Chakotay

**Chakotay** is a Human Starfleet officer and Maquis leader in the 24th century. Chakotay served as first officer of the Federation starship USS *Voyager* during that vessel's harrowing seven-year journey in the Delta Quadrant. Upon *Voyager*'s return, Chakotay was promoted to  captain of the Newly Built USS Voyager-A a Refitted Intrepid class.

## Biography

### Early life

Chakotay was born on Trebus in 2329, the son of a man named Kolopak and a woman named Tananka. By the age of 6, Chakotay wanted to go against his family traditions and be a paleontologist.

Young Chakotay also had an independent nature, and often went exploring on Trebus. In 2341, Chakotay raided a junkyard on the planet and became trapped in the wreckage of an old shuttle pod; fortunately, he was later rescued.

Despite his independent nature, in 2344 and 2345, Chakotay accompanied his father to Central America on Earth to visit the homelands of their ancestors. During his time there Chakotay learned of the Sky Spirits and began to respect his cultural heritage.

In 2345, 15-year-old Chakotay was seriously considering entering Starfleet, and often spent time around the Starfleet personnel on the planet, led by Captain Hiromi Sulu. Sulu sponsored Chakotay's applications into the Academy.

### Service in Starfleet

#### Starfleet Academy

Thanks to the sponsorship of Captain Sulu, Chakotay entered Starfleet Academy in late 2347. During his first few weeks at the Academy he became friends with Svetlana "Sveta" Korepanova from Ekaterinburg, Russia. He also became unlikely friends with his late-assigned roommate, an unflappably cheerful Bolian named Chert.

At the end of his first year at the Academy, Chakotay returned to Trebus to undergo his first vision quest using the *akoonah*. As a result of his vision quest he decided to continue his Academy education.

During his first year at the Academy, Chakotay underwent intensive pilot training in North America. Shortly after, Chakotay underwent training on Venus, and later underwent training for a semester in the asteroid belt located between Mars and Jupiter.

Also during his time at the Academy, Chakotay became a proficient light-heavyweight boxer, and scored a record of 23 wins and only one loss, which was to a Nausicaan.

#### Early career

Chakotay graduated from the Academy in 2351. By 2353 he served aboard the USS *Vico*, as an aide to Captain Roger Hackney and held the rank of lieutenant. It was aboard the *Vico* that Chakotay had his first encounter with a Cardassian warship that had violated the Federation border.

At some point, Chakotay began serving on the USS *Heritage*. A female officer named Grant was the first officer. During this time, Chakotay and Grant began a romantic relationship, one which Grant noted in Chakotay's Starfleet file. In 2375, the crew of the USS *Voyager* held a "roast" of Chakotay for his birthday. Parts of his Starfleet record were read aloud, including Grant's note about their relationship.

In 2362, Chakotay transferred to the USS *Gage*. He stayed aboard the *Gage* for four years of conflict with the Cardassians. Following the end of the Federation-Cardassian War, Chakotay was granted an extended leave on Trebus.

By 2368, Lieutenant commander Chakotay was serving aboard the USS *Gettysburg*, under the command of Captain Madolyn Gordon.

In March of 2370 while teaching *Advanced Tactical Training at Starfleet Academy*, Chakotay decided to resign his commission, he handed his resignation into Admiral Nimembeh at Starfleet Headquarters. He returned home to Trebus.

### The Maquis

In early 2370, Chakotay visited his old Academy friend Sveta on Bajor. Sveta informed Chakotay that there was a new resistance group against the Federation-Cardassian Treaty of 2370 called the Maquis. Sveta requested that Chakotay join this group and help defend his colony and others that found themselves in the Demilitarized Zone, and subject to Cardassian rule. He supported the group, but needed time to consider his options.

A few weeks later, Chakotay's life was changed forever when his village on Trebus was destroyed by a Cardassian thermalite weapon. He joined the Maquis, and was placed in command of a ship dubbed the *Liberty*. One of his first contacts in the Maquis is a Bajoran woman named Seska, who Chakotay became very close to. A few weeks later, Chakotay rescued B'Elanna Torres from a Bolian freighter that had been attacked by Gul Tancret and the Cardassians. After saving her, Chakotay took her to Riva Prime and Torres joined the Maquis and became the chief engineer aboard the *Liberty*.

Around stardate 47582, Chakotay and Torres encountered the Cardassian prototype weapon, *Dreadnought* in the Badlands. While the self-guided weapon was meant to destroy a Maquis weapons base, Torres reprogrammed the torpedo to attack a Cardassian planet.

A few weeks later, the *Liberty* was destroyed, but all crewmembers managed to survive. Shortly after, his team managed to salvage an old fighter from a Federation surplus depot and they name the ship *Geronimo*. The *Geronimo* herself was lost in 2371, after she was destroyed by Tharia ch'Ren, a former crewmember who had seized control of the third Malkus Artifact. Thankfully, Chakotay and his crew were rescued by Cal Hudson.

