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Nustopher "Nus" Braka was a Klingon-Tellarite hybrid who operated as a Venari Ral pirate during the late 32nd century. He referred to himself as a "Klingarite".

Early life

Like many other people born after the Burn, Braka didn't know where he was born, but his family had nothing, so they moved around a lot, even when they were sick and tired. Braka lived on a small mining colony that mined strontium, a cheap but lethal fuel source as it exploded upon hitting anything volatile. There were a steady stream of Federation supply ships that flew over the colony which Braka enjoyed watching as a kid. However, none of the ships ever stopped at the colony despite attempts to signal them, likely because they were going to places much worse off that needed the supplies.

In desperation, Braka's father rigged up a crude weapon fueled by strontium to attempt to bring down one of the supply ships. However, he missed and the strontium ignited the buildup of toxic oxides in the colony's atmosphere. The colony was destroyed, killing Braka's family and leaving him one of only eight survivors. Braka blamed the United Federation of Planets for the loss of his family, believing that they had "rained red hellfire" down on the colony in retaliation for his father's attempt to shoot down a supply ship. However, Federation weaponry and fire for at least the last few hundred years had always been blue or green, not red, while strontium burned red like a match in a tinderbox. So consumed by grief and rage that he fell into cognitive dissonance and appeared to stop aging mentally, Braka was never able to see the truth and grew up seeking vengeance on the Federation. (SA: "Rubincon")

Venari Ral

In 3178, Braka recruited Anisha Mir as an accomplice to steal food rations from a Federation supply ship, exploiting her desperation to feed her young son Caleb. Braka murdered the Starfleet pilot Lieutenant Akamu Lee in the course of the theft, elevating the crime to a felony, although Braka claimed self-defense because Akamu pulled his weapon on them. He and the Mirs were apprehended afterward and brought to Pikaru, where Captain Nahla Ake sentenced Braka to life imprisonment at a Federation penal colony. Braka remained defiant throughout, proclaiming his innocence and screaming at Caleb not to trust them. (SA: "Kids These Days", "Rubincon")

In 3191, Braka broke out of prison and contacted Mir, offering to help her escape. Desperate to get out and find her son, Mir accepted. Having no intention of joining Braka and the Venari Ral, Mir faked her death on Goja V in order to escape from him. Braka was successfully fooled into believing that she had died. (SA: "Kids These Days", "300th Night", "Rubincon")

A year later, Braka detected Caleb's attempt to contact his mother from the USS Athena over an old Venari Ral frequency, and laid a trap by faking the presence of a spatial anomaly near the Badlands. When the Athena approached to investigate, he deployed a proprietary form of programmable matter onto its hull that disabled its primary systems. Now styling himself a "commandante", Braka led a boarding party to steal the Athena's warp drive, taking the opportunity also to taunt Ake.

To give Caleb and the other cadets an opening for their plan to restore the ship's systems, Ake activated the Ramcon Six Simulation Program, creating the appearance of an imminent warp core breach. Braka sent his followers back to his ship but, suspecting a lie, remained behind himself in engineering. He caught Caleb trying to activate the main deflector and revealed that Anisha had been on Goja V. Despite overpowering Caleb, Braka was unable to stop him from neutralizing the programmable matter. The Athena proceeded to destroy Braka's ship, while Braka fled in an Athena escape pod. (SA: "Kids These Days")

Following the capture of a group of the Academy's cadets by a group of Furies in the USS Miyazaki shipwreck during a field exercise, Fleet Admiral Charles Vance suggested asking Nus Braka for help, since Braka somehow cleared the Furies from Sector 119. Ake was initially reluctant to the idea but elected to contact Braka after the death of one of the hostages. With immunity for his crimes, Braka eventually came onboard the Athena and after taunting Ake and Vance offered a deal, his help in exchange for the Federation ending their dilithium supplies to Taygeta I, which amounted to giving Venari Ral complete control of the system.

After the Federation agreed to his terms, the pirate revealed that the Furies were part-lynar, with sensitivity to high sonic frequencies. Starfleet then had the USS Sargasso join the Athena from Starbase J19-Alpha with an experimental sonic weapon. After the departure of Braka, they successfully destroyed the cloaked ship of the furies and freed the cadets. However, they soon discovered that everything was part of Braka's plan; the attack of the Furies and leaving J19-Alpha without the protection of the Sargasso. The Starbase having been ransacked by six Venari Ral ships while they defeated the Furies, with the personnel of the research facility massacred and Braka, now the most-wanted man in the quadrant, getting hold of dangerous technologies.(SA: "Come, Let's Away")

The following year, Braka established a field of Omega-47 mines around the entire Federation, captured Ake and Anisha Mir and held a trial for the Federation as Braka planned to establish a cartel of non-member worlds under his leadership. However, Braka's plan was thwarted when SAM was able to stabilize and deactivate the mines while Ake and Caleb exposed the fact that Braka's homeworld -- supposedly destroyed by the Federation -- had actually been destroyed by his own father, discrediting Braka in the eyes of his associates. Admiral Charles Vance arrived with the entire Federation fleet to force the Venari Ral to surrender and arrest Braka. Before Braka was taken away, Caleb returned his mocking words from years earlier and both Anisha and Ake punched Braka in the face, knocking out one of his teeth. (SA: "300th Night", "Rubincon")

Appendices

Appearances

Background information

Braka was played by Paul Giamatti.

"Rubincon" end credits card

"Rubincon" end credits card

The end credits of SA Season 1's finale "Rubincon" included cast photos alongside tongue-in-cheek yearbook facts and quotes as if by their character, with Braka's listing: