Post by magicmuggle01 on Mar 22, 2019 10:54:41 GMT
Sisko obsessively pursues Maquis leader Michael Eddington.
Summary
Sisko is in a Maquis colony on Marva IV to meet with an informant that claims to have information about the former Starfleet officer Michael Eddington, now the leader of the Maquis. The captain is met by none other than Eddington himself, who had already discovered the informant and marooned him. Eddington attempts to make his point with the refugees outside, reiterating the Maquis point of view that these people were abandoned. Sisko responds with the Starfleet position, and that he's not there to debate policy. Furthermore, he doesn't see victims of the Federation, but rather, of the Maquis' false hopes. Eddington finally says not to come after him, that Sisko will regret it, and transports away. Sisko quickly orders USS Defiant to pursue.
Act One
Headed for the Badlands, Eddington has too great a lead. Sisko therefore enlists the help of Captain Sanders and his ship, the USS Malinche, in delaying Eddington until the Defiant can arrive. When it seems that Sisko has got his man, Eddington triggers a cascade virus, disabling all of the Defiant's computer systems, leaving it effectively dead in space. Furthermore, Eddington also uses their new holocommunicator to inform them of what happened. This virus was planted by Eddington before he left Starfleet, further highlighting the depth of his betrayal. Eddington warns that Sisko is taking this personally, though he himself does not, having no animosity for him or any of the Defiant's crew. He furthers his insistence that the Maquis aren't killers, stopping his attack on the Defiant and saying if they leave him alone, he will leave them alone.
He leaves Sisko with the statement that he knows when to walk away. When communications are cut, Sisko tries to contain his anger.
Act Two
The Defiant rescues a Cardassian transport ship
After being towed back to the station by the Malinche, Chief O'Brien reports that repairing the Defiant's computer will take two weeks minimum. Odo then tells Captain Sisko that he found a further two viruses in Deep Space 9's computer and can't be certain there aren't more since Eddington had complete access during his eighteen months as Chief of Starfleet Security. Worf reports that two Bolian freighters carrying selenium and rhodium nitrite, two seemingly innocuous materials, have disappeared near the Badlands and the Maquis are believed to be responsible, to what end is not certain. Sisko's bad mood is made even worse when Captain Sanders informs Sisko that Starfleet has ordered Sanders to take over the hunt for Eddington since he's been after him eight months without success and are concerned about Sisko's personal feelings, feeling that someone without a personal stake in Eddington's capture may have more success. Sisko is angry, but wishes Captain Sanders luck.
Later in the holosuite, Sisko vents his fury over the situation with the aid of a punching bag while Dax talks over the situation with him. As well as this being the first time in his career that he's been taken off an assignment, he admits that as a Starfleet captain he's supposed to be a good judge of character and yet was completely taken in by Eddington. Dax tells Sisko that he needs to understand and accept the fact that Eddington isn't his problem anymore.
Just then Kira calls Sisko to Ops and reports some shocking news... Eddington has attacked a Cardassian colony with a biogenic weapon. The chemical used was cobalt diselenide, created from the selenium and rhodium nitrite, which is hazardous to Cardassians but harmless to most humanoids. The Maquis have already announced an intention to reclaim the planet. Also, with the amount of biogenic weapons the Maquis have they can poison every Cardassian in the Demilitarized Zone.
Sisko decides to take the Defiant out, and the crew joins him.
Act Three
The Defiant is barely functional due to the damage from the cascade virus. Sisko is informed that the ship can only reach warp 6, the cloak and transporters are unavailable, weapons are online, but the targeting scanners must be calibrated manually, and the internal communications system is completely down (even com badges are useless due to the damaged EPS conduits). However Chief O'Brien has a solution... Cadet Nog, since his superior hearing will allow him to relay orders from the bridge to engineering easily regardless of how hectic things may be.
The Defiant finally gets underway, after a difficult departure which includes nearly colliding with one of DS9's lower pylons. With several tests and readiness drills, the ship heads to the Badlands. Kira detects a Maquis raider signature inside plasma fields. When they approach it, they receive a transmission from Eddington. After a bit of banter, Eddington offers Sisko a copy of Les Misérables, calling it one of his favorite books. Finally, the crew realizes that the Maquis Raider signature is a fake – there isn't really a ship there. They know they've been misdirected.
