Kira Nerys

Kira Nerys was a major, later colonel, in the Bajoran Militia, following years in the Bajoran Resistance during the Cardassian Occupation and a Starfleet commander for a brief period during 2375. She served as Bajoran liaison officer on Starfleet station Deep Space 9 and later assumed command of the station. Kira was integral in the survival of the Cardassian Rebellion against the Dominion. (, )
== Childhood ==
Kira NerysBajoran naming practice is the reverse of Western earth countries, in which the given name or "first name" is used before the surname, "Last name" or family name. Bajor uses the family name first, followed by the given name. In the case of Kira Nerys, her family name is Kira, and her given name is Nerys. was born in the Dahkur Province on Bajor, presumably in 2343, and lived a large part of her life in the Bajoran Singha refugee camp. In 2346, her mother Kira Meru was taken to Terok Nor to serve as a comfort woman to the Cardassians. At three years old, she was too young to understand this, and Kira Taban, her father, told his children that Meru had died. Nerys would not learn the truth until 2374, at which time she traveled back in time to 2346 using the Orb of Time. The three-year-old Nerys briefly met her future self but, as she was using the pseudonym "Luma Rahl", the young Nerys remained ignorant as to her identity. After her mother was taken, Nerys and her brothers began receiving better food. Though many Bajorans, including Nerys herself, viewed comfort women as collaborators, her father felt Meru was making a great sacrifice for her family and often told his daughter that her mother was the bravest woman he'd ever known. ()
She once confided to Vedek Bareil that she had "absolutely no artistic skills" and that she "was the worst finger at the 4-year-old level." ()
Kira often got into trouble as a child because of her interest in annoying the adults. However, the Cardassian Occupation of Bajor had affected every aspect of Kira's life and led her to join the battle for liberation. In 2369, Nerys told Kai Opaka that she had known nothing but violence since she was a child. () She began her association with the Bajoran Resistance at age twelve when she ingratiated herself in the base camp of Shakaar resistance cell leader Shakaar Edon. ()
== Bajoran Resistance ==
By the end of the year 2356, Kira was running errands, cleaning weapons, and doing various other tasks for the Shakaar resistance cell. When they planned an ambush and required more infantry, Kira immediately saw her opportunity and volunteered for the mission. Although everyone thought she was far too young, Lupaza stood up for her and told her she had the heart of a sinoraptor and that they had no other choice but to accept her help. When Furel made a joke about Kira, Lupaza hit him for it. Eventually, Shakaar himself approved the teenager and she joined the ambush. ()
The ambush was her first mission, one she would never forget. She was scared, and cold, and kept biting her fingers to keep the blood flowing while the group waited on a mountain ridge. She was most afraid that one of the other Shakaar members would notice her doing so. After three or four hours, the skimmer they were waiting for appeared. When the hatch opened and the first Cardassian emerged, she opened fire and kept shooting until the power cell was empty. When it was all over, she was giddy, grinning, and relieved that she had not let anyone down. Later, Lupaza crafted a Bajoran earring out of some of the metal of the destroyed skimmer, which she gave to the younger Bajoran. Kira would wear the adornment throughout the rest of her life. ()
Having proven herself, Kira Nerys was then regarded as a member of the Bajoran resistance. () In 2361, she was with the resistance that winter in the Dahkur Hills hiding from Cardassian sensor sweeps. They hid in caves without power and little food. ()
In another mission, Kira planted a bomb outside the house of Gul Pirak, the resulting explosion vaporized the east wing and killed twelve Cardassians, including Pirak's entire family. Twenty-three others were crippled, including Silaran Prin. ()
Kira also participated in the raids against the Haru outposts, along with Shaxs, who saved her life during them. Years later, she still had nightmares about her actions during those missions. She and Shaxs would fight together on many other missions, developing an ongoing 'tab' of sorts on which of them owed the other more for having their life saved, with the winner being the last one that owed their life to the other. (, ) 
Kira was then sent to Terok Nor for two weeks to retrieve a list of Bajoran collaborators who were selling the underground out from a chemist named Vaatrik, the collaborators' direct link to Dukat. Shortly after her arrival, she met Vaatrik, and Kira got to be friends with him. One night, Kira broke into his chemist's shop looking for the list when Vaatrik returned unexpectedly. Not having any other choice, Kira killed him. She paid Quark to cover her. 
