Title : Garak (Character Bio) Keywords: ELIM GARAK TAILOR CARDASSIANS OBSIDIAN ORDER Elim "The Tailor" Garak. Tailoring is a noble profession, but maybe not for ex-spies.;D Here's a bio on our favorite Cardassian tailor, Elim Garak. There's info about his exploits during his stay on Deep Space Nine. "The truth is usually just an excuse for lack of imagination." --Garak Garak, Elim (Andrew Robinson) Personal Information OCCUPATION: Clothier, Deep Space 9 ACCESS/SECURITY COMMANDS: Alpha Red Priority Mission Clearance Verification: 9218-Black. Security Access Code: Garak-1359. RACE/SEX: Cardassian male BIRTH DATE/PLACE: Unknown MOTHER: Unidentified FATHER: Unidentified SIBLINGS: Unknown MARITAL STATUS: Presumed single OFFSPRING: Unknown LANGUAGES: Cardassian and English HOBBIES/INTERESTS: Food/Beverages - Delavian chocolates, Kanar, Rokossa juice and Yiggerish cream pie. DISLIKES: Literature - Shakespeare Personal Timeline 2368: Exiled from Cardassia to Terok Nor. Personal History Garak was exiled from Cardassia by the Cardassian Central Command in 2368. Since then he has operated a clothing shop on the Promenade of Terok Nor/Deep Space 9, remaining there after the Cardassian withdrawal. In 2369 he helped Dr. Bashir uncover a plot between the Bajoran terrorist Tahna Los and the Klingon sisters Lursa and B'Etor. In 2370 he teamed up with Bashir again to investigate the true circumstances behind the adoption of a young Cardassian named Rugal by a Bajoran couple in 2362. Using his computer skills, Garak discovered that Rugal had not been killed in a Bajoran raid on his parents house as believed, but had been brought directly to the Tozak Resettlement Center by a Cardassian officer from Terok Nor under the direct command of Prefect Gul Dukat. Dukat was a political enemy of Rugal's father and had had the boy kidnapped in the hopes that he might use him someday to bring about Kotan Pa'Dar's downfall. Garak's involvement in these two incidents and his apparent knowledge of things far beyond the grasp of an average tailor had convinced Bashir that Garak was not as plain and simple as he claimed to be. This is further evidenced by the fact that Garak has been teaching Bashir tips on surveillance techniques. In 2370, after one of his many stimulating conversations with Bashir, he noticed three Cardassians in Quark's Bar. He contacted the Cardassian Central Command and discovered that two of the Cardassians were political refugees wanted for their disruptive viewpoints. When a Cardassian warship arrived at the station to retrieve the dissidents, Garak was contacted by its commander, Gul Toran. Although Garak had already suggested to the Central Command that the Bajorans might force Commander Sisko to turn over the Cardassians in exchange for Bajorans still held captive on Cardassia, Toran told him that he had convinced the Central Command that the dissidents should be killed. Toran offered the task to Garak, strongly hinting that his exile status might be lifted in gratitude for his help. Garak stationed himself inside the airlock leading to the Cardassians shuttle and stopped them as they attempted to flee from the station. Before he could follow through with the killings, Toran appeared, having decided to check up on Garak to make sure he followed through on his orders. When Garak realized that he was being used by Toran, he killed him instead and let the Cardassians free, believing that doing so was in the best interest of Cardassia. This incident suggests that Garak was possibly a former officer in the Cardassian Guard who had fallen out of favor. A motto he once lived by in his previous line of work was, "Never let sentiment get in the way of your work." Further information regarding Garak's mysterious past was revealed later in 2370. Bashir noticed that Garak's skin was clammy, his pupils contracted and that he was suffering from severe headaches and was experiencing trouble breathing. Garak became uncharacteristically irritable when Bashir tried to take him to the infirmary, but he ended up there soon afterwards when he collapsed in Quark's Bar. An examination showed that Garak had a small device implanted into the post central gyrus of his brain with filaments connecting the device to his entire central nervous system. Scarring in the surrounding tissue indicated the device, which was now malfunctioning, had been implanted several years prior. Bashir also noticed that the implant had caused deterioration in Garak's cranial nerve cluster. When questioned, Garak revealed that the device had been implanted by Enabran Tain, head of the Obsidian Order, as a means of protecting the classified information that Garak knew. If interrogated, the device was designed to increase Garak's endorphin levels and to stimulate the pleasure centers of his brain, rendering him immune to physical torture. Garak also revealed that the implant