#DS9 Rewrite

[gayatticusfinch]

What if the children of an android, a Nagus, a Starfleet captain, a lizard nazi and an incel Klingon were all friends on a space station called ‘Deep Space Nine’?

[leohtttbriar]

the snow-melted and it's sunny and it's spring and that makes me feel some type of way so here's a kiradax springtime fic featuring the fascinations of a nature-walk and jadzia dax as a sort of ms. frizzle:

On a bright day like this, Kira was happy to be handing out juice boxes.

Sure, she would’ve preferred to have been part of Keiko’s field-trip party, with the older students on a rock-climbing mission to observe cliff-side fungus. But Keiko had been a little too bright-faced and excited as she tucked her climbing shoes into her backpack and gathered all the older kids together for a lesson in knot-tying and rappelling, and, almost immediately, Miles had begged Kira to swap chaperone positions so he could trail after his wife pretending to be worried about the cliffs on which she was leading an educational expedition but really interested in just documenting ‘the moment,’ as he called it.

“When Molly starts to be embarrassed of us,” he said, turning on his camera and smirking as Keiko demonstrated a very long finger-hold on a nearby boulder, the strained muscles in her forearms and shoulders not even appearing to shake. “I want evidence that we’re actually cool.”

“Well, one of you is,” said Kira. “You mostly play games with Julian in your free-time.”

Miles shot her a dirty look but then Keiko was calling her group to start on the hike and he was scampering after her.

So Kira was left with the younger kids on a much less dangerous nature walk that didn’t involve rock-climbing. But she was happy about it. The day was bright, crisp air with warm sun, and she didn’t have to do much more than make sure the little ones stayed on the path and hand out juice boxes. And, really, they were all too mesmerized by Jadzia to misbehave or wonder off.

Kira couldn’t exactly blame them, though. Jadzia had turned up in a shirt covered in colorful scientific illustrations of various Bajoran insects, a giant hair clip that looked like one of the stone-caterpillars that Kira used to make into a stew in her hungriest moments during the war, and a box of tiny, kid-sized binoculars which she handed to each student with all the sincerity and solemnity of a general handing out medals of honor to soldiers. She oo’d an ah’d over every little thing and all the kids were following after her like she was personally responsible for putting a flower in their path to look at.

“Oh, look at that!” gasped Jadzia, pointing up at what looked to be a normal tree limb with such drama that every single kid was gasping with her despite, Kira assumed, not knowing what it is they were gasping at. They gathered around Jadzia, following to where her finger pointed, their little mouths open in awe.

“What?” asked one of the more impatient kids. “I don’t see anything.”

“It’s an aerial succulent,” said Jadzia, bending down. “See, between the stalks, there's a film which will expand and catch on a breeze if the plant needs to move.”

“Like wings?” asked another kid, taking rigorous notes in her notebook (Kira was able to read she had just added plant flying color green pretty in uneven block letters).

���Yes! Exactly like wings!” said Jadzia, as if this comparison had just occurred to her.

“Wow.”

Jadzia had them all draw a picture of the succulent, a star shaped thing with a sparkly veil between each point, tipping this way and that on the tree branch but yet holding steady. Kira attempted a drawing herself, as Jadzia had made sure to provide her with a “field notebook” and binoculars, along with the kids. It was not a good drawing, but Kira liked it. After, they continued shuffling along the path and Kira helped a couple kids not to trip on their feet as they traversed forward, binoculars glued to their eyes.

When Keiko had suggested a field trip, Kira had not expected to be asked to help. But it seemed Sisko was of the opinion that she needed “a break,” or something like that. And so he had volunteered much of his chief staff to help out with the trip to Bajor and even extending the offer of the supervised field trip to some of the schools that would be nearby their educational expedition. As the morning progressed, Kira couldn’t help but be thankful for it. There were worse ways to spend a day. And Jadzia had been very happy when Kira had turned up, which always made Kira feel warm in more ways than one. She might've switched assignments, anyway, if Miles hadn't asked.

Eventually they ended up by a stream and Jadzia instructed everyone to be on the lookout for fossils.

“I know there are fossils,” she whispered triumphantly to Kira, once the kids were darting back and forth on the bank like the intrepid explorers they were. “I scouted the trail—this watershed area is almost nothing but limestone.”

Kira bent down to examine the earth herself, picking up an angular yet smooth-cornered rock and rolling it around in her palm.

“Limestone has more fossils in it?” she asked.

Jadzia plopped down next to her. “Yep,” she said. She reached over and gently guided Kira’s fingers to hold the rock so the angle was pointed up. Then she poured a splash of water on it, smoothed away some dirt, and pointed to an imprint in the stone. “See?” she said. “A shell.”