Once they get out of the Badlands, they detect a distress call from the Malinche. The Maquis ambushed them and disabled their engines.
Act Four
The Malinche was fooled by a trick similar to the Defiant: their sensors detected a Cardassian freighter in distress, and when they lowered their shields to transport the crew, they found that the sensor readings had been faked. In their moment of vulnerability, the Maquis attacked. With their warp core matrix compositor fused, Sisko provides them some micro-power relays and engineering help. Sanders gives him an encoded message they intercepted from the raiders.
Sisko confers with Odo on DS9 about the message. He reveals it is a Breen nursery rhyme of no particular importance. However, based on how well he knows Eddington, he supposes that Eddington probably uses a Breen settlement as a base to keep his unstable weapon components. Fortunately, Starfleet has intelligence drones in the system, so they can see who's been visiting. Dax and Worf investigate possible targets in the Dorvan sector. Based on that intelligence and Sisko's knowledge of Eddington, Sisko deduces the next target: Quatal Prime.
However, they arrive too late, only to see two fleeing raiders and transport ships evacuating the planet. The Defiant manages to destroy one of the raiders, but the other, with Eddington on board, disables a Cardassian transport. Unable to use the transporter to save the plunging vessel, Sisko is forced to let Eddington escape in order to save the Cardassians with the Defiant's tractor beam.
Act Five
While they tow the transport, Sisko is deep in thought in the mess hall. When Eddington sent Sisko Les Misérables, he compared Sisko to a character in the novel, Javert, "a policeman who relentlessly pursues a man named Valjean, guilty of a trivial offense". Sisko realizes that Eddington sees himself as Valjean, the hero of Les Misérables, and that Eddington's self-perceived heroism could be used against him. In Sisko's words: "I think it's time for me to become the villain."
Sisko then proceeds with the same strategy the Maquis had been using, he prepares to launch biogenic weapons comprised of trilithium resin at a Maquis settlement. A reversal of Eddington's weapon, the resin bomb would poison the atmosphere with a toxin that is deadly to Humans, but harmless to Cardassians. Sisko broadcasts a message revealing his intentions, but Eddington dismisses it as a Federation bluff. Sisko then orders the weapons fired, and Worf initially hesitates as he and the rest of the bridge crew are shocked that Sisko is following through with his threat. Sisko repeats his order, and Worf launches the weapons which do their job and poison the atmosphere, with Maquis transports scrambling to evacuate the settlement. Sisko announces that he plans to continue his campaign against all of the Maquis colonies in the DMZ, telling Eddington that when he attacked the Malinche the Maquis proved themselves to be an unacceptable threat to the Federation. Eddington offers to turn over the Maquis' stocks of biogenic weapons, but Sisko tells him that isn't enough. This leads Eddington to turn himself in to prevent further attacks, thus fulfilling the self-sacrificial part of his hero fantasy.
In the aftermath, Cardassian and Human colonists are resettled on the poisoned colonies, exchanging their former homes. Back on DS9, Eddington is turned over to Odo, and Dax has Sisko confess that he didn't clear his plot to poison the Maquis colonies with Starfleet.
Log entries
"Captain's Log, Stardate 50485.2. I've come to Marva IV, a planet near the Badlands to rendezvous with an informer who claims to have information on the whereabouts of the Maquis leader and former Starfleet officer Michael Eddington."
"Captain's Log, Stardate 50488.2. The Defiant has returned home... but not under its own power. The starship Malinche had to tow us home."
"Captain's Log, supplemental. After completing a series of readiness drills, we've entered the plasma fields of the Badlands ... and begun our search for Eddington."
"Captain's Log, supplemental. With the Defiant's computers still not fully operational, we're relying on Odo, back at Deep Space 9, to decipher the Maquis message. In the meantime, we're combing the DMZ in the hopes of a chance encounter with Eddington, but with each passing, our hopes are fading."
"Captain's Log, supplemental. Odo's hunch has proven accurate. Our intelligence drones detected a Maquis freighter entering Portas V three hours ago. The freighter was last seen headed into the Dorvan sector of the DMZ."
