#sisko is looking out of the station into the stars

[zinny333]

what gets me about far beyond the stars is that unlike other sci-fi or supernatural shows that have a “maybe it’s all a dream” episode, this episode ends with hope that even if the entirety of star trek is just benny’s imagination, just his dream, what a good dream it is

[trillscienceofficer]

from Sci-Fi Universe magazine, October 1996

KISS ME DEADLY: In REJOINED, one of the season's finest episodes, a kiss proved to be more than just a kiss

Maybe it's another sign of format maturity, but the modern Trek era has never seen anything like the controversy that erupted over the airing of DS9's Rejoined, which takes the science fiction story opportunity made possible by Dax's Trill host/symbiont race and twists it into a social comment on sexual orientation Gene Roddenberry would have been proud to call his own.

"Last July," begins Terry Farrell, whose Dax character is at the heart of the story, "Rick Berman called and asked me if I would kiss a woman, and at that point I guess I didn't take it that seriously. I said, 'Yeah, as long as she's beautiful I don't care!'

"And then it spurred me to thinking about it before it actually happened, and I felt bad I had been so flip, because I didn't realize how serious a love story it would be—and how nervous I would be about it, really want to be sure I'm honest and I'm doing the story justice, and I really want people to talk about it and think about it afterward. It really meant a lot to me.

"I think it's really important to love people for who they are, and spiritually it was a great show for me too, because it just reinforces that all of us—whether we want to admit it or not—can really be judgmental at times. That was a really important show to say, to the smallest degree, you've got to remember that people's lives are always so much more complicated than you think they are."

"We had a lot of advance buzz, but we also sat on that show a bit,' adds producer Steve Oster, who recalled the flap in 1969 when Kirk and Uhura made history with television's interracial kiss in Plato's Stepchildren. In fact, the show didn't go looking for attention.

"Because it had a kiss in it, and because of the Roseanne hoopla a few years ago (concerning the high-profile star's on-screen lesbian kiss), our publicity people wanted to have them come over and take pictures of 'the famous kiss scene,' have a news crew like Entertainment Tonight there—and we opted not to do that for a couple of reasons.

"For one thing, because we didn't want to become the Roseanne issue where stations were deciding not to air it, and secondly, to Rick's credit, he did not want to make that what the episode was about. It was not about two characters kissing—it was not about making that a tantalizing factor of the episode."

As directed by Avery Brooks, the episode maintained a remarkably naturalistic feel through the acting of all concerned, including Farrell and guest star Susanna Thompson.

"They chose to play it as real, as we would any other scene with those emotions going on: not 'Okay, a girl is going to kiss a girl,' but it was 'This is someone you were in love with before and you still are,' and that's the arc of the scene. It was not about the kiss," says Oster.

"I think we were trying to be as realistic as possible," Farrell agrees. "Really, the only scene I remember going way out and pulling back was the last scene were I give her the ultimatum—where Avery let me basically go all out and cry my eyes out and then pull me back. So that was the only time I remember going from one extreme to the other, trying a range; otherwise it was pretty natural."

In fact, the scene with Sisko was one of the easiest to play, she revealed, because of the natural affinity she feels tor Brooks, the actor. "He was so supportive of me during the first year of DS9 when it was really difficult for me, he was the only one who reached out and really made me feel comfortable, and tried to help me build my self-confidence and self-esteem in really healthy way," she says. "So I felt like I didn't need to do a lot of homework."

Farrell reveals that, in fact, the hardest scene for her as an actress was the moment in which Dax and Lenara Kahn realize at dinner, without voicing it directly, that they are still in love. Aside from the new situation of seeing Dax giddy like that, Farrell recalled it was the first day of shooting on the episode. "I felt a little uncomfortable and was feeling nervous about the whole thing," she says, "and I remember trying to make her comfortable at the same time."

The chemistry that sparked between Farrell and Thompson—finally out from under the makeup as a Romulan and Tilonian, both on TNG [on The Next Phase and Frame of Mind respectively]—came as no accident, since the producers had taken pains to have Farrell read with those who came in during casting for the role.

"We auditioned and auditioned and auditioned," Oster reports. "We needed to find that chemistry, someone who can play that role as a human being, not as someone who's wondering about kissing another woman. And if someone has delivered for us, we'll bring them back if they've been in makeup before because that can change."

"And," agrees Farrell, "we made sure we had a meeting before we started the show—Susanna and Avery and I—to discuss the show. Usually we don't have time for those kinds of things to happen on our show, but they just made the time. And it really made a difference, I think."

Before the show aired, executive producer Rick Berman said he hoped it would be "received with some controversy."

"I think it does deal metaphorically with homosexuality in the sense of how society puts taboos on certain sexual orientation," Berman said. "It deals with it from both sides, I believe. And I'm sure there are those in the gay community who will probably feel that, again, we haven't gone far enough. But our objective in this story was very specific and very related to the big points that are exhibited in the story—it was never designed to be 'how far can we push this?' It's another step in our attempts to supposedly open stories that deal with a variety of sexual orientation [sic]."

The low-key strategy seemed to have worked: among the affiliates who knew what was coming, Oster reports, none ever dropped the show completely. All ran the episode on first airing—with a parental advisory added by the Atlanta station—and "two or three" others cut the scene out when repeated.

"The studio was very supportive of it; it was one of those things that when Roseanne became the cutting edge and it passed by, it suddenly became not much of an issue."

—Larry Nemecek

"Negative callers couldn't make the leap between seeing this kiss and the famous one between Uhura and Kirk in 1969 as both being a matter of prejudice."

—Producer Steve Oster

[ravenclawerised]

Rewatching DS9 again and I am just so interested at how an average Bajoran would view Kira by the end of the series. How an average Cardassian would? We know that a lot of what she does is known to the Bajoran people. Shakaar mentions Furel and Lupaza bragging about her whenever they get news of the station. But lets actually take a look at this:

She is the highest ranking Bajoran on DS9 outranked only by the Emissary

Most times Sisko did anything in the capacity as the Emissary, Kira was one step behind and to the right

She was with Kai Opaka, the most widely loved and respected Bajoran, when she made her journey through the Celestial Temple and “answered the call of the prophets”

She was highly respected (and loved) by Vedek Bareil who was hugely popular on Bajor (he could very well have been Kai if he hadn’t taken the blame for Kai Opaka’s actions during the Occupation)

She and Kai Winn had a well known feud and after Kai Winn’s fall from grace at the end of the show, Kira must come out pretty great to everyone else

She is the one who found and saved the great Bajoran hero, Li Nalas, from a Cardassian work camp and then within a week saved Bajor from a civil war that had been encouraged by Cardassians.

Between her saving Li Nalas and his fellow prisoners AND finding the Ravinok and saving the Bajorans (and Cardassians and Ziyal) from the Breen mines, was she the person Bajorans turned to when searching for their lost love ones? Was she a symbol to those who kept looking for their loved ones because Kira Nerys found those thought to be lost?

She prevented ANOTHER Bajoran Civil War and helped elect Shakaar as the First Minister of Bajor. Again being associated with a widely loved and respected member of Bajoran society.

Kira was in charge of DS9 during Dominion Occupation and started up the station’s resistance cell

She was permitted to use the Orb of Time, one of Bajor’s most sacred objects

She was the chosen by a Prophet to be their vessel during the Reckoning with the Pah-Wraith...and the KAI was on the same station. But it was KIRA who was chosen

She plays chicken with a Romulan fleet...and wins!

She was a key figure in the Dominion War. She started as a resistance fighter who was assigned to a falling apart, unimportant old Cardassain station and becomes the Colonel of the single most important port in the Alpha Quadrant. She is the right hand of the Emissary. She is widely respected by many beloved figures in Bajoran society.