“Oh,” said Kira, looking closer at the strangely patterned whirl. It looked like the aerial succulent.

“Limestone is a graveyard, for organic life,” said Jadzia, halfway to soft but still cheerful. “It’s got a bit of a sacred history on Trill, but I never bought into all those sad poems. Trills only seem to know how to write sad poems”—she rolled her eyes, and Kira bit the inside of her cheek to contain her grin—“and I just don’t think fossils are things to be sad about anyway. True, this”—she indicated the rock in Kira’s hand by cupping Kira’s knuckles and pushing gently against them, causing Kira to, embarrassingly, blush—“is made of the compressed bodies of ancient marine life, but it’s not as if they’re gone. There they are.”

Kira turned her gaze away from Jadzia’s open face and back to the dirty rock in her palm. She didn’t like to think of it as a graveyard. Death was a strange, conceptual thing for Bajorans—as all things are and have been and will be all at once, so eternal ending is just one edge of infinite reality, which has many edges stretching on and on.

“It’s just evidence that they were,” she found herself saying. “But they also are. Just—are.”

Jadzia tipped her head, her eyebrows pinched together. “This might be one of those temporal perspectives I don’t get,” she said.

Kira smiled. “I mean,” she said. “In some way, this…shell?”

“Crinoid.”

“This crinoid,” said Kira, still biting back a grin. “Is swimming around now. In the sea.”

Jadzia looked at her, eyes sparkling. “Okay,” she said. “Then limestone isn’t a graveyard at all.” She picked the rock up out of Kira’s hand and placed back on the ground but replaced its weight with her own palm. “Everything just adds and adds, in every direction.”

Kira’s smile couldn’t be stopped. She curled her fingers around Jadzia’s wrist. “Yes,” she said, leaning in close, tracing the line of sun lighting up the dark hollows on Jadzia’s face and the soft hairs on her jaw.

Jadzia tilted her chin down, their noses now millimeters apart. The sound of the stream and the sound of her breath on Kira’s mouth washed over her. “Nerys—” she said, voice sweet.

Then, “Da-ax!”

They leaned away from each other quickly.

“Yeah?” called back Jadzia, wiping her twitchy hands on her shorts.

“I fell in!” said one of the kids while all the others laughed.

Kira snorted. Jadzia pressed her palm against Kira’s once more before launching to her feet.

“Duty calls,” she said, dramatically. “Remember me fondly.”

She walked off, already lecturing all the kids about the joys of an impromptu swim and the subsequent chance to dry off in the sun, and soon Kira was being bombarded by tired students in search of snacks.

She slipped the rock in her backpack, when no one was looking. An eternal touch of a swimming creature and the warmth of Jadzia's hand--everything just added on. It was a bright day.

[topshelf2112-blog]

Love them for ending on such good Odo-Quark interaction, but I choose to believe it’s because they were cowards and couldn’t show us Julian and Garak making out under the control panel while Dukat leered in jealousy/horror, refusing to outwardly show how impressed he is with that infuriating tailor.

[docholligay]

OH MY GOD OH MY GOD did Garak just do it??? Sisko's face seems to suggest this is a surprise to him, and while of course he should be acting this way in front of his crew if he did okay it, I don't think that's what's happening here. Also, storywise I think this would be a bridge too far for many viewers. Someone dewlling in this kind of moral grey isn't always well received despite people saying they want the moral greys. People don't like it when characters they think of as 'good' do something they find personally reprehensible, unless they are a villain or gay and then they were literally abused as a child or whatever justification.

Anyway, Garak did the murder and doesn't feel bad and I think that's very sexy of him.

[laundrybiscuits]

Tagged again by @2btheanswertothequestion!

Rules: in a new post, show the last line you wrote and tag as many people as there are words

I'm not sure this particular WIP is actually ever going to be posted, because despite spending many hours of my life watching TOS/TNG/DS9/LD, I still don't feel like I know enough to write confidently in this universe. Nonetheless...

Steve shrugs. “You know what they say about Orions.” “What the hell, Steve!” Robin whacks his arm, and he yelps defensively. “Not like that! I just mean—maybe he’s got, like, shady pirate contacts he’s hiding out with?” “Steve,” says Dustin sternly. “That was not a statement befitting a Starfleet officer, and I hope you can take this opportunity to reflect on your biases. But yeah, Eddie’s mentioned a pirate friend once or twice, let me see if I can find anything in the databanks.”

[hopeful-bat]

Watching Ezri and Julian’s flirty awkward thing more like I Am Going to Kill Myself And It’s Their Fault.

[deeplovelydark]

tags by @bijoumikhawal

this all tracks but like. soooo interesting to me

[pygian-weapon]

on a scale from Rejoined to whatever Quark is doing with the slug-o-cola CEO, how badly aged is your queer making out

[swimmingwolf59]

A collection of my spones fics! My personal favorites are bold and brash blue!

