Tora Ziyal
2253-2273

In memory of Ziyal...

First of all, Ziyal was not a real person, she was a character on Star Trek Deep Space Nine who was wrongfully killed off by the cruel and unruly writers of the Deep Space Nine writing staff. This page is here, and will always be here, to remember Ziyal through her very short life.

Ziyal was born to a Bajoran woman named Tora Naprem and a high ranking Cardassian official, Gul Dukat. The "Tora" part of her name is Bajoran, after her mother, and "Ziyal" is a Cardassian name. She was born during the final years of the Cardassian Occupation, when her father was the prefect of Bajor. When the Cardassians retreated from Bajor, Gul Dukat had his mistress and half caste daughter board a freighter called the Ravinok where it would take them to Lessipia so Ziyal could live without retribution for her mixed heritage.

Unfortunately, the ship carrying them was pronounced missing, so Dukat assumed that his beloved mistress and daughter were dead. Then 6 years later, evidence was discovered where the Ravinok might have crashed, and with the possibility of survivors. Major Kira Nerys was assigned by Captain Sisko to look for any survivors, but was accompanied with Gul Dukat. They find that the Ravinok had been attacked by Breen forces, and that the survivors had been forced to work in Breen dilithium mines on a planet in the Dozaria system. Kira is looking for her old resistance friends, but she doesn't know who Dukat is looking for until she finds him mourning over Naprem's grave. Kira assumes that he's trying to find Ziyal so he can take her home, but soon discovers that he intends to kill Ziyal through what Cardassian tradition states to protect his family honor.

Kira convinces Dukat that killing Ziyal would be a mistake (convinces him on the end of a phaser rifle), but Dukat can't go through with killing Ziyal, so he takes her home with him instead. Reaction to Dukat's return to Cardassia with an illegitimate half-Bajoran daughter was swift. Dukat's mother disowned him, and a week later, his wife took their 7 children and left him. He was stripped of his title as chief military advisor to the powerful Detapa Council, and was demoted to a small Cardassian freighter, the Groumall. Ziyal also found little acceptance in Cardassian society, and she was forced to live with her father on his freighter.

In one incident, Kira was being transported to a diplomatic meeting in Cardassian/Bajoran neutral space aboard Dukat's freighter. During that mission, they encountered Klingons whom had destroyed the diplomatic meeting area. Kira and Dukat decided to go after the Klingon vessel, and through an ingenious plan they transport their crew to the Klingon vessel and the Klingon crew to their vessel and they blow up the freighter with the Klingon crew inside it. Dukat decides that he wants to go after more Klingons in his captured Klingon vessel, but his government decided that any violence towards the Klingons would not benefit Cardassia. Dukat ignores this and decides that when other Cardassians see him fighting the Klingons others would join him, but Kira explains to Dukat that chasing Klingons with him as a renegade from his government would not be a suitable place for Ziyal so he agrees to letting Kira take Ziyal back to the station.

While on the station, Ziyal had a hard time making friends because of her mixed heritage, but then she met the only other Cardassian, and the most hated enemy of her father, Garak. At first, Garak feared Ziyal because she was the daughter of his worst enemy, but the fear subsided when he found out that she had no intention of killing him. So, they developed a sort of friendship. When Dukat was arranging for the Dominion to come into the Alpha Quadrant he wanted Ziyal to come back with him to Cardassia so she would be safe from the Federation. Ziyal refused because she was in love with Garak, and was waiting for him to keep his promise to come back alive from the Gamma Quadrant. This angered her father so much that he practically disowns Ziyal, and leaves her to die when he and the Dominion launch a plan to destroy the station even with Ziyal on it.

Garak did keep his promise though, and he comes back to her. But, with the coming of the Dominion war, Major Kira tells Ziyal to move down to Bajor because it would be safer there for her. Garak doesn't go however, because a full-blooded Cardassian on Bajor would never be accepted, and that was the last time Garak saw Ziyal alive.

While on Bajor she was able to attend a school, but she was never really accepted because of her mixed heritage and that her father was leading a battle against the Bajoran Emissary of the Prophets. When the Cardassian/Dominion task force took over the station Dukat retrieved Ziyal from Bajor. Ziyal went willingly because she missed her father and he missed her. In the little time they spent together before she died, Ziyal was able to show her talent in art to the two people in her life that she cared about, her father and Kira.

Then one day, Kira asked Ziyal to persuade her father to let Rom go from his holding cell, but when he said there was nothing he could do, Ziyal left his office with a bad temper. After the incident, Ziyal helped Quark rescue his brother Rom, Kira, Leeta, and Jake from their holding cells. Rom and Kira then disabled the station's weapon systems so the Federation could take over the station. Dukat then went berserk looking for Ziyal when the Cardassians were abandoning their post. When he finally found her, to his horror he finds out that it was she who helped the prisoners escape. Dukat couldn't believe what he was hearing, but out of the shadows came a phaser blast to Ziyal's chest. Dukat turned to look who had fired, and saw that it was his loyal second in command, Damar. Then in a very dramatic moment, Dukat told Ziyal that he loved her and that he forgave her for what she did right as the life drained out of her.

After the Federation and Klingons board the station, Garak finds out from Jake that Ziyal was in the infirmary. There, lying on the examination table lay Ziyal, and Kira said to Garak from the background, "She loved you.", and Garak replied,"I never understood why, and I guess I never will."

A very sad ending indeed, but if we just remember Ziyal then she will never end up like those one-episode characters from Deep Space Nine's first season. Let's keep the memory of Ziyal alive by trying to mention her in our episode summaries, providing at least one picture of her in our picture archives, and remembering that guest stars never really go away, they just appear in tv movies and sitcoms.;)

This page is black in memory of Ziyal.