And this list is just the most public things that have happened to her. This doesn’t even take into account any of the stories about her that involve her dealing with whatever BS the Star Trek universe decides to throw at the characters that week. Klingons beam in and fight? Gets stabbed and keeps fighting. Emissary is transported to 2024? Kira is on the team that pulls him out.

By the end of season seven, do politicians on Bajor hold their breath or breathe a sigh of relief if Kira gets involved? Do Vedeks seek her out to ask her about being possessed by a prophet? About her experiences with the Orbs? About Kai Opaka’s last words? Do families still grieving those missing from the Occupation petition her to look for the lost?

And how about the Cardassians?

The Cardassian government would probably never publicly admit to any time she foiled their plans, but Tekeny Ghemor tells her that she has her own section in the Cardassian Central Archives and is a public figure on Cardassia

Would the Cardassians in the Breen mine whisper their thanks among their family that Kira Nerys found them?

Tekeny Ghemor, someone who was respected enough to be considered as the face for the Cardassian resistance against the Dominion controlled Cardassian puppet government, publicly considered her his daughter/family by asking her to participate in the Shri-tal ritual and give her all of his secrets prior to his death (something highly valued in Cardassian society)

She was a part of Damar’s resistance. She helped them fight the Dominion and was with Damar when he died for Cardassia. In the story of how Damar was martyred for Cardassia’s freedom from the Dominion, Kira Nerys, a Bajoran, is heavily featured.

In all Bajoran/Cardassian relations, do Cardassians seek to involve Kira as a woman of her word who will treat in good faith or do they cross their fingers and hope she is nowhere near their business?

Can you tell I think about Kira Nerys a lot?

[ectogeo-art]

Ben tapped his fingers on the side of his mug idly. He knew that he had to deal with the problem of Garak soon. He’d meant to act more quickly on the matter, but many other far more urgent issues had needed addressing in his first week as commander of the station, and it had slipped to the back burner. He still had never even met the man—never even seen him in person until this moment—but he was already under pressure from all sides to deal with him.

The Garak problem was simple: the Bajoran Provisional Government wanted him, like the rest of the Cardassians, gone. A reasonable request, which was nevertheless shaping up to be a real bureaucratic and diplomatic nightmare.

Past Prologue Sisko POV fic! There’s some Garashir too, but the fic is much more focused on Sisko trying to figure out what Garak’s whole deal is.

[he-is-lightning-in-a-bottle]

POLL TAG- FIVE FAVORITE CHARACTERS

tagged by @wen-kexing-apologist.

Challenge: make a poll with five of your all time favorite characters, and then tag five people to do the same. See which character is everyone's favorite.

I am choosing to limit myself to BL characters because otherwise we'd have a Will Graham (an unhinged FBI profiler in Hannibal) vs Yu Ji Ho (the boundary-respecting pharmacist single dad in One Spring Night) vs Bart (the Universe-appointed holistic assassin in Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency) vs Benjamin Sisko (the legendary single dad and captain of the space station in Star Trek Deep Space Nine) type of situation going on.

The Spiel - IN DEFENSE OF MY FAVES

Nozue (Old Fashion Cupcake)

Everyone's favorite boss with a heart of gold, this 39yo repressed hottie could flirt like a pro. My favorite thing about him is that he experienced utterly transformative character growth without having to experience severe pain (a breakup, a loved one's death, job loss, rejection, etc). He just looked at where he was standing and... stepped left.

Kakeru (I Cannot Reach You)

My boy learned his childhood bestie had a crush on him and did not flee in terror. Instead he faced it and asked for patience and examined his feelings and treated the potential change in their relationship as seriously as it deserved to be treated because the request came from someone he loved. Clearly, this is a boy who knows how to spell R-E-S-P-E-C-T.

Wei Qian (Unknown)

He stepped up and raised his younger sibling when their druggie mother died, then added an adoptee into the mix. And he cared for them so profoundly that they had relatively normal childhoods despite being orphans. Yet this softie was tough enough to be a gang enforcer, and then smart enough to get a college degree, and then competent enough to co-create a successful startup. Like what kind of super hero bullshit is he on?

Karan (Cherry Magic, Thailand)

A competent and talented employee, and he's a total simp who looks great in or out of a suit? Sign me up for his tender loving care, y'all. I literally melted into a puddle of goo every time we saw a glimpse of his very earnest yet sweet fantasies. He just wants to take care of his boo!

Iwanaga (Love Is Better The Second Time Around)

I confess he's here mostly because he's eye candy. (Well that and recency bias, because if we're really talking about my favorite eye candy, it'd be Porsche from Kinnporsche without a second's hesitation.) But roll with me here, please? This man can fuck! And fuck so well he pissed off the love of his life! And all the men in town are dropping for him like flies. They get one hint of a taste of his juice and they're down bad! They're hooked. They're his. He is legendary. He is epic. He knows how to work his angles and his puppy dog eyes! And he's also talented and wealthy and considerate to boot.

***

Most of my mutuals have probably played already, but if you care to go again or want an excuse to play by different rules, please consider yourself tagged. Also I'm tagging some of you just in case you haven't done it yet because tbh I haven't been paying that close of attention to my dash this week: @absolutebl, @syrinth, @dean-you-assbutt-cas-loves-you, @lurkingshan, @bengiyo, @chickenstrangers, @thequeenofsastiel, @tiggymalvern, @spicyvampire, @my-rose-tinted-glasses, @wanderlust-in-my-soul, @twig-tea, @telomeke, @guzhu-furen, @gunsatthaphan, @lymeandcoconut, @itwoodbeprefect, @shortpplfedup

[kittenwriter]

And now another round of "Kit tries to game out time passing in DS9 episodes!"

A very narrow slice of Past Prologue this time, which is "how much time passes between Sisko's first conversation with Tahna, telling Danar the asylum is being granted, and telling Kira the asylum is being granted."

Kira calling Admiral Rollman seems to take place simultaneously with Sisko talking to Tahna. Sisko goes straight back to Ops after that conversation and is immediately called by Admiral Rollman.

Kira goes back to Tahna... but some time has to have passed here, given that Bashir was fussing about Tahna needing rest-- but not too much time because you can only stall the Cardassians with Extremely Thorough Docking Procedures for so long. So this is at most an hour or two later and probably taking place simultaneously with Sisko's conversation with Danar.

The commercial break has to have a longer time skip, because Tahna is up and moving around and seemingly fully recovered. Now, with Star Trek technology that's not that long, but it still takes some time to recover from surgery-type things even on Star Trek. Which means several hours or perhaps even a whole day pass between Sisko telling Danar he won't turn Tahna over and Kira showing Tahna to quarters. Kira spends that time talking with the Provisional Government about amnesty. What does Sisko spend it doing? Or Danar? Apparently no one told Kira (and therefore presumably no one told Tahna) that Sisko had granted asylum, because she finds out about it during the "go over my head again" conversation.

Like, is this another round of "there is a Cardassian crew hanging around the station waiting and looking vaguely threatening" as we saw with Dukat while Sisko was in the wormhole?

(Twice in a row is almost a pattern. The writers don't think about length of time there are Cardassians just... hanging around... during the time skips.)

This also raises the question of what exactly the jurisdiction on the station is, because everyone is acting like the asylum is from the Federation-- Danar takes it up with Sisko and is separately told "when he wants to go to Bajor you can take it up with the Provisional Government." Which implies the Provisional Government doesn't have the authority to be taken up while Tahna is on the station... except we know it's a Bajoran station under Bajoran governance, because we have an extradition hearing in "Dax" on the grounds that their treaty is with the Federation, not Bajor. Yes, it's under Federation administration, but for something like this that's a civilian Bajoran prisoner, shouldn't the Provisional Government at least be involved in the "what are we doing" conversation with Sisko?

