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"I saw so much death during the Occupation… felt so much pain. But he was my father. My strength. And I couldn't stand watching that strength slip away."
Kira Nerys, 2373 ("Ties of Blood and Water")

Kira Taban was a Bajoran citizen who lived during the Cardassian Occupation of Bajor. He was the husband of Kira Meru and the father of Kira Nerys, Kira Pohl, and Kira Reon.

History[]

A kind and gentle man, Kira Taban was proud of his garden. He believed that using chlorobicrobes in spraying katterpods led to the crops growing larger. (DS9: "Progress", "Ties of Blood and Water")

In 2346, while he and his family were living in the Singha refugee camp, his wife Meru was one of several Bajoran women taken to the new Cardassian station Terok Nor to serve as comfort women for the Cardassian soldiers. Taban and his children began to receive better care and food in exchange for Meru cooperating with the Cardassians, and in particular becoming Gul Dukat's mistress. Even though most Bajorans viewed comfort women as collaborators, Taban believed she was making a great sacrifice for her family and was allowed to send her personal messages every now and then. In order to protect his children of ever finding out about what her mother had to do in order to save them, he told them that she died at the camp the same year she was taken away. He often told his daughter Nerys, who was three years old when her mother was taken away, that Meru was the bravest woman he'd ever known, though Nerys did not learn her mother was a comfort woman until 2374, when Dukat contacted her. (DS9: "Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night")

Taban was killed by members of the Cardassian Heavy Weapons Unit, Third Assault Group, Ninth Order while attempting to dissuade them from torching his home and village. Gravely wounded by a disruptor shot to his abdomen, he survived long enough for the Shakaar resistance cell to find him. However, after several days of extreme pain he finally succumbed to his injuries. Although Kira Nerys was present at his bedside for most of this time, she was not present when he died, having chosen to be part of an ambush against her father's attackers at the time; a decision she later bitterly regretted. Taban died calling out her name, a fact that still haunted Nerys years later. (DS9: "Second Skin", "Ties of Blood and Water")

Appendices[]

Background information[]

Kira Taban was played by Trek regular Thomas Kopache. He was the only character played by Kopache to make more than one appearance.

The Star Trek Encyclopedia, 4th ed., vol. 1, p. 421 stated Kira Taban's occupation was that of a farmer.

Apocrypha[]

In the DS9 novel A Stitch in Time, the resistance was informed as to why Kira and his family were receiving extra rations. To avoid being branded as collaborators, Taban and his family were subsequently forced to give away the extra rations they were receiving. The individual who gave away the Kiras revealed this information to Elim Garak in 2374.

External link[]

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