Corey Aster
From Hidden Frontier
| CHARACTER BIOGRAPHY | |
| Corey Aster | |
 Star Trek: Hidden Frontier publicity photo
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| Full Name: | Corey Aster |
| Species: | Terran |
| Gender: | Male |
| Hair Color: | Black |
| Affiliation: | Federation, Starfleet |
| Family | |
| Parents: | Killed, Battle of Wolf 359 |
| Marital Status: | Married |
| Spouse(s): | Ro Nevin |
| Other Relatives: | Jeremy Aster (cousin) |
| Career | |
| Occupation: | Starfleet Officer |
| Previous Assignment: | Chief Engineer, USS Excelsior |
| Assignment: | Classified Research, USS Helena |
| Rank: | Lieutenant Commander |
| Insignia: | 
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Lieutenant Commander Corey Aster is the former Chief Engineer aboard the USS Excelsior. After having resided on the now-renegade USS Helena, he has been taken into custody aboard the USS Phoenix.
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Personal History
Aster is a human who was orphaned when his parents, both Starfleet officers, were killed in the Borg attack at Wolf 359. He was raised by his relatives on Earth, alongside his cousin, Jeremy Aster, who was also orphaned when his mother died on an Away Team mission while serving aboard the USS Enterprise. ("The Bonding," TNG) Corey and Jeremy were both accepted to Starfleet Academy.
Aster has exhibited both precognitive and clairvoyant abilities – 22 instances before entering Starfleet service and seven since he was commissioned as an officer. It is not known what the source of these abilities is.
Relationships
Aster was apparently in the same Academy class as his cousin, Jeremy Aster, as well as Jason Muñoz, Jenna McFarland, and Marla Durkos, and they remained friends after graduation. (HF 3.04 - "In Memory Of") His time at the Academy overlapped with Ro Nevin, Andrew Barrett, and Brad Rawlins, though these officers were apparently in a later graduating class. Aster took at least one class with Ro, and one class with Rawlins. It was during their time together at the Academy that Aster first took a romantic interest in Ro. Ro did not reciprocate those feelings at that time.
When Aster was temorarily assigned to Excelsior to assist in investigating the loss of Encke, there was an awkward encounter between Aster and Ro Nevin in the infirmary, during which Ro falsely claimed not to remember Aster. Aster still had feelings for Ro, but in the end, they decided to be just friends. (HF 2.05 - "Encke")
Nevertheless, when Aster was later assigned to Excelsior as assistant chief engineer, the relationship between the two remained awkward.
During an assignment to a joint Starfleet-Cardassian investigation on Radjic VI, Aster became romantically involved with Hanar, a Cardassian science officer. The relationship made Ro Nevin uneasy, even though he continued to deny that he had any romantic interest in Aster. Hanar died a hero on that mission, saving the lives of Aster and Ro. (HF 4.04 - "Grave Matters")
Romance with Jorian Zen
Jenna McFarland had previously arranged an encounter between Aster and Jorian Zen, who worked in her department, but it took until Aster and Zen worked together on a project involving Excelsior's tractor beam that the two began to hit it off. They discovered they had both lost loved ones in the Battle of Wolf 359. Ro Nevin effectively gave his blessing to the new relationship, telling Aster not to wait for him. (HF 4.05 - "Crossroads")
Starfleet Career
Starfleet Academy
Was roommates with Jason Muñoz, who later acted as Aster's C.O. on the Olympus. Aster also attended the Academy at the same time as Ro Nevin, Brad Rawlins (whom he shared Dr. Peterson's 'Anatomy of Planets' course), Marla Durkos, and Andrew Barrett ("Encke", "In Memory Of"). His areas of study included Starship Engineering, Terraforming and Tactical Operations.
Munoz and Aster schemed various pranks on the Faculty and Staff at Starfleet Academy, including successfully making off with Admiral Brand's pet tribble, planning on returning it to her on her breakfast tray the following morning. But they were caught out by fellow cadet Zak Kebron, while trying to teach the tribble to swim. Aster, along with his cousin Jeremy Aster, beamed two kegs of Romulan Ale onto the field during Commencement after Admiral Brand's speech. ("In Memory Of")
Aboard the USS Olympus
Serving as a junior bridge officer, he manned the Tactical station during an encounter with the Borg and a member of the Q Continuum en route to Starbase 373 from Deep Space 12, shortly after graduating from Starfleet Academy ("In Memory Of"). While serving aboard the Olympus, Aster was temporarily reassigned to the USS Excelsior as a Mission Specialist after the SS Encke disappeared in the Osiris system while on a terraforming mission. ("Encke")
Aboard the USS Endeavour
After completing his assignment aboard the Excelsior, Aster transferred to the USS Endeavour, until a few months later, when he was haunted by a precognitive dream of the Borg attacked the new Farpoint Station in orbit of Deneb IV. He discussed the matter with the counselor of the Excelsior, Myra Elbrey, in some detail. Elbrey also had something to ask of him, and offered him a position on Excelsior, as assistant chief engineer, which he readily accepted.
