Raffaela Musiker

Raffaela "Raffi" E. Musiker was a female Human Starfleet officer who lived in the late 24th and early 25th century. She served under Admiral Jean-Luc Picard until the end of the Romulan Rescue and resigned her commission shortly after. Years later joined him on an unsanctioned mission to seek out Soji Asha and Bruce Maddox. After playing a crucial role in discovering the plot that led to the Attack on Mars, Musiker rejoined Starfleet and once again found herself at Picard's side when Q pulled the admiral into a dystopian alternate reality.

Biography[]

Early life[]

Raffaela "Raffi" E. Musiker was born on April 9, 2353 on Earth. She would join Starfleet and would be commissioned as an officer with the serial number CG-1256-8345. Her major field of study was Intelligence, with a minor in Romulan Relations. (PIC: "The Next Generation")

First Starfleet career[]

From 2375 to 2379, Musiker served as a security officer on Starbase 39. From 2379 to 2381, she was assigned to Starfleet Headquarters as an Analyst on Romulan Affairs. (PIC: "The Next Generation")

As a lieutenant commander, Musiker helped Picard formulate a new plan to evacuate Romulans from the Romulan supernova after the 2385 attack on Mars destroyed the Romulan Rescue Armada. She gathered information for a proposal to use mothballed ships and reserve duty personnel to carry out the operation instead. However, Starfleet rejected the proposal and accepted Picard's protest resignation. Musiker was distraught, as she thought she would be dismissed from Starfleet as well. She came to suspect that the Tal Shiar, and other apocryphal splinter groups such as the "Zhat Vash" and the "Conclave of Eight", were responsible for the attack, but admitted that she could not discern a plausible motive.

After being denied the resources to investigate her theory, Musiker grew increasing paranoid and erratic. She disobeyed direct orders on twenty-seven occasions and committed thirteen court martial offenses, including commandeering a ship, child endangerment, hacking the Starfleet Intelligence databases of Romulan contacts, appearing at work intoxicated, and stalking Admiral Kathryn Janeway. Starfleet concluded her actions to be indicative of a nervous breakdown, and ordered her to compulsory drug rehabilitation and psychotherapy on Betazed. After one year without improvement, Musiker requested a dishonorable discharge and returned to Earth. (PIC: "The End is the Beginning", "The Next Generation")

After Starfleet[]

Musiker described her life after Starfleet as "one long slide into humiliation and rage". Having come to rely on stimulants during her last years of active duty, she developed a substance abuse problem that estranged her from her family. By 2399, she lived alone in a small house at Vasquez Rocks. (PIC: "Maps and Legends", "The Next Generation")

After Picard's encounter with the Android Dahj Asha in 2399, Picard reached out to Musiker to enlist her support for a mission to seek out Bruce Maddox and Dahj's twin sister. Since he had been turned down by Starfleet, Picard was looking for an unregistered ship and an off the books pilot. Musiker was reluctant to speak to Picard until he revealed that Romulan assassins were operating secretly on Earth. While their conversation remained tense, Musiker recommended Picard hire her friend Cristóbal Rios and his ship La Sirena for the secret mission. (PIC: "Maps and Legends", "The End is the Beginning")

Musiker joined Rios, Picard, and Dr. Agnes Jurati on La Sirena when they left Earth, though she made it clear she was not there to help Picard, but only catching a ride to their first destination, Freecloud. She got frustrated when Picard diverted the ship to make a stop at Vashti, ostensibly to win the services of a qalankhkai of the Qowat Milat. She understood it was really a ploy to reconnect with Elnor, whom Musiker knew from her time working with Picard on the Romulan Resettlement. (PIC: "The End is the Beginning", "Absolute Candor")

Despite her protestations that she was not joining Picard's mission, Musiker was very involved in helping Rios run ship's operations during Picard's trip to Vashti. Later, she developed an elaborate plan to help Picard, Rios, Elnor, Jurati, and Seven of Nine, who had come on board after her ship was destroyed in battle over Vashti, extricate Bruce Maddox from the powerful criminal Bjayzl, who was holding him captive to sell him to the Tal Shiar. Musiker did not join that effort herself, however, since she was planning to reunite with her son Gabriel Hwang and his wife Pel. (PIC: "Absolute Candor", "Stardust City Rag")