Vaatrik's death alerted Dukat, who unofficially appointed Odo as an investigator. Kira was suspected by Vaatrik's wife, Pallra who thought she was having an affair with him, which Kira denied to Odo and posed an alibi. Odo found out that Quark was paid to cover her, and then Kira had to "confess" that she was a member of the underground, and when Vaatrik was killed, she was in part of the resistance's bombing of the ore processing. Kira was able to convince Odo to dismiss her as a suspect. ()
The Cardassians never saw Kira as much of a threat and her security file described her as "a minor operative whose activities are limited to running errands for the terrorist leaders." ()
== Deep Space 9 ==
=== 2369 ===
After the Cardassian withdrawal in 2369, Kira joined the Bajoran Militia with the rank of major and was appointed the position of Bajoran liaison officer on Deep Space 9. She was torn between her loyalty to Bajor and the fact that she knew that the Federation's presence was needed to secure her homeworld's safety. When she first met Commander Benjamin Sisko, she told him outright that she did not feel the Federation had any business on Bajor. However, when the wormhole was discovered, she immediately realized the implications for Bajor's future if they could stake a claim, and that the Federation would be able to give that claim weight. While Kira and Sisko disagreed on several issues, she eventually became his trusted right arm as second in command of the station. ()
The major was deceived by Tahna Los, a former Bajoran resistance fighter, who was rescued when his ship was attacked by Cardassians, who claimed he was a terrorist. Kira convinced Commander Sisko to grant Tahna asylum, despite his misgivings. However, it was soon revealed that Tahna was indeed planning to collapse the entrance to the wormhole to drive both the Federation and the Cardassians out of Bajoran territory. Kira was able to thwart the terrorist's plan. ()
When the station was infected with a virus, inducing aphasia in the crew, it was discovered that this was a booby trap left behind by the Bajoran Resistance. Kira was able to track down Surmak Ren, who helped plant the virus, and an antidote was found. ()
In addition to her duties on Deep Space 9, she was called upon to act for Bajor on several issues. She evacuated an elderly man named Mullibok from his home to make way for Bajoran development. () 
Kira would suffer a great loss when Kai Opaka arrived at the station. She along with Sisko and Bashir would take Opaka on a trip through the wormhole. They became stranded on a planet where eternal war took place. People died, only to revive and fight again. During the crash, Opaka would die but later would regenerate. When the force field on the planet was broken, Opaka would decide to stay and help try to end the fighting. ()
Kira and Sisko came into conflict when she led a mutiny against him while under the control of an energy matrix which contained an archive of a power struggle within an ancient species. It had infected the crew of a Klingon ship in the Gamma Quadrant. It was brought on to the station by the sole survivor of that ship, who, although safely aboard the station, killed himself. It was then affecting the station crew, with Kira in the role of the murderous leader of the opposition. After Odo managed to trap the affected personnel in a single cargo bay, he used a program written by himself and Dr. Bashir which drove the matrix out of the affected personnel and placed it into suspended animation in the atmosphere of the cargo bay, at which point the bay was vented into space and the affected crew returned to normal. ()
At the end of the year, Kira was confronted by a Cardassian who commanded the notorious Gallitep labor camp. The Cardassian had the ailment Kalla-Nohra Syndrome, which was caused by a mining accident at the camp. Kira charged him with being a war criminal. He stated that his name was Aamin Marritza and that he was a file clerk at the camp. After examining pictures of the camp, it was believed that he was in reality Gul Darhe'el, the commander of the camp.
He confessed to the Major and proceeded to horrify her by bragging about the camp and the deaths he caused. He accused her of being a war criminal since her terrorist activities killed innocent Cardassians. Odo investigated and revealed that "Darhe'el" really was Marritza, and that he had cosmetic surgery performed to look like Darhe'el, who had died of natural causes six years prior. He wished to be caught and stand trial so that the crimes would be exposed. He hoped that Cardassians would be shocked and admit their guilt so that a new government could be put in place. Humbled by his guilt and grief over his past, Kira released him, reflecting that it was better to live to encourage changes to be made on Cardassia, but he was immediately killed by a Bajoran on the station, Kira admitting as she knelt beside Marritza's dead body that she could no longer judge someone as guilty merely for being a Cardassian. ()
=== 2370-2371 ===
Kira rescued Li Nalas in hopes that he would unite the different factions on Bajor. She fought on the Federation's side against the Circle, a radical Bajoran group who attempted to overthrow the Bajoran government and drive the Federation from Deep Space 9. She was captured by them and tortured but refused to divulge any security secrets about the station to them. After learning that the group was being financed by Cardassians to cause turmoil, so Cardassia could re-occupy Bajor, she traveled to Bajor and presented the evidence to the Council of Ministers, helping to end the threat. ()
She became an opponent of Vedek Winn Adami. She believed that Winn was responsible for the assassination attempt on Vedek Bareil, whom the major supported in his bid to be elected Kai. Bareil suddenly withdrew to keep a secret concerning Opaka's conduct during the Occupation. Winn won the position and then proceeded to attempt a takeover of Bajor's secular Provisional Government. Kira continued to have a deep-seated mistrust of the Kai. ()
A Bajoran named Vaatrik Pallra attempted to have Quark murdered after he retrieved a list of Bajoran collaborators. This reopened the five-year-old murder case of her husband, in which Major Kira was a suspect. Kira first met Odo at the time of the crime, and even though much of the evidence pointed to her, she told Odo that she did not kill him as she was in the underground and was sabotaging a different part of the station. Odo believed her and did not turn her in. After he solved Quark's attempted murder, he realized that Kira did kill Pallra's husband because he was a collaborator. ()
Refugees called the Skrreea from the Gamma Quadrant arrived on the station believing that Bajor was their long-lost paradise. They wished to settle on the planet. They were refused because the Provisional Government feared that the still-devastated planet could not sustain such an increase in population and Kira supported that decision. As they left, Kira then realized that the Skrreeans were accomplished farmers who could have cultivated the land and helped end the famine on Bajor. ()
