The Nine Faces of Dax

Return to Terry Farrell as Jadzia Dax

The Dax symbiont lived for over 300 years in eight other hosts; Lela, Tobin, Audrid, Emony, Torias, Joran, Curzon, and Jadzia (Facets); before Ezri.

Lela was the first host to the Dax symbiont, but no one knows for sure when either she or the symbiont was born, or when they were joined.  Jadzia noted on several occasions that she, the symbiont, was over 300 years old.  That would put Lela’s and the symbiont’s birth around 2060.  Lela was a legislator, and one of the first women to be named as a council member.  She had a son named Ahjess who, Jadzia recalled, would climb into his mother's bed for attention two hours after he was tucked into bed at night (To the Death).  Lela noted to Jadzia during her zhian'tara ceremony, that her behavioral trait of clasping her hands behind her back was one of Lela's own quirks, and that when she was a counselor she did a lot of shouting and pointing at her male colleagues.  Major Kira Nerys hosted Lela during Jadzia’s zhian’tara ceremony.

Tobin had a son, Raifi, who caused him some difficulty over the years.  Ezri noted that Tobin could never bring himself to discipline his children no matter what they did.  Though Tobin was socially inept and unimaginative, according to Jadzia, he was well known and respected for his knowledge of phase coil inverters.  Ezri found these engineering skills useful to her repair of a Dominion communications relay.   Tobin was the only Dax host to try his hand at botany, though without much success.   He met the noted Cardassian poet Iloja Prim while he was on Vulcan.  Tobin was a shy scientist who used to dabble in sleight-of-hand magic, and was proud that he had completed work on a remarkable new proof of Fermat's last theorem before his death (Rejoined).   The dates of his joining and death are unknown.  Chief Operations Officer Miles Edward O'Brien hosted Tobin during Jadzia’s zhian’tara.

Emony was a gymnast who discovered that her coordination improved following her joining, and Jadzia’s interest in Klingon martial arts probably came from her.  She was on Earth around 2245 to judge a gymnastics competition, when she met and had a romance with Leonard McCoy while he was a medical student at the University of Mississippi.  Ezri found Emony's gymnastic skills useful for a baseball game between the "Niners", a team of the Deep Space Nine Senior staff and friends, and a Vulcan team, the "Logicians", led by Captain Solok, Captain Sisko’s not-so-friendly competitor.  Leeta, the beautiful Bajoran dabo girl, hosted Emony for Jadzia's zhian'tara, ceremony.  The dates of her joining and death are also unknown.

Audrid, head of the Trill Symbiosis Commission, was a loving mother to at least two children; a daughter, Neema, and a son, Gran.  Neema spent two weeks in the hospital with Rugulan fever at age six.  Audrid read all seventeen volumes of "Down the River Light" to Neema during that time, even though the child was unconscious.   Fifteen years later, Audrid and her daughter were not on speaking terms and would not be friendly again for another eight years.  Ezri noted at one that Gran reminded her of Ensign Brenna Fennock, who she had been dating before her joining.  Quark, the Ferengi bartender and part time con artist, hosted Audrid for Jadzia's zhian'tara.   Jadzia Dax stated that she had not had a female host for over 80 years, placing Audrid’s death around 2284 (Babel), but her joining date is unknown.

Torias was married to another joined Trill, Nilani Kahn, who was a scientist.  He hosted the Dax symbiont for less than a year before he was critically injured in a shuttle accident in 2285, and, according to official Trill records, remained comatose for six months following the accident (Equilibrium).  Despite the efforts of the Trill physicians caring for him, Torias' isoboramine concentration fell below acceptable levels, the Dax symbiont was removed, and his death was recorded on stardate 8615.2.   Official Trill records show that the Dax symbiont was subsequently placed into Curzon.  The fact that it was Joran who was the next host is not reflected in the commission logs.  Commander Sisko's discovery that the Dax symbiont was placed into Joran following Torias' accident means that his death was six months earlier than the official records show.  Doctor Julian Bashir hosted Torias during Jadzia's zhian'tara ceremony.  Ezri noted that the memories of Torias' shuttle accident made her feel 'space sick', and that she couldn't help but blame herself for what happened to Torias.

