Son'a
From Hidden Frontier
The Son'a are a narcissistic and materialist humanoid race descended from the Ba'ku. They left their idyllic home planet in the Briar Patch in the 2270s after a failed attempt to take over Ba'ku society. The Son'a had rebelled against the Ba'ku philosophy of rejecting high technology.
After their departure, the Son'a established for themselves a technologically advanced society. In 2325, they subjugated the Tarlac and the Ellora species to serve as indentured servants and soldiers. The Son'a have equipped their vessels with unpredictable subspace weapons, in defiance of the Second Khitomer Accords. They have also manufactured large quantities of ketracel-white for the Dominion. One of their white storage facilities was located at their outpost at Devos II.
However, without the regenerative effects of the Ba'ku homeworld's metaphasic radiation, the Son'a have become desperate in their efforts to prolong their lives by any possible means, including genetic manipulation and surgical techniques. The Son'a make regular visits to facilities where their skin is stretched tight, and accumulated toxins are purged from their bodies. Nevertheless, in the 2370s many Son'a were nearing death.
In 2375, a group of Son'a led by Ahdar Ru'afo attempted to access the metaphasic particles within the rings of the Ba'ku planet, now located within Federation space. To do so, they entered an alliance with Starfleet Admiral Matthew Dougherty, who convinced the Federation Council to approve the scheme. The Son'a had developed a metaphasic collector to harvest the particles, but with the secondary effect of rendering the planet uninhabitable. They agreed to follow Starfleet procedure and relocate the existing Ba'ku population beforehand, using a hidden Federation holoship.
The plan began to unravel when Lieutenant Commander Data from the USS Enterprise-E uncovered the holo-ship and was shot by a Son'a soldier. When the Enterprise arrived, Captain Jean-Luc Picard threatened to expose the true nature of their operations to the Federation, when he and a number of his officers beamed to the surface to help the Ba'ku. In response, Ru'afo sent Son'a warships to intercept the Enterprise and ordered the Ba'ku to be removed by force, though his efforts were impeded by the Enterprise crew.
Unwilling to wait any longer, Ru'afo killed Dougherty and deployed the metaphasic collector. Fortunately, Picard was able to stop its activation and trigger the auto-destruct sequence, with help from Ru'afo's second-in-command Gallatin. Soon the Federation Council withdrew their support for the project, with new information from the Enterprise. Some of the Son'a elected to return to the Ba'ku. (Star Trek: Insurrection)
During the later days of the Dominion War, Weyoun diverted a number of Dominion warships to the Son'a outpost on Devos II. They were diverted, rather than sent to pursue the USS Defiant in order to help protect the new Ketracel White facility built there, as the Dominion was aware that the Federation was aware of its location. (DS9: "Penumbra")
Production Notes
- Although the Son'a role in the Dominion War was first mentioned in Star Trek: Insurrection, this event presumably took place after the events in Insurrection, indicating that not all of the Son'a returned to the Ba'ku homeworld.