She was with Odo in 2371 when he discovered that his people were the Founders, rulers of the Dominion. Later that year she was kidnapped by the Cardassians who surgically altered her to look like a Cardassian. They were nearly able to convince her that she was a spy, named Iliana Ghemor, who had been planted in the Bajoran Resistance. She was rescued with the help of Elim Garak. Later that year she became involved in Thomas Riker's plot to attack Cardassia on behalf of the Maquis. ()
She was also one of the first of Deep Space 9's crew to visit the mirror universe, where she met her counterpart, the "Intendant", one of the evilest people in the Alliance. ()
=== 2372-2373 ===
Kira helped repel the Klingon invasion of Deep Space 9. The Klingons believed that the fall of the military government and the rise of a civilian alternative on Cardassia was the result of Changeling infiltration. She helped Gul Dukat rescue his daughter from the Breen. She also taught Dukat how to fight as a resistance fighter against the Klingons. All of this was deeply distressing to the Major, as Dukat was her sworn enemy during the Occupation of Bajor. ()
After an accident aboard a runabout in 2372, the fetus of Kirayoshi O'Brien was transferred from the injured Keiko O'Brien's womb to Kira's to allow his survival. Soon afterward, Kira moved in with the O'Briens so that they could care for Kira while feeling close to their unborn child. ()
While pregnant, Kira investigated the killings of her former Resistance Cell cohorts and was captured by a Cardassian named Silaran Prin. He was disfigured in an attack by her group. After he revealed that he intended to kill her and raise Kirayoshi himself, she killed him to escape. ()
Kira gave birth in a traditional Bajoran birthing ceremony aboard Deep Space 9 in 2373. Miles, Keiko, and Shakaar Edon were at her side. ()
Kira's bravery and creative tactics saved Bajor, DS9, and the Federation, Klingon and Romulan fleets from destruction when she took the Defiant to warp inside the Bajoran solar system – an incredibly risky thing to do – to quickly catch up with the runabout , which was being piloted by a Changeling into the sun to cause it to supernova. She pulled the Yukon off course with a tractor beam and it exploded in space. ()
In an alternate timeline she was killed in the crash of the when it traveled back in time two centuries and crashed on a Gamma Quadrant planet. The present-day Defiant discovered the planet and the descendants of the survivors. They informed their ancestors that in two days the crash would occur. Kira decided to sacrifice herself by allowing the events of the crash to occur but was thwarted by the alternate Odo, who was still in love with her. In preventing the crash, he revealed the love that the current Odo held for her. ()
At one point, Kira became acquainted with Becker Mariner, a Starfleet officer who participated in the Dominion War, who she treated in a friendly and familiar manner when they met at Deep Space 9 in 2381. ()
=== The Dominion War ===
After the Dominion captured Deep Space 9, Kira remained on the station to represent the Bajoran Government under the new Dominion administration, which placed Dukat back in his former position as station commander. ()
While at first, she cooperated with the Cardassians and the Dominion, that changed after the crisis of conscience when Vedek Yassim accused her of being a collaborator, the very type of Bajoran she spent her early years fighting. After Yassim committed suicide in protest against the Dominion occupation, she decided to start a new resistance against the Dominion. ()
Immediately, with the help of Odo and others, the Major began a campaign of fomenting conflict between the Cardassians and Jem'Hadar. Sometime later, she and Rom were captured while attempting to thwart Dominion attempts to re-open the Bajoran wormhole. () 
She, along with Rom, were condemned to die, until Quark rescued them. Kira, along with Quark, Rom, Jake, and Odo, helped disable the station's weapons, which helped Starfleet retake the station. ()
Shortly after the Dominion withdrawal Bareil's mirror universe counterpart arrived on the station rekindling feelings Kira had for the late Bareil of her universe. He claimed asylum and spent much time with the major, although he was actually the lover of Intendant Kira, with whom he planned to steal the Orb of Time from the station. However, he fell in love with Major Kira and released her from capture, although he found he could not remain in her universe living under the shadow of the revered Vedek he resembled. The Major thus again lost one of the great loves of her life. ()
Kira's body was taken over by a Prophet when a Pah-wraith possessed Jake Sisko, bringing about the prophesied "Day of Reckoning" that would determine if Bajor would enter into a golden age, or the evil ones would ravage the planet. The battle was terminated before a conclusion because Kai Winn flooded the station with chroniton radiation that drove out the lifeforms. ()
In 2375, Kira was promoted to the rank of colonel and placed in command of Deep Space 9 after Captain Sisko took an extended leave of absence. She confronted the Romulans, who were allies against the Dominion, over the placing of weapons on a hospital planet in the Bajoran system. ()
Gul Dukat and his cult of Bajorans loyal to the Pah-Wraiths captured the colonel later that year and brought her to Empok Nor. One of her teachers, Vedek Fala, was a member of the cult. When Kira attempted to expose Dukat as a fraud, Dukat announced that the cult members, even himself, must give themselves to the Pah-Wraiths by committing suicide. Kira saved the cult by exposing Dukat's personal suicide pills as fakes. Disillusioned, Fala killed himself. ()
Kira was asked by Captain Sisko and Admiral Ross to help Legate Damar organize the nascent Cardassian uprising against the Dominion and teach them the finer art of guerrilla warfare because of her extensive experience in the Bajoran Resistance. Kira resented having to work with Damar as he had killed Tora Ziyal during Operation Return and the Cardassian retreat from the station, murdering a girl that Kira considered a member of her family. But she put her feelings aside, realizing that organizing the Cardassian resistance forces would be essential to the completion of the war. Sisko granted her the rank of Commander within Starfleet. This was done to help Kira gain the trust of those Cardassians who still believed she was an anti-Cardassian terrorist. Odo and Garak departed with the commander to join Damar at the Cardassian Liberation Front headquarters. ()
Although Damar welcomed her assistance, Gul Rusot was vocally distrustful of her. Kira injured the Gul when he confronted her. Their animosity almost led to Kira's death at Rusot's hand, but Damar killed him before he could carry out his attempt. Her force succeeded in commandeering a Jem'Hadar ship fitted with a Breen energy dissipater and bringing it to Deep Space 9, where the Federation could analyze it and develop countermeasures. ()
During the final battle of the Dominion War, Kira, Garak, Damar, and two other soldiers from the rebellion stormed the Dominion command center on Cardassia Prime. Damar and one of the soldiers were killed, but Garak and Kira managed to make it to the command center, kill Weyoun and capture the Female Changeling.
