Post by magicmuggle01 on Feb 9, 2019 12:14:20 GMT
When holographic mobsters assume control of Vic Fontaine's lounge, Bashir, O'Brien, and others plot to run Vic's rival out of business and restore the program to normal.
Summary
Carl Zeemo and two of his goons
While in Vic Fontaine's holosuite club, Miles O'Brien and Julian Bashir try to convince Vic to join them in their Alamo program. Vic declines, and instead offers to sing a tune to get them into a "Texas state of mind." In the middle of Vic's Alamo rendition, however, there is a flash in the program and he is suddenly booed off the stage, as a new, raunchy act emerges from behind the curtain, stealing Vic's show. Confused and in a state of disbelief, Vic gets shuffled by the crowd; when the crowd parts, he is confronted by Frankie Eyes, a gangster with an axe to grind against Vic. Frankie abruptly informs Vic that he has recently purchased the hotel, casino, and lounge. Vic, who is no longer welcome in the club, is being replaced with a new act.
O'Brien requests that the computer remove the two new, offending characters from the program, but nothing happens. So he tries to freeze the entire holosuite program, again to no avail. Frankie is accompanied by a thug, Tony Cicci, who begins to get physical with Vic, as Frankie demands Vic leave the premises. To defuse the situation, Vic agrees to leave peacefully, while Frankie checks out his new casino. Bashir and O'Brien discuss how to fix the errant program, and one solution is to completely reset it but this would also reset Vic and wipe out his memory. They agree to find another, less destructive way to save their holographic friend.
Act One
Back in Ops, the crew members debate the true value of a holodeck "friend," with Worf arguing that Vic is merely a hologram, and should be treated as such, even if he is a talented entertainer. O'Brien, Nog, and Kira all argue that Vic is "more than just a program." Bashir soon learns that the new adversarial holosuite character has been implanted purposely by Felix, the designer of the program, as a jack-in-the-box, a character buried very deeply within the program storyline designed to shake things up (in order to keep Bashir's interest), and not easily removed. Felix warns Bashir that the jack-in-the-box is also period-specific, meaning that it must be beaten with 1962 means and methods. In other words, Frankie would need to be shot with a period weapon and not a phaser. However simply killing the gangster is not an option as the mob could retaliate against Vic, and if Vic were to die his pattern would be wiped from the simulation. Captain Benjamin Sisko emerges from his office and asks what everyone is talking about. The crew explain what's happened to Vic, but are surprised when Sisko isn't interested and orders them all back to work. Nog promises his help, since Vic's counsel helped him deal with losing his leg and saved his career. Kira also promises her support, as well as Odo's, since they both owe Vic for his help in finally bringing them together.
Later, Sisko and Kasidy are enjoying a quiet, romantic dinner, when Kasidy broaches the subject of Vic's dilemma. Sisko is surprised to find Kasidy coming to Vic's defense insisting that Vic is more friend than program, and asks her to change the subject. Kasidy asks Ben why he's never been to Vic's, but he isn't willing to discuss the issue, and Kasidy decides to drop it. Back on the holosuite, O'Brien and Bashir go to room 107, Vic's room in the hotel, only to find Vic beaten and bruised, and still shaky on his feet.
Act Two
With three bruised ribs and a sprained wrist, Vic explains how he was roughed up as a warning message to speed his departure. Frankie is a childhood rival from Vic's youth, whom Vic used to beat mercilessly in street stickball, playing as children. O'Brien and Bashir promise Vic they will hatch a plan to end the jack-in-the-box threat.
Kira and Odo begin infiltrating the revamped casino and club, now crawling with gangster clientèle; Vic's band has been replaced by a number of sultry, burlesque dancers and blues musicians. Odo, enchanted by the action on-stage, befriends Cicci and the other gangsters at the bar. Kira, meanwhile, is approached by Frankie, who takes an obvious interest in her. Kira accompanies Frankie to the roulette table to distract him, while Odo endears himself to Cicci by effortlessly stretching his changeling arm, in what appears to be the best bar trick ever concocted. In this way, Odo learns from the henchmen that Frankie is merely a pawn of Carl Zeemo, a big-time gangster who is behind the purchase of the hotel.
