The Albino

The Albino was an infamous criminal who launched numerous raids against Klingon colonies in the late 23rd century.

Personal History
In 2290, three Klingon battle cruisers, commanded by Kor, Koloth, and Kang, were dispatched to apprehend the Albino. The raid was successful in breaking up most of the Albino's power base, but they failed to capture the Albino himself.

In revenge, the Albino infected each of the three captain's firstborn sons with a genetic virus that slowly killed the children. The three fathers, plus Curzon Dax, the godfather and namesake of Kang's son, swore a blood oath to track down and kill the Albino in revenge. Kang nearly tracked him down on Galdonterre, but the Albino was warned that they were coming and escaped in time. As a result, the Albino went into hiding, finally establishing a compound on Secarus IV in 2345.

The Albino was finally tracked down again in 2370, when Kang learned of his location from one of his discarded wives. When Kang went to scout out the location, the Albino contacted him and offered a glorious battle – forty of the Albino's best warriors against his four pursuers. Kang accepted, but it was later discovered that the Albino had booby-trapped the threshold of the compound with a gravitic mine.

Instead, Kang, Kor, Koloth, and Jadzia Dax (the then-current host of the Dax symbiont) launched their own sneak attack against the Albino's compound. Dax bombarded the Albino's compound with tetryon particles, rendering the energy weapons of the Albino's soldiers useless. This allowed the four comrades to fight their way, hand-to-hand, into the Albino's headquarters. Kang himself landed the killing blow on the Albino, although both he and Koloth were mortally wounded in the battle. 

Memorable Quotes
"No vengeance today, Kang".

"The Trill. Of course. You're far too young and lovely to sport such a deadly weapon. All right, then, use it if that's what you came to do.  Kill me in cold blood.  Run me through the belly and cut out my heart... isn't that what your blood oath promised? Or have you lost your appetite, my dear?" This was the last thing he ever said.

Background information
The Albino was played by Bill Bolender. Based on his appearance, the Albino might have been a Klingon, but this is only speculation, and does not seem likely given his apparent disdain for Klingons, whom he called "filth." The script described him as "an all-white humanoid in good physical shape for a man of a hundred".

Apocrypha
The Albino appears in Michael A. Martin and Andy Mangels' novel Forged in Fire, which tells the story of his piracy and later his revenge on Kang, Kor and Koloth. The book confirms that he is indeed Klingon – a cousin of Kor, in fact – who was born an albino after his mother attempted to genetically alter him in the womb so he would cure his bloodline of the augment virus. His mother sends him to be killed as an infant, but he is found by a pair of Orion pirates, who raise him in their trade. The book gives his name as Qagh, which is Klingon for "mistake." This would explain his dislike of fellow Klingons. The virus - which he actually gave to the Klingons themselves and they passed to the children - was also given to Sulu, who had assisted the Klingons in the hunt for Albino, in hopes that it would kill his daughter, but because a key component came from Omega IV, a planet Sulu had visited and become resistant to its adverse effects, it did not take on him. The virus also afflicted Curzon Dax, but he expressed no real concern about it, explaining to Sulu that he would retain a form of immortality thanks to his symbiont, clarifying that Dax had never contracted the virus in the first place as it was incompatible with the symbiont and would thus not pass the virus on to future hosts. Sulu notably rejected the offer to aid in the Klingon blood oath as he felt that it would be a mistake to focus so much of their lives on revenge against one man, although he nevertheless agreed to keep silent about the events that had taken place and allow the other four to proceed as they saw fit.

External link


Albino