"Captain's Log, supplemental. Resettlement efforts in the DMZ are underway. The Cardassian and Maquis colonists who were forced to abandon their homes will make new lives for themselves on the planets their counterparts evacuated. The balance in the region will be restored, though the situation remains far from stable." (DS9: "For the Uniform").
Memorable quotes
"Tell me captain, what is it that bothers you more, the fact that I left Starfleet to fight for a higher cause or the fact that it happened on your watch?"
"You didn't leave Starfleet. If you had, I wouldn't be here. You betrayed Starfleet."
- Eddington and Sisko meet face to face on Marva IV
"He worked under me for a year and a half. I saw him almost every day. Read his reports. Had him to dinner. I even took him to a baseball game in the holosuite once. And I never saw it! It's my job to be a good judge of character, and what did I do? Not only did I not see it, I put him up for a promotion."
"He played his hand well."
"He played me all right. And what is my excuse? Is he a Changeling? No. Is he a being with seven lifetimes of experience? No. Is he a wormhole alien? No. He's just a man, like me. And he beat me!"
- Sisko and Dax, discussing Eddington while Sisko punches the bag
"Sir, have you ever reminded Starfleet Command that they stationed Eddington here because they didn't trust me?"
"No."
"Please do."
- Odo and Sisko
"Actually, what I was thinking is: you're becoming more like Curzon all the time."
"I don't know how to take that."
"Consider it a complement. And next time I go off half-cocked on some wild-eyed adventure, think back to this moment and be a little more understanding."
- Dax and Sisko
"Can't you see what's happening to you? You're going against everything you claim to believe in. And for what? To satisfy a personal vendetta?"
"YOU BETRAYED YOUR UNIFORM!"
"And you're betraying yours, right now! The sad part is that you don't even realize it. I feel sorry for you, captain. This obsession with me, look what it's cost you!"
"MAJOR, SHUT THAT THING OFF! COMMANDER WORF, PREPARE TO LAUNCH TORPEDOES!"
- Eddington and Sisko, on Sisko's decision to use biological weapons on a Maquis colony
"All right, Javert. I'll give you what you want: me!"
- Eddington agrees to surrender to Sisko
"Sometimes I like it when the bad guy wins."
- Dax, to Sisko (last lines)
Summary
Sisko is in a Maquis colony on Marva IV to meet with an informant that claims to have information about the former Starfleet officer Michael Eddington, now the leader of the Maquis. The captain is met by none other than Eddington himself, who had already discovered the informant and marooned him. Eddington attempts to make his point with the refugees outside, reiterating the Maquis point of view that these people were abandoned. Sisko responds with the Starfleet position, and that he's not there to debate policy. Furthermore, he doesn't see victims of the Federation, but rather, of the Maquis' false hopes. Eddington finally says not to come after him, that Sisko will regret it, and transports away. Sisko quickly orders USS Defiant to pursue.
Act One
Headed for the Badlands, Eddington has too great a lead. Sisko therefore enlists the help of Captain Sanders and his ship, the USS Malinche, in delaying Eddington until the Defiant can arrive. When it seems that Sisko has got his man, Eddington triggers a cascade virus, disabling all of the Defiant's computer systems, leaving it effectively dead in space. Furthermore, Eddington also uses their new holocommunicator to inform them of what happened. This virus was planted by Eddington before he left Starfleet, further highlighting the depth of his betrayal. Eddington warns that Sisko is taking this personally, though he himself does not, having no animosity for him or any of the Defiant's crew. He furthers his insistence that the Maquis aren't killers, stopping his attack on the Defiant and saying if they leave him alone, he will leave them alone.
He leaves Sisko with the statement that he knows when to walk away. When communications are cut, Sisko tries to contain his anger.
Act Two
The Defiant rescues a Cardassian transport ship
After being towed back to the station by the Malinche, Chief O'Brien reports that repairing the Defiant's computer will take two weeks minimum. Odo then tells Captain Sisko that he found a further two viruses in Deep Space 9's computer and can't be certain there aren't more since Eddington had complete access during his eighteen months as Chief of Starfleet Security. Worf reports that two Bolian freighters carrying selenium and rhodium nitrite, two seemingly innocuous materials, have disappeared near the Badlands and the Maquis are believed to be responsible, to what end is not certain. Sisko's bad mood is made even worse when Captain Sanders informs Sisko that Starfleet has ordered Sanders to take over the hunt for Eddington since he's been after him eight months without success and are concerned about Sisko's personal feelings, feeling that someone without a personal stake in Eddington's capture may have more success. Sisko is angry, but wishes Captain Sanders luck.
