Vadic was a Changeling and former Founder who captained a powerful warship called the Shrike.
Quick Answers
What was the purpose of 'Project Proteus' that Vadic was subjected to?
What was the name of the warship captained by Vadic?
What were the Federation's intentions with the Changelings during the Dominion War?
What was Vadic's role during the Dominion War?
Who were Vadic's 'brothers and sisters' held with him at Daystrom Station?
Project Proteus[]
During the Dominion War in the 2370s, Vadic and nine other "brothers and sisters" were held as prisoners of war at Daystrom Station, where they were subjected to torturous experiments as part of a clandestine Federation operation known as "Project Proteus". The intention was to engineer an evolution in the Changelings that would allow them to completely replicate the anatomy, physiology, and cell biology of any species and fool blood screenings and other methods of detection, thereby acting as "perfect spies" for the Federation.
Vadic overpowers her captor
Vadic eventually killed the scientist who had experimented on her and took her form to remind herself of her hatred. Freeing her fellow prisoners, she found that she had the ability to pass her enhanced shapeshifting capabilities to other Changelings by linking with them, provided they were willing to accept a shortened life span and constant pain. In this way, after the war, a schism formed in the Great Link, as Vadic gathered a splinter group of like-minded Changelings, with whom pursued revenge against the Federation. (PIC: "Dominion", "Seventeen Seconds")
Following this divide in the Great Link, Worf was contacted by Odo, and warned of Vadic's break away, rogue terrorist faction. Out of the mounting fear of reigniting the Dominion War, Starfleet was not able to acknowledge their existence, and Vadic's forces slowly integrated themselves into the highest echelons of Starfleet itself, by using the very abilities they were given against their former tormentors. (PIC: "Seventeen Seconds", "Imposters")
Hunting Jack Crusher[]
By the early 25th century, Vadic was completely unknown in official Federation records, but rumors had persisted among unaffiliated groups, such as the Fenris Rangers, of a ship with no known allegiance that carried weapons of every type known to Starfleet, and some that were not. Despite being unknown to the Federation, Vadic possessed detailed, up-to-date knowledge about Federation officers based on their personnel files.
Also known as the "Marked Woman", Vadic, posed as a bounty hunter who was also responsible for the bounty put on Jack Crusher around 2401. That year, after the Fenris Rangers boarded the SS Eleos XII and confirmed the presence of Crusher, the lead Ranger contacted the others and told them to "Reach out to the Marked Woman. We found him."
As Vadic continued to pursue Jack and his mother, Beverly Crusher, she eventually nearly made her capture during a confrontation with the USS Titan-A in the Ryton system, where the Starfleet ship had engaged in an unauthorized mission at the behest of retired Admiral Jean-Luc Picard to rescue Beverly Crusher. Vadic demanded that Starfleet turn over Jack Crusher. After he discovered that Jack was his son as well, Picard refused. (PIC: "Disengage")
Unbeknownst to her prey, however, Vadic was under orders from another, who urged her to capture Jack alive, as part of a plan to bring down the Federation. (PIC: "No Win Scenario") At the direction of her superior, Vadic and her Changeling crew raided Daystrom Station with the aid of the Vulcan crime lord Krinn to obtain experimental weapons technology, including a portal weapon. (PIC: "Imposters") However, the true target of the raid was the preserved corpse of Picard himself, kept after his death and transfer to a golem body in 2399. As an "anomaly" had been found in the remains, the Changelings needed DNA from Jack, his closest living relative, to create a double of Picard to disrupt the Frontier Day celebrations in the Sol system, where all of Starfleet would be assembled. (PIC: "The Bounty", "Dominion")
With the Titan on the run due to the Changeling conspiracy, Picard tried to lure Vadic into a trap. However, due to the influence of Lore within the experimental Daystrom Android M-5-10, which was plugged directly into the ship's computers, she and her crew were able to escape and seize control of the Titan. (PIC: "Dominion")
In control of the bridge, Vadic demanded that Jack come to the bridge, or she would execute members of the Titan's crew, killing Lieutenant T'Veen to prove her point. At the same time, Starfleet Intelligence agents Worf and Raffaela Musiker infiltrate the Shrike and free William T. Riker and his wife Deanna Troi, who had been captured to force Picard's cooperation, and aid in the retaking of the Titan. Matters came to a head when Jack seemingly arrived to turn himself over, bluffing Vadic with a device he claimed would kill him. In truth, the device was a personal force field, which was used to place a bubble around himself and Seven of Nine, the Titan's first officer. Picard and Commodore Geordi La Forge were able to help Data's personality take control of the Daystrom android, which restored control of the ship to the Starfleet officers. With Jack and Seven protected by the shield, Picard opened the evacuation hatch on the Titan's bridge. Vadic's last action was to curse the "fucking solids" before being vented into space, freezing from exposure to the coldness of space, and shattering on impact with the Shrike's deflector. The Shrike was then destroyed by the Titan. (PIC: "Surrender")
Aftermath[]
Although Vadic was defeated, her faction's plot succeeded. The crew of the Titan discovered that Vadic had been working with the Borg and setting up a Borg takeover of the Federation. Having somehow discovered that Picard's DNA had been altered while he was Locutus of Borg, something that Jack had inherited from him, Vadic and her followers took the Borg alterations from his corpse and spread it throughout Starfleet's mainframe and transporter system, giving the Borg the opening that they needed to assimilate Starfleet and begin their takeover of the Federation, leaving only the rebuilt USS Enterprise-D and her crew to oppose them. (PIC: "Võx")
Following the destruction of the Borg, Admiral Beverly Crusher was able to come up with a way to detect Vadic's Changeling infiltrators in Starfleet and they were all rounded up and arrested. In addition, Starfleet discovered that Vadic and her cohorts had kept many of their targets alive due to their constant need for information, including Tuvok, and they were found and rescued. (PIC: "The Last Generation")
Appendices[]
Appearances[]
- PIC:
- "Disengage"
- "Seventeen Seconds"
- "No Win Scenario"
- "The Bounty"
- "Dominion"
- "Surrender"
Background information[]
Vadic was played by Amanda Plummer in her main form.
Byron Quiros played Vadic posing as an alien Starfleet lieutenant in "The Bounty" and Ed Speleers played Vadic posing as Jack Crusher in "Dominion".
According to Terry Matalas, the role of Vadic was specifically written with Plummer in mind, he explained in an interview with TVLine: "I have always had this fascination with Amanda Plummer. I mean, going back to her winning the Tony for Agnes of God, to The Fisher King to Pulp Fiction to The Prophecy…I just loved her. There were two actors that we wrote for: One was Amanda Plummer. [...] There was never anyone else ever envisioned in those roles besides those two people, and the value of that is you get to write towards their strengths." [1]
External link[]
- Vadic at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works