#ds9 paradise Lost

[skymallnine]

Parallel universe where the Founders really are a myth. In this universe, the Vorta attempt to genetically engineer themselves. Their (imagined) benefactors delight in taking new shapes, copying new bodies, so the most loyal Vorta give them a quiverfull.

Of course, this doesn’t exactly work. Devotion to the Founders is culturally transmitted and has very little to do with genes. They’re horrified to discover that, despite their best efforts, the Founders’ visitations to their children are waning. Eventually, they switch to actual gene engineering. When even that proves to be unreliable, they create the Jem’Hadar. Their sect, fast-growing but by no means universal, seizes control of the Vorta homeworld.

According to them, the Founders did all these things. In a way, metaphorically, this is true. No one physically shapeshifts, there are no actual Founders, but through the Vorta they take solid form, imposing their will onto the Gamma Quadrant.

In the Alpha Quadrant, the same societies that were most susceptible to changeling infiltration instead fall to the changeling myth. Their leaders are gripped by the mere idea of the Founders, driving them to act fearfully and aggressively. Assume everyone around you is untrustworthy, evil, changeling. Shatter your faith in your neighbors; the only thing you can believe in is the inevitability of the Dominion. And so they shapeshift into Founders, afraid of all other solids and determined to bring them to heel.

Everyone still has the same interactions with Odo, even though he doesn’t exist (odo’ital indeed). He’s Quark’s conscience, Kira’s commitment to fighting impossible odds, Bashir’s hippocratic oath. He’s flying overhead when Damar and Garak shout “for Cardassia”. In other words, he’s all the positive, community-building aspects of faith. He’s faith in other people, above the Dominion, above the State, above latinum, above every instinct that screams this is a losing battle, and what’s worth saving about the solids anyway?

Section 31 almost destroys this kind of faith, but it survives; ultimately healing the faith that poisoned the Vorta.

[filmjunky-99]

s t a r t r e k d e e p s p a c e n i n e created by rick berman, michael piller [paradise lost, s4ep12] 'The USS Lakota Fires on the Defiant'

[walkingstackofbooks]

DS9 4x10 Homefront and 4x11 Paradise Lost thoughts (I’m re-watching, so beware spoilers for future episodes!) [2 July '23]

"Dax is the most humanoid person I know." XD

The Siskos' relationship is so important to me :3

Not vegetables wait takes hee hee

Miles' and Julian's attempted London accents XD Miles' is better than Julian's though which is hilarious given Julian's dad had that accent

Quark was a ship's cook once? interesting

Quark's "Humans. All you care about is yourselves." is kind of true though - yes, Ferengi values are different, but that doesn't mean Quark's feelings weren't similar

Anyone I can look up for you "Uh no.. No." That's the perfect response, given what we learn about Julian's family later on.

"I don't believe in luck... but I appreciate the sentiment." Odo <3 That's quite sweet

I love the Klingon beliefs - killing their pwn gods is the most Klingon thing

Acting head of security! :O Is Layton a changeling?; Who wants to get Sisko off DS9? I cannot rememner!

"When are you gonna stop growing?" Not yet, Joseph, Jake's still shooting up!

"Nathan, the usual." This is so cute that Nog is already part of the extended family <3

"They call it the academy but what it really is is school." Nog!!! You knew this?!!!

"I am a good guy to be around, aren't I?" Jake and Nog are the cutest friendship, I love how easily he restored Nog's confidence <3

Nog just being like "I can just ask Captain Sisko for a favour, why not?" - he's really good at going after what he wants unapologetically.

The fact Sisko just tenderly kisses his dad is very sweet, I love how gentle all the Sisko men are

"I had a talk with your doctor." That's a violation of doctor-patient confidentiality, surely?

"They don't all share Odo's lack of skill when it comes to mimicking humans." Ouch

"This business has got you so twisted around you can't think straight." Well, yes... shapeshifters are tricky.

