Post by magicmuggle01 on Mar 16, 2019 11:40:32 GMT
Scavenging an abandoned Cardassian space station identical to DS9 for equipment, O'Brien's team discovers that the station may not be completely abandoned.
Summary
Kira, Dax, and Worf enter Quark's to find it strangely empty – and the reason soon becomes apparent. No one is able to hear themselves think over the horrible noise resulting from Chief O'Brien and Nog doing some conduit repairs. The repairs are heavy and O'Brien soon realizes that he will need an entirely new plasma distribution manifold. Unfortunately, the manifolds are of Cardassian manufacture and cannot be replicated. A team is assembled to scavenge manifolds from the abandoned station of Empok Nor, which is identical in design to Deep Space 9. Because it is standard for Cardassians to plant booby traps whenever they abandon an area, Sisko recruits an outside resource to join the mission as the minesweeper: Elim Garak. The rest of the crew comprises O'Brien, Nog and four other Starfleet crewmembers: Pechetti, Boq'ta, Stolzoff, and Amaro.
Act One
Garak arriving at Empok Nor
In the runabout traveling to the station, Nog and Garak play the Cardassian board-game Kotra. Garak scolds Nog for playing too defensively, he explains that this is an un-Cardassian style, and that the game is about bold maneuvers and sweeping attacks. While en route to the station, Garak brings up O'Brien's past as a soldier in the Federation-Cardassian War, which O'Brien is hesitant to discuss. They soon arrive at Empok Nor. After Garak disarms the airlock booby trap and restores emergency power to the station, O'Brien quickly dispatches his teams for the salvage operation. Nevertheless, tension slowly begins to build when two Cardassians left on the abandoned station wake up in their stasis tubes as emergency power is restored.
A little while after, Garak and Boq'ta find the stasis tubes in the infirmary – two are empty, and one contains the skeleton of a Cardassian who died approximately one year before. The stasis tubes are partly filled with an unknown blue biogenic substance. Boq'ta picks up a regimental badge, which Garak quickly recognizes as the Third Battalion of the First Order. He then alarms the crewman that the other tubes have opened recently.
Regarding the discovery, Garak contacts the O'Brien team to have him come to the infirmary. Nog goes back to the runabout to get a tool, however, he instead witnesses it from the airlock, adrift in space and then exploding.
Act Two
The group concludes that the former occupants of the cells are loose on the station with unfriendly intentions. When a dampening field hindering subspace communication is suddenly activated, they understand that their new priority is to contact DS9 for evacuation. It is decided to use the deflector grid to send a series of covariant pulses. For efficiency, they split again into three teams. The first team, composed of Stolzoff and Pechetti, is ordered to the habitat ring to bring the microfusion generator back online. Boq'ta and Amaro are to realign the magnetic flow field, and O'Brien will activate a signal generator in cargo bay 4 with Garak and Nog.
In the cargo bay, Garak suspects something else is going on, for the lengths the Cardassians went to for an abandoned station don't make sense to him. As he and O'Brien talk, however, Nog sneaks around on guard, and doesn't see the Cardassian in the shadows. He's ready to make a move on Nog when O'Brien calls him back. Meanwhile, Pechetti and Stolzoff are working on the Promenade when they hear a door close upstairs. The turbolift descends, and they get ready when the doors open, but no one is there. Soon, though, they're distracted and killed. When O'Brien arrives on the death scene, he realizes they had the time to do a pretty complete job.
Act Three
O'Brien needs to finish Pechetti's job and then get back to the cargo bay. He orders Boq'ta and Amaro to reconfigure the pulse generator in Auxiliary Control. Boq'ta is reluctant to split up, so O'Brien convinces him by having Garak go with him. Garak, however, announces he intends to go after the Cardassians. O'Brien agrees, since he seems confidant, and stands Amaro down from holding his rifle on Garak. Garak strangely prods O'Brien a bit more about being a soldier, insisting on inviting the "hero of Setlik III" (O'Brien) to join his fight. O'Brien sends him off.
