The Lives of Dax
Nine incredible lives. One amazing anthology.

The Lives of Dax is a Pocket DS9 short story anthology – focusing on the hosts of the Dax symbiont – edited by Marco Palmieri. Published by Pocket Books, it was first released in , and forms part of the .

Summary 
From the book jacket
Three hundred fifty-seven years. Nine lives. One soul.
 
Mother, father, engineer, ambassador, scientist, statesman, serial killer, Starfleet officer: At one time or another, Dax has been all of these things and more. The near-immortal part of a composite species known as the Trill, Dax is a sentient, wormlike symbiont joined body and mind to a succession of humanoid hosts, carrying the memories of each lifetime into the next. Each incarnation is different. Each has its own personality, its own triumphs, its own tragedies, its own dreams. And each one… is Dax.

Here for the first time are tales from the lives of one of the most unique and compelling Star Trek characters ever created, told by voices as diverse as the hosts themselves: Steven Barnes, Michael Jan Friedman, L.A. Graf, Jeffrey Lang, S.D. Perry, Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Robert Simpson, and Susan Wright.

Much more than an anthology, this unique collection of stories weaves the tapestry of one being's life… through three and a half centuries of history in the Star Trek universe.

Imagine who she's known. Imagine what he's seen.

Contents 
Introduction
by Marco Palmieri

Ezri – "Second Star to the Right…"
by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens

When her date with Dr. Julian Bashir gets interrupted by a medical emergency, Ezri decides to wander around in Vic's program. She gets herself lost in a junkyard of broken Las Vegas signs. When she wonders if she should end the program, Vic Fontaine appears and strikes up a conversation with her. Ezri opens up to Vic about her joining to Dax.

At the end of 2374, the  is called to Deep Space 9 to transport the Dax symbiont to the  homeworld. As the Dax symbiont is transferred aboard, Ezri Tigan and Brinner Finok are questioned by Dr. T'pek about their suitability for joining. As Ensign Tigan never wanted to be joined, and never bothered with the usually requisite questionnaires, Ensign Finok is ordered to the vessel's sickbay to be on hand if a joining is necessary. When Ezri later goes to see Brinner, he begins to act strange and is revealed to be a Founder, who previously impersonated Dr. T'pek, intent on somehow joining with the Dax symbiont. Because of Ezri's involvement, the plan is ruined, but not before the Founder sends a signal to near-by Jem'Hadar fighters. The USS Destiny is attacked and the Dax symbiont needs to be joined to a host. With Ensign Finnok incapacitated, Ezri becomes the only Trill available to be joined. Instead of the years of training that Trill initiates usually receive, Ezri Tigan only has a fifteen minute briefing from the Destinys CMO, a Human named Franklin Solon. A cover story was created to hide the fact that a Founder had been captured, and so Ezri Tigan became the "only Trill" aboard the Destiny.

Lela – "First Steps"
by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Tobin – "Dead Man's Hand"
by Jeffrey Lang

Emony – "Old Souls"
by Michael Jan Friedman

When Sinnit Arvid enters a gymnast competition, his roommate, young Leonard McCoy comes to watch him. While the competitors are warming up, McCoy's and Emony Dax' eyes meet. The competition doesn't go very well for young Sinnit, as he fails to qualify for the finals. Later, after the semi-final, McCoy manages to get Emony to go on a date with him. After they make love, she tells him about her secret, that she has a symbiont inside her. McCoy doesn't know how to respond and he flees back to his dorm room. The next morning he realizes what an idiot he's been and he goes to the gym to apologize for his reaction. But as Dax is busy with the competition, he waits until she is free to speak to… when Sinnit appears and tries to kill Emony Dax. One of the other competitors manages to intercept a fatal blow, but is hurt badly as a result. As McCoy is forced to hold the athlete's artery, he realizes that he enjoys saving lives. After Sinnit is arrested and the athlete is recovering, McCoy asks Emony if they could spend some more time together; she refuses but leaves him with the hope that they may one day meet again.

Audrid – "Sins of the Mother"
by S.D. Perry

In a letter to her daughter Neema, now joined to the symbiont Cyl, Audrid Dax explains what really happened to her husband, Neema's father, Jayvin Vod. Initially Audrid told Neema that her father had died and that the symbiont Vod lived on; but later, Neema investigated and found out that the symbiont had died as well, thus accusing her mother as a murderer and broke up with her. The reason for Audrid not telling the truth to Neema is that the incident that lead to Jayvin's death was classified by both Trill and Starfleet. 