=== Post-War ===
After the end of the war and Captain Sisko's disappearance, she resigned her temporary commission in Starfleet and once again assumed command of Deep Space 9. ()
She was still in command of the station in 2381. At one point, she assisted Captain Carol Freeman of the in trade negotiations with the Karemma. The event quickly turned into trouble when the Karemma discovered that Quark had stolen their technology to use in his replicators for his own profit. Kira and Freeman were able to work together to keep Quark out of their custody and open up trade deals with them moving forward. ()
== Personal relationships ==
=== Friendships ===
==== Benjamin Sisko ====
Kira first met Sisko when he came to take command of Deep Space 9. They got off to a rocky start and their relationship was further complicated when he was revealed to be the Emissary of the Prophets. When she sought Admiral Rollman's intervention on behalf of Tahna Los, Sisko was unamused, warning her, "Go over my head again, and I'll have yours on a platter." ()
An early test of their budding friendship came when Sisko wanted to put Odo in charge of investigating Aamin Marritza, believing her to be too emotionally invested. She made an emotional plea, asking him as a friend to let her conduct the investigation, and he relented. ()
Their relationship would change and evolve over the years to the point that Kira became Captain Sisko's trusted and able first officer and one of his closest advisers. At one point, Kira was infected by an energy imprint of a culture that destroyed itself and led to a mutiny against Sisko. Odo was able to disperse the energy, and everyone returned to normal. () However, the two did manage to form a good working relationship and they even became friends in later years.
Despite their working relationship, Kira always kept her relationship with Sisko more formal than did other members of the Deep Space 9 crew. She did not realize it but Sisko's status as the Emissary of the Prophets, a major figure in her religion, made her feel uncomfortable with the thought of a true friendship. This changed when she had to keep watch over him during a mission in which the Defiant was nearly destroyed. All but alone with him on the bridge, Kira tried to keep talking so Sisko would not lose consciousness, as he had a concussion and risked falling into a coma if he did so. This brought them closer together, and after the ordeal, they even went to a baseball game in the holosuite together, where she was introduced to hot dogs. ()
After these events, Kira continued to demonstrate her loyalty and friendship to her commanding officer during the buildup to the Dominion War when she worked with Starfleet personnel on several occasions to carry out many key missions including helping smuggle the captain and a mission team into Klingon territory so they could gain proof of Changeling manipulation of the Klingon Empire. Additionally, during the Dominion attempt to retake DS9, Kira, as a member of the Bajoran militia, officially protested Sisko's refusal to turn control of the station over to her government. After the pro forma protest was done, she reported for duty and stood by her friend and commander during the forthcoming battle.
It turns out Kira had picked up some baseball lingo from Benjamin. Having mentioned Starfleet always tended to "give curveballs" that no one expects. ()
==== Dax ====
Kira formed her closest friendship with Jadzia Dax. They confided in each other often about a variety of things. They also discussed problems and sought each other's advice, although Kira did not like Jadzia's choice of men and sometimes Jadzia would let slip some of the details of Kira's romances.
Jadzia also got Kira to loosen up a bit. Kira hated holosuites but did participate in them with Jadzia. 
Kira continued her friendship with Dax once Jadzia was killed and had taken Ezri Tigan as its new host. Ezri considered Kira as one of her closest friends. ( (original broadcast), )
==== Miles O'Brien ====
Kira developed a mutual conflicted attraction to Miles O'Brien during the period in which she carried his child after an accident forced Julian Bashir to transplant the fetus from Keiko's body to hers for it to survive. () Soon after Kira moved in with the couple at their request. After a time, Miles' care, affection, and close quarters led to a brief period of discomfort. Luckily, both Miles and Kira were able to separate their feelings and continue their friendship without taking it any further. () 
Sometime later, Kira gave birth to Miles' son Kirayoshi, with Kira remaining an unofficial aunt to both Kirayoshi and his older sister Molly. () Kira once admitted to Tekeny Ghemor that Yoshi was the closest thing she had to a son. ()
==== Quark ====
Quark and Kira initially had a hostile acquaintance based on her considering him to have "collaborated" with the Cardassians during the occupation of Bajor. () This antagonism was also influenced by the sexist attitude of Ferengi toward females. () However, she was not beyond taking advantage of his connections and unique skills, and even asked him to hack into the Vedek Assembly database on one occasion. ()
It was Quark who alerted Kira and her resistance about how the Dominion would bring down the minefield, he decided to help Kira before Operation Return. She was astonished and gratified when Quark rescued her (as well as his brother Rom, Leeta, and Jake) out of Terok Nor's holding cells. () It was his rescuing her that influenced her to recommend the Federation aid him by providing a Vorta POW to exchange for his mother when she was taken hostage by the Dominion later that year. ()
It was thanks to Quark that Kira would come to her senses and realize the true nature of when he was planning to steal a Bajoran Orb. Specifically, Quark commented that he had noticed Bareil was spending a lot of time at the Bajoran shrine and that it looked to Quark as though Bareil were "casing" it to find the best way to break into it. ()
At the beginning and end of Sisko's command of Deep Space 9, she has remained authoritative and strict to Quark, including threatening violence if he ever touched her again, or threatening to incarcerate him over placing bets on who the next Kai of Bajor will be, but by the time of the latter, her attitude toward the Ferengi softened to the point where she attempted to comfort him over Odo's lack of goodbye at his departure. ()
==== Tora Ziyal ====
Although Kira intensely disliked Ziyal's father Dukat, she developed a deep friendship with Tora Ziyal to the extent she even considered her part of her family. () 
Kira's friendship with Ziyal began when Dukat went to fight the Klingons, Kira persuaded him to let her take Ziyal with her to DS9, because she didn't want Ziyal to go through what she did when she fought the Cardassians. () Kira took on the role of guardian and nurturer to Ziyal when she relocated to DS9. Kira would later arrange for Ziyal to go to school at a university on Bajor and consequently leave Ziyal in the care of friends as war with the Klingons broke out. Ziyal's activities on the station during her stay are mostly unknown, though she attended a racquetball match in which Kira played. ()
Kira was very protective of Ziyal; when she found out that Elim Garak was meeting with her she threatened that if he hurt Ziyal he would regret it, but later she came to accept their relationship although she still didn't approve of it. () Kira resorted to violence and assaulted Damar when he tried to force Ziyal to come with him and mend her relationship with her father. ()
==== Shaxs ====
Kira and Shaxs served together in the Bajoran Resistance and became good friends. During their time there, the two would save one another on multiple occasions from various prison transports and ambushes. When the two were reunited on Deep Space 9 in 2381, Kira recalled him saving her life during a raid on the Haru outposts and said that she still owed him for it. This sparked a friendly, albeit fierce argument between the two over who was indebted to who for saving one another. Later on, when the Karemma they were negotiating with ordered the "Alpha Contingency", Shaxs would save Kira from an attack, and when the situation was resolved, she playfully jabbed to him that she now actually did owe him one; a jab that annoyed him greatly. ()
=== Family ===
Kira's mother and father were Kira Meru and Kira Taban, respectively. She had two siblings, Kira Reon, and Kira Pohl.
