Zero

Zero was a Medusan who lived during the late 24th century. Like other Medusans, Zero was an energy-based non-corporeal lifeform, and as such, they identified as genderless, as they lacked a body.
As a Medusan, Zero possessed telepathic powers, often stating what others were thinking with or without their permission. They also had their species' natural aptitude for navigation, though until they found the Protostar, they had never piloted a starship before. ()
== Biography ==
=== Early history ===
Part of a group of Medusans who left their homeworld long before the 24th century to explore the galaxy, Zero was kidnapped from their hive mind by Kazon slavers as they explored a planet. ()
Zero was bought by The Diviner and held at the Tars Lamora prison colony, where other slaves were forced to look upon the Medusan unprotected to brainwash them. Zero managed to escape and fashion a makeshift containment suit for themselves to safely interact with corporeal lifeforms. They became a rebel fighter known as "Fugitive Zero". In 2383, Zero helped fellow prisoner Dal R'El take possession of the recently-discovered . ()
=== USS Protostar ===
When the crew returned to Tars Lamora to liberate the other prisoners, in order to keep the Diviner from hurting anyone again, Zero revealed themselves to The Diviner, thus driving him mad. Unfortunately, Gwyndala caught a glimpse of Zero's reflection and was left in a near-catatonic state. Fortunately, Zero was able to heal Gwyn, although she was unable remember her last conversation with her father. ()
Guilt-ridden over what they'd almost done to Gwyn, Zero made it their mission to help her recover her lost memories. Though Gwyn did experience flashbacks, the details of the last conversation she had with her father remained elusive. Later, when the crew arrived at Federation outpost CR-721, Zero took Gwyn to the station's sickbay which they believed would have better equipment. After placing Gwyn into a biobed, Zero stepped out. At that precise moment, the Diviner's weapon was activated, and the station's systems turned against itself, with multiple systems malfunctioning, including the doors to sickbay. Momentarily trapped in her biobed, which was filling with water, Gwyn caught some glimpses of memory, and was able to cut herself loose using her heirloom. When Zero was finally able to enter the room, Gwyn announced that she remembered everything – most importantly the devastating weapon living construct hidden onboard the Protostar. ()
Though the crew located the Diviner's weapon, they couldn't find a way to disarm it. Not long after, they came across a dormant Borg cube. Though Hologram Janeway strongly advised them to leave the area, citing how dangerous the Borg were, the crew decided that, since the Borg had accumulated knowledge from across the galaxy – they might have information on how to disarm the weapon. When the crew failed to get information directly from the dormant cube's vinculum, Zero volunteered to be assimilated since Medusans, like Borg, were of a hive mind. Though initially unable to resist the lure of assimilation, they were saved when Gwyn reminded them that they were already a part of a collective on the Protostar. Back on the ship, Zero reported that they did learn something about the weapon. It was called a living construct and could neither be deactivated or removed. ()
Zero served as medical officer again when Dal fell victim to the same mysterious curse that the Enderprizians warned them about. Zero attempted to find a cure for this mysterious disease but was limited since they didn't know exactly what they were dealing with. After investigating the gallows, the crew informed Zero that toxic runoff was the cause of the illness plaguing Dal and the village. Armed with this information, Zero was quickly able to synthesize a cure. ()
Eventually, thanks to the Living construct, the Protostar crew no longer had control of the ship and was headed for the heart of Federation space, where it was met by an armada of Starfleet vessels. When Starfleet vessels, contaminated by the living construct, began attacking one another, Dal decided that the only solution was to destroy the Protostar. When Pog stated that that would destroy everything in this solar system, Rok countered that it wouldn't if they set the ship to explode as it was going into proto-drive. Unfortunately, since the self-destruct was off-line, the core would need to be detonated manually. Dal volunteered to go down with the ship. but Holo Janeway declared that she should be the one to stay behind.
As Zero and the others escaped on a shuttle that Rok built using the vehicle replicator, the Protostar destroyed itself in mid-jump, disabling the living construct.