[the-last-dillpickle]

DS9 trivia from IMDB - Part 2

- After production ended, and the sets were dismantled, the Defiant bridge set was declared "fold and hold" and placed in storage. It was re-dressed and used as the bridge of an alien cargo ship and a Klingon battlecruiser on Star Trek: Voyager (1995) and the bridge of the ECS Fortunate on Star Trek: Enterprise

- When the Nielsen ratings started to go down during the broadcasting of the third season, the studio pressed for radical ideas for the fourth season to increase the show's popularity again. Some of their suggestions included blowing up planet Bajor, or taking the action away from the station. They finally decided that the show needed a popular character from an earlier Star Trek series. Initially, the producers weren't too pleased, because they had set up a subplot within the Dominion War storyline where the Federation would be facing off against the Klingons, and were already having difficulties making it work. However, the studio decision turned out to be a blessing in disguise when someone suggested to introduce The Next Generation's Worf (Michael Dorn) to the cast as an intermediate between the Federation and the Klingons, which conveniently solved most of the script problems.    

- The name "Deep Space Nine" originated from an early working title, and pre-dated the decision to set the series on a space station. Producers intended on coming up with a new title after the show was fully developed, but stayed with the name, feeling it had an intriguing quality to it.    

- Malcolm McDowell, who had been in Star Trek: Generations (1994), once said he'd like to appear on this show, but only if his nephew, Alexander Siddig (Dr. Bashir), would direct the episode. Such a chance was offered in season five, episode eighteen, "Business as Usual", but never materialized due to scheduling conflicts.    

- When Nana Visitor became pregnant, her condition was explained away in the show by having Kira become an emergency surrogate for Keiko O'Brien's baby. Astonishingly, Visitor was only absent for one episode (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Let He Who Is without Sin... (1996)) due to the birth of her son. She actually cut her maternity leave short, out of fear that a prolonged absence would cause the writers to significantly reduce her role in the rest of the series.  

- Marc Alaimo was nicknamed "The Neck" on-set for his naturally long neck, which inspired the look of the Cardassian neck ridges.    

- Despite being credited as a regular, Cirroc Lofton appeared in only eighty-five of the show's one hundred seventy-three episodes. Morn (Mark Allen Shepherd), the most frequent recurring character, appeared in ninety-two episodes. Curiously, Sheppard isn't credited with this total on DS9's cast listing.    

- Jadzia Dax was originally supposed to have a forehead appliance as the Trill were first shown in Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Host (1991), but after a test, most people thought that Terry Farrell's face was much too beautiful to be partially covered by or with prostheses. Instead, she got to have spots on the side. They were drawn on personally by Michael Westmore each day, a process which initially took over an hour, but over time, this eventually was reduced to close to forty minutes. Westmore actually "signed" his work by adding two spots in the shape of an M and a W. From then on, all Trills were shown to be like this, rather than the version shown on Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987).        

- Amongst the actors to read for the role of Captain Sisko were Carl Weathers and Eriq La Salle. James Earl Jones and Tony Todd were offered the role but declined. Todd (who appeared as Worf's brother Kurn on Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987)) made two appearances on this show; first as an elderly Jake Sisko in season four, episode three, "The Visitor", then as Kurn in season four, episode fifteen, "Sons of Mogh". He appeared in Star Trek: Voyager (1995) season four, episode sixteen, "Prey".    

- Alexander Siddig originally auditioned to play the part of Sisko. Rick Berman thought that Siddig was too young for the part, and felt him to be a better fit to play Bashir instead.    

[spocksocksrock]

ok I saw the reblog of your star trek books post about someone asking for recs someday, but I’m impatient and have decided I am not gonna wait and that I will send the recs ask MYSELF dammit!!

I feel like i’ve never gotten into the books because I’m worried they will be bad, so if you have any TOS/DS9 book recs I would LOVE to hear them — I have consumed all Star Trek content made up until this point and am so so desperate for new material

thank you SOOO much for asking i love any excuse to talk about st books!!! (though it is kinda funny cause that same person talking about recs did end up messaging me already lol)

for TOS i would say the best ones are:

Killing Time by Della Van Hise — famously gay and for good reason, it’s just blatantly romantic spirk content. it’s all about how they are meant to be together in every alternate universe and that they are soulmates <3

Spock’s World by Diane Duane — bones, kirk, and spock go to vulcan because the vulcans are considering leaving the federation. really great plot and super accessible characterization for the main three!

Vulcan’s Forge by Susan Shwartz — follows two plots- young spock figuring out that he wants to join star fleet, and older spock dealing with kirk’s death and trying to move on. it’s really not as sad as it sounds and it adds so much to spock’s character imo.

id honestly also recommend the novelizations of the movies, they definitely add a lot of new content

—

DS9 is harder cause i love soooo many of these but some of the best are:

Hollow Men by Una McCormack — kind of a sequel to the episode ‘in the pale moonlight’, garak and sisko go on a trip to earth to deal with dominion war stuff (and everyone else has shenanigans on the station)

The 34th Rule by Armin Shimerman — basically quark whump, him and rom are sort of kicked off the station and go to a prison camp and the rest of the characters have conflicting feelings about this (it’s a bit overdramatic at times but i love quark-centric stories so 🤷)

Fallen Heroes by Dafydd ab Hugh — this one is pretty crazy, quark and odo suddenly travel 3 days into the future and find the entire station is dead, like Everyone died, and they have to figure out what happened and fix it (i love quodo and there’s a scene where quark vacuums odo up, need i say more)

Saratoga by Michael jan Friedman — sisko is meeting with the other survivors from the ship jennifer died on. there’s sabotage, intrigue, betrayal and such and then the b plot is that odo has to pretend to be quark. so basically an average ds9 episode lol

there are definitely a lot more good ones but it depends on what characters you like and what kinds of stories you’re looking for ya know? please please message me if you want to talk ab it more!!!!

[sshbpodcast]

Character Spotlight: Kira Nerys

By Ames

We’re moving on in our character spotlight series from our favorite war criminal captain to one of the most well developed characters from the onset, Colonel Kira Nerys. From the moment we meet her in “Emissary,” we know exactly who Kira is, and the show wisely sends her on a complex journey within that grey area between terrorist and resistance fighter. Get you a Bajoran who can do both.

Ensign Ro may have set the mold for the Bajorans, but Kira grew outside of it and we’re so glad to get her perspective. So pick up your Bajoran phaser and get ready to take aim at some fascists as we celebrate A Star to Steer Her By’s favorite crinkly-nosed, red jumpsuit-clad militia officer in our Best and Worst Moments list below and on this week’s podcast (jump to 56:47). Walk with the Prophets, my child.

[Images © CBS/Paramount]

Best moments

What other show gives you a zombie space pope? There’s more going on for Kira in season one than for other characters because she really rocks it from the start. And Nana Visitor has the chops to give that special nuance to a character like this, especially in emotional scenes like her breakdown when she accidentally gets Kai Opaka killed in “Battle Lines,” and the moment she has with her reanimated corpse is nothing short of stunning.

If I leave here, I’ll die Speaking of great moments from season one, Kira makes the hard decision in “Progress” to save Mullibok’s life by ruining said life. Over the episode, she bonds with the obstinate Jeraddo farmer by helping him build his kiln only to destroy it in the end and set fire to his house to force him to relocate, and it’s clear it tears her up inside. Bajorans really never win.

Enough good people have already died. I won’t help kill another. But perhaps the best thing to come out of the season (and to some, the whole show overall) is her character arc in the stunning “Duet.” Kira spends so much of the show battling her Cardassian demons (figuratively and literally), that seeing her grow to accept that some individuals may be redeemable is captivating, heart-breaking, and truly impressive (and have we mentioned it’s only season one?).

A new meaning to being selfish We would be remiss if we didn’t include at least a mention of the excellent and mesmerizing performance Visitor gives as Intendant Kira in episodes like “Crossover.” Say what you will about the mirror universe (and we have), but Kira is a wonder to behold and the chemistry between her and herself is like lightning in a bottle. Zap!