Back in Vic's hotel room, the gang (which now includes Kasidy and Ezri Dax) begins planning the fall of Frankie Eyes. Vic explains how Frankie's business works by him paying "skim" money to the big boss every month – so the simplest, most effective way to get rid of the gangster is to steal the casino's holdings, and deny Zeemo his payoff.
Act Three
The main stash of mob money is locked in a safe in the casino countroom, guarded by two countmen and a guard.
The gang begins reconnoitering the casino to develop a plan: Frankie shows Kira to the countroom, where large amounts of cash are accumulated and stored in the safe. Kasidy, playing her part as a casino gambler, continually tries to strike up a conversation with the countroom guard, distracting him from his duties. Odo introduces Ezri as someone new in town, whereby Cicci immediately hires her as a cocktail waitress. Vic appears on the casino floor, pleading with Cicci to allow him to see Frankie. Frankie, accompanied by the cool-acting Kira, rebuffs Vic's advances rather insultingly, and leads Kira toward the poker table.
Sisko is upset that Kasidy and the majority of his senior staff are involved in the caper, calling the entire affair "nonsense". Kasidy defends their actions as friends helping out friends in need, and Ben tells her that his discomfort has nothing to do with the fact that Vic Fontaine is a hologram. When pressed, Sisko further explains that he feels uncomfortable with the setting (Las Vegas 1962), because the racial strife of the era meant that people of color were never allowed to be customers at a place like Vic's lounge. Kasidy responds by explaining that Vic's program is not designed to contain any of the racial tensions of 1960s United States of America and neither she or Jake have ever felt uncomfortable there. Ben tells her that's the lie... the 1960s were a hard time for people of color (a life, as Benny Russell, he personally experienced (DS9: "Far Beyond the Stars")) with the civil rights movement still in the early stages and he doesn't want to pretend that it wasn't. Kasidy defends this and tells Sisko that she believes they can act out how things could, and should, have been, almost in a Utopian-type environment, where one's only limitations are "the ones we impose on ourselves." This has a noticeable effect on the Captain.
In the hotel room, the characters realize that in order to pull off their plan, they need another person helping. With Worf and Quark most likely unwilling to help, the gang begin to worry until, to their surprise, Sisko enters the room promising his support, having been swayed by Kasidy's argument.
Act Four
In Vic's room, the "crew" go over their plan once more:
1) Kira keeps Frankie preoccupied; while he is busy flirting with her, he will become oblivious to what happens on the casino floor — and therefore, the countroom;
2) Vic and Sisko (in the guise of "high-rollers") will attract a lot of attention at the gaming tables (and therefore draw attention away from the countroom) by throwing around a wad of cash;
3) At precisely 11:45 pm, one of the countmen (Al) leaves the room to phone his mother, and is gone for exactly eight minutes, while the other countman (Howard) has a martini brought in. Ezri (as the cocktail waitress) delivers a drink to Bashir (sitting at poker table three), who, with some sleight-of-hand while tipping her, slips a few drops of ipecac into the martini meant for Howard. Ezri then delivers the drink tray with the martini on it to the countroom.
4) Once Ezri leaves the countroom, Kasidy runs up to the guard outside the countroom and tells him O'Brien stole her chips. O'Brien plays innocent, and together they create enough of a disturbance to keep the guard away from the door for at least two minutes.
5) As soon as Howard takes a sip of his martini, the ipecac will case violent nausea, and Howard will come flying out of the countroom "at warp speed"; with Yates and O'Brien keeping the guard distracted, Nog enters the now-empty countroom, dressed as a maintenance worker. Using his superior Ferengi hearing, Nog will crack the safe.
6) As soon as Nog opens the safe, the drink tray Ezri left on the table will shape-shift back into Odo, morphing part of himself into a suitcase. While Odo transfers the contents of the safe to the suitcase, Nog removes his maintenance uniform to reveal a security guard uniform.