On Stardate 1230, when Audrid was head of the Trill Symbiosis Commission for just about a year, a comet was discovered that would bypass Trill pretty close. On the comet, life-signals somewhat related to Trill life signals had been detected by Starfleet – but as no one outside Trill knew about the true nature of their species, Starfleet scientists were unable to tell that the life signals were in fact related to those of a Trill symbiont. When Trill scientists discovered this, Starfleet and Trill assembled a joint expedition to the comet – including Audrid, Jayvin, and Starfleet veteran Christopher Pike.

Upon landing on the comet, they discovered a labyrinth of holes, caves and tunnels. Following the life-signature, they eventually found a basin, somehow resembling the ones in the caves of Mak'ala, but still very different. When Jayvin approached the basin, a creature jumped out of it and joined with him. He turned against his wife and his friends, killing three Starfleet officers and hunting down Audrid – until he himself was killed by Pike.

With the dead Jayvin, Audrid returned to Trill, where it was discovered that the creature, now called a Parasite, had cut the symbiosis between Jayvin and Vod, and was controlling Jayvin by directly attaching to his brain. Because of the danger that Vod potentially was also controlled by the parasite creature, it was abandoned to die, too.

Trill classified the material and never released the knowledge of the symbiont-related creatures to public; and Christopher Pike, as one of the only outsiders at that time to finally know about the Trill's true nature, promised to Audrid that he would never tell anyone.

Audrid's letter concludes in regretting that she was never able to speak to Pike again, as around one year after the incident, he had an accident himself that left him paralyzed. () But the letter ultimately served its purpose in bringing mother and daughter back together.

Torias – "Infinity"
by Susan Wright

Torias Dax is a young pilot working with a group of scientists, including his wife Nilani Kahn, who are testing a transwarp drive that, presumably, will reach warp 10. The shuttle that will be used to test the warp drive is called the Infinity. Though the scientists have observed some potentially dangerous energy fluctuations in simulations, many Starfleet dignitaries, including Admiral Kirk, turn up to view the test run. Torias and the scientists decide that even if the energy fluctuations, which are in a safe margin of error, turn out to be dangerous, the emergency transporter suit that Torias will be wearing will take care of any problems. When the Infinity goes to warp, the fluctuations cause it to explode. Though the ETS does its job, the doctors, though able to save Dax, cannot save Torias, and Nilani watches in horror as he dies.

Joran – "Allegro Ouroboros in D Minor"
by S.D. Perry and Robert Simpson

Curzon – "The Music Between the Notes"
by Steven Barnes

Jadzia – "Reflections"
by L.A. Graf

Ezri – "…and straight on 'til morning"
by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens

Background information 
 This anthology, along with A Stitch in Time, was retroactively inserted into the ongoing ; making it, technically, the first release in that series. To make this clearer, the anthology was reprinted in mass market paperback format with the new logo representing the relaunch series. 
 The anthology was the first project developed from inception by Pocket editor Palmieri. He described it as "one of the projects I’m most proud of" (). 
 Palmieri was inspired by the  anthology . ()
 "First Steps" originated from a pitch by Jill Sherwin, which Palmieri passed to Rusch to develop into the final story. ()
 "Sins of the Mother" was the first Star Trek work by author S.D. Perry. The story led to her being hired to write the inaugural DS9 relaunch duology, Avatar. ()
 The events from "Sins of the Mother" find a conclusion in the novels  and Unjoined.
 Although "Reflections" is credited to L.A. Graf, Julia Ecklar wrote the story alone. ()
 The editor chose not to commission a short story based on , preferring to tell that story in a novel. The story was eventually told in the novel Forged in Fire. 
 An extract from "Reflections" appeared in .
Bookriot.com ranked the anthology as among the best of Star Trek literature.

Cover gallery

Characters

The hosts of Dax 
 Lela Dax
 Tobin Dax
 Emony Dax
 Audrid Dax
 Torias Dax
 Joran Dax
 Curzon Dax
 Jadzia Dax
 Ezri Dax

Other characters 
 T'Pau
 Skon
 Leonard McCoy
 Christine Chapel
 Captain Styles
 Odan
 Benjamin Sisko
 Odo
 Worf
 Quark
 Kira Nerys
 Julian Bashir
 Cal Hudson
 Vic Fontaine
 Captain Raymer
 Kejjis Nar, Trill athlete
 Sinnit Arvid, Tessman athlete

"Sins of the Mother" 
 Christopher Pike
 Neema

External link 
 

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Lives of Dax, The