Cardassians LOVE cosmetic surgery Speaking of mirrors, imagine waking up and the face looking back at you in the mirror is the thing you hate most. Kira’s relationship with Cardassians continues to evolve in the wondrous “Second Skin,” in which she bonds with her fake daddy Tekeny Ghemor, foils a Cardassian plot, and discovers a resistance cell within Central Command – her favorite!

I was playing a married woman This is one of those cute little Kira moments from the show that tickles us, but in “The Way of the Warrior,” it is just too hilarious that her response to being wooed by Lancelot (assumably while playing Guenivere) in the holodeck is to slug him. It’s so in character that we have to applaud it. Kira is always the first to choose violence, after all, though sometimes that can be a downside.

Major, tell me another story Kira spends the second half of “Starship Down” tending to a badly concussed Sisko, and working through character conflict. As I harped on in the Sisko post, Ben is double-fisting roles as both space station commander and Emissary to the Prophets, and that comes with deep significance to Bajorans like Kira, and this is her chance to talk to him about it. Love that for her!

The life you’re choosing isn’t for her There are a ton of great moments between Kira and Ziyal, from saving her life in “Indiscretion” to encouraging her painting in “Sons and Daughters,” but the one we’re highlighting comes from “Return to Grace.” Kira sees that Ziyal is on a dangerous path if she stays with her father, and the bond they’ve established makes her advocate she move to DS9. There’s truly no safe space for the girl, but Kira does all she can.

The baby just had a change of address Thank the Prophets the show didn’t introduce yet another baby when Nana Visitor got IRL pregnant. That’d be way too many babies, so it was rather ingenious to move the O’Brien baby over to Kira in “Body Parts.” And it also highlights just how like family this crew has become. Kira really takes one for the team by agreeing to incubate Kirayoshi for Keiko. Now if only their characters talked more…

I owed it to my father to get it right this time Yet another great character-development episode for Kira comes in “Ties of Blood and Water” when she learns that Tekeny Ghemor – her fake dad and one of our favorite Cardassians! – was up to some shady stuff in his past. And while this alters the relationship between the two of them, Kira again accepts how he’s changed since then to be with him as he dies.

Romulans gotta scheme! Come season seven, the Romulans have gotten added to the mix thanks to some nefarious doings by Sisko and Garak. And Kira is left to deal with their constant scheming. Typical Romulans! Throughout “Image in the Sand” and “Shadows and Symbols,” Kira stares down Senator Cretak in a huge game of galactic chicken, and Cretak blinks first.

Don’t drink the Kool-Aid Our final great Kira moment is also the last time she ever sees Dukat. In “Covenant,” he’s leading his own little pah-wraith cult, and when the going gets tough, the tough gets really Jonestown-y. Kira literally leaps in and stops the whole assembly from ritual suicide, revealing that Dukat had a placebo pill for himself and he’d had them all charmed. Stupid sexy Dukat.

—

Worst moments

Maybe the ends justify the means? One of Kira’s strengths is also frequently one of her biggest faults, and that’s how very wide her ethical grey area is. She’s able to justify doing lots of pretty messed up things, like a certain captain I could name, and we see this pretty early on in “Babel” when she intentionally infects Surmak Ren with aphasia disease and holds him hostage to find a cure. That’s pretty brutal.

Bajor is not Kentanna For most of “Sanctuary,” it’s rather nice watching Kira befriending Haneek and the other Skrrean refugees. Until they express interest in immigrating to Bajor, and then Kira’s NIMBY side really comes out. It’s not a good look, Kira, especially for someone whose people were in a very similar plight until very recently. And frankly, Bajor could use the laborers.

It’s like stepping on ants, Odo Because of that wide ethical grey area, we’ve noticed that Kira is almost always the first person to advocate just killing whatever the danger of the week is, no matter the consequences. In “Playing God,” an episode about killing Cardassian voles, she’s quick to jump to the option of killing the tiny proto-universe, even when Dax expresses she’s found sentient life in it. Yikes.

The people have chosen Winn We know from “Battle Lines,” mentioned earlier, that Kira has a super soft spot for Kai Opaka, and also probably feels guilty for trapping her on zombie planet a little. But it’s just a bad idea to let Bareil take the fall for some shady doings in “The Collaborator” because it sets up Winn for the win (wow, I didn’t even try to do that) in the big kai election, lest she sully Opaka’s name.

The distant memory of a touch It would be an understatement to say Kira’s taste in men isn’t great (and that’s not even including the fascist she ends up with!). The first of her various men is Bareil, who’s fine but boring as hell. Certainly not worth forcing Julian to keep him alive against all his medical ethics in “Life Support.” But Kira’s into the vedek, so we’re forced to watch her push his existence to the edge of morality and cringe at what he’s becoming.

Do you like me? Check yes or no. Lucky for us, Bareil is a thing of the past by season four (for now), opening up the opportunity for Kira to make more bad dating decisions. While Odo weeps, she sets her sights on Shakaar in “Crossfire” and viewers at home roll our eyes at how high school the whole ordeal is. Why have these resistance cell leaders downgraded to petty relationship drama? It’s beneath them.

Kira’s edgy artist phase We’ve said it myriad times before, but Bajor is a cultural disaster. When Akorem shows up in “Accession” and declares he’s making Bajor great again by reinstating their rigid caste system, it’s clear that Kira is uncomfortable but still refuses to oppose it. This is a Sisko episode, after all. Even though she can’t sculpt worth a damn, she goes along with the d’jarras like a sheep.

A little lower While Kira is surrogating the O’Brien baby, she and Miles randomly develop feelings for each other only because of their constant proximity in “Looking for par'Mach in All the Wrong Places.” That’s just gross and unnecessary. Nothing again Miles, but men and women are allowed to be friends without wanting to bone. Maybe it was the pregnancy hormones.

The phantom of Cardassia This one always bothered me. After several seasons of growth as a character, Kira seemed to have chilled out a little in her constant desire to murder Cardassians. So when “The Darkness and the Light” introduces a blast from the past whom Kira would otherwise have at least some empathy for, it strikes me as a character regression for her to fall back on thoughtlessly killing like she used to.

Same face, different universe Kira regesses again in “Resurrection” when a new Bareil is barking up her tree. Oh mirror universe, what have we done to deserve this? Sure, mirror Bareil is at least less bland than the original recipe, but who the hell is this Kira immediately falling for a boy in less than a day? That’s just not the character (that’s Jadzia, if anyone, whom we’ll discuss next week). Kira’d kick his ass.

That’s not what your mom said last night I may have given Sisko a little bit of guff for allowing this too, but I’ve got to give Kira even more. Whose first reaction when Dukat makes a yo mama joke in “Wrongs Darker than Death or Night” is to GO BACK IN TIME to check  on your mother’s sexual history??? What the hell, Kira??? Now the bigger debate is whether she should or shouldn’t have blown Dukat up. And fight.

Foul ball! Finally, I need to continue venting about “Take Me Out to the Holosuite.” Somehow, Ben held tryouts on a station full of beefy Bajorans, and still put Kira on his baseball team when she can’t even catch a ball. Kira plays springball in her spare time. She’s a resistance fighter. She was raised to have street smarts. How in the firecaves does she not know how to catch a freakin’ ball???

—

Praise be to the Prophets, that’s all! Keep your subspace communicator focused here for more character spotlights. We have someone who’s multiple characters in one next week when we discuss Dax! You can also go to warp five with us in our watchthrough of Enterprise over on SoundCloud or wherever you podcast, grab some hasperat with us on Facebook and Twitter, and maybe take up sculpting if it’s something you’re actually into.

[atopfourthwall]

Hasn't nearly every Star Trek production (except maybe Voyager for obvious reasons) had a uniform consistency issue? I vaguely recall one DS9 episode where everyone was wearing the grey uniforms except for one guy who looked he just stepped out of TNG.

