| “ | Use it, if that's what you came to do. Kill me in cold blood. Run me through the belly and cut out my heart. Isn't that what your blood oath promised? Or have you lost your appetite, my dear. | „ |
| ~ Qagh, held at knife-point by Dax. |
Qagh, also known as The Albino, was a villainous Klingon pirate who was introduced in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Blood Oath".
He was portrayed by Bill Bolender.
Biography[]
Qagh was born in 2218, the son of Ngoj and his wife Moj'ih. As such he was a member of the House of Ngoj. The House of Ngoj was descended from the Klingon Imperial Family, and in later decades would come to be known as the House of Kor. The Klingons Kol, Kol-Sha, and Kor were all relatives of his.
While in utero Qagh had been subjected to genetic alterations by his mother in an attempt to cure her family of the augment virus. Upon birth however his mother rejected Qagh, feeling that he was too impure to live. Moj'ih ordered her servant Do'Yoj to kill the child, but Do'Yoj decided not to kill the infant and leave him to fend for himself. The infant was soon rescued by the Orion pirates D'Jinnea and Ganik. Giving him the name Qagh they raised him in the hopes that someday they would be able to blackmail the House of Ngoj for power and influence.
The two pirates raised him to adulthood. Because of his genetic alterations he had to study medicine to stay one step ahead of the abnormalities caused by his mother's physicians. These included anemia, cancer, circulatory problems, the Klingon equivalent of diabetes, various neurological problems, and pulmonary diseases. Qagh planned raids in order to gain material that he would use to address his medical needs. During one such raid on Ganjitsu a young Hikaru Sulu stopped him from taking material from his parents lab and in retaliation Qagh destroyed the lab.
During this time he wrested control of the pirate organization from D'Jinnea and Ganik by killing both of them. He visited Omega IV and was able to harvest samples of the genetically altered virus that had been unleashed on the planet eons ago by its inhabitants. He modified the virus and used it to control his people - without regular injections of an antidote infected people would collapse into piles of dust.
Feeling that any peace between the Federation and the Klingon Empire would be bad for business, Qagh bombed a peace conference between the two powers on the Kovat Colony. The Klingons Kang, Kor, and Koloth as well as the Trill diplomat Curzon Dax took off in hot pursuit. With assistance from Captain Hikaru Sulu of the USS Excelsior they nearly caught him, but Qagh still managed to escape.
What none of them realized was that Qagh had already planted the seeds of his retaliation after having injected the Klingons and Dax with a virus. This virus subtly altered their DNA, and was designed to eventually kill any children the four men had. Qagh also arranged for Sulu's daughter Demora to be injected with the virus.
Some months later the virus took affect, killing Kang's son DaqS, Kor's son Rynar, and Koloth's son. Demora Sulu became very ill herself from the virus, but fortunately as her father had visited Omega IV before her conception his DNA had already been altered by the environment on Omega IV. These alterations provided Sulu protection against viruses from Omega IV and Sulu passed that protection on to his daughter. Demora recovered a short time later. Curzon had no children to pass the disease on to, and the virus was discovered to be totally incompatible with symbiont physiology, rendering the Dax symbiont immune to the virus. As a result while Curzon himself could not risk having children future Dax hosts were unaffected.
Meanwhile Kang swore a blood oath that he would cut out Qagh's heart and ate it while forcing the Albino to watch. Kor, Koloth, and Dax quickly joined him in the oath. The four invited Sulu into the blood oath, but Sulu refused to do so - feeling it was wrong for a Starfleet officer to seek vengeance in that manner. For his part Sulu did not interfere but told Curzon if an opportunity presented itself to bring Qagh to justice under Federation law he would do so.
As time permitted the four continued their pursuit of Qagh. However Qagh was quite adept at hiding and managed to remain hiding for the next seven decades. He married several times and had at least one child, who in turn gave Qagh a grandchild. The Klingons almost caught up with him at Galdonterre but he had intercepted messages between them and fled.
In 2372 Qagh sent a message to Kang saying that he was tired of running and that if they met him on Secarus IV and battle it out with him and 40 of his warriors. Qagh never intended to keep his bargain though, planning to kill the Klingons with a mine at the entrance to his estate.
However, what Qagh had not counted on was that Jadzia Dax would be coming along to fulfill Curzon's blood oath. En route she got the truth out of Kang about the deal he had made with The Albino. Finding the mine at the entrance to his estate Kor chided Kang for making a deal with the devil before they came up with an alternate plan.
Dax and the Klingons blew up Qagh's armoury, then disabled his scanners and communications before coming in to confront Qagh and his warriors. In the fight that followed Koloth was severely injured and died from his wounds. Kang was also mortally wounded in the attack. Before Qagh could finish him off he found himself held at bat'leth point by Jadzia Dax.
Dax hesitated when it came to killing the Albino. It was long enough, however, for Kang to act. He stabbed Qagh with his knife. Qagh fell down the steps, dead by the time he hit the bottom. Kang helped Dax save face by thanking her for letting him have the honor of killing the Albino. Kang died from his wounds a few minutes later. Singing a dirge Kor set about setting Qagh's compound on fire.
Trivia[]
- In the original episode Blood Oath the Albino's species was not mentioned, it was later in licensed media that the Albino was established as being a Klingon.