7) Finally, Nog and Odo will then carry the million dollars out of the casino, (taking care not to draw attention to themselves) and dump the cash into the garbage cans outside.
Without the money, Frankie has no skim money to pay Zeemo his cut, and everything will return to normal.
The entire caper should take, by Sisko's estimate, eight minutes; Bashir unabashedly predicts it will take only five. They will need to carry out their plan the following night, as Frankie's big boss Zeemo will arrive the night after to collect his skim money. The crew spend their remaining time practicing their various grifts to cut their execution time down to minimum.
The following night, all decked out in 1960s period attire, the eight participants march through the Promenade into a half-empty Quark's into Vic's, turning many an eye in the joint. Quark, who has traditionally viewed Vic as competition, and has never gotten close, remarks, "I'm telling you, Morn... something's going on at Vic's that we don't know about."
Sisko's crew walk towards the
holosuite
Their plan underway, Kira enters to distract Frankie. Julian orders his vodka martini (stirred, not shaken) from Ezri. Vic encourages Benjamin to loosen up the purse-strings, so as to appear the part of high-roller; he reluctantly increases his wager from $100 to $2,000. Kira lures Frankie into a private table in the restaurant, away from the action.
When a rogue customer accidentally spills Ezri's drink tray, Julian saves the moment by grabbing another drink, tainting it, and handing it to Ezri for delivery. Their plans take another turn for the worse when the regular countman is not there, replaced by an acerbic, insulting man. After a brief repartee, Ezri manages to trick the new countman into gulping down the drink, while Sisko and Vic do their thing at the tables. Yates and O'Brien easily distract the guard (perhaps too easily, as O'Brien will soon discover), so Nog slips into the countroom when the countman scrambles to the restroom.
Nog, who was unprepared to find the safe employing an auto-relock tumbler, has a much more difficult time opening lock. In the meantime, all the other participants stretch out their parts, so as to give Nog more time. With Kira slowly nursing her drink, Frankie is surprised to have a guest... the big Mr. Zeemo himself, arriving in town a day early to collect his money — the very money Nog and Odo are trying desperately to get their hands onto in the countroom. Kira, stalling for time, exclaims what an honor it is to meet him, to which Mr. Zeemo replies matter-of-factly, "I know." Nog, still struggling with the safe, is informed by Odo that they've expended their allotted eight minutes.
Act Five
Bashir, folding a winning full house hand, walks away from the poker tables to intercept the second countman, re-routing him away from the countroom. Vic causes a scene by pretending familiarity with Mr. Zeemo's escort, a young blond beauty, only to be escorted away himself by Cicci. As a last resort, Sisko begins throwing money around – literally. He casts handfuls of cash into the air here and there, causing a sensation (and quite a disruption) on the casino floor.
In the countroom, Nog finally unlocks the door to the safe. Odo begins putting the safe's million dollars into his "briefcase" of an arm, while outside O'Brien, carrying on the act for too long, gets arrested for stealing. Leading O'Brien away to a holding cell, the guard is instructed to perform a strip search on the poor chief. Yates pretends to break down, to keep the other guard's head turned at the last minute, while Odo and Nog flee the countroom, making their escape. Their flight takes them, with the money, past Mr. Zeemo, astounded at seeing all the money floating around the casino floor.
Sisko sings
It is a different story in the countroom, however, as there is no money in the safe, much to the shock of Frankie. Not being able to produce the cash, and appearing to have squandered the money like confetti on the casino floor, Frankie is escorted out drearily, past the burlesque show, past the blues band, and right past the co-conspirators, neatly lined up at the bar in order:
Bashir, the drink-doctorer,
Nog, the safecracker,
Dax, the cocktail waitress,
Odo, the bag-man,
Kira, the decoy,
Sisko, the high-roller,
Yates, the victim,
and, of course, Vic.