That's mainly because Star Trek has never said ON SCREEN what its uniform policy is. The best guess we had when DS9 premiered was that space stations had a different uniform to those on starships (especially in light of Sisko going to earth and switching to a TNG uniform), but then Voyager threw that idea out, same as Generations continually switching between the two uniforms without explanation. And in the case of the episode you're referring to, they probably didn't have it in the budget yet to make admirals' uniforms for the First Contact uniforms (they would later), especially since they JUST spent all that money on the new uniforms for the entire main cast, which required fittings and backups and etc. The policy seems to be one of two things: -Uniform policy is set by whoever is in charge of the ship/outpost and most adhere to whatever is the adopted default uniform of Starfleet. They can decide what uniform design to use for their command. -New uniforms are given a test run in certain areas of Starfleet before mass adoption - there's going to be a new uniform standard but we're testing to make sure they work for interstellar relations/comfort/unforeseen problems with them.

[frecklenog]

He’s supposed to report to Commander Sisko’s office. To greet his new CO. To get his first assignment. To make a good impression.

Unfortunately, his parasympathetic nervous system seems to have other plans.

The shuttle ride to Deep Space Nine — once a Cardassian command outpost called Terok Nor, now owned by the Bajorans and operated in tandem with Starfleet ��� was largely uneventful, in most senses of the word. They weren’t attacked, no one was taken control of by a mysterious virus, and none of the systems malfunctioned. He had even made a friend on the journey.

At least, he thinks he did. But it’s hard to tell with his stomach roiling this much.

There isn’t much he can do for the feeling. It’s an autonomic response. Anxiety, stress, elevated cortisol, nausea. It’s not new. But it hasn’t been this bad since Captain Picard, Beverly, and Geordi were fighting for his right to seek asylum in a place where he could feel safe. It’s like he’s fifteen again, his head spinning with overwhelm and his digestive tract fighting anything not supplied by his nutrient synthesizer. Except now he eats regularly, and the feeling is crawling up his throat like an insect, making him gag.

His stress distracted him from downloading a map of the station, but miraculously, he manages to find a bathroom. He doesn’t realize which one he’s in until a humanoid woman (Trill, Starfleet science uniform, early thirties—) quietly opens the door and sits a little ways away from him.

“First day, huh?”

He lets out a shaky breath, gripping the rim of the toilet. “Y-yes, sir.”

“What’s your name?”

“Thir—” He stops himself. Shuts his eyes tight and shakes his head. Not Third of Five. He hasn’t been Third of Five for a long time. He spits chyme. “…Hugh.” Stars, his voice is small. “My name is Hugh.”

(Counselor Troi told him that was a more natural way to introduce himself than “I am Hugh.” He wants to sound natural. Human. Even though he isn’t; not really. Not fully. He never will be. He’ll never completely human, and to pretend otherwise is foolish, and he was wrong to come here and he never should have left the Enterprise and he misses Geordi and—)

“Oh, yeah. I heard you were gonna be transferring here. You’ve been working under Doctor Crusher, right? On the Enterprise?”

Hugh manages to look up, and she’s smiling at him so easily, like he was never part of anything horrible. Like he was never dangerous at all. Like he might not be still. Even with dark hair and spots down the sides of her face, she reminds him of Beverly. Even with pale skin and blue eyes, she reminds him of Geordi.

“…Yes.”

“I’m Jadzia Dax.” She offers him her hand. He shakes it, all too aware of the fact that his biosynthetic hand doesn’t sweat, but is almost always clammy. “It’s nice to meet you, Hugh.”

He manages a little smile, even though he’s still shaking. “It’s nice to meet you too, Jadzia Dax.”

[youngpettyqueen]

I havent been live-blogging my reading as much lately due to not having nearly as much time to read these days, but the other night I finished reading The Big Game! thoughts under the cut

it was a fun little romp of a book. one of those ones where most characters get a chance to shine, with A plots and B plots wildly differing, and I had a great time reading it. the poker game murder plot was a lot of fun, classic whodunnit vibes, and a fun team up with Quark and Odo. Julian being so eager about poker was very fun and silly, and Garak being a poker shark?? obsessed. I have to say my favourite part was Odo being a poker champion against his will and using it to immediately fuck over Quark. his hater energy stays unmatched

the B plot with the Espiritu and the Ghost Riders was really cool. it felt somewhat disjointed from the poker game plot, with such high stakes going on separately and demanding equal attention, but I think that Sandy Schofield did a pretty good job of juggling both. the way Schofield introduced and described this other phase of reality in the two dimensional was REALLY cool, such a neat concept with a lot of fascinating potential. that two dimensional plane is something I wish we could get more of in the series, I feel like you could do a lot of cool stuff with that concept. I think the Ghost Riders were a bit under-utilized due to not having a lot of time to go into them, they were set up to be a lot more of a threat than they ultimately turned out to be, I wish we could've had more from them and their whole deal with the Espiritu, who were also very cool

the stars of this book for me were Odo, Kira, and Sisko. Odo's story through the poker game was equal parts fascinating on a character level, but also just fucking hilarious. he's so MAD about being good at this game, and having to work with Quark, but he also low-key enjoys the thrill of gambling, its all so fun. Kira's story with the Espiritu, her rage at what's being done to them, and her short time in that second dimensional plane was such a treat to read. my heart broke for her when she accidentally killed one. and man, Sisko truly never gets a break in these books, but this was such a high pressure high stakes situation that his chapters had me on edge. the threat of war hanging over his head, the station trying to break into pieces, murder on the station... and all the while he's worrying about Jake. Schofield does great work with him and how he handles everything being thrown at him, barely keeping his head above water. great character work all around

overall this is a fun book to read for a silly fun time! it doesnt take itself super seriously, and I like that about it. its just a good ol' time and it knows it! if youre looking for something easy to read with a lot of POVs, I would highly recommend this one <3

[croc-odette]

One of the first conversations Sisko has with the Prophets is about non-linear perception; why would anyone want to experience time in linear progression, ignorant of what happens next? Sisko explains the benefit of linear perception through a baseball game– the game is only enjoyable if one is constantly wondering what will happen next.

SISKO: With each new consequence, the game begins to take shape.

PROPHETS: And you have no idea what that shape is until it is completed.

SISKO: That’s right. In fact, the game wouldn’t be worth playing if we knew what was going to happen.

The Prophets are associated with religion, faith, and non-Federation culture; aspects of Star Trek that were either taboo in the writer’s room or in need of ‘correction’ from Starfleet and its futuristic scientists. The Prophets raise a question for the viewer; is non-linear thinking also in conflict with Star Trek’s usual commitment to science and rationality?

-

Star Trek as a whole is both linear and non-linear. In linear fashion, it is a show about the future where technology has advanced humanity to the point that we can explore space, create matter out of energy, teleport, and meet extra-terrestrials. In non-linear fashion, episode premises are often about how familiar problems such as prejudice, war, sickness, and violence reoccur in the future despite the progress of technology and social causes. The show was originally set in an idealistic 2260s, but written to look constantly behind its shoulder at the current problems of the 1960s in the United States. The original series’ politics could be radical at the time it aired; but in non-linear back-and-forth fashion, a show written in the 1960s, set in the 2260s, and still watched in the 2020s reveals outdated and blatantly offensive tropes. At the same time,  newer shows written in a post-War-on-Terror United States can feel more conservative than their predecessors. The quality or messaging of the franchise cannot be argued as a linear progression, but is itself a messy and changing reflection of the writers, the show’s subjective goals, and the political atmospheres it’s both created and viewed in. If the franchise (or the audience) was truly linear, then the older series (30-60 years old) would have no meaning or purpose to today’s viewers, and would have been discarded in favor of more recent series. Instead, new generations consistently still find relevance in older series.

-

Star Trek, especially TNG, tends to suggest advancement in technology as an obvious replacement for religion. The simplified linear idea is that a society begins with religion and ends at the ideal state of pure science. The Federation and Starfleet must be good, because they are our main characters, and therefore their exploration and desire to expand their purely scientific culture (linear) must be presented as a logical good.

