Kenneth Dalby

Crewman Kenneth Dalby was a former Maquis member who was forced to join the Starfleet crew of the USS Voyager when it became stranded in the Delta Quadrant. Aboard Voyager he served in the engineering department.

History
Dalby used to live on the Bajoran frontier - which he described as a "hard life." He coped by getting into a lot of trouble and being angry at everbody and everything. Eventually he met and fell in love with a woman and the seas calmed. When she was later raped and killed by three Cardassians, he decided to join the Maquis and "slaughter as many Cardassians" as he could.

When Chakotay's Val Jean was pulled into the Delta Quadrant in 2371 and both Starfleet and Maquis crews were integrated to be one Starfleet crew, Dalby found it rather difficult to adjust to life aobard Voyager. In fact he was not very fond of Starfleet and once even remarked that he regretted every minute of every day not being with the Maquis anymore. He was frustrated and angry having to deal with what he perceived as pesky Starfleet protocols, emphasizing that as a Maquis he was used to doing things "the Maquis way."

In late 2371, while making an unauthorized repair to a malfunctioning bio-neural gel pack, he accidentally disrupted power to the ship's energy grid. When confronted by Lieutenant Tuvok, he became agitated and insubordinate. When discussing him with Captain Kathryn Janeway, Tuvok remarked that Dalby had been behaving very undisciplined since his time on the ship, as he was once caught tampering with the ship's systems to increase replicator rations for a friend and had missed three of his last ten duty shifts.

Trying to find a way to address the issue, he and three other former Maquis deemed in need of some discipline were ordered by Commander Chakotay to undergo a rigorous Starfleet Academy-style training scenario aimed at brining former Maquis personnel unfamiliar with Starfleet standards up to date. Despite great reluctance, Dalby had no choice but to acquiesce to Chakotay's order and try to make things work with Tuvok. Even though he and Tuvok did not see eye to eye in the beginning, by the end of the training exercise both developed an understanding as well as respect for the other. Dalby changed his attitude towards Tuvok and Starfleet a great deal when he witnessing Tuvok risk his own life to save the youngest member of the team, Gerron, who had been seriously injured in a cargo bay accident. 

Background
Kenneth Dalby was played by Armand Schultz

"Learning Curve" co-writer Jean Louise Matthias said of the character, "In our early story treatment, Dalby was a much darker, angrier person. He was named after a kid who terrorized me in third grade. That changed a little to show he could be redeemed at the end." (Cinefantastique, Vol. 27, No. 4/5, p. 71)}}

Apocrypha
In the ST video game Starship Creator Dalby's past is described in more detail. According to the video game, Dalby was born on Dreaon VII in 2335. Showing an interest early on in the sciences and engineering, Dalby attended the Federation Institute of Technology studying propulsion engineering. After graduating and working as a commercial engineer for a few years, he grew increasingly more tired of his job at the spaceport and soon joined a Federation freighter, the SS Gryphon, as assistant chief engineer. In 2367 he married a Bajoran woman, Paola Calderon, until she was brutally raped and killed by Cardassians.

In an alternate timeline depicted in the VOY - Infinity's Prism novel: Places of Exile, Dalby is serving at an auxiliary engineering station on the bridge in 2374 when Voyager witnesses Species 8472 assault a Borg-occupied star system. Dalby is killed when one of the pursuing ships of Species 8472 severs a starboard nacelle and collides with the Voyager bridge.

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Kenneth Dalby