(O'Brien, the falsely-accused patsy, is not present as he is being strip-searched)
As Frankie is led through the curtains, presumably to meet his doom, the ambiance in Vic's lounge immediately returns to how it was before the Jack-in-the-Box upset everything. Vic offers a glass of the bubbly to each of his co-conspirators (each of his friends) when suddenly O'Brien appears, putting his jacket (and, presumably, clothes) back on after his encounter with the guards. Vic agrees to accompany O'Brien and Bashir on their Alamo program any time they desire – "coonskin cap and all". Vic and Sisko conclude the adventure by together crooning the duet "The Best Is Yet to Come" to the delight of all.
Memorable quotes
"Maybe there's a pointer fault in the holosuite's parameter file."
- O'Brien, attempting to explain the sudden changes in Vic's
"What's a hollosweets?"
- Cicci, trying to understand O'Brien's technobabble
"We cannot ignore the truth about the past."
"Going to Vic's won't make us forget who we are or where we came from. It reminds us that we are no longer bound by any limitations. Except the ones we impose on ourselves."
- Sisko and Kasidy, on historical accuracy
"Miles... You thinking what I'm thinking?"
"That depends on what you're thinking."
- Bashir and O'Brien
"Mr. Zeemo, it's an honor to meet you."
"I know."
- Kira and Zeemo
"Robbing casinos isn't part of any Starfleet job description I've ever read."
- O'Brien
"So, where are you from again?"
"Bajor."
"That's in Jersey, right?"
"Right."
- Tony Cicci and Odo
"If you guys screw up, I'm the one who gets buried in the desert."
- Vic Fontaine
"You call this a cheesesteak? I wouldn't feed this to my parole officer."
- Tony Cicci
"Once he takes a sip of his drink, Howard will come flying out that count room at warp speed."
- Bashir
"I'm telling you Morn, something going on in Vic's that we don't know about."
- Quark, as both he and Morn watch the station staff along with Kasidy Yates walk by
"Vodka martini. Stirred, not shaken."
- Bashir, a play on the favored drink of James Bond (who took his drink "shaken, not stirred")
"Now, that's more like it."
- Vic, after his Holosuite resets back to normal
"Uh-oh...!"
"What do you mean, uh-oh? We don't have time for uh-oh!"
- Nog and Odo, after the former discovers opening the safe will take longer than expected
"Where have you been?"
"I don't want to talk about it."
- Bashir and O'Brien, after the latter returns from possibly being strip-searched
Summary
Carl Zeemo and two of his goons
While in Vic Fontaine's holosuite club, Miles O'Brien and Julian Bashir try to convince Vic to join them in their Alamo program. Vic declines, and instead offers to sing a tune to get them into a "Texas state of mind." In the middle of Vic's Alamo rendition, however, there is a flash in the program and he is suddenly booed off the stage, as a new, raunchy act emerges from behind the curtain, stealing Vic's show. Confused and in a state of disbelief, Vic gets shuffled by the crowd; when the crowd parts, he is confronted by Frankie Eyes, a gangster with an axe to grind against Vic. Frankie abruptly informs Vic that he has recently purchased the hotel, casino, and lounge. Vic, who is no longer welcome in the club, is being replaced with a new act.
O'Brien requests that the computer remove the two new, offending characters from the program, but nothing happens. So he tries to freeze the entire holosuite program, again to no avail. Frankie is accompanied by a thug, Tony Cicci, who begins to get physical with Vic, as Frankie demands Vic leave the premises. To defuse the situation, Vic agrees to leave peacefully, while Frankie checks out his new casino. Bashir and O'Brien discuss how to fix the errant program, and one solution is to completely reset it but this would also reset Vic and wipe out his memory. They agree to find another, less destructive way to save their holographic friend.
Act One
Back in Ops, the crew members debate the true value of a holodeck "friend," with Worf arguing that Vic is merely a hologram, and should be treated as such, even if he is a talented entertainer. O'Brien, Nog, and Kira all argue that Vic is "more than just a program." Bashir soon learns that the new adversarial holosuite character has been implanted purposely by Felix, the designer of the program, as a jack-in-the-box, a character buried very deeply within the program storyline designed to shake things up (in order to keep Bashir's interest), and not easily removed. Felix warns Bashir that the jack-in-the-box is also period-specific, meaning that it must be beaten with 1962 means and methods. In other words, Frankie would need to be shot with a period weapon and not a phaser. However simply killing the gangster is not an option as the mob could retaliate against Vic, and if Vic were to die his pattern would be wiped from the simulation. Captain Benjamin Sisko emerges from his office and asks what everyone is talking about. The crew explain what's happened to Vic, but are surprised when Sisko isn't interested and orders them all back to work. Nog promises his help, since Vic's counsel helped him deal with losing his leg and saved his career. Kira also promises her support, as well as Odo's, since they both owe Vic for his help in finally bringing them together.