"If I was a smart shape-shifter, a really good one, the first thing I would do would be to grab some poor soul off the street, absorb every ounce of his blood, and let it out on cue whenever someone like you tried to test me." Joseph is serving the real facts - this has already, presumably, been done by the Martok-changeling.

"It's like he's carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders." "He is." Jake knows what's up, bless him. 4x11 Paradise Lost

"I'd hate to see the members of Red Squad get into any trouble." Sisko can just be so cool under pressure.

"I'm not lying to you, sir." This cadet has balls - it cannot be easy to stick to your guns when Sisko's laying into you like that!

It's weird seeing a changeling so open about what they are, taking the form of O'Brien just because they can, but not actually pretending to be him.

Hah, Sisko has the same laugh as Jake! "And dated her for three years" haha

"I never knew it was so easy to break into classified Starfleet files." "Everything I know I learnt from Quark." I'm.. really not sure what to make of that admission. Makes sense though - Quark's presumably been doing it for far longer than Odo? Hmmmm

How did they change Sisko's blood for a changeling's?! Is Benteen a shapeshifter?

Uggh, Sisko, why tell Layton your plan? That's always a bad idea! Unless you're recording this to use against him?

"They've been told everyone on the Defiant has been replaced by shape-shifters." - You're willing to risk the lives of so many Starfleet officers, Layton?! That's when you know you're the bad guy!!

 "I only wish I'd taught you more about the importance of loyalty." "You want to talk to me about loyalty? After you broke your oath with the Federation, lied to the people of Earth, ordered one of our own starships to fire on another! You don't have the right." Sisko!!! ❤️

"I hope you're not the one making the mistake." For once, I agree with Layton - God, I hope you're not the one making the mistake here, Sisko. I don't like Layton... but he was fighting so hard for earth in his own way, he's so sure this will end badly. I just don't know.

[ineedfandomnow]

Homefront and Paradise Lost are really good episodes because it really emphasizes how easy it is for us to turn away from democracy towards a military rule of seen from the military perspective

[r0larens]

my fave game i imagine they play on ds9 is who’s gonna carry the odo bag this mission. do they draw straws? is it on rotation like a chore wheel? is it like an annoying punishment or does everyone lowkey want to be the one to carry their backpack buddy and throw him dramatically to reveal that it’s NOT a random satchel but in fact goo man

[purplespacekitty]

Three generations of Sisko men gathered close for a jambalaya dinner in Ben's ancient Bajoran lightship, as illustrated by celebrated science fiction writer, Benny Russell. Russell keeps a souvenir baseball on his desk, signed by the legendary Willie Hawkins. In the corner, Russell stashes the sketch that gave him the inspiration for this family's story: space station Deep Space Nine.

Deep Space Nine is my favorite Trek. It has nuanced, 3-dimensional characters who become part of the show's world over the course of 7 seasons. There are some off plot lines here and there but for the most part, the story seems to write itself. I've written at length on here about how much I love Captain Benjamin Sisko and I'd like to share a project of mine I did for a class (I have so far managed to fit Star Trek into three separate final projects for three separate classes, one of which I already posted about here).

Through the lens of Sisko's character, I wanted to examine Deep Space Nine's portrayal of Black masculinity, fatherhood and Afrofuturism with three episodes (although one's a two-parter): "Homefront" (Part I), "Paradise Lost" (Part II), "Explorers" (which I made a post about here) and "Far Beyond the Stars". Initially, the idea was to focus on Ben's fatherhood to Jake, how from the viewer's side of the screen, the two of them break down numerous racial stereotypes around Black men, an important thing to remember with DS9's debut not being far removed from the end of the Reagan Administration, from which sprung stereotypes of "absent Black fathers" and "welfare queens." As I continued with this project, I found I also wanted to analyze how Sisko's relationship with his own father informs his parenting of Jake and what it means to have three generations of Siskos in one room, on one planet. That was how I got "Explorers" and "Homefront" and "Paradise Lost" in there, as I wanted to showcase episodes that focus on these exact dynamics.