Later in the holosuite, Sisko vents his fury over the situation with the aid of a punching bag while Dax talks over the situation with him. As well as this being the first time in his career that he's been taken off an assignment, he admits that as a Starfleet captain he's supposed to be a good judge of character and yet was completely taken in by Eddington. Dax tells Sisko that he needs to understand and accept the fact that Eddington isn't his problem anymore.
Just then Kira calls Sisko to Ops and reports some shocking news... Eddington has attacked a Cardassian colony with a biogenic weapon. The chemical used was cobalt diselenide, created from the selenium and rhodium nitrite, which is hazardous to Cardassians but harmless to most humanoids. The Maquis have already announced an intention to reclaim the planet. Also, with the amount of biogenic weapons the Maquis have they can poison every Cardassian in the Demilitarized Zone.
Sisko decides to take the Defiant out, and the crew joins him.
Act Three
The Defiant is barely functional due to the damage from the cascade virus. Sisko is informed that the ship can only reach warp 6, the cloak and transporters are unavailable, weapons are online, but the targeting scanners must be calibrated manually, and the internal communications system is completely down (even com badges are useless due to the damaged EPS conduits). However Chief O'Brien has a solution... Cadet Nog, since his superior hearing will allow him to relay orders from the bridge to engineering easily regardless of how hectic things may be.
The Defiant finally gets underway, after a difficult departure which includes nearly colliding with one of DS9's lower pylons. With several tests and readiness drills, the ship heads to the Badlands. Kira detects a Maquis raider signature inside plasma fields. When they approach it, they receive a transmission from Eddington. After a bit of banter, Eddington offers Sisko a copy of Les Misérables, calling it one of his favorite books. Finally, the crew realizes that the Maquis Raider signature is a fake – there isn't really a ship there. They know they've been misdirected.
Once they get out of the Badlands, they detect a distress call from the Malinche. The Maquis ambushed them and disabled their engines.
Act Four
The Malinche was fooled by a trick similar to the Defiant: their sensors detected a Cardassian freighter in distress, and when they lowered their shields to transport the crew, they found that the sensor readings had been faked. In their moment of vulnerability, the Maquis attacked. With their warp core matrix compositor fused, Sisko provides them some micro-power relays and engineering help. Sanders gives him an encoded message they intercepted from the raiders.
Sisko confers with Odo on DS9 about the message. He reveals it is a Breen nursery rhyme of no particular importance. However, based on how well he knows Eddington, he supposes that Eddington probably uses a Breen settlement as a base to keep his unstable weapon components. Fortunately, Starfleet has intelligence drones in the system, so they can see who's been visiting. Dax and Worf investigate possible targets in the Dorvan sector. Based on that intelligence and Sisko's knowledge of Eddington, Sisko deduces the next target: Quatal Prime.
However, they arrive too late, only to see two fleeing raiders and transport ships evacuating the planet. The Defiant manages to destroy one of the raiders, but the other, with Eddington on board, disables a Cardassian transport. Unable to use the transporter to save the plunging vessel, Sisko is forced to let Eddington escape in order to save the Cardassians with the Defiant's tractor beam.
Act Five
While they tow the transport, Sisko is deep in thought in the mess hall. When Eddington sent Sisko Les Misérables, he compared Sisko to a character in the novel, Javert, "a policeman who relentlessly pursues a man named Valjean, guilty of a trivial offense". Sisko realizes that Eddington sees himself as Valjean, the hero of Les Misérables, and that Eddington's self-perceived heroism could be used against him. In Sisko's words: "I think it's time for me to become the villain."
