Lisa Cusak

Captain Lisa Cusak was a 24th century Human Starfleet officer born in 2320. Early in her career, Cusak was attached to the Andorian Embassy. While there she started a long relationship with an Andorian who worked at the Andorian Agricultural Ministry.

She was later posted on the same space station as one of her sisters. She found this difficult and used it as an example of why she had to keep her personal and her professional lives separate. Two sisters of hers were teachers.

Cusak was later given command of the USS Olympia. The ship left the Federation in 2363 on a mission to explore the Beta Quadrant. In 2371, when the ship was returning home, they discovered a planet surrounded by an energy barrier in the Rutharian sector. When the Olympia scanned the planet, the ship was hit by a surge of metreon radiation which disabled its engines and caused the ship to crash. Cusak was the only survivor.

Her attempt to send a distress call was received by the USS Defiant (2370). As the Defiant made its way to the planet where she crashed, she conversed with crewmembers, telling them stories of her life and listening to their tales. When the Defiant arrived at the planet in 2374, they discovered that she had been dead for three years, two months from carbon dioxide poisoning. The metreon radiation had distorted her signal, transmitting it into the future. The return signal was similarly distorted, sent back through time. Captain Sisko decided that the body was to be taken back to Deep Space 9, where the crew held a wake. Despite not having met her, the crew believed she had made a real difference to their lives just through "the sweet sound of her voice." 

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