Following this event, Chakotay was given command of the *Peregrine*-class fighter *Spartacus*. In early 2371, the *Spartacus* discovered the plague-ridden planet Helena in the Demilitarized Zone. Chakotay's crew, along with Lieutenant Thomas Riker, succeeded in defeating the disease, and the mixed-race inhabitants of the planet.

A few weeks later, Chakotay assumed command of a *Ju'day*-class fighter, the *Val Jean*. He was to lead a large Maquis task force from the base on the Terikof belt to attacked the Cardassian Montee Fass shipyards in the Oliv system. However, plasma storm activity in the Badlands forced the attack to be called off, but instead they launched an attack on Opek Nor and succeeded in destroying the station.

The *Val Jean* was pursued by the *Galor*-class vessel *Vetar*, under the command of Gul Aman Evek, into the Badlands, where she was disabled in the plasma storms. Captain Chakotay didn't get to savor his victory, as shortly after his vessel was hit by a displacement wave created by the Caretaker, to carry them off to the Delta Quadrant.

### Aboard the USS *Voyager*

#### In the Delta Quadrant

hortly after their arrival in the Delta Quadrant, Chakotay and his crew were transported to the Caretaker's Array, and examined for the viability to act as the Caretaker's successor. Three weeks later, the USS *Voyager* was transported to the quadrant and was similarly examined. For the sake of finding a way to return to the Alpha Quadrant, Chakotay teamed up with Captain Kathryn Janeway. In the battle with the Kazon around the Array, Chakotay sacrificed the *Val Jean* to destroy the lead Kazon ship, and he and his crew beamed over to *Voyager*. When Captain Janeway decided to destroy the Array to save the Ocampa, Chakotay supported her decision and the former Maquis joined Janeway's crew with Chakotay serving as her first officer.

Initially, Chakotay had a difficult job of trying to merge his former crew to the crew of *Voyager*. In the first weeks, B'Elanna Torres and Joe Carey were competing for the chief engineer's job, which at one point came to punches. The situation was resolved and Torres became chief engineer. Several of his former crew had immense problems assimilating, and upon Chakotay's suggestion, they underwent a crash course in Academy training from Lieutenant Tuvok.

#### Return to Earth

Chakotay finally returned to Earth at the end of 2377 when *Voyager* traveled inside a Borg sphere through a transwarp conduit into the Alpha Quadrant.

## Personal interests

Chakotay didn't use the holodeck often, but enjoyed reading instead.

He occasionally took the time to embrace his artistic side, such as creations using colored sand while trapped on "New Earth" and carvings of Native American symbols.

#### Foods

Chakotay was a vegetarian; one of his favorite meals was mushroom soup. Some foods he hated were carrots and fried food (because it upset his stomach), and he refused to eat pudding because he thought it was slimy. Neelix was aware of his dietary preference. During a trade mission to the Nar Shaddan in 2377, he did not press the delicacy of falah nectar on Chakotay because the beverage was made from a meat byproduct, even though it would have been a diplomatic gesture; Neelix convinced Harry Kim to try it instead.

Chakotay preferred to avoid alcoholic beverages when possible, saying he preferred to "stay in control". . One of his favored beverages was Antarian cider that he kept a secret stash of hidden in the cargo bay 2.

#### Anthropology and paleontology

One of the many reasons he joined Starfleet was to pursue his interests in anthropology and paleontology. He was fascinated by 20th century Earth during *Voyager*'s visit there in 2373 (1996), and said that if they were trapped there, maybe he'd become an anthropologist. Once, he considered becoming a paleontologist as well.

While serving in Starfleet, he visited a tomb excavation on Ktaria VII.

In 2373, while examining the Distant Origin Theory, Chakotay suggested that the Voth might have evolved on an isolated continent on Earth and that natural disasters could have buried the evidence under water or rocks.

In 2375, while the telepathic pitcher plant made most of the crew believe they were going to reach Earth through a wormhole, Chakotay imagined he'd received a full pardon – and a professorship of Anthropology at Starfleet Academy.

Chakotay was interested in the early history of space exploration, John Kelly being one of his childhood heroes. So when *Voyager* got the chance to actually find his ship in 2376, he was more than eager to salvage the craft when he'd found it intact. Too eager in fact – he injured himself and damaged the *Flyer* in his attempts to claim the craft before leaving the graviton ellipse it was caught in. Seven of Nine had to beam aboard the *Ares IV* to retrieve a component, and Chakotay tried desperately to get her to realize how special it was. As a result, Seven played several of Kelly's logs that were left active when she beamed aboard. He was able to use his skills and knowledge of paleontology in the search.