"Far Beyond the Stars" offers a window into Earth's history as a commentary on racism within creative circles and the systemic racism that shapes the world we live in today and the world of Deep Space Nine. It not only invites viewers into the life of Benny Russell, a Black science fiction writer from the 1950s, but also invites us to consider the link between the future he envisioned of the life that Sisko leads in the 24th century as a Black spaceship/space station captain, father, son, husband and cook who carries the weight of his ancestors' legacy on his shoulders and the reality Russell himself lives in day by day. "You are the dreamer and the dream" has a whole lot more gravity to it when you recognize it as less of an obvious observation of what we've known and been shown throughout the episode (Avery Brooks plays both Sisko and Russell) and more of a nod to the Black future that Sisko inhabits and that Russell dreams of. As a creation of Benny Russell, Sisko and his family are Afrofuturism in a nutshell, carrying on the cultures, stories and knowledge of their ancestors as they live their lives in a future those ancestors imagined and built. Furthermore, Benny Russell's Deep Space Nine is not only important because it features a Black space station captain but also because it encapsulates a fragment of Russell's drive to write his own stories for himself and his Black readers, to breathe life into his creations, to share his art in the ways that he wants to. To cherish his experiences and ideas and imagination and reality through the creative process of putting pen to paper, stamping ink to page, painting scenes to canvas.

The DS9 finale was originally going to see Benny Russell wistfully wandering the promenade alone and implicate him as the creator of not just the story of Deep Space Nine, but of the Star Trek franchise as a whole. Obviously, this concept did not make the cut, but Strange New Worlds' "Elysium Kingdom" follows another story written by Russell, solidifying him as a real person who lived in the 20th century within the Star Trek universe and who presumably continued to write stories that got published after the events of "Shadows and Symbols".

Comprised of screenshots from "Explorers", "Homefront", "Paradise Lost", "Far Beyond the Stars", "Shadows and Symbols" and "Civil Defense" - in which Dukat flicks Sisko's baseball off his desk - (and also a picture of a random coffee table taken by me because we see surprisingly very little of Benny's desk), the collage above is my humble attempt to honor Benny Russell and his creative vision.

[writergeekrhw]

I know you've been asked a thousand times, and I arleady know the answer is along the lines of "we didn't think too much about it" but how did Admiral Leyton fake the blood test? Was he working with a changeling? Was he always a changeling? Were you and Ira Steven Behr cackling maniacally as you created a mystery that you then swept under the rug?

Additionally, if it's the 2nd, are there any clues we've missed for the last 30 years?

Leyton was only briefly impersonated by a changeling in "Homefront." The rest of the time, it was him. He was never in league with the changelings. He was a misguided/power hungry Starfleet officer who convinced himself that seizing power was in the best interest of the Federation*... which is exactly what the changelings were trying to manipulate him into doing.

If the impersonator ever needed to pass a blood test, Joseph Sisko explained one very plausible way he could have done it.

So, there's no mystery that we swept under the rug. Leyton was Leyton 99% of the time.

*It wasn't.

[asexualjedi]

“Everything I know I leaned from quark” boyfriends who hack StarFleet together stay together

[bagheerita]

Apparently some star fleet admiral is committing treason again and putting earth under military dictatorship for its own "safety" but all I remember about the past 2 episodes is that Odo says he learned how to hack classified star fleet files from Quark

[sshbpodcast]

Episode 186: ...And Put Up a Parking Lot

DS9: "Homefront" and "Paradise Lost"

DS9 continues to be frustratingly, depressingly relevant this week as we take a look at a sneaky two-parter composed of "Homefront" and "Paradise Lost".

When an act of terrorism reveals there are Changelings on Earth, everyone decides Civil Liberties are overrated! Troops are in the streets, citizens must prove their humanity with random blood tests, and the military is taking over! But is the threat real...or from within?

