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"You can no more destroy this ship than I can change color."
– Bele to James T. Kirk, 2268 ("Let That Be Your Last Battlefield")

Commissioner Bele was from the planet Cheron, and was the Chief Officer of the Commission on Political Traitors.

Fueled by racial bigotry against the people who were the opposite skin color from himself, as he was white on the left side and black on the right side, he pursued a fellow Cheron native he considered a political traitor, named Lokai, across the galaxy for at least 50,000 terrestrial years, until he found him aboard the USS Enterprise, a Federation starship he located with his own scout vessel in 2268.

Bele possessed extraordinary powers. Like Lokai, he had a personal force field which protected him from weapons fire and blocked unwanted physical contact. In addition, he had an electrical charge which could be used as a weapon, and mental powers that allowed him to take control of the Enterprise. Lokai did not have such powers.

When Captain James T. Kirk refused to help him, Bele hijacked the Enterprise but released it when Kirk ordered the self-destruct program. After the Enterprise finished its decontamination mission to the planet Ariannus, Bele re-hijacked the ship again and forcibly returned it to Cheron, only to find that years of racial tension had destroyed his world. He refused Kirk's offer to live in the Federation. Lokai beamed down to the dead planet, with Bele in pursuit, still obsessed with bringing Lokai to his warped sense of justice. (TOS: "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield")

Bele was played by actor Frank Gorshin.

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