Doctor Telano Ren

[Dr Telano 0]

Name: Telano Ren

Rank: Lieutenant

Race: Bajoran

Planet of Origin: Bajor

Sex: Male

Age: 32

Height: 5' 6"

Weight: 130 lbs.

 

Telano Ren was born on Bajor and chosen early for life as a Vedic. He was sent to a monastery to be trained before his 5th birthday. While he grew up during the occupation, his sheltered childhood made for a more pleasant life than others his age were experiencing. It was not until his mid teens that he was able to see what was happening outside the monastery and truly understand the horrors of the Cardassian Occupation.

As he began to realize how bad things were outside the monastery, Ren began to question why he lived a privileged life while others suffered horribly. The Vedics scolded him for questioning the will of the Prophets, and Ren quickly learned to keep his concerns and questions to himself.

At the age of 18, Ren was allowed a sitting with the Orb of Prophecy. He has never told anyone what he saw that day, but it disturbed him greatly. He became even more convinced that it was wrong for him to be safe and sheltered while thousands of his people gave their lives struggling against the occupation.

A turning point came when he received a visitor one day in the garden he was tending. "Why are you here?"

The question took him by surprise, but the fact that it was Kai Opaka herself that spoke them surprised him even more. He stammered an apology and tried to explain that he had been asked to work in this garden, but she simply smiled and stopped him. "No child, you do not belong HERE, you path is elsewhere."

Ren did not understand, but when the Kai approached him and gently grasped his ear, he was suddenly flooded by images from his Orb experience, and suddenly gained new understanding of them.

"The path you walk has been chosen for you, you must find your own path."

The very next day, ignoring the protests of his mentors, Ren packed up his meager belongings and left the Monastery.

He wandered blindly, not really knowing where he was going, until he stumbled onto a battle between Bajoran Dissidents and Cardassian Forces. He was injured and lost consciousness.

When he awoke, an elderly Bajoran was tending to his wound. The two spoke, and Ren learned that the woman had been a farmer's wife, but her husband had been killed in the fighting and her home had been destroyed. As she told him about how she had come to join the dissidents and use her knowledge of plants and herbs to heal, Ren realized he had found his path. He requested that she teach him all she knew about the healing arts. He learned quickly and knew that he had indeed found his path. When his cherished mentor was killed in battle a year later, he was ready to take her place as the cell's medic.

Ren was a pacifist, and was happy to treat the wounded and care for the injured. He was troubled by the violence around him, but knew in his heart this was the path the prophets had chosen for him. Even after the Cardassians left Bajor, he and his friends continued the battle, leaving Bajor and venturing into the disputed territories between Federation and Cardassian territory. They were among those who first came together and called themselves the Maqui, fighting Cardassian aggression and terror in the Demilitarized zone.

The fighting was harsh and Ren's pacifistic principles were put to the test, and finally broken. During the evacuation of a Maqui base, a squad of Cardassians arrived and fighting ensued. Ren was simply trying to move the wounded to safety when a Cardassian broke into the room and leveled his weapon. Ren had but an instant to act, he grabbed a weapon and fired. He knew nothing of weapon settings, and killed the Cardassian. He was horrified at first, but quickly realized that this too was the will of the Prophets. He could not protect those he cared for if he was unwilling to fight for them. In his years with the Maqui he learned more about combat medicine than most doctors can even contemplate. His pacifistic nature was buried beneath his need to protect and defend those under his care.

Eventually, Ren and several of his Maqui Cell were captured by Federation forces. He was deported back to Bajor, where he was set free. The Bajoran government did not look upon fighting Cardassians as much of a crime.

Unable to return to the life of a Vedic after all that had happened, Ren decided to pursue a medical career. Despite his Maqui involvement, he was able to gain entry into Starfleet Academy where he excelled at his studies and impressed his instructors with his experience.

Upon graduation he served a short tour of duty on the USS Ranger, but was called back to Starfleet Medical a year later.

The instructor of Starfleet’s limited combat medicine training had been impressed with Ren's experience, and more impressed with Ren's comments that the training had been inadequate and totally unrealistic. With the Dominion War looming, Ren's combat experience was critical in developing a more "down and dirty" kind of combat medical training. The first students who went thru Ren's newly developed courses were horrified by the conditions he created (Replicated from his own experiences really), but many later appreciated the preparation when they went off to serve in the Dominion War.

When the war ended, Ren tried to remove himself from combat and choose to pursue research instead. It was his breakthrough work with newly discovered Borg technology that got him noticed. He had worked with material brought back by Voyager from the Delta Quadrant. Recognizing that his work would be better suited out in the Galaxy rather than sheltered on Earth, he was assigned to USS Arcadia as head of medical research.