General Valen was the commander of an Annari warship which was lost in the Void, an inert layer of subspace that trapped ships for over five years. To survive, he preyed upon unprepared vessels that arrived. When the ships first were pulled through the subspace tunnels, they were disoriented, and his surprise attacks were often devastating.
When USS Voyager was caught in the Void, Valen pretended to be an ally of Kathryn Janeway. Valen told Janeway that the only way to obtain energy and supplies within The Void is to attack new ships and steal their supplies. Janeway refused to do this even though it had lost most of its supplies to another ship that attacked it.
He later betrayed Janeway. Valen stole the supplies from the ship that attacked Voyager and refused to return them. Voyager recovered some of the supplies by knocking out Valen's shields. He attacked Voyager so that he could steal her power sources. After Voyager had formed an alliance with other ships in The Void in an attempt to escape, Valen attacked them. His attack failed when Voyager beamed over Fantome, a native of The Void, who sabotaged Valen's ship. Voyager and the other ships escaped. (VOY: "The Void")
Background information[]
Valen was portrayed by Robin Sachs.
Valen was also the name of the messiah-figure of the Minbari on Babylon 5; Robin Sachs played a Minbari member of the Grey Council in that series.
Valen's appearance differs slightly from that of Geral, the Annari captain seen in "Nightingale". He has grey skin and parts of his face are covered in scales. His nose is quite flat, and the nostrils are tear-drop shaped. It bears a striking resemblance to a Malon nose, seen on personnel such as Fesek and Pelk. (VOY: "Juggernaut") His mouth appears to have the same shape and size of a typical humanoid mouth, and his lips are the same color as his skin, perhaps indicating that the Annari are cold-blooded creatures. His eyes are brown, almost black, and he has no eyebrows, nor facial hair of any kind. He has a strangely shaped pattern on his temple, and just above this there is a ridge which curves towards the center of his forehead and runs down to the bridge of his nose, where it meets a similar ridge from the other side.