Also this week: coffee everywhere, eating the President, and mid-range family dining!

Timestamp: "Homefront"/"Paradise Lost": 03:25

[fostersffff]

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Season 4 Episode 12: “Paradise Lost”

DS9 really is quintessential pre-9/11 media. "Sisko's dad reacting with horror to his rights being violated in the name of security gives Sisko the clarity of purpose to foil the coup Starfleet was staging in response to a terrorist attack by the Dominion" and then wrapping things up with this exchange feels insane.

[foone]

All this Kurtzman/Section 31 stuff reminds me that not enough people have seen (or understood, I guess) Star Trek:Deep Space Nine.

Because it gets described as "it made the Federation a morally gray society instead of a utopia!" or "it fought back against Roddenberry's vision for the Federation and Star Trek!" and it's like... did you watch the same show?

DS9 didn't think the federation was any less of a utopia, than TNG or TOS or VOY, it said EVEN IN A UTOPIA, THERE WILL BE CHALLENGES, THERE WILL BE USURPERS, THERE WILL BE SNAKES IN THE GARDEN: THAT IS WHY WE MUST FIGHT!

Homefront/Paradise lost are about how even in a utopia, authoritarians will sell fear and get people to give up their freedoms. Fascists will burn the Reichstag to create a crisis they can exploit.

Doctor Bashir, I Presume showed that for a society without money, people still worry about success, and their legacy, and they'll do horrible things to their children to make sure they can be that legacy. And the episode CLEARLY DISAPPROVES OF THIS! The man responsible realizes the error of his ways and submits to punishment to save his son.

I don't want to list examples all day, I have other stuff to do, but DS9 very much didn't say "utopias aren't real, every so-called utopia has evil somewhere in the foundations", it said that utopias are something you have to fight to maintain. You can't take the easy answers, listen to the fascists promising safety, and avoid examining the faults of your society. Sorry. But the good news is that you can, you can win, and you aren't alone.

DS9 was aiming for more of a "realistic utopia" than other Treks, it's true, but despite that realism it still said a utopia was possible. It used that realism to show that a better world must still be fought for. And it warned against anyone selling easy solutions to those battles.

Because as has been pointed out recently, fascists don't sell eternal war and oppression to the in-group: they promise safety and power and belonging and prosperity. They're gonna oppress them to save us.

DS9 said those men are not to be trusted, and must be opposed. It won't be easy, there will be struggles, but they will be stopped. The world will get better. We can do this, together.

I don't know about you, but I find that more optimistic than if they hadn't, and just said The Federation is Perfect Forever.

[filmjunky-99]

r e m e m b e r i n g

Brock Peters

2 July 1927 – 23 August 2005

⚘️

[pic: peters as joseph sisko, paradise lost, ds9]

[mandatory-blog-stop-asking]

my favorite stand-alone star trek episodes

someone in bluesky asked around my sphere what are the best Star Trek stand alone episodes for each show and I thought it was a cool exercise. My list and specifications are below. Long post so click the button to check it out.

Rules: Can't be super dependent on other episodes of the show, can't be a two or multiple-parter, can't just be every season finale just because it made me cry or anything; it has to be something that showcases how the show works its own individual aspects in a relatively ideal stage. Think of it like the episode you could show someone to prime them to like any of these shows if they don't even know the show exists.

The Original Series - The Corbomite Manuever

It's one of the first times Star Trek talks about peacemaking and looking before shooting as something you're supposed to do even in a situation where an overwhelming power is bullying you. Kirk comes out of this as a genius who knew better than to take a situation at face value, and has one of my favorite lines in the show:

What's the mission of this vessel, Doctor? To seek out and contact alien life, and an opportunity to demonstrate what our high-sounding words mean.

Banger idea, banger execution, iconic alien, cool shit all around, 10/10

Runner ups: Balance of Terror, Court Martial, The City at the Edge of Forever. Didn't make it because I like this one more.

