Son'a
The Son'a are a narcissistic and materialist humanoid race descended from the same species as the Ba'ku. Their leaders left the idyllic Ba'ku home planet in the Briar Patch in the 2270s after a failed attempt to take over Ba'ku society. They had rebelled against the Ba'ku philosophy of rejecting high technology. The Ba'ku had left the Son'a homeworld due to creation of terrible weapons capable of destroying all life.
After the Ba'ku departure, the Son'a established for themselves a technologically-advanced society. After a brief flirtation with space colonization, the Son'a settled into a pattern of "nomadic acquisition". Some sociologists attribute their aggressive behavior to desperation brought on by race-wide infertility. The inability to procreate may be the result of damage caused by biological and genetic experimentation, perhaps involving weapons.
Their nomadic heritage took them to many worlds in search of precious metals, rare jewels and other materials which, though antiquated by Federation standards, are highly prized by the Son'a.
In many cases the Son'a took possession of more than mineral resources. Quite often the native population was raided for slave labor, especially the females of the various species. In 2325, they subjugated the Tarlac and the Ellora species to serve as indentured servants and soldiers. After several sanctions by the Federation Council, the practice has reportedly been discontinued.
The Son'a equipped their vessels with unpredictable isolytic subspace weapons, in defiance of the Second Khitomer Accord. They also manufactured large quantities of the Dominion narcotic Ketracel-White in the Son'a colonies in the outlying areas near Cardassia and the Bajoran Wormhole. One of their white storage facilities was located at their outpost at Devos II.
However, without the regenerative effects of the Ba'ku homeworld's metaphasic radiation, the Son'a became desperate in their efforts to prolong their lives by any possible means, including genetic manipulation and surgical techniques. The Son'a make regular visits to facilities where their skin is stretched tight, and accumulated toxins are purged from their bodies. Nevertheless, in the 2370s many Son'a were nearing death.
The Son'a are highly-praised for their accomplishments in the arts as well as the high quality of their venting and their "hospitable" attitude toward personal relationships.
In 2375, a group of Son'a led by Ahdar Ru'afo attempted to access the Metaphasic particles within the rings of the Ba'ku planet, now located within Federation space. To do so, they entered an alliance with Starfleet Admiral Matthew Dougherty, who convinced the Federation Council to approve the scheme. The Son'a had developed a metaphasic collector to harvest the particles, but with the secondary effect of rendering the planet uninhabitable. They agreed to follow Starfleet procedure and relocate the existing Ba'ku population beforehand, using a hidden Federation holoship.
The plan began to unravel when Lieutenant Commander Data from the USS Enterprise-E uncovered the holo-ship and was shot by a Son'a soldier. When the Enterprise arrived, Captain Jean-Luc Picard threatened to expose the true nature of their operations to the Federation, when he and a number of his officers beamed to the surface to help the Ba'ku. In response, Ru'afo sent Son'a warships to intercept the Enterprise and ordered the Ba'ku to be removed by force, though his efforts were impeded by the Enterprise crew.
Unwilling to wait any longer, Ru'afo killed Dougherty and deployed the metaphasic collector. Fortunately, Picard was able to stop its activation and trigger the auto-destruct sequence, with help from Ru'afo's second-in-command Gallatin. Soon the Federation Council withdrew their support for the project, with new information from the Enterprise. Some of the Son'a elected to return to the Ba'ku. (Star Trek: Insurrection)
During the later days of the Dominion War, Weyoun diverted a number of Dominion warships to the Son'a outpost on Devos II. They were diverted, rather than sent to pursue the USS Defiant, which was searching for survivors from the IKS Koraga, in order to help protect the new ketracel-white facility built there, as the Dominion was aware that the Federation had discovered its existence. Damar questioned this, as he felt the Son'a should be able to protect it themselves. (DS9: "Penumbra")
- Although the Son'a role in the Dominion War was first mentioned in Star Trek: Insurrection, Weyoun's order to Damar to send ships to assist the Son'a presumably took place after the events in Insurrection, indicating that not all of the Son'a returned to the Ba'ku homeworld. The Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion theorizes that they become full allies of the Dominion.
Vice Admiral Kathryn Janeway later joked with Jean-Luc Picard about his encounter with the Son'a, telling him he always got the easy assignments. (Star Trek Nemesis)
