"First Steps" is a 1999 Star Trek: Deep Space Nine short story by Kristine Kathryn Rusch and Jill Sherwin. It was published in the The Lives of Dax anthology.

Lela Dax, a newly joined Trill woman and member of the Trill ruling council, defies her fellow legislators when an unknown alien vessel appears in orbit and refuses to leave.

Summary

Lela Dax has been called to the Trill space center, where she finds the scientists in an uproar. The cause is an alien ship that has arrived in orbit. While Trill made first contact with the Vulcans decades earlier, the arrival of any alien vessel is an unexpected event. Trill sends a message to the alien vessel to leave, but Lela is keen to find out the reason that the aliens have come to their world. Contact with the aliens is difficult, and just after Lela tries to talk with them, the aliens attack Trill and steal acelon from a processing centre. Lela asks for information on the aliens from T'Pau of Vulcan.

References

Characters

Lela Dax • Lytus • Darzen Odan • Sitlas • T'Pau

Referenced only

Zefram Cochrane • Dax

Starships and vehicles

L'Dira starship

Referenced only

Phoenix • T'Plana-Hath

Locations

Caves of Mak'ala • Trill

Referenced only

Earth • Vulcan

Races and cultures

L'Dira • Trill • Trill symbiont • Vulcan

Referenced only

Human

States and organizations

Guardians of the Caves of Mak'ala • Symbiosis Evaluation Board • Trill Council • Trill Diplomatic Corps • Trill Spaceflight Center

Other references

acelon • first contact • holo • IDIC • planetary defense grid • Trill councillor • Vulcan emissary • Vulcan salute • World War III

Appendices

Related media

• DS9 episode: "Facets"" – Lela's position on the Council was established in the episode.
• TOS episode & Star Trek 3 novelization: Amok Time – T'Pau's first appearance.
• TNG episode: "The Host"
• TNG movie: Star Trek: First Contact

Background

• Kristine Kathryn Rusch commented "I was working in a relatively uncharted part of Trek history. I didn't have much lore to go on, and we don't know a lot about Trill. So I made some things up, and I worried about that. I needn't have worried , I guess. Everything went through very well". (Star Trek: Communicator Issue 126: "Thrilling Trill: The Lives of Dax", page 60)
• In the story, T'Pau describes Vulcan's "most recent encounter" with a new race, clearly describing humans and the events of that first contact in 2063. It was left unclear exactly how "recent" this was, but given the repeated references to Lela's youth, it is reasonable to place this story fairly close to that event. The timeline in Voyages of Imagination gives the year as 2075.

Connections

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine collected short stories, novellas and short novels
The Lives of Dax	"Second Star to the Right..." • "First Steps" • "Dead Man's Hand" • "Old Souls" • "Sins of the Mother" • "Infinity" • "Allegro Ouroboros in D Minor" • "The Music Between the Notes" • "Reflections" • "... and straight on 'til morning"
Prophecy and Change	"Revisited" • "Ha'mara" • "The Orb of Opportunity" • "Broken Oaths" • "... Loved I Not Honor More" • "Three Sides to Every Story" • "The Devil You Know" • "Foundlings" • "Chiaroscuro" • "Face Value" • "The Calling"
Worlds of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine	Volume One ("Cardassia: The Lotus Flower" • "Andor: Paradigm") • Volume Two ("Trill: Unjoined" • "Bajor: Fragments and Omens") • Volume Three ("Ferenginar: Satisfaction is Not Guaranteed" • "The Dominion: Olympus Descending")
Strange New Worlds	I ("Life's Lessons" • "Where I Fell Before My Enemy") • II ("Research" • "Change of Heart") • III ("Ninety-three Hours" • "Dorian's Diary" • "The Bottom Line" • "The Best Defense..." • "An Errant Breeze") • IV ("Captain Proton and the Orb of Bajor" • "Isolation Ward 4") • V ("Fear, Itself") • VI ("Fabrications" • "Urgent Matter" • "Best Tools Available") • VII ("Infinite Bureaucracy" • "Barclay Program Nine") • 8 ("Trek" • "Gumbo" • "Promises Made" • "Always a Price") • 9 ("Shadowed Allies" • "Living on the Edge of Existence" • "The Last Tree on Ferenginar: A Ferengi Fable From the Future" • "The Tribbles' Pagh") • 10 ("So a Horse Walks into a Bar..." • "Signal to Noise") • 2016 ("The Façade of Fate" • "The Manhunt Pool" • "The Dreamer and the Dream")
Star Trek: Explorer	"A Night In" • "By Special Request" • "The Mission" • "Things Can Only Get Better" • "Frontier Medicine" • "The Victim" • "You Can't Buy Fate" • "Lost and Founder" • "A Year to the Day I Saw Myself Die" • "Academy Acquisition" • "The Snake and the Worm" • "The Needs of the Many"
Misc. short stories	"The Badlands, Part IV" • "The Second Artifact" • "Mirror Eyes" • "Requital" • "The Officers' Club" • "A Terrible Beauty"
Misc. novellas & short novels	"Horn and Ivory" • "Saturn's Children" • "Seeds of Dissent" • "A Gutted World"

Timeline

published order
Previous story: Second star to the right...	The Lives of Dax	Next story: Dead Man's Hand
chronological order
Previous Adventure: The Valiant Book Three	Pocket	Next Adventure: Federation 2078

External link

• First Steps article at Memory Alpha, the wiki for canon Star Trek.