Raydu was a female Kelpien intelligence officer that held the rank of lieutenant within the operations division of the Federation Starfleet in the 24th century. Assigned to Starbase 99, she was involved with a project that the clandestine Section 31 launched to reverse the assimilation process of former Borg drones and later became familiar with a mission given to the USS Defiant for its crew to capture several individuals of interest while under the pretence of bounty hunting. Like the rest of her crewmates onboard Starbase 99, however, Raydu was later victim to the parasite infestation that had infected the station and became a host to one, though this triggered a reaction that led to her subsequent death.
Biography
A female Kelpien — a post-warp species from the planet Kaminar — Raydu decided to pursue a career within the United Federation of Planets and became a commissioned intelligence officer inside Starfleet, joining their operations division and rising to the rank of lieutenant. In addition, she also became part of their intelligence apparatus, serving as a liaison between the branch and her fellow operatives.
Within Starfleet, Raydu was involved with an ongoing effort to free individuals that had been assimilated into the Borg as drones before the destruction of their collective. Since the Battle of Wolf 359, the Federation had spearheaded an effort to replicate the process that had allowed the crew of the USS Enterprise to release Captain Jean-Luc Picard from the hive mind, though the Kelpien was aware that the earliest attempts had led to the deaths of the subjects, who had perished because the deactivation of their assimilated brain processing system had triggered a fatal mind shock. As an officer in Starfleet, Raydu monitored this process, which had been improved since the initial failures, receiving a sixty-eight percent success rate, and believed that this effort was achieving "something good". Three years after the conclusion of the Dominion War, Raydu was assigned to serve onboard Starbase 99, which had become a remote outpost to Section 31 since the aforementioned conflict. Raydu also had significant clearance in reports from Starfleet Intelligence, which enabled her to become familiar with the objectives of the USS Defiant and her disavowed crew. Though removed from the official records of Starfleet, Raydu was aware that the alleged renegades had assumed the pretence of bounty hunters to hunt down several people of interest to the Federation. One of these targets was Hugh, who had begun to conduct a campaign within the Typhon Expanse to free his fellow drones from the surviving Borg Collective.
During that same year, Starbase 99 had become victim to infestation of parasitic creatures that hailed from another dimension and had infected the entire crew without detection. Unaware of this violation when she arrived and became infected, the following day Raydu was one of the officers that later welcomed Commander Worf and his subordinates when the Defiant arrived to Starbase 99. Unlike the station commander Jeffrey Gossford, Raydu addressed the newcomers with respect, greeting Worf and Hugh with excitement, though she was initially unwilling to disclose the classified details behind the work that Starfleet Intelligence wanted to perform with the former drone. After Worf refused to release Hugh without assurances that his own consent would be taken into account and left the docking bay, Raydu caught up and told the Klingon that she was familiar with his real assignment. Eager to show Worf the good cause that his efforts were assisting with, the Kelpien proceeded to brief him and Hugh on the nature of their efforts to reverse the assimilation process in a private area. While the trio watched as a human female was freed from her implants, Raydu explained their previous attempts and voiced an appreciation for the sentiments that Hugh had espoused about how the subjects had been able to reclaim their individual selves. According to the lieutenant, her peers were anxious to learn the possible advancements that could be accomplished if Hugh was prepared to incorporate his own process into theirs, though Raydu assured her companions that the Federation would never force di-assimilation onto the Borg rebel if it was in violation of his own wishes, acknowledging that his own attainment of free will granted him the same rights as any other individual would be expected to receive. However, she expressed hopes that Hugh was help Starfleet understand and learn more about the new entities that he and others like him had become, which the cyborg consented to. Worf also expressed his gratitude to Raydu for how her mission had shown him that the values their federation was built upon continued to remain intact. In response, the lieutenant voiced her own strong admirations for the Klingon and his legendary accomplishments, which she saw as a representation of the ideas about fighting to prove oneself against the inherent judgement of others. Before she could speak further, however, the parasite within Raydu triggered a violent reaction that she detected in the final seconds of her life, causing her to spasm with clear agony. Crying outload to her allies for help, before either of them could be more to assist the stricken Kelpien, the monster that lurked inside her forced Raydu to shred through her face and abdomen with bare fingers, leaving her to fall to the ground as a defaced corpse. (DFT - Hell Is Only a Word comic: "Part 1")
