Chakotay

Chakotay was born “upside down” in 2329 on a Federation Colony near the Cardassian Demilitarized Zone.  He was raised by his Native American father who considered him a “contrary” in his culture due to his birth position.  Chakotay’s family roots were on Earth.   He was a descendant of the Rubber Tree People who had Mayan roots.  Even though his father tried to teach Chakotay the native way of life, he resisted.  Chakotay’s father Kolopak was afraid that without Spirits to guide Chakatay he would lose his way in life. 

Chakotay left his tribe to attend Starfleet Academy at age fifteen and possessed great piloting skills.  He graduated in 2348 and became part of Starfleet’s Advanced Tactical Training group.  In 2368 he resigned after his father’s death to honour his father’s memory.  This led Chakotay on a spiritual journey which involved vision quests to meet with his father’s spirit.  He later joined the Maquis and became one of its leaders to resist both the Cardassians and the Federation in a fight for principle.  It was during this fight that he was on his ship, the Val Jean, which was transported to the Delta Quadrant by the Caretaker. 

Unknown to Chakotay was that one of his crew, Tuvok, was the Security Chief of the USS Voyager.  Voyager ended up following him to the Delta Quadrant in an attempt to locate the Val Jean.  When the crews of both ships came together in cooperation to fight both the Caretaker abduction and the ruthless Kazon people of the Delta Quadrant, Chakotay embraced Starfleet principles once again and became the First Officer of Voyager.  He was loyal to Captain Janeway and Starfleet and kept the peace establishing positive cooperation between his Maquis crew and the Starfleet crew in order to find a way home.

During an early attack by the Kamar in the Delta Quadrant, Chakotay was rendered brain dead as his neural energy was extracted into a disembodied Spirit.  As a Spirit, he eventually proved himself to the Voyager crew and used a medicine wheel to create a map out of the nebula.  His Spirit was eventually reunited with his body and his devotion to Voyager and Startfleet became very strong.  Chakotay, the only Starfleet Officer with one name, is believed to eventually became Captain of the Voyager upon its return.  The end of his life was a mixture of alternative timelines and alternative Chakotays as possibly his father’s fear of losing his way in life without spirits became true.  No one knows for sure.