Later, Sisko and Kasidy are enjoying a quiet, romantic dinner, when Kasidy broaches the subject of Vic's dilemma. Sisko is surprised to find Kasidy coming to Vic's defense insisting that Vic is more friend than program, and asks her to change the subject. Kasidy asks Ben why he's never been to Vic's, but he isn't willing to discuss the issue, and Kasidy decides to drop it. Back on the holosuite, O'Brien and Bashir go to room 107, Vic's room in the hotel, only to find Vic beaten and bruised, and still shaky on his feet.
Act Two
With three bruised ribs and a sprained wrist, Vic explains how he was roughed up as a warning message to speed his departure. Frankie is a childhood rival from Vic's youth, whom Vic used to beat mercilessly in street stickball, playing as children. O'Brien and Bashir promise Vic they will hatch a plan to end the jack-in-the-box threat.
Kira and Odo begin infiltrating the revamped casino and club, now crawling with gangster clientèle; Vic's band has been replaced by a number of sultry, burlesque dancers and blues musicians. Odo, enchanted by the action on-stage, befriends Cicci and the other gangsters at the bar. Kira, meanwhile, is approached by Frankie, who takes an obvious interest in her. Kira accompanies Frankie to the roulette table to distract him, while Odo endears himself to Cicci by effortlessly stretching his changeling arm, in what appears to be the best bar trick ever concocted. In this way, Odo learns from the henchmen that Frankie is merely a pawn of Carl Zeemo, a big-time gangster who is behind the purchase of the hotel.
Back in Vic's hotel room, the gang (which now includes Kasidy and Ezri Dax) begins planning the fall of Frankie Eyes. Vic explains how Frankie's business works by him paying "skim" money to the big boss every month – so the simplest, most effective way to get rid of the gangster is to steal the casino's holdings, and deny Zeemo his payoff.
Act Three
The main stash of mob money is locked in a safe in the casino countroom, guarded by two countmen and a guard.
The gang begins reconnoitering the casino to develop a plan: Frankie shows Kira to the countroom, where large amounts of cash are accumulated and stored in the safe. Kasidy, playing her part as a casino gambler, continually tries to strike up a conversation with the countroom guard, distracting him from his duties. Odo introduces Ezri as someone new in town, whereby Cicci immediately hires her as a cocktail waitress. Vic appears on the casino floor, pleading with Cicci to allow him to see Frankie. Frankie, accompanied by the cool-acting Kira, rebuffs Vic's advances rather insultingly, and leads Kira toward the poker table.
Sisko is upset that Kasidy and the majority of his senior staff are involved in the caper, calling the entire affair "nonsense". Kasidy defends their actions as friends helping out friends in need, and Ben tells her that his discomfort has nothing to do with the fact that Vic Fontaine is a hologram. When pressed, Sisko further explains that he feels uncomfortable with the setting (Las Vegas 1962), because the racial strife of the era meant that people of color were never allowed to be customers at a place like Vic's lounge. Kasidy responds by explaining that Vic's program is not designed to contain any of the racial tensions of 1960s United States of America and neither she or Jake have ever felt uncomfortable there. Ben tells her that's the lie... the 1960s were a hard time for people of color (a life, as Benny Russell, he personally experienced (DS9: "Far Beyond the Stars")) with the civil rights movement still in the early stages and he doesn't want to pretend that it wasn't. Kasidy defends this and tells Sisko that she believes they can act out how things could, and should, have been, almost in a Utopian-type environment, where one's only limitations are "the ones we impose on ourselves." This has a noticeable effect on the Captain.
