Curzon had been and made every effort to convince Arjin of this.
Jadzia kept an oath made by Curzon with his Klingon brothers. His friends' sons had been killed by the Albino, a master criminal, against whom the four vowed vengeance. At first, they were reluctant to accept her into their group, but she successfully persuaded them. She participated in the attack that killed the Albino; however, two of the three Klingons were also killed.
Jadzia was threatened with the removal of Dax a second time in 2371, when it was discovered that a previously undisclosed host, Joran Belar, had been psychotic. This previously unknown host was a skilled musician who had had a violent temper and killed people; including the doctor who recommended that he be dropped from the program. Jadzia had unknowingly begun to manifest some of Joran's musical talents. The Trill Symbiosis Commission had kept the memories of Joran blocked from both symbiont and host, but they began to resurface and threatened to cause Jadzia to reject Dax. Doctor Bashir then recommended that he and Commander Sisko take Dax back to Trill for treatment from the doctors of the Symbiosis Commission as Doctor Bashir's knowledge of Trill biology; specifically symbiosis, was limited. Subsequent investigations by Commander Sisko and Doctor Bashir uncovered the existence of Joran Dax. Under threat of exposing their great secret – that one in two Trill were capable of joining, not the generally believed one in ten thousand – the Commission agreed to restore Joran's memories by allowing the memories to completely surface and reintegrate into her mind, which ultimately equalized the symbiosis and saved Jadzia's life.
In 2371, she was transported back in time to the era of the Bell Riots, an event which caused social upheaval and awareness of the plight of the poor. While Sisko and Bashir were trapped in a Sanctuary District, Dax was befriended by a wealthy businessman named Christopher Brynner who took her in under the assumption that she had been mugged. Jadzia and Christopher quickly became friends. She accompanied him to a business function. Subsequently, she convinced him to allow the impoverished residents to speak out on his television network. It is worth noting that during her time in this time period, Dax was able to successfully breach the local computer systems and procure legitimate identification, internet logon credentials and credit cards to better blend into the environment. Consequently, she was able to contact the crew of the USS Defiant, who were able to return them to their own timeline, with only a few minor changes.
At some point between stardates 48959 and 49011, Jadzia was promoted to the rank of lieutenant commander.
She helped Kor and Worf retrieve the Sword of Kahless, saving it from being taken by Toral, a usurper to the leadership of the Klingon High Council. She assisted Bashir in his attempts to cure the blight, a disease caused by a bioweapon with which the Jem'Hadar had infected a planet. Jadzia joined Worf on Martok's ship, the IKS Rotarran. The crew was lax and had no fighting spirit, due to the constant defeats by the Jem'Hadar. She helped instill Klingon pride and spirit in them, which contributed to them winning their first battle.
Jadzia became an important figure during the Dominion War. With the threat of invasion, Jadzia commanded the Defiant in a mission to mine the Bajoran Wormhole. She was ordered to do this in order to prevent further Dominion reinforcements from coming through. Ultimately, this action was the catalyst that began the Dominion War.
After Deep Space 9 was taken by the Cardassian/Dominion fleet, Jadzia piloted the Defiant to safety. Soon after, she became involved in several battles with the Dominion aboard the Defiant.
During a mission to destroy a ketracel-white facility in Cardassian space, the Dax symbiont was badly injured from the explosion. Jadzia, along with the rest of her crew, was rescued soon after by the Rotarran.
In early 2374, Jadzia was given command of the Defiant by Admiral Ross, after he promoted Captain Sisko to be his adjutant. When it was uncovered that a major reason for the Dominion's dominance was a sensor array monitoring all activity across five sectors, Jadzia commanded a successful mission to destroy it.
She was aboard the Defiant for Operation Return and was present for Sisko's near-suicide mission into the wormhole to stop Dominion reinforcements from coming through. Fortunately, the Prophets intervened, saving Dax and the rest of the crew of the Defiant.
Jadzia was left in command of Deep Space 9 when the Federation and allied forces went on the offensive at the First Battle of Chin'toka. With majority of the crew away from the station, Gul Dukat (controlled by a Pah-wraith) was able to beam aboard with the intent of releasing a Pah-wraith into a sacred Orb in order to imprison the Prophets in the wormhole. Jadzia unsuccessfully tried to stop Dukat, and was fatally injured in the process. Dukat, for his part told the dead Jadzia that he "meant her no harm". Her symbiont was saved and transferred to another Trill, Ezri Tigan, who became Ezri Dax.
