Hören Rygis

Hören Rygis was a villain introduced in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine novel Bloodletter.

During the Cardassian occupation of Bajor, Hören worked as a political officer for the Bajoran Resistance, and was sent out at times to give motivational talks to the individual cells. In the aftermath of a raid, Hören saved the life of resistance fighter Kira Nerys, and provided her with directions to a resistance encampment where they would be safe. The two then split up to give both a better chance of reaching safety.

By the time the Cardassians withdrew from Bajor, Hören was the leader of the Redemptorist religious sect. Rejecting the mainstream Bajoran faith, Hören and his followers found themselves excluded from the Provisional Government. He and his followers seized a temple and published a list of demands. They soon began tossing out bodies of hostages, starting with a 12 year old boy. Kira, now doing a tour in the security forces, had her team raid the temple, subdue the Redemptorists, and free nearly all the remaining hostages. Hören had slipped away before the raid, and a short time later began broadcasting his religious message - and his desire to see Kira killed - through a floating transmitter.

In the meantime Hören's hatred of Kira, aliens, and Bajorans who didn't follow his beliefs drove him insane. Kai Opaka was of the opinion that Hören's hatred had completely destroyed his personality, and she later told Commander Sisko that Hören no longer existed.

Eventually the Redemptorists were able to use their micro-assembly skills to get posted to Deep Space Nine, and smuggled Hören on board to assassinate Major Kira. While on the station Hören and his second Dyreth Elt murdered a young Redemptorist named Arten who Hören considered insufficiently devoted to the cause. When Kira and Julian Bashir took a substation to the Gamma Quadrant in order to stake a legal claim to the Gamma Quadrant terminus of the Bajoran Wormhole, Hören hid on board the substation.

Due to Redemptorist sabotage, the engines were fired in an unbuffered condtion, causing the Prophets to seal off the Alpha Quadrant side of the wormhole to prevent further damage. Kira boarded the substation and used maneuvering thrusters to take it out of the wormhole into the Gamma Quadrant. Over the next several hours Hören made several attempts to kill Kira.

After the Prophets helped Dr. Bashir reach Kira, the pair learned from Deep Space Nine that the Redemptorists had reprogrammed the sub-station's self destruct function so that the charges would go off sequentially instead of all at once. Instead of vaporizing the station the modified destruct sequence would damage the interior of the station, but leave the exterior in decent enough shape.

Hören died when Dr. Bashir activated the self destruct sequence. The station was severely damaged, but intact enough that Major Kira was able to successfully state a legal claim to the Gamma Quadrant wormhole terminus.