“"I will try to find someone somewhere who can appreciate what we have. What we had. Perhaps some day my people will understand what they have lost and ask for it back. That hope is all that sustains me."
- – Natchok Var
Natchok Var was a Moradi fugitive from Morada VII.[1]
Var had studied many alien cultures and languages, a taboo subject amongst his people as they believed this sort of information made a person unpure. He spoke fluent English.
The Moradi government had decided that all Moradi visual arts, literature, and music was decadent, impure, and subversive, so an edict was sent down calling for the destruction of it all. Var was able to save one final copy of all their society's musical, artistic, and literary accomplishments from Morada VII's datanet before it was erased. He smuggled this information off his homeworld, and set out to find someone worthy of giving it to, someone who would preserve and appreciate it. He was captured on Praxis IX, a world outside the Interstellar Alliance's jurisdiction, but was rescued by Captain Matthew Gideon and Dureena Nafeel.
Var refused to even let the data crystals out of his hands until he decided who was worthy to receive them. While alone in one of the Excalibur's quarters, he listened to human data crystals until he found one full of Mozart music. Enjoying the music, and hearing from Gideon that a human had composed it, Var decided that humanity was worthy to receive all his peoples' culture and preserve it. He urged the crew of the Excalibur to quickly copy his crystals before the Moradi fleet destroyed their ship.
With his mission accomplished he gave himself up to his people, knowing they would execute him. He was made to fly to the Moradi ship on a separate shuttle on autopilot, ostensibly so that Apriori Flentak and Nix wouldn't have to sit next to him, but the Moradi destroyed the shuttle before it could dock.
Sarah Chambers found cultural items going back centuries. She showed Gideon a log Var created explaining that Var's entire mission was to save their culture, and that his last hope was that one day his race would see the error in their ways and seek this information once again. Gideon was upset at first to find no useful medical data, but Dr. Chambers told him the music and stories were all about hope, something that humanity needed while waiting for a cure. Later, Gideon asked to borrow a crystal of Moradi music, and loaned it to Dureena.