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Iliana Ghemor was a female Cardassian of the Cardassian Union and an agent of the Obsidian Order in the 24th century. She was the daughter of former Legate Tekeny Ghemor and her mother, who had died by 2371, was an inquisitor at the Central University.

Iliana had a strong sense of loyalty to the state, and so joined the Obsidian Order against the wishes of her parents, who wanted her to become an artist. Her mother was particularly unhappy, but her father eventually allowed it.

Ghemor was given a deep undercover assignment on Bajor in 2361. For this assignment, she needed to have her appearance surgically altered to look like a Bajoran and went through mind control techniques that erased her own memories and replaced them with the memories of a Bajoran life. Before completion, she recorded a message to herself to make it easier to recover her memories once her mission was completed.

In 2371, her identity was used by the Obsidian Order in a plot to expose her father's dissident sympathies. Because of the resemblance between the two women, Kira Nerys was abducted and surgically altered to be Iliana having returned from her mission.

Although her parents would never see her again, Iliana's father believed she was still on Bajor – noting that they had chosen Kira rather than the real Iliana, as his daughter would have regained her memories and told the Order what they allegedly wanted to know – and kept on looking for her until his death in 2373 on Deep Space 9. However, due to the nature of her mission, locating her, even with the assistance of the Bajoran Provisional Government proved to be difficult. Gul Dukat claimed to know where Iliana was and offered to share the information with Ghemor in exchange for his support to the alliance with the Dominion. Ghemor, however, declined. (DS9: "Second Skin", "Ties of Blood and Water")

Iliana Ghemor photograph

Photograph of Nerys as Ghemor

A photograph of Nerys disguised as Ghemor appeared on Beckett Mariner's conspiracy board in 2380. (LD: "Cupid's Errant Arrow")

Appendices[]

Background information[]

Iliana Ghemor was played by Nana Visitor.

According to writer Robert Hewitt Wolfe, early versions of the script for "Second Skin" ended with Doctor Bashir advising Kira that he couldn't determine if she was Iliana Ghemor or not. Of this scrapped idea, Wolfe commented, "It really doesn't matter whether she's a Cardassian or not. She's Kira Nerys and that's who she believes she is. That's what's important." (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion, p. 177)

Apocrypha[]

In the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine relaunch novels Warpath and Fearful Symmetry, parts of Iliana's fate are revealed. She was held captive by Dukat for around 15 years, but was able to escape during the last days of the Dominion War. Having back her memories as Iliana, but still also having all memories of Kira, she apparently went mad and started to believe that she was the only Kira Nerys to truly bear this name – and thus started to eliminate all other Kiras, starting with Intendant Kira in the mirror universe. In The Soul Key, Ghemor attempts to become the Emissary of the Prophets in the mirror universe.

The mirror version of Iliana (β) appeared in our universe and asked the DS9 crew to help her stop her now-mad counterpart in Fearful Symmetry.

The storyline was initially left unresolved due to the time skip in Star Trek: Destiny and Star Trek: Typhon Pact, although the events are referred to in Rough Beasts of Empire, Plagues of Night and Revelation and Dust. In 2015, the story was told in Sacraments of Fire and Ascendance.

External link[]

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