was probably malfunctioning because it had not been designed for continuous use. Miserable because of his exile from Cardassia and from the uncomfortable environmental conditions of the station after the Cardassian withdrawal, Garak had designed a device that allowed him to turn the pleasurable effects of the implant on and off at his command. Soon he found himself leaving the implant on all the time, his body eventually becoming used to the increased endorphin levels. When Garak was unsuccessful in acquiring the necessary equipment to repair the device, Bashir was forced to remove it surgically when he detected erosion and a build up of toxins in Garak's lymphatic system. Unfortunately, the removal of the implant did not improve Garak's condition. Bashir later discovered that the toxin build up was caused by an alteration of Garak's leukocytes, possibly a security measure built into the implant designed to kill the recipient upon the malfunction or removal of the implant. Lacking knowledge or medical files on Cardassian physiology, Bashir travelled to the Arawath colony, home of the retired Enabran Tain. Only hoping that Garak would live a long and miserable life in exile, Tain provided Bashir with the necessary medical information to treat Garak. Upon recovering from his ordeal, Garak, who had told Bashir three separate stories concerning the events surrounding his exile, evaded Bashir's questions and flatly denied that he had any connection at all with the Obsidian Order. Encountered by Major Kira and Dr. Bashir in 2370 when their runabout accidentally crossed over into the Mirror universe, Garak's mirror counterpart was discovered to be an officer of the Cardassian/Klingon Alliance and first officer of Terok Nor. Looking to gain command of the station, he developed a plan to kill station commander Intendant Kira and replace her with Major Kira. Using Dr. Bashir as a hostage, Garak would then force Kira to give command of the station to him. Unfortunately for Garak, Kira and Bashir escaped from the station and returned to their universe before he could put his plan in motion. Following Major Kira's abduction from Bajor by an agent of the Obsidian Order, Garak was contacted by a friend of his on Cardassia Prime and told of her whereabouts. Garak first told Bashir of this revelation and was later taken before Commander Sisko. When told that certain ministers in the Bajoran government wanted him removed from the station, Garak agreed to participate in a rescue mission to retrieve Kira. Taken aboard USS Defiant, which had been set-up to appear as a Koheebrian freighter, Garak's usefulness was proven when he used an Alpha Red Priority Mission clearance code to get Defiant past a Cardassian patrol that had wanted to board and search the ship. Garak claimed that he had overheard the code from one of his customers. Making their way to the residence of Legate Ghemor, Garak, Sisko and Odo arrived in time to rescue Kira and Ghemor, who was a dissident that the Order was trying to catch. As they were leaving, Garak was forced to fire on Entek, a member of the Obsidian Order that Garak had known and claimed to have liked. Before his death, Entek stated that the Order had been satisfied to let Garak live in exile on DS9, but that his participation in the rescue would most likely change that. Following the accidental triggering of an old Cardassian counter-insurgency program that had sealed off the station in the belief that Bajoran workers had taken over part of the station, Garak used an old security access code to bypass numerous forcefields and make his way to the Operations Center. When the security program threatened to flood the station's habitat ring with a deadly gas, Garak proposed to damage the station's life-support controls in order to prevent that gas' distribution. Knowing that this would give them twelve hours to solve their dilemma before oxygen ran out, Kira destroyed the Ops life-support controls. Garak and the Ops staff were surprised when the computer reacted to this and initiated the station's self-destruct sequence, which was coded for two hours. An attempt by Garak to re-write Gul Dukat's security code caused another unforeseen problem, the appearance of a rapid-fire phaser device in the Ops food replicator. The phaser device was soon disabled when Dukat himself arrived on the station after responding to an automated distress signal he had intercepted. After some verbal sparring between Garak and Dukat concerning Garak's apparent involvement in the trial of Dukat's father, Dukat was forced to assist the station personnel when he found himself unable to beam off of the station. With Dukat's help the forcefields were disabled and Commander Sisko was able to direct the force of the main reactor's explosion into the station's deflector shields. When Sisko was drawn into the Mirror universe in 2371, Garak's