The reunion went poorly, since Hwang was still angry at his mother for abandoning him and his father when she got obsessed with the Romulan conspiracy. Although Musiker explained she had gotten clean and tried to mend fences at first, her son's anger caused her to insist she had been right about her theories. Hwang took this as confirmation that she had not changed and made it clear he wanted nothing to do with his mother. Musiker returned to La Sirena, where she ended her recent sobriety and started drinking and smoking snakeleaf again. (PIC: "Stardust City Rag", "The Impossible Box")

Musiker once again helped Picard when he needed access to the Romulan Reclamation Site on the Artifact to find Soji. She convinced an old acquaintance, Captain Emmy Bosch, to grant Picard diplomatic credentials to visit the Borg Reclamation Project, ruining her relationship with Bosch in the process. (PIC: "The Impossible Box")

When Sirena was on the way to catch up with Picard and Soji on Nepenthe and the cloaked Romulan scout who had been tailing them disappeared after Jurati injected herself with noranium hydride, Musiker began to suspect Jurati might have killed Bruce Maddox, who died in Sirena's sickbay shortly after being rescued. Musiker discussed her theory with Emil, La Sirena's Emergency Medical Hologram, and later shared it with Picard, who remained skeptical. Musiker consulted the ship's other Emergency Holograms with questions about the Conclave of Eight and why the appearance of Soji had sent Rios into shock. She also convinced Rios to tell her about his past encounter with the Android Jana, whose murder at the hand of Rios's captain Alonzo Vandermeer (and the latter's suicide) were the source of Rios's trauma and dismissal from Starfleet. Musiker put all this information together and realized that Commodore Oh, the Head of Starfleet Security was actually a Zhat Vash double agent and responsible for orchestrating the deaths of Jana, Dahj, and Maddox, as well as the Attack on Mars. (PIC: "Nepenthe", "Broken Pieces")

Arriving on Coppelius, Musiker joined Picard, Soji, Rios, and Jurati in going first to the Artifact that had crash-landed on the planet, and then to Coppelius Station. There, she met Altan Soong and the other synths Maddox and Soong created. She helped Rios fix La Sirena's engine with the help of the synths' fundamental field replicator and then made a plan with Rios, Narek, and Elnor to stop Soji and the synths from establishing contact with an extra-galactic alliance of synthetic life, bent on destroying all organic life in the galaxy. While their plan failed, Picard was able to convince Soji and her siblings to destroy the beacon they had built. (PIC: "Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 1", "Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 2").

After Picard's death and resurrection in a synthetic body, Musiker left Coppelius on La Sirena in the company of Seven of Nine, with whom she had gotten closer during their time on the planet, Rios, Soji, Jurati, Picard, and Elnor. (PIC: "Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 2")

Return to Starfleet[]

By 2401, Musiker returned to Starfleet with the rank of commander and was assigned to the USS Excelsior as its operations officer. She also watched over Cadet Elnor who was assigned to the ship. (PIC: "The Star Gazer") Before, Elnor's training could begin, he and Raffi found themselves in an alternate timeline where the Federation was replaced by a militaristic Confederation of Earth, whose mission was to root out all other life in the galaxy. Fortunately, Raffi was able to keep Elnor from being executed and found herself reunited with Picard, Rios, Agnes and Seven, who'd all been deposited into that timeline by Q. Elnor was shot by the husband of the alternate Seven of Nine and ultimately died of his wounds. (PIC: "Penance", "Assimilation") Elnor's death hit Musiker particularly hard, since she blamed herself for encouraging him to pursue a career in Starfleet. (PIC: "Penance")

Aboard the CSS La Sirena, the group, used a captive Borg Queen that was scheduled for public execution to travel to the 21st century to correct the timeline. (PIC: "Assimilation")