Kira Meru was selected as a comfort woman and willingly became the consort of Dukat in 2346. She did this so her family would receive special favors in the internment camp ensuring their survival. She remained his consort until her death seven years later. Kira's father told his children that their mother had died in the camp. Kira became aware of the truth when Dukat revealed this to her in 2374. Kira used the Orb of Time to travel back to 2346 to see if this was true. When Kira saw the truth, she participated in a plot to kill Dukat and her mother. In the end, she understood what her mother was doing and warned them before the bomb went off. () 
Kira and her father remained in the internment camp until she joined the resistance. The Cardassians set fire to Taban's village, and he tried to reason with them. They responded by burning his garden and fatally wounding him. As her father was dying, unable to face seeing him die Kira left to complete a terrorist mission and missed being with her father when he died. She never forgave herself. ()
==== Tekeny Ghemor ====
Kira formed a strong friendship with Tekeny Ghemor, one of the leaders of the Cardassian Government. They first met when Kira was kidnapped by the Cardassians, surgically altered to convince her that she was Ghemor's daughter who was an agent for Cardassia. Ghemor, realizing the truth, helped her escape and became a leader in the Cardassian Underground who opposed the military government. At the time, he was the only Cardassian for whom Kira had any semblance of respect.
In 2373, he sought refuge on Deep Space 9 after the Dominion took over Cardassia. He was dying, and Kira took care of him until he passed away. During this time, he told Kira that he still viewed her as the closest thing he had to his daughter; Ghemor still had no information as to what had become of her. According to Cardassian tradition, Ghemor told Kira all of the "family secrets" on his deathbed. The reason behind this tradition was to ensure that surviving relatives had information to protect themselves if enemies of the family tried to twist matters to their advantage later on. During these conversations, he revealed to Kira that he had taken part in a massacre of Bajoran civilians during the Occupation. Dismayed, Kira still felt that no one should die alone, and stayed with him until the end. Ghemor also provided important information to the Federation concerning the Dominion and Cardassia. Kira had Ghemor buried on Bajor, beside her father. ()
===Cardassians===
Although she spent years fighting the Cardassian occupation of Bajor, Kira was not completely consumed by her prejudices against them. While she never apologized for or regretted any of the actions that she committed against the Cardassian forces occupying her world, even when faced with the possibility of being killed by twisted murderer Silaran Prin in revenge for her role in the attack that left him disfigured, throughout her time on Deep Space 9, she came to recognize that not all Cardassians could be tarred with the same brush, such as when she met Aamin Marritza, a Cardassian file clerk who attempted to present himself as a deceased war criminal out of a misplaced sense of guilt. She even came to regard Cardassian legate Tekeny Ghemor as a father figure, an affection that he eagerly reciprocated, and developed a bond with Tora Ziyal, the half-Bajoran daughter of her old nemesis Gul Dukat, becoming an informal guardian to her. () 
Despite the difficulties that Kira faced while working with the Cardassian Liberation Front, she nonetheless established a working relationship between herself and Damar, despite their previous antagonism and the simmering tensions that existed among his men. She showed a degree of sympathy for her old enemy after discovering that his family had been executed and ultimately fought alongside him in the effort to liberate Cardassia from the Dominion, which cost Damar his life. After his death, Kira honoured Damar's memory by capturing the Female Changling and liberating his home. ()
=== Romance ===
==== Thomas Riker ====
She showed a brief attraction to Thomas Riker while he was under the guise of William T. Riker. When Kira was ordered to relax by Julian Bashir, she met Thomas in Quark's and they talked for three hours. However, this attraction was dissolved when he hijacked the and revealed himself as Thomas as well as a Maquis agent. He took the ship into the Orias system to gather intelligence on a fleet he heard about. His mission failed and was taken into Cardassian custody. She swore she would find a way to get him back and they kissed before he was transported to a Cardassian ship. ()
==== Julian Bashir ====
During an outbreak of 'Love Fever' brought on by a case of Zanthi fever afflicting a visiting Lwaxana Troi, Kira, who was dating Bareil at the time, was strongly attracted to Julian Bashir. While the two made definite outward displays of intense affection – and Bashir's diagnosis noted that it could only work on people who already had an attraction to the other on some level – there was no direct mention of the attraction continuing afterward. ()
==== Bareil Antos ====
Kira first became involved with Vedek Bareil when he visited Deep Space 9 to help mediate a dispute between Vedek Winn and the Federation over the school Keiko O'Brien was running. () Their relationship strengthened when, after Kira was replaced as Bajoran liaison to DS9, Bareil invited her to spend time at his monastery. He also helped her and Dax reveal The Circle's plan to take over Bajor by allowing them to dress in religious robes so they could safely make their way to Bajor's Council of Ministers. () In 2370, during the time of the election of the Kai, their romance had progressed to a love affair. Kira passionately disagreed with Bareils unorthodox interpretations of Bajoran prophecies but believed he would make an excellent Kai. ()
The relationship ended on a sad note when, during a shuttle accident, Bareil was mortally wounded. He was kept alive by Dr. Julian Bashir and might have survived, but a crucial meeting had been scheduled with Legate Turrel, with whom Bareil had been negotiating in secret for months. Although Kai Winn took over the negotiations, no one knew Turrel the way Bareil did and she required his advice. As a result, Bashir was forced to subject Bareil to various dangerous and controversial medical procedures to keep him alive and able to communicate, pushing his body past the point where he would have been able to recover if given peace and rest. When the negotiations were over, Bareil asked that all artificial life support be stopped as the only alternatives to sustain him at this point would have only kept his body alive while compromising his consciousness. He died in Kira's arms. ()
==== Shakaar Edon ====
Kira and Shakaar, who became the head of the Bajoran Government, were lovers for a year. He was her resistance leader during the Occupation of Bajor. She met him again when she was sent by Kai Winn who had assumed the role of head of the government after the death of Kalem Apren, to reclaim soil reclamators from the farmers in his province. Government troops refused to attack their old leader, and Shakaar, following Kira's advice, returned to the capital and ran for the head of the government, a position he won. () The relationship heated up during a visit to the station by Shakaar when he arrived to negotiate Bajor's admittance into the Federation. () He was at Kira's bedside when she gave birth to the son of Miles O'Brien. () They ended the relationship in 2373, but they remained friends.