In the hotel room, the characters realize that in order to pull off their plan, they need another person helping. With Worf and Quark most likely unwilling to help, the gang begin to worry until, to their surprise, Sisko enters the room promising his support, having been swayed by Kasidy's argument.
Act Four
In Vic's room, the "crew" go over their plan once more:
1) Kira keeps Frankie preoccupied; while he is busy flirting with her, he will become oblivious to what happens on the casino floor — and therefore, the countroom;
2) Vic and Sisko (in the guise of "high-rollers") will attract a lot of attention at the gaming tables (and therefore draw attention away from the countroom) by throwing around a wad of cash;
3) At precisely 11:45 pm, one of the countmen (Al) leaves the room to phone his mother, and is gone for exactly eight minutes, while the other countman (Howard) has a martini brought in. Ezri (as the cocktail waitress) delivers a drink to Bashir (sitting at poker table three), who, with some sleight-of-hand while tipping her, slips a few drops of ipecac into the martini meant for Howard. Ezri then delivers the drink tray with the martini on it to the countroom.
4) Once Ezri leaves the countroom, Kasidy runs up to the guard outside the countroom and tells him O'Brien stole her chips. O'Brien plays innocent, and together they create enough of a disturbance to keep the guard away from the door for at least two minutes.
5) As soon as Howard takes a sip of his martini, the ipecac will case violent nausea, and Howard will come flying out of the countroom "at warp speed"; with Yates and O'Brien keeping the guard distracted, Nog enters the now-empty countroom, dressed as a maintenance worker. Using his superior Ferengi hearing, Nog will crack the safe.
6) As soon as Nog opens the safe, the drink tray Ezri left on the table will shape-shift back into Odo, morphing part of himself into a suitcase. While Odo transfers the contents of the safe to the suitcase, Nog removes his maintenance uniform to reveal a security guard uniform.
7) Finally, Nog and Odo will then carry the million dollars out of the casino, (taking care not to draw attention to themselves) and dump the cash into the garbage cans outside.
Without the money, Frankie has no skim money to pay Zeemo his cut, and everything will return to normal.
The entire caper should take, by Sisko's estimate, eight minutes; Bashir unabashedly predicts it will take only five. They will need to carry out their plan the following night, as Frankie's big boss Zeemo will arrive the night after to collect his skim money. The crew spend their remaining time practicing their various grifts to cut their execution time down to minimum.
The following night, all decked out in 1960s period attire, the eight participants march through the Promenade into a half-empty Quark's into Vic's, turning many an eye in the joint. Quark, who has traditionally viewed Vic as competition, and has never gotten close, remarks, "I'm telling you, Morn... something's going on at Vic's that we don't know about."
Sisko's crew walk towards the
holosuite
Their plan underway, Kira enters to distract Frankie. Julian orders his vodka martini (stirred, not shaken) from Ezri. Vic encourages Benjamin to loosen up the purse-strings, so as to appear the part of high-roller; he reluctantly increases his wager from $100 to $2,000. Kira lures Frankie into a private table in the restaurant, away from the action.
When a rogue customer accidentally spills Ezri's drink tray, Julian saves the moment by grabbing another drink, tainting it, and handing it to Ezri for delivery. Their plans take another turn for the worse when the regular countman is not there, replaced by an acerbic, insulting man. After a brief repartee, Ezri manages to trick the new countman into gulping down the drink, while Sisko and Vic do their thing at the tables. Yates and O'Brien easily distract the guard (perhaps too easily, as O'Brien will soon discover), so Nog slips into the countroom when the countman scrambles to the restroom.
Nog, who was unprepared to find the safe employing an auto-relock tumbler, has a much more difficult time opening lock. In the meantime, all the other participants stretch out their parts, so as to give Nog more time. With Kira slowly nursing her drink, Frankie is surprised to have a guest... the big Mr. Zeemo himself, arriving in town a day early to collect his money — the very money Nog and Odo are trying desperately to get their hands onto in the countroom. Kira, stalling for time, exclaims what an honor it is to meet him, to which Mr. Zeemo replies matter-of-factly, "I know." Nog, still struggling with the safe, is informed by Odo that they've expended their allotted eight minutes.