Aboard the USS Excelsior
Aster served as assistant chief engineer for three years, proving himself and making his way to the rank of full Lieutenant before he was promoted to Lieutenant Commander and took over as Chief Engineer in 2383, after Commander Lefler's promotion and reassignment as Excelsior's new Executive Officer. ("Heavy Losses") During his time, he also worked through his unresolved feelings for Lieutenant Ro Nevin, and forged a relationship with Lieutenant Jorian Zen, although this relationship became strained, due to Zen, a formerly unjoined Trill man, becoming joined to the exiled symbiont Dao.
During the final days of the conflict between the Federation, the Grey and the Tholian/Breen alliance working with Siroc, Aster and Zen broke up, after Zen gave in to his symbiont's feelings for a lover from a former life. Aster realized that things between the two of them had changed too much since the joining, and although painful, the split was amicable.
Aster remained with the Excelsior during its refit and repair schedule, and also became involved in a relationship with Ro Nevin. 6 months after the conflict was resolved, and the Briar Patch gases had dissolved with the destruction of the Grey Dyson Sphere, Ro and Aster were married in a Bajoran ceremony on Ba'ku.
The 'Iliad' Mission
Called back from their honeymoon, Aster and Ro were assigned to investigate and examine ways to collect data on the Archein forces, and were able to devise a way to use tetrahedron material to allow warp-capable craft to allow a Quantum Slipstream Drive to function properly. They also went over the data collected by the 'Iliad' probe collected from it's mission, after it was dispatching to the Andromeda Galaxy using their research, and discovered just how the invading forces were generating the wormhole artificially.
Aster was subsequently seconded to the IKS R'Kargh, a Negh'var-class attack cruiser, under the command of General Korg, who lead a mission to destroy the device creating the wormhole, to curtail the Archein invasion, while his husband was assigned as Science Officer to the Starfleet vessel being dispatched - the USS Odyssey. During the mission, the R'Kargh suffered major damage, losing it's slipstream capability, and was forced to retreat through the active wormhole before the Odyssey sacrificed it's own drive to use as an explosive to destroy the generator and shut the wormhole down. Incurring further damage from the energy shockwave from the blast, and arriving in Romulan during a pitched battle bewteen the Archeins and the joint Federation/Klingon/Romulan forces, the R'Kargh was evacuated moments before it's warp core exploded. During the evacuation, Aster was severely wounded by an exploding console, and forced into an evac pod on his own.
His pod was rescued by a Romulan vessel, but they had no way of identifying him at the time, so he was very nearly lost in the bureacracy surrounding the Romulan medical system. He slipped into a coma, and was subjected to repeated mind probes during his tenure in Romulan care, before he was finally tracked down by the crew of the USS Helena, the ship under the command of Captain Theresa Faisal (who served as a Maid of Honour during his wedding), where his former partner, Commander Jorian Zen, served as Executive Officer.
Aboard the USS Helena
Finally reviving from his six-month coma, Aster was horrified to learn that the Odyssey had been declared Missing In Action, and presumed destroyed by the Archeins. His experience with the Romulans continued to haunt him, since they had removed and lost his wedding ring, and due to the current mission of the Helena, he would be unable to unite with people he hoped woould lend assistance in finding Nevin.
Because of his fledging psionic abilities, Aster refused to admit that Nevin was dead, instead citing he felt 'a connection' to his long-distant husband. This belief only increased after an accident in the Helena's sickbay, which caused him to loose consciousness, and enter a vision where he saw his husband, and despite trying could not reach him in time before he vanished. When he woke from the vision, he found his hand had become scarred in the place where, in the vision, he had placed Nevin's fallen religious earring, and became quickly convinced the pattern of the scars meant something.
Forced to stay aboard the Helena as a patient of their CMO, he tried everything he could to understand the meaning of the pattern, even trying to recreate the accident that triggered the vision, but without success. He was eventually restricted to his guest quarters, and forced to see a counselor, until, to everyone's surprise, his friend and XO of the Excelsior, Robin Lefler, was able to prove just what significance the pattern had. They were a series of stellar phenomena unique in configurating to a location in Andromeda, which could signal an actual location of the Odyssey, if they were still active.
Her evidence and pull with Admiral Knapp were sufficient enough to allow Aster back into the lab, where they worked on a way to harness the remaining energy from a tetrahedron key. Aster also received a heart-felt apology from Faisal, who had not believed in Aster's vision before, but now promised to help in whatever ways she could. Unfortunately, the steps she took in order to supply a power source for their research efforts has now lead to the arrest of Admiral Knapp, and the Helena herself going rogue.
Appearances
Lieutenant Commander Aster is played by J.T. Tepnapa in his appearances on Voyages of the USS Angeles, Star Trek: Hidden Frontier and Star Trek: The Helena Chronicles.
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References
Commander Aster has also been referred to on-screen in the following episodes:
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See Also
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