Kira's transition from Vedek Bareil to Shakaar led Gul Dukat to remark in 2372 that she was attracted to powerful Bajoran men. ()
==== Odo ====
The relationship between Kira and Odo was long and tumultuous. They first met during the Occupation of Bajor, when Odo suspected her of murdering a collaborator but concealed the truth as he sympathized with her motives. () Over the years of working together, Kira and Odo became close friends and colleagues. Odo began to fall in love with her at some unknown point, but he initially concealed his feelings as he was certain she didn't feel the same way. The feelings they had for each other withstood the other romances Kira had. Odo's feelings for Kira were first revealed to her by a version of Odo who had been trapped with the descendants of the Defiant crew for two centuries, the current Odo incapacitated by the anomaly the ship had passed through, but this same alternate version put a strain on their relationship when he killed/erased eight thousand people to save her life, preventing the accident that would throw the ship back in time because Kira would have died in the past. () With the help of Vic Fontaine, Odo was able to express his feelings and found out that Kira felt the same way, which culminated in a very passionate kiss in front of Quark's. () They remained lovers until after the Dominion War when Odo returned to the Great Link to save his people and lead them on the path of peace. ()
=== Personal interests ===
Kira enjoyed springball. () She expressed a wish to someday have children of her own after Odo commented on how good she was with Kirayoshi. ()
==== Religion ====
Like many Bajorans, Kira was religious, holding to the Bajoran faith. She held Bajoran religious leaders (Vedeks) in high esteem and it had been a lifelong desire of hers to see and receive a prophecy from one of the orbs sent by the Prophets – a dream fulfilled when spending time in the Monastery of the Kai at the invitation of Vedek Bareil. She was orthodox in her beliefs, disagreeing with Vedek Bareils unconventional interpretations of the Bajoran prophecies, and siding at one point with Vedek Winn when she insisted Bajoran children on Deep Space 9 should be taught apart from the Federation school so that they wouldn't receive what she considered to be blasphemous – secular – education about the Bajoran wormhole (which was considered to be the Celestial Temple of the Prophets, in the Barjoran religion). Kira would meditate every day and would pray to the Prophets. During the instability following Cardassia's withdrawal from Bajor, Kira saw the Bajoran religion as the only thing holding Bajor together. (, , )
== Holograms ==
Kira has been holographically duplicated on several occasions. 
*A transporter accident in 2372 aboard Deep Space 9 caused transporter patterns that would normally be stored in the pattern buffer to overwrite some of the characters in the Julian Bashir, Secret Agent 1960s holoprogram. The character of Anastasia Komananov was overwritten with the appearance of Kira. ()
*Luther Sloan recreated the entire station, and staff, of Deep Space 9 in 2374 as part of his investigation into Julian Bashir. This program had a recreation of Kira. ()
*Vic Fontaine made an addition to the Bashir 62 holoprogram in 2374. The singer Lola Chrystal was added for Odo based on Anastasia Komananov. ()
== Chronology ==
;2343: Born in Dahkur Province on Bajor.
;2346: Mother "died".
;2355: Joined the Shakaar resistance cell.
;2357: Helped liberate the Gallitep labor camp.
;2365: Assigned to find a list of Bajoran collaborators.
;2365: First met Odo.
;2369: Bajor liberated. Joined Bajoran Militia. Assigned to Deep Space 9. Ordered Deep Space 9 moved to the mouth of the Bajoran Wormhole.
;2369: Piloted the runabout in a Gamma Quadrant mission; its crash landing killed Kai Opaka. The Kai was resurrected but could not leave the moon.
;2370: Began dating Bareil Antos.
;2370: Was given the privilege of encountering the Orb of Prophecy and Change.
;2371: Kidnapped and taken to Cardassia where she was surgically altered to look like Iliana Ghemor, a Cardassian operative from the Obsidian Order.
;2371: Bareil Antos died.
;2373: Surrogate child Kirayoshi O'Brien born.
;2374: Using the Orb of Time, traveled back to 2346 on Terok Nor and discovered that her mother didn't die when she thought. Kira Meru became Gul Dukat's consort to gain special treatment for her family.
;2374: Began dating Odo.
;2375: Promoted to colonel. Given temporary Starfleet commission as a commander. Joined the Cardassian Rebellion. Odo leaves for the Great Link. Given command of Deep Space 9.
;2381: Assisted Captain Carol Freeman of the in trade negotiations with the Karemma.
== Memorable quotes ==
"I care about freedom."
: - Kira Nerys ()
"That's the thing about faith… if you don't have it, you can't understand it and if you do, no explanation is necessary."
: - Kira Nerys ()
"The man is a heartless, cold-blooded killer."
