Augments (Star Trek)

The Augments are genetically engineered beings that feature in Star Trek.

History

The Augments were genetically engineered individuals developed with superior abilities.

They were genetically engineered to be superior so as to lead others in a world at war (Star Trek Into Darkness)

A faction of genetically engineered human supermen rose to absolute power across Earth. As a result of the rise in supermen, the world became engrossed in a period of conflict known as the Eugenics Wars. Bred through advanced DNA resequencing to possess vastly superior physical and intellectual attributes, these enhanced individuals successfully conquered more than one-quarter of the planet's territory. The Augments rose to power and held dominance over a large portion of Humanity, beginning in the early 1990s. Among the most notorious of these superhuman conquerors was Khan Noonien Singh who in 1992 became the 'absolute ruler' of more than a quarter of the planet from Asia through the Middle East. However, the supermen's inherent genetic superiority bred extreme hubris and mutual ambition, causing their regimes to fracture internally and collapse under the unified resistance of baseline humanity. Rather than surrendering to execution, Khan and eighty-four of his primary followers boarded the sleeper ship SS Botany Bay, placing themselves into cryogenic suspension to drift undetected through the deep void of space. (TOS: Space Seed)

Earth authorities collected the remaining Augment embryos and placed them into storage. These later came to be stored at a future Earth Starfleet facility named Cold Station 12. (ENT: Cold Station 12) In the aftermath, genetic enhancement of any kind was outlawed on Earth so as to prevent similar conflicts in the future. (DS9: Doctor Bashir, I Presume)

In 2024, Adam Soong took an interest in Project Khan which had created the first Augments. (PIC: Farewell)

In 2024, after his failure to create a viable Human being ex nihilo, Adam Soong took an interest in Project Khan which had created the first Augments, an interest which he presumably passed down to his descendants. (PIC: Farewell)

In the 2130s, Arik Soong who was a senior medical director of Cold Station 12 managed to steal several Augment embryos from the facility. He would take the embryos to the Trialas system, where he raised the resulting children as his own. A decade later, he was captured by Earth forces but refused to disclose what had happened to the embryos. (ENT: Cold Station 12) In May 2154, the answer to this puzzle was discovered when Soong's Augments. Led by Malik, they seized control of a Klingon Bird-of-Prey jettisoning its crew into space. (ENT: Borderland) The Klingons recovered these bodies, and discovering the Human DNA on them, threatened war. Enterprise was launched to the Borderland to find these Augments and bring them back to Earth, and Arik Soong was recruited to assist the ship in doing so. Unfortunately, Soong managed to escape on Verex III and rejoin his Augments, who then planned to use their Bird-of-Prey to free the thousands of other embryos on Cold Station 12. (ENT: Borderland) With the help of Soong, Enterprise disabled the Bird-of-Prey, killing most of the Augments. Malik destroyed the ship with the remainder and managed to covertly beam to Enterprise where Captain Jonathan Archer killed him. Soong, who "defected" to Enterprise, decided afterwards to switch his focus to cybernetics. (ENT: The Augments)

The Starship Enterprise, under the command of Captain James T. Kirk, discovered the drifting hull of the SS Botany Bay in deep space and accidentally revived Khan Noonien Singh from his two-century cryogenic slumber. Utilizing his accelerated memory retention and superior physical prowess, Khan quickly seduced the ship's civilian historian, Lieutenant Marla McGivers, to gain unauthorized access to the starship's technical schematics. Khan successfully revived his surviving crew mates from stasis, seized total structural control of the Enterprise, and attempted to suffocate the command staff inside a decompression chamber to break their compliance. Captain Kirk managed to break free, short-circuiting the environmental controls to neutralize the mutiny. Rather than committing the supermen to a penal colony, Kirk held a formal hearing and exiled Khan, his followers, and McGivers to the uncolonized, harsh world of Ceti Alpha V to build a new society. (TOS: Space Seed) Fifteen years after their initial exile, the surviving Augments on Ceti Alpha V executed a violent ambush against the crew of the USS Reliant after the planet's ecosystem was devastated by a localized planetary shift. Blinded by total vengeance for the death of his wife and the loss of his followers, Khan Noonien Singh hijacked the Reliant and intercepted the Enterprise in the Mutara Sector to eliminate James T. Kirk. Khan successfully stole the highly classified Genesis Device, intending to use the planetary-restructuring matrix as a high-yield weapon of total mass destruction. Kirk utilized tactical ship-to-ship maneuvering to lure the Reliant inside a dense nebula, short-circuiting Khan's visual tactical advantages. Heavily wounded and trapped on his burning, crippled bridge, Khan manually triggered the Genesis Device's countdown sequence in a final suicide maneuver, vaporizing his ship and the remaining Augments in a massive cosmic detonation. (Movie: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan)

Overview

In appearance, the Augments were genetically engineered and enhanced humans developed as a race of 'supermen'. (TOS: Space Seed)

Despite their superior abilities, major defects in their genome resulted in them being belligerent, arrogant and ambitious, with a diminished sense of morality. One of the scientists behind their creation said, "Superior ability breeds superior ambition." According to Doctor Arik Soong, a leading theory for this was that a defect in the genomes of the Augments created a malformation in the base-pair sequences that regulate the neurotransmitter levels in their brains, causing them to be highly prone to aggression and violent behavior, and considered fixing this defect before incubating some embryos. (ENT: The Augments)

The term Augment was sometimes used broadly as a pejorative term for any genetically enhanced being and their descendants, or alien species who practice genetic augmentation. (SNW: Ghosts of Illyria)

Members

• Khan Noonien Singh :
• Joachim :
• Malik :
• Julian Bashir :

Notes

• The Augments were created by Carey Wilber where they featured in the setting of the Star Trek universe.
• Though created in Star Trek: The Original Series, the term 'Augment' was first established in Star Trek: Enterprise in the episode "Borderland" written by Ken LaZebnik.

In other media

Video games

• In Star Trek: Online, Augments appeared in the setting of the MMORPG video game.

Novels

• In Star Trek: The Eugenics Wars, Augments appeared in the setting of the non-canon novel written by Greg Cox and published by Pocket Books.

Appearances

• Star Trek: "Space Seed"
• Star Trek II: "The Wrath of Khan"
• Star Trek: "Into Darkness"

External Links

• Memory Alpha Wiki Entry

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