DS9 challenges this concept not only by investing two of its main characters in Bajoran religion, but by overwhelmingly revealing the horror and tragedy still present in Federation societies with access to advanced technology. The Dominion War (much like the conflict with the Borg) kills tens of millions of people and seems hopeless. The scientifically advanced Federation still employs torture, assassination, forgery, and biological warfare in attempts to win it. Earth, a peaceful and insulated paradise, becomes wracked with paranoia when one Founder infiltrates. Bajor and the space station Deep Space Nine represent a gruesome history of colonization, occupation, and post-occupation, regardless of the occupying force’s technological capacity. The Federation, Bajor, and the Cardassian empire view each other in a barely held together truce with distrust, hatred, and disdain. Even when the Federation sends aid to Bajor, the limits of technology become more visible than they often are on Starfleet flagships. Machines for revitalizing polluted soil are fought over, and homes and land have to be obliterated for mining and energy. The space station itself was built by Bajoran slave labor and during the occupation was used as a dangerous ore processing facility. The toll of technological advancement becomes apparent in a way that Star Trek usually dodges; what does it take to build a space station? Who builds it, and under what conditions? Where does the material come from? Whose home is destroyed in order to get it? Who gets access to this technology? Who profits? If technology has to invent solutions to problems it created with past ‘solutions’ (see: the combustible engine leading to global warming), then has it created an objectively linear progression or a snake racing after its own tail? Is technology objectively advancing humanity if it still creates a massive imbalance of suffering and resource depletion where we choose not to see it?

The alternate simplified linear thinking is, well, okay then, religion is good and technology is bad. However, DS9 also critiques Bajoran religion rather than presenting it as an absolute good. Rather than bashing it for daring to exist at all, it pays attention to moments of corruption, fundamentalism, and power grabs. And technology in DS9, typically medicine, saves people and makes life in general easier. In an early episode called “Paradise,” Sisko and O’Brien crash on a planet where a previously stranded group of people have formed a cult without Starfleet technology. Later, it’s revealed that their leader had manipulated them into crashing, in order to forcibly deprive them of technology and shape them according to her own interest in ‘the ancient religions’; conveniently, she is at the top of their strict power structure. Rather than dismissing religion entirely, Sisko only coldly tells her “Perhaps one day you’ll even feel the hand of God on your shoulder.” The conflict is less about her shallow claims of technology versus religion, and more about her clear desire for punitive and total control over other people.

Both religion and technology are ancient aspects of human life, and cannot be simplified down to opposing or competing ends of a spectrum. Even for a non-religious society or individual, our interest in what’s mysterious or unfathomable about our world gives us humility, comfort, and curiosity; staring at stars or listening to music is not a ‘rational’ exercise that requires explanation in order to feel good. Modern humans evolved with a focused capacity on making and using tools, and the ability to teach and learn between generations, helping us survive and develop art and culture. Perceiving either our interest in the unknown or in science as the only ‘true’ way forward to a better life– however that may be defined– leaves little room for critique of either, and corrupt and exploitative power structures can grow without question. The idea that a single tool forward, a clear linear path, must be decided upon and committed to entirely– whether it’s to a futuristic utopia or existential salvation– tries to dodge the harder questions of personal choice, human behavior, and quests for control that often create the reoccuring problems in Star Trek no matter the time period.

-

Sisko understands non-linear perception of time more personally than other Star Trek characters we’ve seen. He’s studied history, specifically flashpoints of Earth. He’s deeply aware of the racism that would have prevented him from enjoying a 1960s Las Vegas casino. His grief over his wife’s death is what helps him understand the non-linear time of the Prophets, just as his love of baseball helps them understand linear time. He starts off doubtful and clinical towards the Bajoran religion and his posting near the planet, and by the end of the series is sincerely committed to Bajor.

In an episode that focuses on Sisko’s identity as an African American and a Bajoran religious figure, he experiences a past life as a scifi writer in the mid-20th century United States on Earth. The episode explicitly raises non-linear thinking through Sisko’s questioning of whether he imagines the writer or the writer imagines him, and we as the audience watch a man from the distant future see himself as a man from our recent past. Racism, rather than being masked through genre allegory as prejudice against aliens, elves, or mutants, is undisguised racism– the episode deliberately draws the parallel and then removes it again when Sisko imagines racist cops as Cardassians for several seconds. A non-linear problem in Star Trek is it originated as a show interested in civil rights and social progress, and over time became so bogged down in convention and metaphor that fans openly and unironically raged at the idea (both for DS9 and Discovery) of a Black captain and perceived ‘political correctness’. The episode points to the linear through-line of scifi, when Sisko’s past self asserts that even though his story about a Black astronaut will not be published, the fact the idea existed at all proves it could one day happen. The events that lead from Benny Russell’s story to Benjamin Sisko’s existence, however, are hardly a straight line. Sisko’s actor, Avery Brooks, experienced racism on the set of the show, both from showrunners and lot guards who racially profiled him when he would drive in to the parking lot. Even in Star Trek’s stated premise of a future where prejudice on Earth has disappeared, the franchise itself has been plagued with overt racism, sexism, and homophobia. Sisko’s character, despite existing in a show that is supposedly post-racism, shows the way progress does not move forward in a neat line, but often double-backs and pulls constantly from both the past experience and knowledge of the oppressed, and from the past prejudice and control of the oppressor.

-

In the episode “Explorers,” Sisko’s fascination with history, Bajor, engineering, and being Jake’s dad overlap. He researches and builds a traditional 16th century Bajoran spaceship that ‘sails’ on solar energy. If Sisko wanted to warp across the galaxy or replicate a model of the ship, he easily could. However, the ship for him serves as a pleasurable hobby, a way to bond with his son, and a deliberate retreading of the past and the experience of the people who lived it. The Cardassian empire (which often justifies its occupation of the Bajorans by claiming them to be technologically inferior, overly spiritual, militantly unambitious, and further behind in the Cardassian empire’s ‘linear’ understanding of a civilization’s progress and therefore right to exist) turn their nose up at the ship and its capabilities. By the end of the series, the Cardassian home planet’s reward for its commitment to technology, nationalism, and imperialism is revealed; even before the planet is brutalized by Dominion forces, it is a hollowed out, deeply polluted, and barely livable core of an empire starving for external resources to continue feeding its survival and ‘linear’ expansion. To the Cardassian empire, linear growth of capitalism, the military, and imperial reach was the perfect goal– it ends inevitably with mass casualties of its own population and major divisions. The survivors of the former empire, rather than start over and regrow into the same plant so it can hit the same brick wall, have to stop and simultaneously consider their propagandized history, devastated present, and uncertain future. The only way to actually progress and break the cycle is by questioning what their society considers progress to begin with; unstable imperial domination or sustainable peace?

-

A scientific example of forcing non-linear science in a linear box is evolution. Evolution is sometimes falsely believed to be a process which will result ultimately in a superior, perfectly adapted species; a belief that at its most harmless is used to stroke our own egos as ‘the apex predator’ and at worst used to justify eugenics. However, evolution is a non-conscious process that simply creates and recreates species that can fill whatever niches exist in the moment. A species perfectly adapted to flight in dense jungles will fail completely if placed at the bottom of the ocean. A species adapted to both will waste bodily form and function on trying to check every box, and likely be edged out by more specific competitors. There is no end goal, only a series of events happening constantly, shaping, and reshaping, sometimes retreading genetic history for a pair of legs or a life in the water again, sometimes building up to something that does well until it doesn’t, from the largest whales to the smallest bacteria.

A more poetic way to think about all of it is Ursula K. Leguin’s quote, from the relevantly titled sci-fi novel, The Lathe of Heaven; “Love doesn't just sit there, like a stone, it has to be made, like bread; re-made all the time, made new.”

