Kira Meru was a female Bajoran refugee during the Occupation of Bajor in the 24th century. She was one of a few women who were held on Terok Nor as comfort women for the Cardassian forces. She was married to Kira Taban and, with him, had three children: Colonel Kira Nerys of the Bajoran Militia, Kira Pohl, and Kira Reon.
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How did Kira Meru's faith influence her family life?
What role did Kira Meru play during the Occupation of Bajor?
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How did Kira Meru's beliefs impact her husband, Kira Taban?
Personality[]
Kira was a woman of faith, as she convinced her husband to go to services with her every day, even though he was not a particularly religious man himself. She trusted in the Prophets even when she was pulled away from her family and found a dark humor in the quick change of her situation.
She was also a skilled icon painter and her favorite flowers were Bajoran lilacs. (DS9: "Second Skin", "Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night", "Strange Bedfellows")
History[]
Kira was born in the Dahkur Province on Bajor. As a child, like so many Bajorans at the time enslaved by Cardassians, Meru dreamed of having enough food to eat and pretty clothes to wear. She married Taban and had her daughter, Nerys, by 2343. In addition to Nerys, she had two sons with him, Reon and Pohl, by 2346. At this time, they lived in the Singha refugee camp.
At one point, Meru was approached by Cardassians and was deemed to not show them the proper respect. She was struck in the head, and a resulting scar on the left side of her face remained for much of her life. She often tried to hide it with a strand of hair. (DS9: "Second Skin", "Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night", "Strange Bedfellows")
In 2346, Meru was chosen by Basso, a Bajoran collaborator, to serve as a comfort woman for Cardassian soldiers aboard Terok Nor, with several other women. There, she became Gul Dukat's mistress. In return, Dukat made sure her family was cared for and received special treatment, such as food, housing, and medical supplies. Meru continued to live with Dukat in relative luxury until her death, seven years later in a Cardassian hospital.
Back on Bajor, Kira Taban told his children that Meru had died in the camp to protect them from knowing the truth about what their mother had to do in order to keep them well-fed and cared for. He sent a message via the Cardassians, telling her what he did and that she should be happy that they were now being cared for. However, many years later, in 2374, Dukat – in an attempt to come clean with himself and his past – contacted Kira Nerys, on what would have been Meru's sixtieth birthday, and told her that he and Meru had been lovers. Unsettled by the possibility, Nerys traveled back in time using the Orb of Time and met Meru, under the guise of Luma Rahl. There, she found out first hand that Dukat was telling the truth: her mother had become Dukat's mistress, and seemed to be enjoying it, as well.
Kira Meru and her lover Gul Dukat in 2346
Disgusted that Meru seemed to be falling in love with Dukat and buying his lies about how much Cardassians cared about Bajorans, Nerys eventually participated in an assassination attempt on both of them by planting an ultritium bomb. Just before the bomb went off, Nerys heard a taped message from her father to her mother in which he thanked Meru for the sacrifice she was making which, in turn, had saved their lives. She panicked, suddenly realizing that maybe her mother was not the willing collaborator she believed her to be. Nerys grabbed Meru and Dukat, and led them out of the room where the bomb was planted. The Orb of Time brought Kira back to the present during the explosion, and back on Deep Space 9, she discussed the matter with Benjamin Sisko. She told him how conflicted she was about what her mother had done, insisting that no matter what Meru's motives, it did not make it right, as she had been living in the lap of luxury for seven more years, while thousands of Bajorans had been losing their lives at the hands of murderers like Dukat and his kind. She admitted, however, that no matter what Meru had done, she had still been her mother. (DS9: "Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night")
The subject of Kira Meru and her relationship with Dukat was later brought up in a conversation that and her daughter had after the former assumed the mantle of Emissary to the Pah-wraiths and had his followers abduct Kira Nerys, who condemned the former Gul for his various affairs with unwilling lovers. When Dukat countered that Meru wanted to be in his bed and had loved him, Kira countered back with her belief that the older Nerys had done what had been necessary to ensure the survival of her loved ones after Dukat took her from them. (DS9: "Covenant")
Appendices[]
Background information[]
Kira Meru was played by Leslie Hope.
In the first draft script of DS9: "Ties of Blood and Water", the name of Kira Nerys' mother was instead "Kira Anay".
Apocrypha[]
In the Star Trek: Terok Nor novel Night of the Wolves, Dukat took another mistress (Tora Naprem) and his relationship with Meru began to crumble by 2348, where she sought to return to her children and husband, having been overcome with her grief. Years later, she was sent by Dukat to Crell Moset's hospital on Bajor, where she died of the Fostossa virus. He continued to take care of her family into the 2360s, hoping to be able to steer Kira Nerys away from the Resistance. (Dawn of the Eagles)
External link[]
- Kira Meru at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works