Garak, at a computer terminal, finds he cannot access it. He senses someone close, and keeps pretending to access it. Hiding in the broken stasis chamber, he succeeds in disabling a Cardassian, though he oddly says to himself it felt good. After running an analysis on the body, he learns that the soldier had been given a massive dose of a psychotropic drug. Garak opines that it appears to be a failed experiment to enhance Cardassians' xenophobic tendencies, turning already-fanatical soldiers into unstable killing machines. He informs O'Brien of his discovery, but his strange behavior causes O'Brien to observe that Garak doesn't have the face of a tailor anymore. Garak leaves to go after the other Cardassian.
Garak goes on with his task and finds the other Cardassian stalking Boq'ta and Amaro, but is unable to prevent the death of Boq'ta when Amaro's back is turned. Amaro sees Garak kill him and is relieved, however, Garak finally loses control and succumbs to the effects of the psychotropic drug. Garak stabs Amaro with a flux coupler.
Act Four
O'Brien finishes his task and tries to contact the others, but gets no response. He finds Amaro just in time for him to say Garak killed him. Nog gets nervous as O'Brien immediately goes on guard. He realizes Garak is under the influence of the drug. Since Garak knows their objective of contacting DS9, O'Brien doesn't see a choice other than going after him, killing him if that's what it takes.
Insane, Garak turns his attention towards the only other remaining members of the salvage party: O'Brien and Nog. He comes across a Kotra board in the station commander's office and, also finding a communicator, signals for O'Brien. He reflects over to O'Brien on the relevance of Kotra's aggressive play style to their current predicament. A cat-and-mouse (or Kotra) game follows. O'Brien sneaks into the commander's office while Nog enters Ops. However, O'Brien is soon trapped in the office and Garak jumps on Nog, grabbing the phaser and capturing him. He tells O'Brien he'll have to come get Nog from him.
Act Five
O'Brien tries to find a way out of the office, but then the door opens, allowing him into Ops. Garak taunts him over the communicator, excited by the "game" while O'Brien tries to reason with him. Garak continues to push O'Brien on his experience on Setlik III, saying he enjoyed killing Cardassians and wants to recapture that feeling. O'Brien finally proposes a hand-to-hand duel, and Garak readily agrees.
O'Brien makes his way through the Promenade, finding his crew's bodies hanging from the second level. He soon finds Garak holding Nog with a rifle, and they both disarm in a tense situation. O'Brien also puts down his tricorder. They begin fighting, and Garak is winning and taunting him. Garak is partly blinded by the drug, but the Chief incapacitates him using a simple trap (a tricorder-phaser bomb). He finds it did not kill him.
Later, in the infirmary on DS9, Garak's system is purged of the drug. Garak expresses extreme regret for his actions and asks O'Brien to personally apologize on his behalf to Amaro's wife. O'Brien agrees, then says that there will have to be an inquest, but O'Brien will make sure that the board knows Garak wasn't responsible for his actions.
Memorable quotes
"Welcome to Empok Nor."
"Thanks for having us…'"
"Take whatever you need… my house is your house."
- Garak and O'Brien
"He asked me to get a coil spanner for him, I just turned my back for a second."
"That's a shame. And the worst part of it is, this isn't a coil spanner." (stabs Amaro) "It's a flux coupler."
- Amaro and Garak
"Looking for me? Oh, that felt - good."
- Garak after killing a Cardassian soldier
"Asking a Ferengi to play a Cardassian game is like asking a Klingon to chew with his mouth closed."
- Garak playing Kotra with Nog
"You look different. That's not the face of a tailor."
"I'm not a tailor. Not for the moment anyway."
- O'Brien and Garak
"Maybe it's true. Maybe you're not a soldier anymore."
"You're right. I'm an engineer."
- Garak and O'Brien right before O'Brien remote detonates his tricorder-phaser bomb
"Julian tells me the blast broke a couple of your ribs."
"Well, it could have been worse. If I'd been any closer to that phaser, it would have killed me."