Later that year, he was very interested in a planet they discovered that moved at an accelerated rate compared to normal space-time. He had *Voyager* send down a probe to take images as the planet advanced. At one point he commented that every second they missed they could be missing "whole civilizations", to which Torres replied "*So? We'll catch the next one.*"

In 2378, Seven and Chakotay were trapped together again, this time on a world inhabited by the primitive "Ventu", who Chakotay was fascinated with. His interest in anthropology helped him to understand their culture, and he even learned many of the phrases in their sign language.

He told renowned Voth molecular paleontologist Forra Gegen he was a scientist too, and spoke of years studying science alongside navigation and starships to Kar.

#### Boxing

Since his time at Starfleet Academy, Chakotay was a fan of boxing. While there, the legendary Boothby helped him train. He occasionally ran a program on the holodeck where he would box a Terrellian with Boothby's assistance. He also said that "boxing helped him relax."

In fact, in 2375 while running this program an alien species that lived in chaotic space tried contacting him, and used images of the boxing simulation in their communication.

He was also a fan of professional sumo wrestling, once getting into an argument about the 77th Emperor's Cup.

In 2376, *Voyager* came across a game called *Tsunkatse* on Norcadia Prime. He was quite a fan, and was sure to watch several of the matches live. Although The Doctor didn't approve, Chakotay insisted it was an excellent way to test a warrior's skills and instinct.

## Personal relationships

Chakotay got along with most of the people he worked with and had many personal relationships among the crews of both the *Val Jean* and *Voyager*. On his Maquis ship, people were very informal, so he got to know his crew on a very personal level. He got the respect of the *Voyager* crew when Janeway put her trust in him by making him first officer and when he decided to re-embrace Starfleet principles. He forged a deep and meaningful friendship with his Captain, but never hesitated to speak up when he believed that she might be making an unwise move. He was also often the liaison between the crew and the Captain, as people trusted him. In the beginning, Chakotay felt that some of his former Maquis crew members might be unfairly judged, so he always had a soft spot for them and did his best to stand up for their interests, especially when he felt that no one else was.

While he was not the kind of person to hold a grudge, he also knew when to be tough and enforce the rules. On one occasion, when two of his former Maquis friends, Jarvin and Seska, suggested that they would support him if he wanted to mutiny against Captain Janeway, Chakotay told them point blank that if he ever heard them talk like that again, he would personally throw them in the brig. He also occasionally turned to rather unconventional non-Starfleet methods to discipline his former Maquis crew members who had a little more difficulty or were unwilling to adjust to Starfleet standards: on one occasion, when Kenneth Dalby disrespected Tuvok's orders and just walked out on him after he was specifically ordered to participate in special training, Chakotay decided to teach him a lesson "the Maquis way": he walked into the mess hall and knocking Dalby out of his chair, saying that this was the way the Maquis handled situations like this and that he could continue to do it "the Maquis way" until everyone got it. Dalby and other troublemakers got the point and became more cooperative. Situations like this were rare, however, and through his journey aboard *Voyager* Chakotay was able to remain on good terms with almost everybody.

### Friends

#### Kathryn Janeway

From day one Chakotay and Kathryn Janeway forged and maintained a relationship based on deep respect and admiration for the other. In fact Janeway once remarked that while just a few years ago she did not even know his name, she could not imagine a day without him. The mutual respect they had for each other was never lost even when they occasionally disagreed quite vehemently over command decisions.

#### B'Elanna Torres

B'Elanna Torres was Chakotay's engineer, and unofficial first officer aboard the *Val Jean*, and the two shared a close friendship as well as working relationship for years. Despite their occasional differences, Chakotay was the one she trusted the most and probably also the only who truly understood her nature and inner struggle; she often returned to him for guidance.

With a fiery temper mostly from her Klingon side, Torres was the first to speak up that it wasn't Captain Janeway's right to destroy the Caretaker's array and thus get them all stranded in the Delta Quadrant. Speaking as her commanding officer, however, Chakotay made it clear who the captain was. From then on, Chakotay asked his entire crew to respect Janeway as their leader and embrace the Starfleet way. Initially, the most hesitant and resistant person to do this was Torres

#### Tom Paris

Chakotay knew Tom Paris from a time when Paris had joined the Maquis after his disgraceful discharge from Starfleet. He didn't like Paris because unlike himself who had joined the Maquis on moral grounds, he saw in Paris nothing more than a mercenary, willing to fight for anyone willing to pay his bar bills. Needless to say, he was not too happy to see him on Captain Janeway's bridge after they were stranded in the Delta Quadrant

#### Tuvok

Chakotay and Tuvok served together on the *Val Jean*, where Tuvok was posing as an undercover agent for Starfleet in order to infiltrate Chakotay's cell. After they had been stranded in the Delta Quadrant by the Caretaker's array, Tuvok's real identity was soon revealed. This angered Chakotay who felt fooled and betrayed by Tuvok. However, as the nature of their situation required, they maintained a cordial relationship when they were forced to cooperate and work together aboard *Voyager*.

## Personal Timeline

 2344
 2368
 2368
 2371