Faith, technology, even the DNA of every species cannot be seen as arrows reaching a specific target, that once reached, will prevent all past problems forever onward. The argument is not that progress can never be meaningfully achieved, and neither is the argument that progress once reached will remain concrete and fixed. The argument is that any effort, making bread or a tv show or a better world, has to be constantly made, remade, pushed, held, and examined. When a modern problem arises in Star Trek, it is because the conscious effort necessary to solve that problem has grown stale or become forgotten. Characters solve their problems, with the help of technology, and in DS9 with the help of faith, but mostly with the will to confront the issue, to work collectively, to use intelligence and compassion, to bear what cannot be easily solved, and to understand the past’s continued relevance in the present and the future. Even as we perceive time in a linear fashion, and we hope to leave the world better than we found it in whatever way we can, we need non-linear understanding to consistently weave and mend our own places within history. In Star Trek, both Earth and the Cardassian Empire have similar technological advancements– but Earth only achieved warp-travel and replication technology after undergoing World War 3 and being forced to solve its social and ethical crises. Technological advancements in both societies veered into rapidly different results based on the differing cultures, and even then, future Earth risks settling into a fragile state of content ignorance rather than permanent utopia. DS9 implies that Earth’s progress depends on its capacity for maintained social self-awareness rather than technology. We need non-linear understanding to keep from kidding ourselves that we’ve permanently ‘solved’ some great problem of life, either through smaller phones or psuedo-spiritual epiphanies, and no longer need to worry about mistakes from the past. We need non-linear understanding to recognize when a step forward really has happened, and to make sure we remember that step has to “be remade all the time, made new.”

-

In the first episode, we watch Sisko calmly and rationally explain to the Prophets our reality; that we live from one moment to the next, and use our past experiences to inform our decisions in the present about our future. The Prophets start to understand, but they distrust linear life for what they perceive as aggression, adversarial behavior, and lack of responsibility. We watch a capable Starfleet officer and an intelligent human being explain the most intrinsic and inevitable part of our lives; that we can only move forward in linear time. 

However, it is only once Sisko breaks down after repeatedly bringing himself to the death of his wife Jennifer, that the Prophets tell Sisko he exists in that moment and trust him. Beings moving through linear time do not do so carelessly; Sisko begs that he does not want to be at the moment of Jennifer’s death, that he wants to leave it behind; but he can’t. The moment existed, and will always exist for him. Sisko, crying, admits that “it’s not linear.”

[leohtttbriar]

waits, inexhaustible, the universe

Written for trektober: Day 26 artificial gravity

They had left Lenara behind—being neither Starfleet, nor a medical or engineering expert, nor even a simple solider, she was left behind often.

The counselor, the little brave thing who had recently taken on a symbiont through a series of unfortunate emergency circumstances, appeared very determined as she boarded the Defiant, an optimistic sort of sturdy to pair with Doctor Bashir’s energetic care. Both people and their expertise were needed for the worn-down and bloodied garrison ringing out for help. Lenara, the wormhole consultant, was ordered to stay by the wormhole. 

Jadzia had wrapped a long arm around Lenara’s waist as she departed, kissing her hairline and then her mouth, grinning in her horrific, impish way that never settled Lenara’s fears before Jadzia went into danger. 

“We’ll be back before you know it,” Jadzia had said. 

“Oh, well, in that case,” said Lenara. “I won’t worry at all.”

And Jadzia had laughed as she left the circle of Lenara’s arms. 

Lenara thought of that laugh now, as she hit the switch for the improvised console to initiate turning the artificial gravity back “on.” Between her and Miles, they’d managed to make the console as complicated as possible, messing with the specific “gravity” of the station—so complicated that it was a miracle they’d not accidentally ripped the station in half while attempting to fight off far more of the Jem’Hadar than any one Deep Space outpost should be called upon to do, even one on the very front line of the war. Still, the Jem’Hadar had been ousted, only one ship able to dock on the shifting reality that was the station, and now Lenara, exhausted and bruised, could effectively restore the “natural” artificial order of things before the real heroes returned. 

She landed on the grating floor loudly and ungracefully, but who could blame her. 

Miles found her in minutes, with one of his phasers still brandishing about, bleeding a little from his temple. 

“When I find out how they cloaked themselves like that,” he said, not for the first time, as he helped her undue their field transportable gravity machine. “I’m going to blast every one of them out of they sky with a Death Star.”

“A what?” asked Lenara. 

“Christ, but I’m pissed,” Miles went on. “Where the hell was our intelligence?”

Lenara wiped her fingers free of the goo from the electrical tape and then pushed her hair off her forehead. “Evidently, inadequately engaged.”

By the time the crew of the Defiant had returned, looking weary and unhappy and entirely not prepared for dealing with whatever chaos had occurred in their absence, neither Lenara nor Miles had had much time to clean up beyond restoring the artificial gravity and ensuring regular environmental systems were functional. The security officers who’d taken the brunt of the action were summarily sent to bed so Sisko and co. had the pleasure of greeting the very sweaty and greasy and annoyed Lenara and Miles who were sitting in Ops and trying to figure out how the particle scanners were so flummoxed by the new Jem’Hadar ship design. 

“What on Earth…” said Sisko, looking around at the various detritus and also at their dirty, tired faces. Kira, Ezri, Bashir, and Nog all seemed to echo to this sentiment. 

Jadzia whistled, impressed. Which, of course, made Lenara's heart flutter.

Before Lenara could properly express her bone-breaking relief that Jadzia was alive and apparently well enough to ironically comment, even by mere sound effect, on something clearly serious, a new idea occurred to her about the more pressing issue.

“They’ve linked with the ship!” she gasped at Miles. “The Changelings have embedded themselves in the ships!”

Miles frowned. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

Lenara frowned back. “No, I suppose you’re right.” She thought. Then, “No, wait, you're not. it does make sense. The Klingon cloaking worked by throwing off any and all scanners for any and all EM radiation. These worked by gravitational warp—subspace”—

“Oh, like the Houdini mines,” said Jadzia, with yet more irony.

“Sure!” said Lenara. “I don’t know what those are but”—

“How do Changeling’s affect gravity?” asked Miles. 

“The Link,” said Lenara, grinning. “They all have a certain location, even when they’re not at that location. Pretty strange quantum qualities, altogether.”

“So some of the Changeling’s are posing as ships for the Jem’Hadar?” mused Miles. “That’s not a great development.”

The pursuant conversations and debriefs moved fairly quickly for Lenara, who was riding a small high (and a lingering surge of adrenaline) at discovering yet another instance of extreme gravitational phenomenon being directly affected by a species of conscious life, and so it took her utterly and nastily by surprise when, hours later, in what was supposed to be the peace of their quarters, Jadzia had taken off her shirt to reveal a level of unholy bruising and injury that Lenara, as a rule, found unacceptable. 

“What happened?” she asked, running her fingers over the edges of the bruises around Jadzia’s ribs. 

Jadzia shrugged. “Thrown into a wall a couple times.”

Lenara considered this. Imagined it. Lost the ability to think.

She dropped to her knees and wrapped her arms firmly around Jadzia’s hips, burrowing her face into the softness of Jadzia’s bare middle. The terror of the day had caught up to her, a bit later than usual, but now very much present. She needed to stay in this exact position for approximately a week before she could dare face another. 

She hadn’t realized this is what her life would be like after saving the life of a war hero and subsequently abandoning the stability that had so prevented her happiness years before. Everyday she was reminded of the war, everyday she woke to up a terror, everyday was filled with a range of emotions that required a complete reorienting of self that she hadn’t needed to perform since she was Joined. Memories of war from past lives did nothing to prepare her for saying goodbye to Jadzia, fearing for her life, and then seeing her again, changed but not dead. Lenara had recently added more slow-burn food-types to her meals in order to properly manage her quotidian experience, such was the energy she was using to go from desperate fear to depraved relief in so short a duration of time.