"Well, don't take this the wrong way, but…that was the plan."
"I understand."
- O'Brien and Garak discussing the aftermath of the bomb.
Summary
Kira, Dax, and Worf enter Quark's to find it strangely empty – and the reason soon becomes apparent. No one is able to hear themselves think over the horrible noise resulting from Chief O'Brien and Nog doing some conduit repairs. The repairs are heavy and O'Brien soon realizes that he will need an entirely new plasma distribution manifold. Unfortunately, the manifolds are of Cardassian manufacture and cannot be replicated. A team is assembled to scavenge manifolds from the abandoned station of Empok Nor, which is identical in design to Deep Space 9. Because it is standard for Cardassians to plant booby traps whenever they abandon an area, Sisko recruits an outside resource to join the mission as the minesweeper: Elim Garak. The rest of the crew comprises O'Brien, Nog and four other Starfleet crewmembers: Pechetti, Boq'ta, Stolzoff, and Amaro.
Act One
Garak arriving at Empok Nor
In the runabout traveling to the station, Nog and Garak play the Cardassian board-game Kotra. Garak scolds Nog for playing too defensively, he explains that this is an un-Cardassian style, and that the game is about bold maneuvers and sweeping attacks. While en route to the station, Garak brings up O'Brien's past as a soldier in the Federation-Cardassian War, which O'Brien is hesitant to discuss. They soon arrive at Empok Nor. After Garak disarms the airlock booby trap and restores emergency power to the station, O'Brien quickly dispatches his teams for the salvage operation. Nevertheless, tension slowly begins to build when two Cardassians left on the abandoned station wake up in their stasis tubes as emergency power is restored.
A little while after, Garak and Boq'ta find the stasis tubes in the infirmary – two are empty, and one contains the skeleton of a Cardassian who died approximately one year before. The stasis tubes are partly filled with an unknown blue biogenic substance. Boq'ta picks up a regimental badge, which Garak quickly recognizes as the Third Battalion of the First Order. He then alarms the crewman that the other tubes have opened recently.
Regarding the discovery, Garak contacts the O'Brien team to have him come to the infirmary. Nog goes back to the runabout to get a tool, however, he instead witnesses it from the airlock, adrift in space and then exploding.
Act Two
The group concludes that the former occupants of the cells are loose on the station with unfriendly intentions. When a dampening field hindering subspace communication is suddenly activated, they understand that their new priority is to contact DS9 for evacuation. It is decided to use the deflector grid to send a series of covariant pulses. For efficiency, they split again into three teams. The first team, composed of Stolzoff and Pechetti, is ordered to the habitat ring to bring the microfusion generator back online. Boq'ta and Amaro are to realign the magnetic flow field, and O'Brien will activate a signal generator in cargo bay 4 with Garak and Nog.
In the cargo bay, Garak suspects something else is going on, for the lengths the Cardassians went to for an abandoned station don't make sense to him. As he and O'Brien talk, however, Nog sneaks around on guard, and doesn't see the Cardassian in the shadows. He's ready to make a move on Nog when O'Brien calls him back. Meanwhile, Pechetti and Stolzoff are working on the Promenade when they hear a door close upstairs. The turbolift descends, and they get ready when the doors open, but no one is there. Soon, though, they're distracted and killed. When O'Brien arrives on the death scene, he realizes they had the time to do a pretty complete job.
Act Three
O'Brien needs to finish Pechetti's job and then get back to the cargo bay. He orders Boq'ta and Amaro to reconfigure the pulse generator in Auxiliary Control. Boq'ta is reluctant to split up, so O'Brien convinces him by having Garak go with him. Garak, however, announces he intends to go after the Cardassians. O'Brien agrees, since he seems confidant, and stands Amaro down from holding his rifle on Garak. Garak strangely prods O'Brien a bit more about being a soldier, insisting on inviting the "hero of Setlik III" (O'Brien) to join his fight. O'Brien sends him off.