Act Five
Bashir, folding a winning full house hand, walks away from the poker tables to intercept the second countman, re-routing him away from the countroom. Vic causes a scene by pretending familiarity with Mr. Zeemo's escort, a young blond beauty, only to be escorted away himself by Cicci. As a last resort, Sisko begins throwing money around – literally. He casts handfuls of cash into the air here and there, causing a sensation (and quite a disruption) on the casino floor.
In the countroom, Nog finally unlocks the door to the safe. Odo begins putting the safe's million dollars into his "briefcase" of an arm, while outside O'Brien, carrying on the act for too long, gets arrested for stealing. Leading O'Brien away to a holding cell, the guard is instructed to perform a strip search on the poor chief. Yates pretends to break down, to keep the other guard's head turned at the last minute, while Odo and Nog flee the countroom, making their escape. Their flight takes them, with the money, past Mr. Zeemo, astounded at seeing all the money floating around the casino floor.
Sisko sings
It is a different story in the countroom, however, as there is no money in the safe, much to the shock of Frankie. Not being able to produce the cash, and appearing to have squandered the money like confetti on the casino floor, Frankie is escorted out drearily, past the burlesque show, past the blues band, and right past the co-conspirators, neatly lined up at the bar in order:
Bashir, the drink-doctorer,
Nog, the safecracker,
Dax, the cocktail waitress,
Odo, the bag-man,
Kira, the decoy,
Sisko, the high-roller,
Yates, the victim,
and, of course, Vic.
(O'Brien, the falsely-accused patsy, is not present as he is being strip-searched)
As Frankie is led through the curtains, presumably to meet his doom, the ambiance in Vic's lounge immediately returns to how it was before the Jack-in-the-Box upset everything. Vic offers a glass of the bubbly to each of his co-conspirators (each of his friends) when suddenly O'Brien appears, putting his jacket (and, presumably, clothes) back on after his encounter with the guards. Vic agrees to accompany O'Brien and Bashir on their Alamo program any time they desire – "coonskin cap and all". Vic and Sisko conclude the adventure by together crooning the duet "The Best Is Yet to Come" to the delight of all.
Memorable quotes
"Maybe there's a pointer fault in the holosuite's parameter file."
- O'Brien, attempting to explain the sudden changes in Vic's
"What's a hollosweets?"
- Cicci, trying to understand O'Brien's technobabble
"We cannot ignore the truth about the past."
"Going to Vic's won't make us forget who we are or where we came from. It reminds us that we are no longer bound by any limitations. Except the ones we impose on ourselves."
- Sisko and Kasidy, on historical accuracy
"Miles... You thinking what I'm thinking?"
"That depends on what you're thinking."
- Bashir and O'Brien
"Mr. Zeemo, it's an honor to meet you."
"I know."
- Kira and Zeemo
"Robbing casinos isn't part of any Starfleet job description I've ever read."
- O'Brien
"So, where are you from again?"
"Bajor."
"That's in Jersey, right?"
"Right."
- Tony Cicci and Odo
"If you guys screw up, I'm the one who gets buried in the desert."
- Vic Fontaine
"You call this a cheesesteak? I wouldn't feed this to my parole officer."
- Tony Cicci
"Once he takes a sip of his drink, Howard will come flying out that count room at warp speed."
- Bashir
"I'm telling you Morn, something going on in Vic's that we don't know about."
- Quark, as both he and Morn watch the station staff along with Kasidy Yates walk by
"Vodka martini. Stirred, not shaken."
- Bashir, a play on the favored drink of James Bond (who took his drink "shaken, not stirred")
"Now, that's more like it."
- Vic, after his Holosuite resets back to normal
"Uh-oh...!"
"What do you mean, uh-oh? We don't have time for uh-oh!"
- Nog and Odo, after the former discovers opening the safe will take longer than expected
"Where have you been?"
"I don't want to talk about it."
- Bashir and O'Brien, after the latter returns from possibly being strip-searched