A month later, the Protostar crew made it to Starfleet Headquarters on Earth, where they found themselves in front of a Starfleet tribunal where they faced various criminal charges, such as stealing a Federation starship. Vice Admiral Kathryn Janeway argued on their behalf that the kids did everything in an effort to warn Starfleet. Thanks to the admiral's impassioned speech, all criminal charges were dropped. Although they weren't allowed immediate entrance into Starfleet Academy as they hoped, the crew, with the exception of Gwyn, who'd decided to go to Solum to try to unite her people, were permitted to serve under the admiral as warrant officers-in-training. Starfleet officers built a new and improved containment suit for Zero to replace the original they had made. ()
=== USS Voyager-A ===
Six months later, Zero was assigned to the along with the rest of the former Protostar crew. Although engrossed in their new medical studies under The Doctor and initially unwilling to indulge in Dal's shenanigans, Zero was the first one to realize that the command crew were up to something and united their friends to find out. The crew discovered that the senior officers were secretly planning to rescue Chakotay through the wormhole opened by the Protostars destruction using the , a ship specially built for the purpose. Janeway revealed that Starfleet Command thought that the rescue mission through time was too dangerous and it was in danger of being scrapped, so the crew agreed to keep the secret. However, a scuffle with Nova Squadron led to the Infinity accidentally being launched into the wormhole early with the Protostar crew and Maj'el aboard. ()
Arriving on Solum in the future, the makeshift crew discovered that they had arrived hours before Chakotay and Adreek-Hu were due to launch the Protostar through the wormhole into the past. The crew were captured by the Vau N'Akat and imprisoned with the captured Starfleet officers, eventually realizing that they may be caught in a predestination paradox where they were the ones to help Chakotay escape and launch the ship into the wormhole, setting up the events that led to them discovering it on Tars Lamora in the first place. However, due to Dal dropping his disruptor in the melee, Chakotay was instead able to escape with Adreek aboard the Protostar, resulting in the ship not getting sent to Tars Lamora, altering the timeline and creating a temporal paradox. ()
After getting a message to save Gwyn from a mysterious entity and discovering that the paradox was causing their friend to phase in and out of existence, Zero worked with Maj'el to turn their spaceship into a makeshift timeship, forming a bond with the Vulcan cadet in the process. The crew managed to send the Infinity back in time to present day Solum where they rescued Gwyn and returned to Voyager where The Doctor was able to build a temporal stabilizer as a temporary solution to Gwyn's condition. On the return journey, Maj'el told a flustered Zero that they were the most logical in their band of misfits, something that Zero had trouble finding a response to. ()
Zero later worked with the others to decipher the message that the entity had left with Murf, hampered by everyone's inability to understand what their friend was saying. Even Zero's telepathic powers couldn't allow them to understand their friend, forcing the crew to figure out a way to translate what Murf was saying, largely while an exasperated Zero distracted The Doctor by feigning interest in his holonovel, Love in the Time of Holograms. Zero later took inspiration from the novel to create holo-duplicates of the crew with the help of Jankom and Rok in order to fool Janeway and Voyagers crew into thinking that they were still aboard while the Protostar crew had actually stolen the Infinity to chase after the mysterious entity whom they believed to be Chakotay. The three succeeded in creating holo-duplicates so perfect that they actually believed that they were the crew and had the ability to read the minds of the other holograms, just like the real Zero could with the real crew. Feeling guilty for brushing Zero off after their return to Voyager despite the friendship that they had formed, Maj'el distracted The Doctor for the crew, earning her Zero's thanks and buying the crew enough time to steal the Infinity and escape. ()
While using an abandoned Borg transwarp conduit as a shortcut, the Infinity was forced to land at the Kazon training facility and all but Zero and Murf were captured. The alarmed Zero subsequently found the wreckage of a number of ships nearby, including the and another starship. Confronting First maje Ekthi, Zero and Murf freed him from mind control, but were captured by the rogue AI responsible for everything. With their friends in danger, Zero destroyed the AI by ramming into it with their containment suit, but at the cost of damaging the suit beyond repair. ()
Seeking a solution for their broken containment suit, Zero received a message that drew the Infinity to Ovidia IV where a number of non-corporeal lifeforms lived, including other Medusans. Zero received a new synthetic body that allowed them to move around in a humanoid physical form and feel sensations for the very first time. Although aware that the body could break down if they left the planet, Zero decided to remain with their friends who had become Zero's adoptive family. ()