"Like I said, he's a Cardassian."
: - Dukat and Kira, talking about Garak ()
"There is your wormhole!"
: - Kira to Gul Jasad ()
"To kill her and my son… the casual brutality of it… the waste of life. What kind of state tolerates the murder of innocent women and children? What kind of people give those orders?"
"Yeah, Damar, what kind of people give those orders?"
: - Damar and Kira ()
"Why? He wasn't Darhe'el! Why?!"
"He's a Cardassian. That's reason enough."
"No… It's not."
: - Kira and Kainon, after Kainon kills Marritza ()
"Major, when you're with the Romulans, try to be diplomatic."
"I'm always diplomatic!" 
[scene cuts to Kira being debriefed by the Romulans] 
"That is the most ridiculous thing I ever heard, and I resent the implication!"
: - Sisko and Kira ()
"Well, now that I know that you're here, I will be sure to inform Constable Odo to increase station security."
"That won't be necessary. I feel quite safe here."
"No, it wasn't your safety that concerned me."
: - Kira and Winn ()
"I've always found that when people try to convince others of their beliefs it's because they're really just trying to convince themselves."
: - Kira ()
"If you don't take that hand off my hip, you'll never be able to raise a glass with it again."
"I love a woman in uniform."
: - Kira and Quark ()
"Oh, it was good to see you today, old-timer."
"Yes. The Prophets smiled on both of us."
"Thanks for having my back when the klisht hit the fan."
"Just doing my job."
"Now I do owe you one."
"Wait, what? No. No, no, no. Hey, come on."
"Gotcha."
:- Kira and Shaxs ()
== Appendices ==
===See also===
* Lola Chrystal
* Kay Eaton
* Iliana Ghemor
* 
* Anastasia Komananov
* Luma Rahl
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=== Background information ===
Kira Nerys was played by Nana Visitor. The young Kira seen in the episode was played by an unknown actress, even though the young one had dialogue (although it could be an ADR voiceover).
====Conception and development of the character====
During the production of , it was intended for character Ro Laren to be assigned to the station. Indeed, it was the character of Ro who inspired the producers to set the new show near Bajor. When Michelle Forbes declined the role, her character was modified and became the basis for Kira Nerys. Rather than allow this change in plans to become a hindrance, however, the producers used it to their advantage; "It meant that our captain of the Federation would be matched against someone in a different color uniform, who had a different agenda, who had different priorities, and that put them in conflict." (New Frontiers: The Story of Deep Space Nine, DS9 Season 2 DVD special features)
The original Writers' Bible for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine described Kira as:
Major Kira, a former major in the Bajoran underground. Kira is now an outspoken critic of the provisional government. Having fought for freedom all her life, it has angered her to see the older leaders throw it all away through their petty dissensions. She has been trying without success to reach the Kai herself to air her grievances. It is very possible she was sent by the government to be the Bajoran administrator at the space station simply to get her outspoken voice out of ear shot. Kira loathes the Cardassians. She committed atrocities against them in the name of freedom, some of which bother her. But others in the Bajoran underground begin a new wave of terrorism and she is forced into a moral quandary about tracking them down and bringing them to justice. Former terrorists consider her a turncoat.
Speaking in 1992, shortly after shooting had begun on , Nana Visitor said of Kira, "She has very a strong belief system, is very spiritually oriented, and is very much a Nationalist, very much wants to see the Bajorans get themselves together as a people." Speaking in , shortly before shooting finished on , she said, "When the series began, she was a pretty shell-shocked being. She'd come out of an occupation, she'd been a freedom fighter, so she'd fought, she'd killed, she'd slept under rocks and in caves, and had as harsh as life as in present-day we observe on TV in the war-torn areas. She comes into this perfect environment of the Federation, and she hates them; hates the whole image, hates the whole concept. It's not like… Basically, she would have liked to have taken somebody by the shoulders and said, 'It's not really like that out there. You know, you can make it all nice and neat, but it is not, it is still not like that." (Crew Dossier: Kira Nerys, DS9 Season 1 DVD special features)
Also speaking in 1999, Ira Steven Behr said, "Kira came to the station an angry woman. I think when we were watching the initial dailies of the pilot, we looked at it and we said, this is a very angry woman. Being a child of the Bajoran Occupation was not the way to grow up, so she was a very angry, distrustful woman, and I think she's grown and relaxed over the seven years. I think it's a wonderful character and I think that the relationship she's been able to form with Odo is truly a charming and loving relationship. But she's still a very strong woman. 'The toughest broad in the galaxy' we like to say." (Crew Dossier: Kira Nerys, DS9 Season 1 DVD special features)
Speaking several weeks after filming had wrapped on , Visitor commented, "Kira has come full circle, but going full circle, she's explored all the degrees all the way around the circle, so she's pretty much in the same place, but not the same person at all. There's a depth and an understanding, and an experience that only going the whole way around the trip gives you. So that's why the way it ended is very satisfying for me, as an actor, as the keeper of Kira, she comes full circle." (Crew Dossier: Kira Nerys, DS9 Season 1 DVD special features)
In the first draft script of , Kira was given the Starfleet field commission of lieutenant commander rather than full commander.
====Kira after the series====
Nana Visitor outlined her thoughts on Kira's life after DS9: "She definitely gets another promotion, and she's commanding the Defiant that's for sure. That's for sure! The Defiant goes out – she's in the chair. Those things are very inappropriately important to me, and that was during the series. Now that she's commanding the station I imagine her getting more and more politically involved in Bajor and frankly, although I don't think this would really ever happen, I'd like to see her become Starfleet. I'd like to see what would happen when you take a loose cannon and put them clearly in that universe. That was the whole premise of the show, Starfleet against these people who really didn't live by those rules and seeing what happens. Now, one step further to me, would be to put her right inside of it and see what kind of struggle, and what the actual struggle is, tilted that way. It seems that no one has a problem living with the prime directive. I`d like to see someone struggle with it like she would, like a real loose cannon would."
