Marina Derex

Doctor Marina Derex was a Betazoid and an accomplished neuroscientist who served in Starfleet.
== History ==
Born on Betazed in the mid-24th century, Derex studied at the University of Betazed, achieving a Master's degree in computer science, psychology, and xenoanthropology, with additional studies in maths, genetics, interstellar evolutionary biology and neuroscience. She would make her career as a scientist and researcher, eventually earning the Betazoid Loyalties award and the Zee-Magnees Prize in the late 24th century. 
She went on to serve as an advisor to the Federation Science Council. ()
Following the discovery of the Progenitors in 2369, Derex was one of six scientists recruited by the Federation President to investigate them. They eventually found the technology used by the Progenitors to create life. Derex managed to enter the portal where she met a Progenitor whose mind was brought into the liminal space-time to guide whoever came next. However, Derex believed that civilization wasn't ready for the technology yet. The Progenitor agreed to wait if Derex would build a path to better prepare the next visitor for the possibility. ()
The group destroyed their research and erased themselves from all databases; to one day guide others to the technology, they created a map to its location that they split into five pieces. Derex took the fifth piece and hid it when the group split up. ()
In 2371, Derex wrote the manuscript Labyrinths of the Mind of which only a few thousand copies were published. Derex later hid her piece of the map with the original handwritten manuscript at the Eternal Gallery and Archive, leaving her library card for it as the clue on Halem'no and including a transitive link that telepaths or empaths could use to find the constantly moving Archive. Inside of the manuscript was a mindscape, a program designed by Derex to test whoever came looking for the Progenitors' technology, to see if they would know and be honest with themself. If they passed, the AI would then point to where Derex had hidden the clue in a crystal in one of the Archive's viewing rooms and reveal an important secret that would need to be known when the seeker arrived at the coordinates where the Progenitors' technology was hidden. ()
According to the Archive's records, Derex became an archivist later in life and lived out the remainder of her life in the Archive. Amongst the books that she read during her time living in the Archive were A Comprehensive Guide to Talaxian Hair Styles, Hupyrian Folk Tales, and Euclidean Geometry. ()
== Legacy ==
In 3191, Derex's name appeared on a list that Doctor Kovich gave to Captain Michael Burnham after he discovered the identities of the scientists who had found and hidden the Progenitors' technology. ()
After Burnham got trapped in Derex's mindscape, Commander Rayner asked Hy'Rell for biographical data and a list of all materials accessed by Derex while she was living in the Archive. Cleveland Booker noted that it was an extensive list that suggested that Derex liked learning new things, but there was nothing on it that helped to solve the mystery. Rayner searched as well without success while Booker helped to prepare the Archive for an impending Breen invasion. ()
When Burnham entered the portal at the coordinates, the Progenitor told Burnham about meeting Derex. Burnham ultimately came to a similar conclusion to the Betazoid scientist about civilization not being ready for such technology. ()
Category:Starfleet sciences personnel
Category:Betazoids