Paired with Seven, Musiker traveled to Los Angeles to seek out the mysterious "Watcher" mentioned by the Queen during their journey. Along the way, they were forced to rescue Rios, who was injured and later arrested by immigration authorities. (PIC: "Watcher", "Fly Me to the Moon") It was soon discovered that Agnes had been possessed by the Borg Queen and was loose in Los Angeles. Teamed with Dr. Adam Soong, an ambitious geneticist, the Jurati-Queen intended to seize La Sirena with mercenaries Soong provided her to act as improvised Borg drones. (PIC: "Monsters", "Mercy") Raffi and Seven fought to defend the ship, but Seven was impaled through the stomach by one of the Queen's tentacles. The mind of Dr. Jurati, fighting for control of her body, eventually convinced the Queen to save her life with nanoprobes, returning Seven's Borg implants. (PIC: "Hide and Seek")

After Q returned them to their own time, Musiker was thrilled to see Elnor alive and well in the corrected timeline. In addition, Picard used his authority to give their leading authority on the Borg, Seven, a provisional field commission of captain and command of the Stargazer to replace Rios, who had remained in the 21st century. Following the reveal that the Borg Queen attacking the ship was in fact Jurati trying to get their help to deal with a threatening galactic event, Starfleet and Jurati's Collective made common cause to stop the destructive wave. (PIC: "Farewell")

Starfleet Intelligence[]

Later that year, Musiker was on an undercover assignment on M'talas Prime for Starfleet Intelligence. She worked on a case involving experimental weapons technology taken from Daystrom Station, an offsite location of the Daystrom Institute. Using information from an Orion drug dealer, Musiker was able to identify the "Red Lady" mentioned by the thieves as a statue of Captain Rachel Garrett at the Starfleet Recruitment center in District Seven. However, she was too late to stop the attack and watched as the recruitment center was destroyed.(PIC: "The Next Generation")

Raffi went to M'talas Prime to talk to Sneed but the Ferengi double-crossed her and drugged her just before showing her the head of Lurak T'Luco. Worf arrived and killed Sneed's guards before decapitating Sneed with his Kur'leth. As they left, Worf rebuked Raffi and told her, "I told you do not engage".(PIC: "Disengage")

Hours later Raffi woke up with a hangover and realized she was back on the La Sirena. Realizing someone is also aboard she grabs her phaser and heads to engineering where she sees Worf practicing while listing to "Vallon sonore" by Berlioz playing at full volume. Raffi ask the man to identify himself and Worf gives her his full record and mentioning his exploits from slaying Gowron to sending House Duras and House Torg to Gre'thor. Worf offers her tea to help her get over her hangover and Raffi ask Worf why she is not dead when Sneed tried to kill her in his bar? Worf tells her "It is not your time to join the dead" and Raffi ask him if he is indeed the messenger who was contacting her? Worf informs Musiker that he was indeed her handler and that he was working with Starfleet. Worf allowed Musiker to continue working with him in figuring out who carried the attack on the Recruitment building. Worf and Musiker were able to discover that Titus Rikka was the bomber. During his and Musiker's interrogation aboard SS La Sirena, Worf discovered that Rikka was a changeling due to his regeneration cycle. After killing Rikka, Worf told Musiker what Odo told him about a group of rogue changelings that broke off from the Great Link following the Dominion War. Worf believed they were the ones who stole the Quantum tunneling technology from Daystrom Station. (PIC: "Seventeen Seconds")

Service aboard the USS Enterprise-G[]

In 2402, Musiker transferred to the command division and was assigned to newly rechristened USS Enterprise-G as Captain Seven's first officer. She was present when Ensign Jack Crusher reported for duty aboard the Enterprise and remarked that Starfleet saw fit to give a thief, a pirate and a spy their own ship. The Enterprise later embarked on their shakedown cruise. (PIC: "The Last Generation")

Personal life[]

Musiker was a brilliant analyst, tactician, and hacker. She was able to gain access to the Interfacers Guild and create fake credentials for Rios, and even found a way into the Borg and Romulan systems of the Artifact, though the Borg machine language was able to slow her down, if not stop her.