Series

Between Worlds. Spones raise Joanna on board the Enterprise. 10 fics. Ongoing.

After the Fire. Spones get-together centered around the original series movies. 2 fics. Complete.

Doubt and Trust. Mirrorverse spones - first fic is a tos s1 rewrite in mirrorverse. 2 fics. Ongoing.

Family. Old married spones and their relationships with Sarek and Amanda. 2 fics. Complete.

Canon Compliant

If the Stars Looked Down. Ace!Spock chronicles. Complete.

The Houseboat. Spones go on shore leave together. Written for summer of spones 2021. Complete.

Lines Around Your Thoughts. 5+1 McCoy loves Spock's art <3 Complete.

The Logical Thing to Do. Spones retelling of the DS9 episode "Change of Heart". Complete.

Every Stitch. McCoy knits Spock a sweater. Written for 12dos 2021. Complete.

The Importance of Keeping Your Vulcan Awake During Sehlat Hibernation Season. Old married spones and their pet sehlat. Written for 12dos 2021. Complete.

Held Together. McCoy proposes to Spock when he's half-asleep. Written for summer of spones 2022. Complete.

More Than Adequate. Trans!Spock gets a massage from McCoy after binding too much. Written for summer of spones 2022. Complete.

Just a Pinch of Salt. Spones get into a dumb argument while making breakfast. Complete.

Traditions of Intimacy. 5+1 spones making a meal for each other. Complete.

First Impressions. Spones through canon but ALSO mainly 5+1 McCoy meets Sarek :DDD Complete.

In One Piece. Spock notices that McCoy has a rather peculiar post-transport habit. Written for spones day 2024. Complete.

AUs

Spock 'n' Roll. Rockstar!Spock. Complete.

This Mysterious World. Pokemon AU! Also a series lol. 2 fics. Ongoing.

Take Me Out. Baseball AU - M rating. Written for summer of spones 2022. Complete.

Peach Melody. Stardew Valley AU. Written for summer of spones 2022. Complete.

Entangled. First contact AU. Written for the spones zine "We Go Together" vol. 1 issue 1. Complete.

Not Safe for Vulcans

Surgeon's Hands. Spock gets a taste of them surgeon's hands. Complete.

Bones. Post the tholian web, if you catch my drift ;) Complete.

Behind the Mask. Matchmaker Chekov convinces Spock to go to a masquerade party. Complete.

QPR

Whatever Gets You Through the Night. Post man trap + QPR mckirk. Complete.

Not Explicitly Shippy

Of Gods and Ghosts. Missing scene at the end of the Final Frontier. Spock and McCoy talk about loss. Written for 12dos 2021. Complete.

Weight of the Universe. Two scenes post some disastrous weddings. Written for summer of spones 2022. Complete.

AOS

Reciprocal Averaging. Sarek uses statistics to figure out Spock's most suitable mate. You'll never guess who it is. Complete.

[lizardsfromspace]

Watching people rewrite history to claim fans loved DS9 when it first aired. The Nitpicker's Guide included a long, whiny essay about how the writer had to pretend DS9 was a unrelated show called "Bajor: Terok Nor" in order to accept it as a TV show. "How can it be STAR TREK when they don't GO ANYWHERE" was a thing. I had people telling me that around the time of the Abrams movies lol. DS9 fans were a cult thing for ages, its status as a near-universally beloved show is actually really recent

[writergeekrhw]

Hey, just found out you were here on Tumblr, been rewatching DS9 lately and I wanted to shoot you over an ask about your scripts, more specifically the evolution of them.

I've had the pleasure of owning digital copies of handful of early draft TNG scripts, but I've never actually seen an early draft DS9 script, have there ever been any scripts you've pitched or written that turned out substantially different than what you had hoped for or intended?

Sorry for the word salad of a question, all the best, brother.

The episode of DS9 that was least like my first draft was probably "Field of Fire," which I wrote as a freelancer and then didn't get to rewrite myself, since, you know, I was a freelancer. But I thought it turned out well.

[leohtttbriar]

i cannot paint / what then i was (ao3 link)

Underneath the forces pushing and pulling Jadzia and Lenara, together and apart, is Kira. With a charm.

One "Rejoined" kiradax-flavored rewrite for you!

Rejoined

oof you don't go easy!! but i'm prepared for the challenge. i've got ideas. i'm writing it now and i am strong. one kiradax rejoined rewrite comin right up. i'm gonna cry rewatching it probably.

[star-trek-fandom-confessions]

Confession #83

"If there is one DS9 episode I could delete from my memory, it'd be "Let He Who Is Without Sin..."