The message led the Protostar crew to a time ziggurat where they found Wesley Crusher who revealed that the crew were critical to repairing the broken timeline and saving the prime universe from destruction. Hiding out from the Loom, the crew and Wesley were joined by Maj'el who had been a part of an away team from Voyager searching for them before defying orders to leave in order to continue the search by herself. Wesley's machine was able to determine that maj'el was the missing seventh variable that they needed to fix the paradox and she joined the crew's mission. ()
The portal that Wesley sent the crew through led them to Ysida where Chakotay and the temporally-displaced Protostar had been marooned for ten years. Reigniting Chakotay's broken spirit, the crew worked together to repair the ship's impulse engines and warp drive and launch the Protostar once more. Needing to build a new proto-core in order to reach Voyager 3,000 light years away, the Protostar visited a Class M planet nearby which was overrun by mutated tribbles. Although they succeeded in retrieving the bosonite needed to build a new proto-core, Zero injured their leg in a tribble stampede and was unable to fix it which Zero recognized as being a result of their body breaking down just like Zero had been warned it eventually would. ()
The Protostars rendezvous with Voyager inadvertently created an interphasic rift, splintering the ship into a number of alternate realities. Rok and Zero accidentally got separated from the rest of the crew early on, landing on a Voyager crewed by the Enderprizians and captained by Tuvix, although this had the benefit of them missing the others' visit to the mirror universe. After the rift was sealed and everyone was reunited on the correct Voyager, Zero commented that they were just getting used to Tuvix's Talaxian-Vulcan cuisine. ()
Although The Doctor attempted to help Zero, the damage to their leg was irreparable and not even The Doctor could fix it, meaning that Zero would require a containment suit once again. However, The Doctor suggested that Starfleet's recent advances in artificial physiology could be used to give Zero a new containment suit in which they could retain the ability to feel physical sensations. Accepting both the good and the bad that would come with being able to feel, Zero asked Jankom to build their new suit rather than having The Doctor contact the Daystrom Institute for help. Although Jankom was surprised at the request, Zero explained that Jankom's skills were unparalleled, and they had hoped that he "could give it the old Jankom touch." Jankom agreed to Zero's request, and The Doctor sent over some schematics to help. ()
When Voyager came under attack from a temporal weapon, Zero, having remained behind on Voyager to help the injured Grom, chose to sacrifice their failing physical form in order to save the ship as Zero's Medusan physiology made them the only one capable of approaching the weapon. Zero managed to retarget the weapon onto Maj'el's Nova Flyer, allowing her, and Dal to use it to destroy the Rev-1 with the Boothby Supernova. Although rushed, Jankom was able to build Zero a new containment suit using the Protostars vehicle replicator. While the new suit was outwardly similar to Zero's original design, Jankom perfected it and included sensory inputs so that Zero retained the ability to feel physical sensations as they had wanted. ()
=== USS Prodigy ===
Zero later received a field commission to ensign and, alongside the rest of their friends was posted aboard the new ship, the . ()
== Personal Interests ==
Zero frequently enjoyed a mystery holodeck program, set in a lighthouse, which begins each time with them receiving a letter at midnight. The letter would reveal the object of the mystery and provide the first clue towards its discovery. They would then be lead on series of puzzles that must be solved in order to solve the mystery. (PRO: )
== Appendices ==
=== Appearances ===
* 
** 
** 
** 
** 
** 
** 
** 
** 
** 
** 
** 
** 
** 
** 
** 
** 
** 
** 
** 
** 
** 
** 
** 
** 
** 
** 
** 
** 
** 
** 
** 
** 
** 
** 
** 
** 
** 
** 
** 
* 
=== Background information ===
Zero is voiced by Angus Imrie.
According to their official description:
Zero is a Medusan: a species of body-less, genderless, energy-based lifeforms whose true appearance can drive anyone insane. To protect everyone, Zero made a containment suit from castoff materials. Curious and intelligent, Zero is a telepath who just wants to help those around them. Before teaming up with the U.S.S. Protostar crew, the Diviner held Zero against their will to be used as a weapon, but Zero escaped and vowed to do no more harm. 
=== External links ===
* 
* 
Category:Medusans
Category:USS Protostar personnel
Category:Starfleet enlisted personnel
Category:Starfleet Academy personnel
Category:USS Voyager (NCC-74656-A) personnel
Category:USS Prodigy personnel
Category:Former Borg drones