Joran was a musician deemed unsuitable for joining, but the Trill Symbiosis Commission mistakenly accepted him as an initiate.  Joran's body rejected the Dax symbiont in 2285, six months after being joined, and the commission moved quickly to cover up the incident because they discovered that about half of the Trill population could be joined.   Public knowledge of this fact would make symbionts nothing more that a commodity to be bought and sold on the Black Market.  The commission had previously maintained that only one tenth of one percent of the population could be joined, and that joining with an unsuitable host would result in the deaths of both the host and the symbiont within a matter of days.  The official Symbiosis Commission records were then altered to suggest that Joran had never been joined, and that he was a violent criminal who had been killed after he murdered a doctor who recommended that he be dropped from the initiate program.  Memories of Joran were even biochemically erased from Dax's mind.   Despite this, Ezri noted that both Curzon and Jadzia had worked to bury Joran's memories from their minds.  The Commission maintained this lie about Joran until 2371, when the memory block deteriorated and Jadzia began experiencing disturbing and life-threatening symptoms (Equilibrium) that caused her isoboromine levels to drop.  The symptoms in fact turned out to be Joran’s memories.  Her friends uncovered the truth to save her life.  Ezri used a Trill rite in 2375 to summon Joran to help her to find a serial killer who had murdered three Starfleet officers on Deep Space Nine.  Joran noted during this period that he had never understood why Curzon and Jadzia liked Captain Sisko, and that they had never known what to do with his memories.  Ezri never told Sisko about Joran helping her with the murder investigation.  It seems that reawakening Joran's memories stirred some 'killer instinct' in Ezri, and she noted that 'I will have to be careful.'  Captain Benjamin Sisko hosted Joran during Jadzia's zhian'tara in 2371.

Curzon, joined to the Dax symbiont in 2285, was a well-known Federation mediator and noted diplomat when he walked out on a speech by Kang at the Korvat colony in 2289, some years before the Khitomer accords.  This of course angered Kang, but it also opened the door for understanding and friendship.  Curzon eventually won the respect of his Klingon colleagues and was deeply honored when Kang named his firstborn son after him, and made him the boy's godfather.  Dax, along with Kang, Kor, and Koloth, swore a blood oath of vengeance when "The Albino" murdered the boy.  Curzon did not live to fulfill the promise, but Jadzia did so in 2370.  Curzon served as a Federation mediator on Klaestron IV during that planet's civil war in the 2330s, and became friends with General Ardelon Tandro and his family while stationed there.  Dax was also engaged in a love affair with Tandro's wife, Enina.  Thirty years later, when Jadzia was accused of Tandro's murder, Enina testified that at the time of her husband's death, Curzon was in her bed.  Curzon was not usually punctual, and was even late for his own 100th birthday party.  He was also boisterous and high-spirited; he was thrown out of the infamous Barros Inn for setting fire to the place.  Benjamin Sisko was an ensign at the Palios station when he met Curzon.  They also served together aboard the USS Livingston.  Benjamin and Curzon quickly became friends and remained friends for two decades.  He also was friends with Calvin Hudson, a Starfleet Officer and Maquis sympathizer.  Curzon used to take perverse pleasure in assigning Sisko to guide VIP guests under his command so that he wouldn't have to deal with them.   Curzon acted as Jadzia's field docent and recommended that she be dropped from the initiate program, noting that she lacked a sense of purpose (Playing God).   His harsh evaluation spurred her to re-examine that purpose so that she did eventually win the chance to be joined.  Despite Curzon's early opinion of Jadzia, he did not object when Jadzia asked to become the next host of the Dax symbiont.  Jadzia learned in 2371 during her zhian’tara, four years after Curzon’s death, that the true reason for his non-recommendation was that he had fallen in love with her during her initiate program (Facets).  He would later admit to feeling so guilty about his actions that he nearly retired from the Trill Symbiosis Commission.   Constable Odo hosted Curzon during Jadzia's zhian'tara, when Curzon reluctantly admitted his feelings for her.  Curzon learned to play tongo, and was fond of the game, a fondness that Jadzia retained.  He died in 2367, while making love to a woman named Arandis on the planet Risa.  She termed the experience 'death by jamaharon'.