The Animated Series - The Magicks of Megas-tu

I think it's probably the wildest episode in TAS? Kirk & Crew meet the devil and he's like, a swell guy you should be friends with. Spock learns magic. The devil tells the audience of mostly children to not have prejudices against those oppressors have deemed unworthy of attention. There's a magic duel at the center of the galaxy that is then tailored after the Salem Witch trials. If you haven't watched TAS, it goes fucking crazy.

Runner ups: Yesteryear, The Lorelei Signal, The Time Trap. Overall just think Megas-tu is more interesting and more incredibly fucking wild, how did that air in the 80s, oh my god.

The Next Generation - The Measure of a Man

While it is pretty early on, I think it's a very good example of what TNG does best: single-issue stories using its main cast as a vehicle for drama. This has a little bit of everything people love TNG for: Data's struggles as an android, Picard's struggles as a reinassance man occasionally having to face the dumbest motherfuckers in the entire Federation who would be burning witches at the stake if they could, a Badmiral, Riker vs Picard, Guinan taking Picard by the hand and gently reminding him the human condition includes some unpleasant elements, a farcical trial...

it's not perfect but I do think it holds up, and whenever I recommend Star Trek to people, this is always an easy case study to check if they're interested in the project.

Runner ups: Elementary Dear Data, Yesterday's Enterprise, Sarek, and honestly a lot of other episodes that just don't quite work if you don't have all the context of watching more of the show. Either that or they have weird characterizations that I don't think work super well for the episode.

Deep Space Nine - The Ship

I think Deep Space Nine has a ton of great episodes, but I do believe that show shines brightest when everyone involved is stuck in a bottle episode having to fight their way out of it. In TNG they would talk, in VOY they would trick people, in DS9 they use violence!

I think The Ship is the best version of a good DS9 episode that doesn't need so much preamble to understand. You have a tight cast, a very clear drama point, and the slow build up into a horrific ending where nobody is happy and everyone wishes war wasn't such bullshit.

While there's literally better episodes, I think this works really well for this "challenge."

Runner ups: This list literally had Homefront/Paradise Lost as my pick, but I ended up deciding two-parters don't count. Other than that, The Wire, The House of Quark, Badda-Bing Badda-Bang and my favorite episode of Star Trek of all time, It's Only a Paper Moon, that unfortunately only works if you've spent 7 seasons watching Nog go from the worst character in Star Trek to the best character in Star Trek.

Voyager - One Small Step

I think Voyager is very flawed and that season 4 is the highest peak the show comes to, but even then, I think One Small Step is my favorite episode. It has the BIG VOYAGER THINGS: Seven of Nine trying to wrap her head around human emotions, an old-timey feel (literally, it's about an old Mars mission), it has the Delta Flyer, and it ends with an absolute emotional gut punch that I haven't really recovered from to this day. It's a love letter to space exploration that really fits a show named god damn Voyager a lot more than it would any of the others. I really love this episode.

Runner ups: The 37s, Living Witness, Death Wish, and DISTANT ORIGINS, OH MY GOD, THE LIZARD PEOPLE ARE REAL; all episodes i like but that either don't quite get me where I want to go, or I just personally feel aren't as strong.

Enterprise - Dead Stop

So like, this list is awful for Enterprise, because every single episode of that series builds on the previous ones somehow. Season 3 is impossible to watch out of context so I can't use any of it, and my no-multiple-parters rule means Season 4 (which I don't even like anyway so I guess it doesn't matter ) is mostly out. But I really do think Dead Stop excels at what Enterprise is good at: making the galaxy look fucking weird again.

Dead Stop feels like a really good sidemission from a game you've played a lot but never did 100%. It proposes some things about the state of the galaxy that you never really consider and never comes back, and it acts like this really interesting bottle episode that, while relatively predictable (this is Enterprise), is also effective. I think everyone shines in this and I think the situation is very unique. Worth a shot if you've never seen Enterprise.

