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Psychological Profile: Report of Starfleet Counselor Telnorri, Bajoran Sector
Addendum: Security Chief Odo
Although Quark's long-suffering and diminutive younger brother has long been
a pitiful sight, amid recent events it appears that Rom is at last standing
up for himself.
Rom was often teased by other children, led by Quark, about his smaller lobes
and about supposedly being adopted; the nickname of "Moogie" for his mother
has been a lifelong habit since an early age. His father's Naming Day
presents to him were swapped for old vegetables by Quark, who resold the
gifts at a profit over what Keldar had paid.
After the birth of his son Nog ca. 2354, he left home on Ferenginar for good
in 2361 — 10 years after Quark did — but not before witnessing firsthand his
father's lack of business sense as his brother never had the chance to. Long
subservient to Quark and the target of his public ridicule, Rom could have
been a starship chief engineer, his son later says, if he hadn't given up a
mechanical career to "be a good Ferengi" and seek profit — the reason Nog
wants to avoid such a life and be in Starfleet; neither one has "the lobes"
for business.
Rom was living on DS9 by 2369, where he was forced to temporarily give up his
quarters across the hall from Quark's for the Nagus visit, and allowed Nog to
attend Keiko's school on the station only if it helped his inter-cultural
sense for profit-making.
A year later, he briefly owned a fourth of rival bar Club Martus across from
Quark's; just before, his share of Quark's bar profits was dropped from
one-seventh to one-eighth of the take. Accused by Odo of a murder attempt on
Quark, he later helped capture the would-be assassin on his second try.
Jealous of Pel's newfound friendship with Quark, he exposed "him" as a
female during a visit by Grand Nagus Zek in 2370. The next year, he atoned for
his involvement with the transcendent Nagus' attitude by embezzling from his
short-lived Ferengi Benevolent Association.
After crossing his brother over his treatment of their feminist rebel mother,
he stood up to him even more strongly to support Nog's historic admission to
Starfleet Academy in late 2371; like any proud Ferengi papa, he ran the sale
of Nog's personal effects in the bar as the teen raised capital to leave home
for the Academy — and claimed his son's pajamas.
His newfound backbone grew even more by the next year, when he
single-handedly organized a union of Quark's employees, defied his brother and
the Ferengi Commerce Authority, and then resigned after they secretly won to
join the station's maintenance crews — a show of independence that was perhaps the biggest shock yet to Quark. His growing renown for engineering feats grew in 2372, when he performed theoretical jury-rigging to rescue his family and
Odo from a time-trip back to 1947 Earth, and later saved the DS9 senior staff
by adapting an interface between the holosuites and the Defiant transporter
to restore their beaming patterns. Actually, Rom had always had the ability —
he just had lacked the confidence.
Rom is far from an innocent, though: he routinely breaks in to use
furniture, linens, food and drink for the bar and Quark's personal stores; he
denies shaving the latinum there — mostly. Rom used to live across the hall from
Quark and made his son Nog do all the housecleaning in lieu of his own messiness;
there's no word what it looks like since the teen left for Starfleet Academy.
Update: Rom was married to Leeta on stardate 50975. (Perhaps emboldened by his new Bajoran love, during the Dominion war, Rom was very active in the Bajoran Resistance to the Cardassian/Dominion occupation of DS9.) In 2375, Rom was appointed to succeed Zek as the Ferengi Grand Nagus. Rom's embracing of Zek's proposed social reforms was key in the Grand Nagus' decision. Rom's son, Nog, returned to DS9 and, at one time, roomed with Jake Sisko.
Psychological Profile: Report of Starfleet Counselor Telnorri, Bajoran Sector, Stardate 50500
Rom's supervisors, from Chief O'Brien on down, have continued to offer
glowing reports on his progress in station maintenance, despite the coercion
to sabotage he experienced from the chief when Mrs. O'Brien was possessed by
a cast-out Prophets alien. To recognize the sacrifice and stress this trial
caused, he was promoted to the day shift in waste extraction.
Rom has also continued to gain the attention of former co-worker Leeta, who
formalized her departure from Dr. Bashir with a Bajoran Rite of Separation
and has continued to tell him of her culture, including Bajoran legends.
Snail juice, with extra shells, remains a favorite beverage, but he has
sampled human breakfasts on his work cycle such as O'Brien's.
Family relations have improved with his independence from Quark, and even Rom
played a role — unacknowledged, of course — in helping stabilize his
brother's recovery from a Dorek syndrome misdiagnosis late last year and the
subsequent visit by FCA agent Brunt over Quark's contract for his desiccated
remains. Rom recently enjoyed seeing his son Nog return to the station for
his sophomore field study from Starfleet Academy, but continued to wonder
when his neat streak would end.
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