Jadzia, joined to the Dax symbiont upon Curzon’s death in 2385, was a Starfleet Lieutenant and science officer assigned to Deep Space Nine in 2369, after the Federation took over the station from the Cardassians.  She had wanted to become a host since she was a child and had worked very hard at winning the honor.  She did extremely well in the initiate program, winning Premier distinctions in exobiology, zoology, astrophysics, and exoarchaeology, and even won a third-level pilot certificate.  Despite her achievements, her training under Curzon Dax went poorly and he recommended that she not be joined.  Jadzia did not realize at the time that his harsh treatment of her was due to the fact that he had fallen in love with her.  Curzon felt guilty about that fact and consented for Jadzia to become the next Dax symbiont.  Jadzia initially thought she was the seventh host, but she learned in 2371 of a previously unknown joining.   This deeply held secret was revealed when Jadzia began experiencing vivid hallucinations and a dangerous drop in her isoboramine levels.  These symptoms were found to have been caused by the deterioration of a memory block created by the Trill Symbiosis Commission in 2285 in hopes of suppressing the knowledge of Joran Dax's existence.  Jadzia almost died in 2370 when a Trill named Verad briefly stole her symbiont (Invasive Procedures).  Later that year, Jadzia honored Curzon's blood oath of vengeance against "The Albino when she accompanied Kor, Koloth, and Kang to Secarus IV to kill him (Blood Oath).  She battled "The Albino", but left Kang to kill him.  Dax drew the attentions of many men, including Doctor Bashir.  Though she considered herself above such interests, she thought Morn was cute and Captain Boday was once her lover.  Dax had been attempting to master the Altonian brainteaser for 140 years by 2369.  Jadzia liked icoberry juice, but drinking it always made her spots itch.  Her friends regarded her as a night owl; she often threw surprise parties for them at Deep Space Nine, and enjoyed late night tongo games with Quark and his Ferengi competitors.  Jadzia had several other hobbies, including Galeo-Manada style wrestling, and collecting the music of lost composers, and she often played chess with Benjamin Sisko.  She disliked what she regarded as blind compliance to society's norms, and she occasionally enjoyed indulging in 'inappropriate' behavior for its shock value.  Like Curzon, she had a great fondness for Klingon food and music.  She enjoyed playing practical jokes on her colleagues, and on several occasions in early 2372, she broke into Odo's quarters while he was regenerating and moved all of his furniture very slightly, just to annoy him.   Dax learned a great deal about her past in 2371 when she underwent her zhian'tara ceremony, when she met her earlier hosts, who briefly took possession of her friends’ bodies (Facets).  Jadzia was reunited with Lenara Kahn in 2372, and the two of them felt a great desire to continue the relationship started by their previous hosts, Torias Dax and Nilani Kahn.  Though Jadzia felt strongly enough to go against Trill taboo, Lenara didn't want to risk exile for reassociating with Dax, so she returned to Trill to continue her work.  Jadzia later found herself attracted to Strategic Operations Officer, Lieutenant Commander Worf.  Her familiarity with Klingon culture was helpful in winning his attentions in 2373, leading to their eventual engagement. Jadzia and Worf decided to marry in 2374, after the crew of Deep Space Nine had retaken the station from the Dominion.  She had to go through a severe testing procedure under the supervision of Martok's haughty wife, Sirella, in order to marry into Martok's family, since Worf had been admitted to the House of Martok.  Despite outbreaks of hostility between the two, Jadzia patched things up with Sirella and the wedding went ahead as planned (You are Cordially Invited ...).  Jadzia and Worf were sent on a dangerous mission into Dominion space later that year to rescue a Cardassian informant.  Dax was badly wounded in a skirmish with the Jem'Hadar along the way and, instead of completing the mission, Worf decided to save his wife.  Jadzia Dax died at the end of 2374, when Gul Dukat, possessed by a Pah’wraith entity, killed her while breaking into the Bajoran temple on Deep Space Nine to poison an orb of the Prophets (Tears of the Prophets).  Doctor Bashir managed to save the symbiont, but could do nothing for Jadzia.  The symbiont was removed and placed aboard a transport to Trill for joining with another host.

Ezri Teagan, a young unjoined Trill Starfleet Ensign trained as a counselor, was aboard the same transport, and became Ezri Dax, the ninth host to the Dax symbiont, when it suddenly took a turn for the worse.

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