This day, at least, she had been called upon for a more expansive focus than the normal monitoring of the space station and wormhole. Regardless, she needed to press her face into Jadzia’s soft darkness and remember that Jadzia did, in fact, still exist and, thus, there was yet hope for it all. 

Jadzia bent over her, brushing her fingers through the oily strands of Lenara’s hair, and holding Lenara close as she came down. 

“It all happens so fast,” she said into Jadzia’s belly. “Everything. It's so quick.”

There was a beat in which Lenara could feel the hitch in Jadzia’s breath through the skin of her face. Jadzia, typically, preferred to fall apart once a day by crying silently into a pillow and pretending Lenara couldn't hear and that she couldn't feel her petting her back. Something must have changed in Jadzia for her to start crying when the lights were still on. 

“I’m sorry you’re here,” said Jadzia, her voice breaking. “I’ve just realized—I’m sorry you’re here.”

Lenara squeezed her arms around Jadzia tighter. This would not do. 

“I’m not sorry, don’t you dare,” she said immediately. “It’s moving fast but this…” She swallowed, nuzzling into Jadzia. “Someday, it’ll move slow.”

Jadzia’s hands continued to stroke Lenara’s head, shoulders, and neck. She said, trying for a bit of humor, “We just need some good old fashioned time dilation.”

“I can do it,” said Lenara. “Expand the gravitational force on everyone else, except us.”

Jadzia laughed wetly. “We’ll go to the beach.”

“Yes, I’ll swim and you can collect slimy creatures to adopt.”

“It will be slow,” whispered Jadzia. “One day.”

Lenara allowed herself one more moment of peace before extricating from Jadzia and saying, “Let’s go to sickbay—you look like you’ve been thrown into a wall.”

[ectogeo-art]

Trick or treat!

(for this ask game)

Lol, thanks for sending this on anon because I didn't want to curse anyone I actually knew with my weird siskarak bullshit but since this is anon I can safely send you a fic about my most beloved cursed rarepair, mwahahaha! <3 Anyway, here's a very rough draft (written today lol, def subject to change) of the start of a Way of the Warrior siskarak fic (working title "A New Suit"):

Just as he finished trying yet again to sell Morn on the concept of Vitarian wool undergarments, Garak’s communicator buzzed against his chest indicating an incoming call. He didn’t get many comms besides his dear Doctor inviting him to lunch (or letting him know he’d be late for the same), but they’d already eaten together today so this was quite unusual. He allowed the call through.

“Mr. Garak,” said Sisko’s voice, “I'd like to see you in the wardroom immediately. Bring your tailor's kit.”

He raised his eyeridges intrigued. Did that mean what he thought it meant? Was Sisko finally taking him up on that offer he’d made a few years ago?

After a stunned moment, he acknowledged the request and closed the line.

His blood pounded in eager anticipation as he gathered his tools from his workbench and packed them into a small case. Measuring tape, pins, chalk, sonic stitcher… He also tucked a few condoms into one of the pockets on the inside.

He locked up his shop and walked down the Promenade towards the turbolift that would take him to the command level, maintaining his usual gait despite wanting to rush to this encounter. The choice of location clearly indicated that Sisko wanted discretion. They couldn’t meet in his office without Garak walking conspicuously through Ops, they couldn’t meet in either of their quarters without it being obvious exactly what they were up to, but the wardroom had multiple routes that could be taken to get to it. Warmth coiled between his legs. He had to admit, he quite liked the idea of being Sisko’s dirty little secret. 

The turbolift whirred. He wondered if Sisko would take him on the table, or up against a wall. Or perhaps in the window, on vulgar display to the stars (and any passing freighter crews who happened to look). 

He stepped into the hall. He felt like he was on the brink of everting already. It had been quite awhile since his last bit of… company. Quark had been the first to hear the rumors of Terok Nor being about to fall under Federation control and, in a low moment, Garak had duly rewarded him for passing along this valuable information. But the experience hadn’t been one either of them was willing to repeat, so he’d stuck to doling out more conventional rewards for information since. And as for enjoyable company… well, that had been longer ago still. 

Garak had never quite been able to give up hope that his dear Doctor would one day let things progress past flirting and take him to bed (and then, ideally, rail him so hard that he’d forget how cold and lonely his existence was, for a moment). But, aside from the incomparable Julian Bashir, Sisko certainly had to be one of the most physically attractive residents of the station. 

Sisko was, of course, just as hopelessly brainwashed by his Federation values as dear Julian, but he certainly didn’t seem to hesitate when it was necessary to momentarily route around such values in order to work towards a future outcome that was more in line with them. Garak found his pragmatism quite refreshing. 

Not to mention that there had always been something compelling to him about power and commands… If Sisko ordered him down on his knees, he would surely drop to them instantly with little regard for the sorry state of his ever stiffening joints. Just look at how embarrassingly fast he’d come running when he’d called.

The tip of his thorn slipped out unbidden. He squeezed his thighs together to keep himself from everting fully. It was a mercy that he hadn’t encountered anyone in the corridors. He was rounding the last corner now…

He entered the wardroom and froze. 

He realized quickly that either his assumption about the nature of this meeting had been incorrect, or Sisko had planned something much kinkier than he’d expected. It wasn’t just Sisko in here, it was nearly the entire senior staff—though no Julian, thankfully. Sisko stood in the center of one part of the room, with all of the others either seated or standing around him. If there was one good thing about this, it was that any of the concerns from a moment ago about everting too early had vanished, as he now felt more confused than aroused. 

When Dax finished rattling off some kind of statistics about fleet movements, Garak spoke up, and everyone turned toward him.

“Excuse me. I hope I'm not interrupting,” he said, hoping for some explanation before he embarrassed himself.

“I'd like to be measured for a new suit.” Sisko said it very seriously, but there seemed to be laughter buried inside of it. The edges of his eyes were crinkled from the slightest of smiles.

Moreover, his words felt like some kind of code, but Garak wasn’t sure for what. What made it all feel even more ambiguous was that when Garak had overtly propositioned Sisko during the Natima Lang business, he’d specifically couched it in terms of fitting him for a suit. Just like Sisko was now asking him for. 

Garak licked his lips. “Now?”

“Right now,” Sisko said. Where Garak was uncertain, he was definitive.

[the-oracle-of-the-lost]

Star Trek as game 17 and 25!

thanks for the ask :3 from this game

17. Favourite fashion look? 👙

answered here and here!

25. What's your unpopular opinion/hot take? 🐈

i think a lot of my unpopular opinions aren't that unpopular on tumblr at least but

1) the Maquis were right actually (or at least had good points that should have been listened to by Starfleet & dealt more seriously by the narrative).

2) i think this is a product of tumblr being big on ds9 but i see a lot of people saying that the ds9 crew are the closest/most family like crew and i... kind of disagree with this. i love the characters, i love the dynamics, but compared to voyager, discovery, lower decks, or tng – i don't think the ds9 characters are as close as the others by the end of the series. and that's good! it's part of the design of the show that the narrative is often focused on politics, religion, worldbuilding, etc and less on specific character dynamics. and some characters are very close (i.e. Dax & Sisko, Bashir & O'Brien, Odo & Kira, etc) and those relationships are great! but a lot of the relationships are much more casual and colleague-like than other Star Trek shows. (as opposed to Voyager for instance which often neglects those bigger narratives & lacks lasting secondary characters but there's a very strong focus on the crew being a family. or even TNG which often emphasizes the crew hanging out and being very friendly with each other.) and again – this isn't bad. i think characters still being adversarial by the later seasons creates interesting drama and tension which parallels the plot developments & is a good contrast to other shows but i just don't buy the fanon portrayal of the station that much.

3) i think all Star Trek shows are good actually. they're all flawed in different ways, some more than others, but they're all fundamentally good shows that i enjoy watching & think have compelling characters.