Tom Paris



Lieutenant Commander Thomas Eugene Paris was a human Starfleet officer, best known for his work on the USS Voyager. He served as helmsman while the ship was lost in the Delta Quadrant for seven years under Captain Janeway in 2371, and later went on to become the ship's first officer under Captain Chakotay in 2378. Paris has a wife, B'Elanna Torres, and a daughter, Miral

Early Years
Tom was the latest in a long line of Paris' to serve Starfleet, from his Great-grandfather Admiral Daniel Paris, his Grandfather, "Iron Mike" Paris who was recorded lost during the Tomed Incident, and Great-aunt Admiral Patricia Paris, his uncle Cole Paris who served with Jean-Luc Picard on the Stargazer, to his father Admiral Owen Paris. Tom was born in Portola Valley, California on Earth in 2346 to Owen Paris and Julia Paris.

Early Career
Tom showed great aptitude for piloting and looked to have a promising career in Starfleet. Then, during a training exercise in the Vega system near Caldik Prime, Tom was responsible for a navigational accident that cost the lives of three of his friends. Tom covered up his responsibility for the accident, and blamed it on one of the deceased, Bruno Katajavori. Soon after, Tom was assigned to the USS Exeter and in time was promoted to lieutenant, junior grade. However, after a romantic (and partially telepathic) liaison with a Betazoid woman, he could no longer suppress his remorse over his cover up. Tom began seeing his friends in his dreams, and his guilt got the better of him. He confessed his responsibility and was cashiered out of Starfleet.

The Maquis
Tom wandered about Earth for nearly a year without any real purpose or direction. While in the city of Paris, Tom was approached by a man named Chakotay, who needed Tom's services as a pilot for the group of renegade freedom fighters known as the Maquis. Given the opportunity to fly again, even for a technically illegal organization such as the Maquis, Tom accepted Chakotay's offer. On Tom's first mission with the Maquis, the vessel he was piloting took heavy damage in battle with a Cardassian ship. Tom took a shuttle and attempted to contact a sympathetic colony on Selka for assistance for his crew, but he was intercepted by the USS Bradbury, apprehended, and was returned to Earth to stand trial.

The Delta Quadrant
Tom was serving his sentence at the New Zealand Penal Settlement in 2371 when he was approached by his father's protege', Captain Kathryn Janeway. Janeway wanted Tom's assistance in locating Chakotay and his former Maquis allies who had gone missing in the Badlands. In exchange, Tom was to be released from confinement and set loose. Tom agreed. Voyager found Chakotay and his ship, but only after being flung 70,000 light years from the Federation and into the heart of the Delta Quadrant by the Nacene known as the Caretaker. After the Caretaker's death, Janeway was forced to destroy the Caretaker's technology in order to protect the Ocampan race from the opportunistic Kazon-Ogla. This act stranded Tom, Voyager, and both the Starfleet and Maquis crews in the Delta Quadrant. Janeway decided to combine the two crews into a single Starfleet crew for the voyage home with Chakotay as her first officer. Janeway gave Paris a field commission to the rank of Lieutenant Junior Grade and the position of Conn officer on Voyager during that vessel's historic seven-year trek home through the Delta Quadrant. During this time, he was wed to shipmate B'Elanna Torres, who gave birth to the couple's daughter, Miral Paris, just as Voyager returned home in late 2377. Home Upon 'Voyager's return to the Alpha Quadrant, Tom was promoted two steps in rank to Lieutenant Commander, previously having been a Lieutenant, junior grade (promotable to Lieutenant) while serving on Voyager (with a short demotion to an Ensign in 2375 for disobeying orders). Tom journeyed with B'Elanna to the Klingon sanctuary of Boreth in order to help B'Elanna with a quest to find her mother, who had been lost in the wilds of Boreth's jungles. Soon after, he rejoined the crew of Voyager, which was now under the command of Captain Chakotay. Tom was Chakotay's first choice for Voyager's First officer, but Starfleet overruled him, assigning Commander Andrew Ellis to the post instead. When Ellis was revealed to actually be a renegade Changeling, Tom moved up into the First officer position. He remained in the position through the beginning of 2381, and was aboard the vessel during the Borg Collective's invasion in that year when he received word of his father's death on Starbase 234. The Voyager was part of the allied task force that assembled at the Azure Nebula while the USS Aventine and USS Enterprise-E scouted subspace tunnels. Paris oversaw allied efforts to open the unscouted tunnels, coordinating with Starfleet, Cardassian, Romulan, and Gorn vessels. Paris and Captain Chakotay were recalled to the Bridge when one of the tunnels unexpectedly opened; Paris had the fleet readied, but they were overrun as over seven thousand Borg cubes poured from the tunnel.

Alternate timelines
In one alternate timeline, based on his friend, Ensign Harry Kim's life, he resided near Marseilles, France in 2371 - rather than the city of Paris. In an alternate January 2374, Paris was killed by a falling ceiling support on Voyager's bridge after pushing Captain Janeway out of the path of the same beam, following a crippling attack by a Species 8472 battleship. In the alternate "War of the Prophets" timeline, Paris served on the USS Enterprise in the late 2380s. In 2388, Paris was killed, along with the crew of the Enterprise, when the Grigari attacked and destroyed the Enterprise during the Sector 001 disaster.