| abstract
| - Stephen April (known also as Hev'BetoQ, Lord Stephen April, The Overlord), was a Terran warlord and former slave, gladiator and bounty hunter in the mirror universe, and the counterpart of the Federation universe's Stephen April. (Star Trek: New Empire) Born into slavery, April grew up in harsh conditions, like most slaves of the Klingon-Cardassian Alliance. Along with his mother he was the property of Gul Edet, the Cardassian commandant of a labor camp on Khefka IV. Camp personnel and other slaves routinely assaulted, raped, and psychologically abused April and his mother. April's father was executed after being caught in an illicit affair with Edet's wife, earning a torturous, lasting punishment for his family. While still a child, April killed his mother in order to end her suffering. During his teens April met a Klingon criminal, Kortok, sentenced to the labor camp. A former gladiator in arena-style sports known as the "Blood Games", Kortok taught April personal combat skills as part of a long-term escape plan. Once he felt that his skills were proficient, April betrayed Kortok, turning him in to win favor from the camp overseers. April adopted Kortok's plan for himself, earning a reputation in staged duels which drew the attention of "talent scouts" for the Games. As a participant, he was allowed to travel off-world for interplanetary matches. Gaining renown under the name "Hev'BetoQ" (loosely translated, "blood warrior") for a record of impressive victories, April, as a Terran slave, posed a political danger to the establishment. At age 24, he was conditionally allowed to buy his freedom, and took employment as a bounty hunter for the Alliance. This led him to meet Ilona, a Khalindarian opportunist and Alliance spy assigned to "keep tabs" on April. Ilona mothered a daughter, Neria, by April in 2363. Later, learning of Ilona's mission, April killed her in a fit of rage, and turned Neria over to the Alliance to be raised as a ward of the state. April rarely questioned his place in life until the slave uprising at Terok Nor in 2370. Charged with apprehending members of the Terran rebellion, April was influenced to join them. Leading rebel forces in the war for freedom from the Alliance, April found his calling. He personally led the liberation of the Khefka IV labor camp, killing Gul Edet and taking his adolescent daughter, Luna, as a "prize". While many rebel leaders focused their operations from Terok Nor, April made a point of avoiding the station, preferring field service at the forefront of battle, where the "action" was. When rebel planets finally won independence as the Imperial Union of Planets, April fomented the creation of "Shado", a covert operations/intelligence agency (similar to Cardassia's Obsidian Order) dedicated to protecting the IUP from destabilizing elements which led to the Terran Empire's collapse. Under April's direction, Shado infiltrated the parallel universe of the Federation, stealing starship designs and schematics for quantum slipstream drive, which catapulted the "new Empire" to the status of a quadrant superpower, rivaling the old Empire. Shado achieved the power to make or break political leaders, rendering the title of "emperor" meaningless in the "new order", yet grew corrupt. April personally dismantled the organization, hunting down any member who refused to renounce it. Capitalizing on this, he made himself an imperial overlord or "executor", responsible for overseeing Imperial security. Not trusting the fallibility of his fellow Terrans and other humanoids, and to eliminate greater threats, he recruited a mysterious faction known as the "Overlords", who, operating behind the scenes, usurped ultimate control of the Empire. With their support, April became the Empire's de facto ruler, known as "The Overlord", and believed that this status quo would prevent the Empire from ever falling again. In 2385, after a ten-year war of attrition had succeeded in bringing down the Alliance, April finally met his fate. Using Borg nanoprobes (another design purloined from the "primary" universe) (see Borg (mirror)), April sought to create a force of cyborg soldiers who would be unquestionably loyal to him and to the Empire. At Ty'gokor, he was ambushed by Neria, who had grown up hating him and worked for the Alliance as an agent of espionage. Using a Camian mind-transfer device, she "switched bodies" with her father, and used his power to launch a devastating attack with the "mirror-Borg" as her servants. April, in Neria's body, killed her (thus killing his own body) as an act of revenge. "He" in turn was killed by Eresh'ta, an Andorian member of the ISS Arcadia crew whom April had controlled through fear and neuralizer conditioning. By 2386, Neria's plan to destroy the Empire had apparently failed, as the Empire occupied Romulus, where a statue of April had been erected in the Romulan capital city. (Star Trek: New Empire)
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