Runner ups: E², The Catwalk (lol), it... look, I'll be real, Enterprise is not made for this.

Discovery - Unification III

Speaking of shows that aren't made for this, Discovery wouldn't have made it if it didn't get a soft-reboot halfway through. I'm one of the people who likes the second half of Discovery, sometimes a lot even. And while I think it should have gone way crazier with its own stuff instead of wasting its time with references (season 4 is probably the moment I was happy saying I like Discovery), I think Unification III is the first time I actually liked Michael's character.

It still has Discovery's major problems of being overly melodramatic in the wrong places, wasting a little too much time with dramatic camera shots and monologues that don't always hit, but I think Unification III is Discovery deciding it can stand side by side with other shows: it fundamentally changes the Romulan/Vulcan dichotomy, it takes something old and makes it new again, and it for the first time in years doesn't feel embarrassed of itself.

I don't know if it would make a Disco hater become a Disco enjoyer, but hey, I enjoy the episode, and it's my list.

Runner ups: Forget Me Not, and.... that's it actually. Don't watch Discovery on random, it doesn't work. Picard isn't in this list.

Lower Decks - wej Duj

Lower Decks rules and wej Duj is the best episode of Star Trek released in the year it came out. It takes its premise and allows it to breathe, shows you parts of the universe you'd never see, introduces great characters you could make a mini series about if you were crazy, and it looks and sounds great. Lower Decks was too good for this world and cancelling it characterizes cruel and unusual mistreatment of an audience.

Runner-ups: First First Contact, Empathological Fallacies, a couple more but Lower Decks is so referential in nature that it also makes it hard. But this wasn't really a contest. I wrote wej Duj without looking up other episodes.

Prodigy - Time Amok

Prodigy is a weird one because it's less "Star Trek" and more "Voyager 2". It has a different idea and execution for what it wants to do, so it doesn't really adhere to structures other shows have. That being said, I think Time Amok is the first time the crew really comes together and shows why they're a good cast, what their specialties are and why you should like them. I would probably not have continued the show without an episode like Time Amok, and genuinely, it goes great places. Season 2 is one of my favorite seasons of current Star Trek. It just, you know, isn't the same.

Runner-ups: Honestly for my specific rules, this is it. But I want you to know Prodigy fucking rules and you should watch it. "Now... go boldly" still gets to me every time I think about it.

Strange New Worlds - Ad Astra per Aspera

I like Season 1 of SNW a lot more than Season 2, but the S2 opener really is the show at its best. It doesn't pull any punches when exploring the subject of what's essentially Federation-approved apartheid, and it might have the best performances in the show so far. It would have probably interested me more if this wasn't another prequel that can't change things too much, but, still. If you've never seen SNW and don't want to just watch it from episode 1, give this one a try.

Runner-ups: Strange New Worlds the pilot! It's a very good pilot! Also "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow" and "Those Old Scientists", but like, a crossover wouldn't really fit here very well.

And there you go, that was a fun little exercise. How about you make your own? Add any of the shows you want, I just happen to be a freak who wanted to do it with all of them.

[cosmicretreat]

Today in 1990: "The Hunted" (TNG)

Today in 1996: "Paradise Lost" (DS9)

Today in 1997: "Fair Trade" (VOY)

Today in 1998: "Waltz" (DS9)

Today in 2003: "Dawn" (ENT)

[aziraphales-library]

Hello wonderful peoples,

Do you have any recommendations for crossovers that take place in the Star Trek universe? Any length, any rating.

TYSM!

Hi! Here are some Star Trek crossovers...

The Neverending Ineffable Omens by Xenobotanist (G)

Crowley and Aziraphale open a bookshop on Deep Space Nine, where they meet the resident tailor and CMO and discover that the universe still very much works in mysterious ways.

Captain’s Log: Alpha Centauri by starspangledbread (G)

The crew of the USS Enterprise take a stop on the sparsely populated Alpha Centauri planets, and meet some new people. Well, people shaped beings.