mirror counterpart was found to have assumed the duties of the Mirror Odo, who had overseen the station's slave workers and had been killed during the first crossover by Kira and Bashir's in 2370. In 2371 Garak realized that a Flaxian assassin was aboard the station and that he was the most likely target for the assassin. In order to force Odo into investigating the matter, unsure as he was that Odo would take him seriously, Garak rigged an explosive device in his shop in such a matter that he could easily escape serious harm. While being treated in the infirmary, Garak claimed that his exile from Cardassia was for his failure to pay taxes to the Cardassian Ministry of Finance. The resulting investigation into the explosion quickly pointed to the Flaxian, Retaya, as the prime suspect. Although Odo's was unable to prove a link between Retaya and the explosion, a transponder was placed on Retaya's ship and a runabout prepared for pursuit. Learning of this plan, Garak convinced Odo to allow him to accompany him. The pursuit was ended quickly and abruptly when Retaya's vessel exploded shortly after leaving DS9, an act that the Romulan Tal Shiar later admitted to because of supposed crimes committed against the Romulan Star Empire by Retaya. After meeting with a Cardassian informant of his, Odo returned to DS9 and told Garak that he had learned that five former operatives of the Obsidian Order had been killed the day before. Garak was pleased to hear of these deaths, but surprised when Odo revealed that he knew that Garak had blown up his own shop. Admitting his involvement with the Obsidian Order, Garak indicated that the five deceased agents had been associates of his and that they all had a link with Enabran Tain. When Garak attempted to contact Tain he found that Tain had recently disappeared. Believing that Tain might be a possible target for assassination, Garak and Odo took a runabout and proceeded to the Unefra system, where Garak knew that Tain maintained a secret safehouse. While approaching the Unefra system the runabout was captured by a Romulan warbird. Both Garak and Odo were surprised to find that Tain was on the warbird and working in cooperation with the Tal Shiar. After revealing a planned preemptive strike at the Dominion using a combined fleet of Tal Shiar and Obsidian Order vessels, Tain revealed that he planned to come out of retirement and resume his old post as head of the Obsidian Order. It was for this reason that Tain had used the Romulans to murder those who knew more about him then he deemed necessary. Although Garak was on the list of those he had wanted killed, Tain offered Garak the opportunity to return to the Obsidian Order, telling him that he would try to forget the unspecified incident that had forced him to exile Garak from Cardassia. Garak accepted and Odo was taken prisoner by the Romulans. Later, after the fleet had passed through the Wormhole and set course for the Omarion Nebula, Garak was given the task of interrogating Odo in order to find out any helpful information not previously known about the Changelings. Using a device developed by the Obsidian Order that prevented Odo from altering his shape, Garak pressed Odo until Odo's shape began to deteriorate and he began to experience great pain. Bothered by the agony he witnessed in Odo, Garak pleaded for him to tell him anything so that he could stop the interrogation. Although Odo did confide his apparent interest in returning to his people, Garak reported to Tain that Odo had not broken and that he had not acquired any useful information from him. When the fleet finally arrived at the Changeling homeworld, a massive orbital bombardment was begun but it was found to have no effect on the lifeform readings on the surface. It was Garak who first realized that the lifeform readings were the result of an automated transponder and that the planet was deserted. As soon as Garak made the observation one-hundred and fifty Jem'Hadar fighters appeared from out of the Omarion Nebula and attacked the fleet. As their warbird was wracked with weapons fire, Garak made his way to the quarters Odo was being held in and released him. After an unsuccessful attempt at rescuing Tain from the bridge, Garak was knocked unconscious by Odo and taken to the launching bay their runabout was being held in. Although the runabout was nearly destroyed by Jem'Hadar fighters, Garak and Odo were rescued by the timely arrival of USS Defiant, who beamed them aboard shortly after the failure of the runabout's shields. Upon his return to DS9, Garak began the process of cleaning out and repairing his clothing shop. SOURCES: "Past Prologue", "Cardassians", "Shadowplay" (AR)", "Profit and Loss", "The Wire", "The Crossover", "The Search, Part 2", "The Abandoned", "Civil Defense" , "Heart of Stone" (AR), "Distant Voices", "Improbable Cause" and "The Die Is Cast."