The possibility of Kira becoming a Vedek didn't interest Visitor, but the "season eight" story in the DS9 documentary did: "Well, my understanding, and I saw the doc, I've seen it twice now, but what I felt was that she stepped away from being a vedek to come back to the station and do what was necessary. Now that's what interested me. Being a vedek, not so much, but I know that's the direction the books took, so it makes sense that that's where she went, but that she comes back is what interests me."
====Reception====
Visitor commented: "I think she was a little bit controversial. Xena was still, she was strong, but she looked just a little more like something in the '90s that was a little more palatable. There were edges to me that might hurt some people. So I understand when she doesn't come up in those cultural conversations, but what has always satisfied me and kept me feeling okay about it all, are the people that I've met in the 20 odd years since they show. The women who say, “This meant a lot.” From people in NASA to just every industry I can imagine, women saying, “You know what? I was different growing up, and your character, I would say, ‘What would Kira do?’ And it gave me the strong answer.” So just to feel that, there was just this thread of influence and strength that Kira gave other women was really enough for me."
Heather Jarman commented: "I love Kira. If I had to drill it down to one reason, I would have to say its Kira's faith. Though she is truly a child of her era who understands the concept of 'wormhole aliens' and whatnot, she has this powerful belief in forces that she can't readily quantify or explain. She's willing to admit that she's not the 'highest' force in the universe and that there are other forces greater than she is. Her humility inspires me. Her bravery, her ability to move past prejudice, was one of the highlights of the series for me. She embodies traits that I not only admire, but want to cultivate in myself". 
Una McCormack commented: "Kira is one of the most complex and best performed female characters in Trek". 
Ronald D. Moore has revealed that the first name of "Kara Thrace" from Battlestar Galactica was inspired by Kira. 
====Trivia====
Kira Nerys was the first and, as of this writing, one of only four characters in Star Trek to meet their mirror universe counterpart face-to-face on screen. The others being Chakotay, who faced his mirror counterpart in PRO: "Cracked Mirror", Voq, all though the latter was "" at the time and Paul Stamets who met while they were both trapped in the mycelial network. Captain Jonathan Archer does appear in with , but only as a figment of the mirror Archer's imagination. 
=== Apocrypha ===
In the of novels, Kira was shunned from the Bajoran religion after helping spread a secular interpretation of the Prophets. After many months the decision was reversed. Kira became a Starfleet captain after Bajor was admitted to the Federation. The same year, in the Worlds of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine novella Olympus Descending, she was brutally attacked by the Jem'Hadar elder Taran'atar, and at the end of the story, barely surviving.
In the following novel Warpath, Kira fell into a coma and had visions of the Ascendants, in which she was a general trying to gain access to the fortress of Idran. She also had a conversation with the Prophets and Benjamin Sisko in the temple. To save her life, Dr. Bashir gave her an artificial heart. When told of this development by Sisko, Kira was horrified until she realized it worked perfectly. To comfort her, Sisko wryly asked if she expected a drum solo.
As of the novels Rough Beasts of Empire and Zero Sum Game, Captain Kira no longer commands Deep Space 9 and has been succeeded by Elias Vaughn and subsequently Ro Laren. She went on to become a vedek – completing the training in three years, a year less than any previous candidate – and subsequently sacrificed herself to destroy an invading ship coming through the wormhole in the novel Raise the Dawn. Her last appearance was in a vision to Sisko – although it may have been a Prophet posing as Kira – to inform him that his destiny was complete and that he could remain with his family. The novel Sacraments of Fire establishes that Kira was thrown back in time to 2377, where she plays an additional role in resolving the Ascendants crisis.
In Star Trek Online, set in 2409-2410, Kira is the incumbent kai, having relinquished command of DS9 to Captain James Kurland of Starfleet. She appears in the "Victory is Life" expansion released in June 2018, voiced once more by Nana Visitor. Guided by a vision from the Prophets, Kira, and Dr. Bashir accompany the player character to the Gamma Quadrant moon where Kai Opaka had been marooned more than forty years earlier (see ) with a cure provided by Odo and the Dominion that allows Opaka to leave the moon and return to Bajor. Kira steps down as Kai and returns to Starfleet as captain of the Defiant to combat the Hur'q threat.
The alternate reality version of Kira Nerys appears in the Star Trek: Ongoing story arc The Q Gambit where she is co-leader of the Free Federation Resistance and meets and Dr. after Quark helped smuggled them off Bajor. She then shows them the Reckoning Tablet and explains the artifact's significance in Bajoran mythology. According to legend, it contains two spirits: A benevolent Prophet and a malicious Pah-wraith and if the former can be freed, its power might be enough to restore order to the galaxy before she briefly explains the history of the Dominion and their alliance with the Wraiths. When asked by Spock how she intends to free the Prophet, Kira reveals they are on course to a hidden planet to complete the ritual and offers both McCoy and Spock a spot in the Resistance. While Kira makes plans to take a shuttle to the hidden base of the Resistance and supply them, she asks Quark to wrap up the tablet and bring it aboard, but Quark reveals he will not be helping them. Opening the cargo bay doors, he reveals the Dominion made him a better offer than the Resistance and has won his loyalty. Though Kira attempts to fight, Spock restrains her seeing the fight is already lost. The tablet is then seized and the three of them are taken prisoner and brought to Terok Nor to meet Dukat. After engaging in some false pleasantries, Dukat smashes the tablet freeing both the Prophet and the Pah-wraith trapped inside and merges with the Pah-wraith and claims that there is now only one power in the galaxy: Dukat. Considering her a worthy host, the Prophet leaps at Kira only for Dukat to strike her with his newfound power and kill her.
=== External links ===
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