Our Man Crowley by CopperBeech (G)

Crowley's wild ride through the digital networks took him to a few places that didn't make it into the book or screenplay. An hommage to both fandoms, an iconic DS9 episode, and the weakness for secret-agenting shared by Crowley and Bashir. “You must be my backup.” managed Bashir, trying to remain suave and in character. “Nice one.” Garak was probably distracted with some fancy commission, stitching on epaulets or ruffles or getting a drape just right, and the program had defaulted to a stock character. The man certainly looked suitably arresting: whip-slim, snug clothes casual but expensive, a chronometer that looked like it could control a city’s power grid on his left wrist. His nails were varnished jet black, an eccentric touch. “I’d guess this is Hell,” the other man answered-didn’t-answer, “but it’s a lot less crowded.” He looked up and down the corridor. “You seen an ugly little mook with a frog on his head?” he asked. Part 1 of From Soho, With Love series

To the Stars by strwbrygrl77 (T)

When the crew of the USS Enterprise ends up in the 21st Century, it will take a miracle to send them home again. Fortunately, the newest crew member knows an Angel who can help ... Unfortunately, this Angel is no longer on Earth. (A post S2 Good Omens crossover fix-it fic with Star Trek: SNW).

Restart Your Engines by anticyclone (T)

On their way home from a star-hopping vacation, Aziraphale and Crowley decide to spend a few days at Deep Space Nine. There's holosuites to be rented and good conversation to be had. (Oh, don't the tailor and his dear doctor remind Aziraphale of earlier days.) But… maybe when you can warp reality through the power of imagination, holosuite games aren't the best double-date activity. For one, Odo would really like to know why there's a car on his Promenade.

For Many a Lonely Day Sailed Across the Milky Seas by CaelumCalamitas (T)

Will Decker and Ilia are gone - missing - their attempt to merge with V’Ger failed. The probe, which has been discovered to be the long-lost Voyager 6 that was launched in the mid-20th century, is orbiting Earth. During its 300+ year travels, it has gained a limited sentience, and a determination to deliver the data in its memory banks with the Creator. All other attempts at communicating with V’Ger have failed. Kirk has negotiated with it for time to find the Creator it seeks. V’Ger will only transmit its message to that whom created it. If unsuccessful by the end of the allotted time, V’Ger will continue its “extermination of the biological infestation” on the Creator’s planet. Spock, still recovering from his own traumatic mind meld with V’Ger, is able to recall some of that data - a garbled and staticky partial message he believes was recorded on Voyager’s golden disc - and he recognizes the voice: “I, Crowley, made…static…you…on behalf of Earth, which we both love..." In collaboration with my Ineffable Artist teammate Chapollynh and inspired by Snowfilly1's fic "Loved the Stars So Fondly."

Angels are from Heaven, Demons are from Hell by Mrs_Cake_Is_Here (M)

Angels have created new alien species, 24th century Earth has turned into paradise, and Aziraphale and Crowley are Bored and in a Rut. Their once spicy Partnership is now steeped in monotony, miscommunication, and a significant amount of doubt about their future. Aziraphale believes a vacation filled with five-star travel accommodations and a stay on a pleasure planet is the solution. But even the best laid plans of angels and demons can go awry. Aziraphale and Crowley will have to overcome travel disagreements, contact embarrassment, transporter phobia, boring archaeology lectures, Deanna Troi, and the Essentialist Movement's sabotage of Risa, while trying to find time to physically and emotionally reconnect and start communicating (eventually). Basically, a lighthearted Good Omens-Star Trek crossover romp that follows Aziraphale and Crowley through the world of 90s-version 24th century Trek. They eventually find themselves in DS9 season 05 episode 07 (essentially as extras), where their vacation is inconveniently interrupted by a bunch of fundamentalists whose dastardly deeds inadvertently help an angel and a demon realize how much they love one another. Part 1 of Deep Space Omens series

- Mod D