Could've been a funnier episode with a good script doctor, but no, gotta flanderize Worf instead. I know he can be an uptight prude sometimes, but this episode was too ooc even for him.

Don't get me wrong, Leeta crushing on Rom was cute and the ending with Worf and Dax was kinda funny. But those were the only good parts of the episode.

Honestly, that one fanfic rewrite on Ao3 of the episode, that's based off the movie, The Hangover, was better. Heck, if Michael Dorn cameos as Worf in Lower Decks and lampshades how embarrassing he was on Risa, that'd be funny too."

[ur-friendly-nbhd-cardassian]

Double standards

What?

I went fishing for evidence to shut up haters and found this. I haven't read everything there is to know about DS9 on Memory Alpha - yet. So this had me like 👀

We notice - I mean 'we without bias, using more than 2 braincells' - some double standards in the show itself (that's part of what I was fishing for in here): Kira commits murder, outright says the Resistance was killing their own people (reasons aside), but is excused. Sisko commits genocide, is excused. Garak has done gods-know-what during his glory days and enjoyed it, is excused.

But when it's a Cardie Rick and Ira don't like, thEy'Re eViL.

Feels like:

✔️ We like these guys, so they get away with everything and we understand all their shady reasons. They are complex characters, they make mistakes, but we still love them. ❌ We hate these guys, so they deserve to be punished for every bit of wrong they've ever committed, and we don't care about where they're coming from, even if its valid.

I should include this bit of unused canon story in my sequel. And rewrite the bit in TC where I briefly mention Damar's parents getting killed by the Dominion, bc this is wayyy better (read: worse).

This stopped me in my tracks, I had to share it. We've never even learned what happened to Damar's family before the very end of the show, and that was only part of it, bc as we know they live in multigenerational households.

The poor man didn't even get a first name until bestie Andy gave him one.

Also: the grandpa was just out gardening 😭 Of course this doesn't say whether he was a good man during his productive years - which I'd like to know how they handled in this unused story (if at all) - but since I made Damar a self-made man, I'm deciding it anyway: grandpa got blown up by mistake, but certainly earned The Resistance some rage from Damar jr.

This is turning into a rant, lol, so let's wrap up.

Let me know if you have any thoughts on this, or if you're willing to share some evidence to my point so I don't have to sift through the whole Memory Alpha for it 😂. I'd like some ammo I could readily shove down haters' internet connection cables whenever I encounter "bUt DamAr waS a bAd GuY".

Getting that about Dukat pisses me off, because people don't even hate him properly, they just dismiss him, and such a complex, memorable character doesn't deserve that - but when they say that about Damar, it's sending me into a bloody rage 💀

[thealterscrolls]

the passenger ep of ds9 did things to my brain so now in addition to making a rewrite of distant voices i’m making a rewrite of the passenger for the same reason of putting it into a plural julian perspective. something about being “possessed” while already plural yet being unaware of both… deeply compelling

so while i’m here i want to share some of what i’ve written for the opening because i quite like it. there’s nothing distinctly plural about it yet but i wanted to write this to get the tone down

Fingers clench around his throat, nails piercing his skin. He can’t inhale or exhale to cry out as the smoke suppresses more and more.

“Make—”

Those eyes stare right into his own, reaching to the back of his mind and clawing at the folds of his brain. He resists the urge to spasm and tuck in his head at the itch.

“—me—”

His nerves tingle with electricity, while adrenaline pumps through his system, wasted. Julian can’t calculate any means of retaliation or escape. His mind is a void when he needs it the most. Only the throbbing of his heartbeat in his ears fills the gaps between the alien’s words.

“—live.”

The pressure fades from his neck, and the alien’s hand slips away. Yet those eyes don’t let go of Julian’s gaze, even as the alien breathes his last sigh. But as he does, no life drains from his face. Death is already inscribed in every feature.

This is not the first time he’s watched a patient die, but it doesn’t lessen any of the effect on him. The aura of death is contagious, and he stares quietly at the tricorder, which confirms what he already knows just by looking.

No matter his own fear or this man’s crimes, Julian is still a doctor. “I couldn’t save this one,” he whispers, folding the tricorder away.

…

A shiver runs through Julian’s body. His mind is oddly quiet. No remarks or plans of action run through his thoughts. He’s fully present in the moment and absent all the same. Something is off but he can’t place what exactly.

“Are you with me, Doctor?” A hand touches his shoulder.

“Hmm?” Julian looks up at Kira behind him. “Oh, yes,” he stutters, breaking eye contact with her quickly.

She stands to her feet. “Come on. We have to get this ship back to the station and we don’t have any time to lose.”

“Of course, sir,” he says. He follows after her, absentmindedly stroking the marks on his neck.