- How can you bear it? Death is staring us in the face, could strike us down at any moment; all of us know the indignity and pain of lost youth. Why are you wasting your time talking about morality, about regulations? - Ru'afo. (TNG novelization: Insurrection)
Ru'afo was an ahdar of the Son'a, a group of Ba'ku who rebelled against their elders' technology-eschewing ways. Under his leadership, the Son'a established a small but powerful empire with technology that surpassed that of the Federation, but which ignored intergalactic laws prohibiting slavery and use of subspace weapons.
Attempted takeover
Ru'afo was born Ro'tin on Ba'ku sometime after the Ka'bu dissidents known as the Ba'ku colonized it in 2066. Like all second generation Ba'ku, he was kept ignorant of his ancestors and their downfall. As a young man, he worked as a farmer and was admired for his physical strength and leadership skills, which he would use to speak on behalf of other youths during village meetings. He was, nevertheless, feared for his temperamental outbursts, which prompted Ba'ku leader Sojef to reject him as his second-in-command. (TNG novelization: Insurrection)
After his friend Gal'na discovered a computer detailing the history of the Ka'bu, Ru'afo joined him in forming the "Science Movement" or Son'a, which promoted technological progress in defiance of Ba'ku law. The two successfully converted at least eighty young Ba'ku to their cause and adopted new names taken from Ka'bu historical archives, with Ro'tin taking the name "Ru'afo" and Gal'na "Gallatin". Ru'afo soon fell foul of his elders for preventing them from inspecting Gallatin's laboratory. From approximately the year 2275, Ru'afo became the leader of the Son'a. In an event later recalled as the Time of Sorrows, Ru'afo and Gallatin confronted the Ba'ku elders and announced a peaceable takeover of the colony. The Son'a agreed to put the proposal to a poll, but were overwhelmingly outvoted and condemned to exile from the planet, which they left using a starship they had built in the desert. (TNG novelization: Insurrection; ST website: StarTrek.com)
Under his leadership, the Son'a became aggressive and lawless, enslaving the Tarlac and Ellora, and equipping their ships with isolytic subspace weapons banned by the Second Khitomer Accords. The Son'a soon found, however, that in the absence of the metaphasic radiation being emitted from the rings of their planet, the aging process began to take its toll, and they became obsessed with recapturing their youth, undergoing numerous medical procedures to rejuvenate themselves and maintain a younger appearance. By the 24th century, Ru'afo initiated a plot to take revenge on those who had banished him, and harvest the metaphasic radiation with which to reinvigorate the Son'a.
Alliance with Starfleet
Upon discovering that their former homeworld was now under Federation jurisdiction, Ru'afo initially advocated using the Son'a's superior weaponry to take the planet by force, but relented when Gallatin reminded him of their numerical inferiority. (TNG novelization: Insurrection)
In 2375, Ru'afo entered into an alliance with the Federation through Starfleet admiral Dougherty in order to facilitate the Ba'ku's forced relocation from their planet. According to their agreement, Starfleet would covertly transport the Ba'ku from their colony in a Starfleet holoship, and the Son'a would subsequently perform a procedure on the planet's rings to collect the metaphasic particles, leaving the planet uninhabitable. (TNG movie: Star Trek: Insurrection)
Dougherty was convinced that the technology which would evolve from the alliance would be of a great benefit to the Federation, particularly due to the hardships suffered by them during the then-ongoing Dominion War, but Ru'afo actively hid the fact that the Son'a and the Ba'ku were the same race. Eventually, however, their plot was uncovered by Jean-Luc Picard, captain of the USS Enterprise-E. As Picard and a group of his officers remained on the planet in an effort to defend the Ba'ku, Picard's first officer, Commander Will Riker, attempted to reach the perimeter of the Briar Patch to inform the Federation Council of the Son'a assault against the Ba'ku. (TNG movie: Star Trek: Insurrection)
Knowing that, if the Federation were to become aware of the assault, they would put the project in hiatus, Ru'afo managed to convince Dougherty to authorize the deployment of two Son'a battle cruisers to intercept the Enterprise. Ultimately, however, Riker was successful in defending the Enterprise against the Son'a attack, and Picard was able to protect the Ba'ku. When Picard informed Dougherty of his discovery that Ru'afo was simply trying to gain revenge on those that had exiled them, Dougherty attempted to put an end to the mission, a decision to which Ru'afo responded by killing him. (TNG movie: Star Trek: Insurrection)
Ru'afo eventually decided to activate the Son'a collector, a vessel designed to collect the metaphasic particles, while the Ba'ku were still on the planet, an act which would have resulted in the deaths of all life on the surface. Picard managed to win over Gallatin, who deactivated the collector and transported Ru'afo and his bridge crew to the holoship. Ru'afo, however, was able to beam aboard the collector alone and restart the launch sequence. (TNG movie: Star Trek: Insurrection)
To stop him, Picard boarded and attempted to activate the self-destruct. Ru'afo attempted to kill Picard, but Picard was able to avoid his attack long enough to attain his objective. As Picard activated the self-destruct, the vessel began to explode around the two of them. Ru'afo was launched into space with the collector's injector array, and died as his body rapidly de-aged to nothingness. (TNG novelization: Insurrection)
Appendices
Appearances and references
External links
- Ru'afo article at Memory Alpha, the wiki for canon Star Trek.
Ru'afo article at the Star Trek Timelines Wiki.