Aela and several of her friends, however, took great delight in tormenting poor Phil. She and her Deltan companions were not stuffy Starfleet officers forced to take some archaic Oath of Celibacy: They were young beautiful Deltans in their sexual prime and nothing gave them more pleasure than engaging in various public sex acts down in the ship's shuttlebay in front of the suffering Potts. All humans on board had been given libido suppressors to make traveling with the bevy of Deltans more palatable and Phil Potts had taken double the normal dose. So great was the stimulation he observed, their effect was minimized.

As it happened, Captain Dohpaz refused to take his ship into the Ellis Expanse for safety reasons so the spoiled Aela insisted that she be allowed to take a shuttle. Dohpaz in turn insisted that she have Potts pilot her, believing that Aela would never accept that bargain. To the surprise of all, she did and her friends abandoned her to the fool's errand and Potts took off with Aela the very next morning for a prime view of the Triplet Comets. They never saw the Heart of Gold again.

Within the Ellis Expanse, the shuttle encountered an anomaly that flung them light years from their original position and robbed the shuttle of main power. Though Phil was able to soft land the craft on a habitable planetoid, they were left with no means to contact the Heart of Gold and with no rescue in sight. They were stranded. Together.

As the hours grew into days and the days into weeks, Phil slowly became mad with desire for Aela. She had no means of suppressing her natural Deltan body chemistry and Phil had taken his entire supply of libido suppressor during the trip into the Expanse. While Aela could claim no attraction to Philip Potts, she also knew that it was only a matter of time before his desire drove him completely insane. Sex is a means of expression for Deltans and when Aela submitted to Potts, it was an expression of pity. Even beyond that first sexual act, it never became more than that for Aela, so repulsive did she find Phil. He had never been happier.

Not more than a few days after this charity did the rescue ship show up. Of course, Phil went quite mad anyway, knowing that he would never experience such bliss again. He was caught attempting to chew through the impulse power grid of the rescue ship in an effort to keep them stranded forever. While he was warped off toward Tantalus V, Aela went another direction back towards her home on Delta IV. And she carried with her something so that she would always remember Phil Potts.

Ilan Potts came screaming into Delta IV and didn't stop screaming for the next several years. Life was not horrible for young Ilan but neither was it grand. He and his mother were somewhat outcast in Deltan society. Her crime had been taking advantage of a sexually immature species. Ilan's crime was simply his existence. And his looks.

Still, he managed to grow up a happy enough child though he was left out of multiple situations that marked various 'coming-of-age' highpoints for young Deltans. He never got invited to the lustful impromptu orgies that broke out after school study groups. He never had more than one lovemate at a time. He never got to use the Deltan Butterfly on anyone except himself though he made up for this sad state of affairs with sheer frequently. Delta IV was home but home was a lonely place.

Spared the gory details of his conception (rare for Deltan parents – typically the story is told at the child's birthday party each year with all four life partners giving a blow by blow on who was actually standing where when the blessed fertilization occurred), Ilan idolized his absent father and made a point to study of all things human. He became convinced that Earth was where he would finally be complete. Although Phil Potts had been a civilian when he met Ilan's mother, he mentioned to her once that he had served in Starfleet and Ilan decided to follow in these same footsteps.

Ilan had always been quite brilliant and he aced the Starfleet Entrance Exams though there was something made of his erratic behavior. Once Ilan started the Academy, a curious thing happened that had not happened ever before: He had been right. Ilan made friends at Starfleet quickly and easily. Many fellow cadets found him funny, strange, curious, and intriguing. He married and divorced for the first time during his Academy years. He thought he'd found his place in the galaxy. Upon graduation, he looked forward to his first post aboard the USS Potemkin.

It turned out he was wrong after all.

This first assignment was less than satisfying for Ilan. The first thing that went wrong was the ship had a curiously abnormal number of mentally stable crew, leaving Potts idle and alone for days at a time. The second was the Captain refused to perform any more marriage ceremonies for Ilan after the first two had ended in divorce. At the end of three years and on the verge of promotion, he resigned his commission and left Starfleet.

Ilan drifted aimlessly for some few years, writing one book as well as marrying and divorcing a strange woman he later convinced himself was a multidimensional entity. He attempted to track down his father only to find the senior Potts had been killed after attempting to mate with a rather large, bald fellow inmate. With some thought given towards his father's madness, Ilan returned to Earth to attend Queen's University Medical School in Canada to study Psychiatric Medicine. After completion, he was offered a spot for a Doctor aboard a Ferengi Merchant Vessel but Ilan still had a strange love of Starfleet in spite of his experience aboard the Potemkin. With the Academy being the only place where he ever felt he truly belonged, he accepted a teaching position there rather than return to a life in space.

"Space just wasn't my bag, man." He was quoted as saying in 2370 during his acceptance speech for being the Third Best Starfleet Academy Civilian Instructor. The comment drew a general laugh, partially because of the ridiculousness of someone joining Starfleet while disliking space but mostly because only few people knew what it meant when something was not, in fact, your "bag". The speech was also notable for being the longest of three as well as the only speech in Starfleet history to contain not one but two dance numbers.

Ilan enjoyed immersing himself in the academia of Starfleet Academy. He wrote a second book during his tenure there and became, in time, an adequate instructor. He married twice, and grew slowly but surely stranger. In a relatively short period of time, his reputation was cemented as the Academy's oddest instructor.

In spite of space "not being his bag", Ilan managed to get caught up in Federation patriotic fervor when the Dominion War broke out in 2373. He promised a former student who was soon to ship out to the war, that he would reenlist in Starfleet should his current marriage come to an end. Later that same afternoon, Ilan was at the Starfleet Command reactivating his commission. His wife had asked for a divorce over lunch. During the appetizers. She left the check for Ilan.

In spite of his earlier failure aboard the Potemkin, Ilan managed to serve with distinction during the Dominion War. His bizarre approach and unique therapeutic theories proved to be a welcome distraction in war-torn space. Many ships did not carry adequate contingencies of counselors and Dr. Potts would frequently make visits to other ships when the Rabin allowed him the luxury. By the War's end, Dr. Potts had never lifted a single weapon but he was decorated for his vigilance and devotion to duty.

He finally felt complete.

Dr. Potts eventually requested assignment to Deep Space Nine, having spent some time there during the Dominion War. He married and divorced a Bajoran woman (all within his first 36 hours on the station) and reflected on his experiences aboard the Rabin. His book From Under the Desk was published in early-2379. It has been speculated by his publisher that at least seven people have read that book. Ilan suspects his ex- wives.

While at Deep Space Nine, Ilan began to experience what some call "The Call of the Wormhole" (the some being mild schizophrenics who also believe the replicator talks to them). Whatever the case, Ilan became quite excited when he learned a Starfleet ship would be going into the Gamma Quadrant for a protracted mission there. He put in a transfer request and was accepted to serve aboard the USS Hikaru Sulu.

Ilan is not traditionally attractive though many people have reported being strangely intrigued by the man. Whether this is a result of his eccentric personality or some remnant of his Deltan physiology remains unknown.

However, given his frequent marriages and relationships, it could be theorized that he may possess at least some of the beguiling traits of Deltans, though in his case they seem to merely limit him to be thought of as interesting or mildly intriguing.

Ilan also seems to possess none of the telepathic abilities typical to Deltans. He has been occasionally described as empathic but whether this is from a natural intuitive sense or some small measure of psionic ability has yet to be determined.