Garak, at a computer terminal, finds he cannot access it. He senses someone close, and keeps pretending to access it. Hiding in the broken stasis chamber, he succeeds in disabling a Cardassian, though he oddly says to himself it felt good. After running an analysis on the body, he learns that the soldier had been given a massive dose of a psychotropic drug. Garak opines that it appears to be a failed experiment to enhance Cardassians' xenophobic tendencies, turning already-fanatical soldiers into unstable killing machines. He informs O'Brien of his discovery, but his strange behavior causes O'Brien to observe that Garak doesn't have the face of a tailor anymore. Garak leaves to go after the other Cardassian.
Garak goes on with his task and finds the other Cardassian stalking Boq'ta and Amaro, but is unable to prevent the death of Boq'ta when Amaro's back is turned. Amaro sees Garak kill him and is relieved, however, Garak finally loses control and succumbs to the effects of the psychotropic drug. Garak stabs Amaro with a flux coupler.
Act Four
O'Brien finishes his task and tries to contact the others, but gets no response. He finds Amaro just in time for him to say Garak killed him. Nog gets nervous as O'Brien immediately goes on guard. He realizes Garak is under the influence of the drug. Since Garak knows their objective of contacting DS9, O'Brien doesn't see a choice other than going after him, killing him if that's what it takes.
Insane, Garak turns his attention towards the only other remaining members of the salvage party: O'Brien and Nog. He comes across a Kotra board in the station commander's office and, also finding a communicator, signals for O'Brien. He reflects over to O'Brien on the relevance of Kotra's aggressive play style to their current predicament. A cat-and-mouse (or Kotra) game follows. O'Brien sneaks into the commander's office while Nog enters Ops. However, O'Brien is soon trapped in the office and Garak jumps on Nog, grabbing the phaser and capturing him. He tells O'Brien he'll have to come get Nog from him.
Act Five
O'Brien tries to find a way out of the office, but then the door opens, allowing him into Ops. Garak taunts him over the communicator, excited by the "game" while O'Brien tries to reason with him. Garak continues to push O'Brien on his experience on Setlik III, saying he enjoyed killing Cardassians and wants to recapture that feeling. O'Brien finally proposes a hand-to-hand duel, and Garak readily agrees.
O'Brien makes his way through the Promenade, finding his crew's bodies hanging from the second level. He soon finds Garak holding Nog with a rifle, and they both disarm in a tense situation. O'Brien also puts down his tricorder. They begin fighting, and Garak is winning and taunting him. Garak is partly blinded by the drug, but the Chief incapacitates him using a simple trap (a tricorder-phaser bomb). He finds it did not kill him.
Later, in the infirmary on DS9, Garak's system is purged of the drug. Garak expresses extreme regret for his actions and asks O'Brien to personally apologize on his behalf to Amaro's wife. O'Brien agrees, then says that there will have to be an inquest, but O'Brien will make sure that the board knows Garak wasn't responsible for his actions.
Memorable quotes
"Welcome to Empok Nor."
"Thanks for having us…'"
"Take whatever you need… my house is your house."
- Garak and O'Brien
"He asked me to get a coil spanner for him, I just turned my back for a second."
"That's a shame. And the worst part of it is, this isn't a coil spanner." (stabs Amaro) "It's a flux coupler."
- Amaro and Garak
"Looking for me? Oh, that felt - good."
- Garak after killing a Cardassian soldier
"Asking a Ferengi to play a Cardassian game is like asking a Klingon to chew with his mouth closed."
- Garak playing Kotra with Nog
"You look different. That's not the face of a tailor."
"I'm not a tailor. Not for the moment anyway."
- O'Brien and Garak
"Maybe it's true. Maybe you're not a soldier anymore."
"You're right. I'm an engineer."
- Garak and O'Brien right before O'Brien remote detonates his tricorder-phaser bomb
"Julian tells me the blast broke a couple of your ribs."
"Well, it could have been worse. If I'd been any closer to that phaser, it would have killed me."
"Well, don't take this the wrong way, but…that was the plan."
"I understand."
- O'Brien and Garak discussing the aftermath of the bomb.