Musiker was fond of Saurian brandy and Chateau Picard, in particular the '86 vintage. She had a habit of inhaling snakeleaf, which caused paranoia as a side effect. (PIC: "Maps and Legends", "The End is the Beginning") While Musiker had struggled to become clean while on her first mission with Picard, by 2401, she was sober and sticking to non-alcoholic beverages, such as club soda. (PIC: "Two of One")

Family[]

Following the Attack on Mars, Musiker's relationship with her son Gabriel Hwang grew estranged. She briefly tried to reconnect with him in 2399, but Gabe made it clear he was still too hurt to forgive her for the way she had hurt him. (PIC: "Stardust City Rag")

On Freecloud, while trying to contact Gabe, Musiker discovered that he was married to Pel, a Romulan woman, and the two were expecting a daughter. Musiker later told Rios that she never expected to meet her granddaughter.

Friendships[]

When Musiker served under Picard, they had a close relationship; she regularly addressed him by the nickname "JL". (PIC: "The End is the Beginning")

Musiker also considered Captain Emmy Bosch an "old friend", and would call her up on occasion when she needed a favor. Musiker called on Bosch in 2399 and blackmailed her, with exposing where the Captain's "bodies were buried," in order to get diplomatic credentials for Picard. Bosch granted the credentials and asked Musiker never to call her again in return. (PIC: "The Impossible Box")

Romantic relationships[]

Musiker met Seven of Nine while hitching a ride to Freecloud with Rios and Picard. While Seven left La Sirena on Freecloud, the two met again on Coppelius and began a romantic relationship. (PIC: "Absolute Candor", "Stardust City Rag", "Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 2")

By the time Rios had returned to Starfleet and given Seven of Nine custody of La Sirena, Elnor called Seven Raffi's "girlfriend". While their relationship was strained by Seven's work for the Fenris Rangers, which often took her away from Earth and from Musiker, they still supported each other when they got stranded in the alternate universe by Q. This particular adventure, and the trials it put them through, lead the two women to reaffirm their relationship and emerge as an even stronger couple. (PIC: "The Star Gazer", "Monsters", "Mercy", "Hide and Seek", "Farewell")

Awards and honors[]

Musiker was awarded two medals during her service in Starfleet. In 2385, she received the Starfleet Decoration for Valor and Gallantry. In 2399, she received the Starfleet Medal of Honor for her "commitment to truth in the face of great opposition". (PIC: "The Next Generation")

Key dates[]

• 2353: Born on Earth
• 2374: Gives birth to son Gabriel
• 2375 – 2379: Assigned to Starbase 39 as a security officer
• 2379 – 2381: Assigned to Starfleet Headquarters
• 2399: Awarded the Starfleet Medal of Honor
• 2401: Promoted to Commander, served as an instructor at Starfleet Academy, and then Starfleet intelligence.
• 2402: Assigned to the USS Enterprise-G as First officer

Appendices[]

Appearances[]

Background information[]

Raffi Musiker was played by Michelle Hurd.

The character's full first name was not revealed until "Stardust City Rag", the fifth episode of Star Trek: Picard.

According to the PIC Season 1 press kit, Musiker was a veteran Starfleet Intelligence agent with experience investigating and analyzing Romulan affairs and a "formidable tactician". It also claims that after Picard's retirement from Starfleet, she returned to Starfleet Intelligence before eventually leaving the service. [1]

Apocrypha[]

Before her first on-screen appearance, Raffi Musiker was featured in the Star Trek: Picard - Countdown prequel comic book. According to the comic, she was Picard's first officer on the USS Verity (β) in 2385, during the mission to relocate Romulans threatened by the supernova, and was noted as "Starfleet's foremost analyst on Romulan affairs."

She also appeared in The Last Best Hope, which depicted her as having a husband, Jae, and a son, Gabe, from whom she became estranged due to the ongoing length of the evacuation mission. Raffi was also the central character of the novel, Second Self, which took place between seasons one and two of Picard, and featured flashbacks to her time in Starfleet Intelligence immediately following the Dominion War.

Trivia[]

"Musiker" is German for "musician".

External link[]

• Raffaela Musiker at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works