Sisko then proceeds with the same strategy the Maquis had been using, he prepares to launch biogenic weapons comprised of trilithium resin at a Maquis settlement. A reversal of Eddington's weapon, the resin bomb would poison the atmosphere with a toxin that is deadly to Humans, but harmless to Cardassians. Sisko broadcasts a message revealing his intentions, but Eddington dismisses it as a Federation bluff. Sisko then orders the weapons fired, and Worf initially hesitates as he and the rest of the bridge crew are shocked that Sisko is following through with his threat. Sisko repeats his order, and Worf launches the weapons which do their job and poison the atmosphere, with Maquis transports scrambling to evacuate the settlement. Sisko announces that he plans to continue his campaign against all of the Maquis colonies in the DMZ, telling Eddington that when he attacked the Malinche the Maquis proved themselves to be an unacceptable threat to the Federation. Eddington offers to turn over the Maquis' stocks of biogenic weapons, but Sisko tells him that isn't enough. This leads Eddington to turn himself in to prevent further attacks, thus fulfilling the self-sacrificial part of his hero fantasy.
In the aftermath, Cardassian and Human colonists are resettled on the poisoned colonies, exchanging their former homes. Back on DS9, Eddington is turned over to Odo, and Dax has Sisko confess that he didn't clear his plot to poison the Maquis colonies with Starfleet.
Log entries
"Captain's Log, Stardate 50485.2. I've come to Marva IV, a planet near the Badlands to rendezvous with an informer who claims to have information on the whereabouts of the Maquis leader and former Starfleet officer Michael Eddington."
"Captain's Log, Stardate 50488.2. The Defiant has returned home... but not under its own power. The starship Malinche had to tow us home."
"Captain's Log, supplemental. After completing a series of readiness drills, we've entered the plasma fields of the Badlands ... and begun our search for Eddington."
"Captain's Log, supplemental. With the Defiant's computers still not fully operational, we're relying on Odo, back at Deep Space 9, to decipher the Maquis message. In the meantime, we're combing the DMZ in the hopes of a chance encounter with Eddington, but with each passing, our hopes are fading."
"Captain's Log, supplemental. Odo's hunch has proven accurate. Our intelligence drones detected a Maquis freighter entering Portas V three hours ago. The freighter was last seen headed into the Dorvan sector of the DMZ."
"Captain's Log, supplemental. Resettlement efforts in the DMZ are underway. The Cardassian and Maquis colonists who were forced to abandon their homes will make new lives for themselves on the planets their counterparts evacuated. The balance in the region will be restored, though the situation remains far from stable." (DS9: "For the Uniform").
Memorable quotes
"Tell me captain, what is it that bothers you more, the fact that I left Starfleet to fight for a higher cause or the fact that it happened on your watch?"
"You didn't leave Starfleet. If you had, I wouldn't be here. You betrayed Starfleet."
- Eddington and Sisko meet face to face on Marva IV
"He worked under me for a year and a half. I saw him almost every day. Read his reports. Had him to dinner. I even took him to a baseball game in the holosuite once. And I never saw it! It's my job to be a good judge of character, and what did I do? Not only did I not see it, I put him up for a promotion."
"He played his hand well."
"He played me all right. And what is my excuse? Is he a Changeling? No. Is he a being with seven lifetimes of experience? No. Is he a wormhole alien? No. He's just a man, like me. And he beat me!"
- Sisko and Dax, discussing Eddington while Sisko punches the bag
"Sir, have you ever reminded Starfleet Command that they stationed Eddington here because they didn't trust me?"
"No."
"Please do."
- Odo and Sisko
"Actually, what I was thinking is: you're becoming more like Curzon all the time."
"I don't know how to take that."
"Consider it a complement. And next time I go off half-cocked on some wild-eyed adventure, think back to this moment and be a little more understanding."
- Dax and Sisko
"Can't you see what's happening to you? You're going against everything you claim to believe in. And for what? To satisfy a personal vendetta?"
"YOU BETRAYED YOUR UNIFORM!"
"And you're betraying yours, right now! The sad part is that you don't even realize it. I feel sorry for you, captain. This obsession with me, look what it's cost you!"
"MAJOR, SHUT THAT THING OFF! COMMANDER WORF, PREPARE TO LAUNCH TORPEDOES!"
- Eddington and Sisko, on Sisko's decision to use biological weapons on a Maquis colony
"All right, Javert. I'll give you what you want: me!"
- Eddington agrees to surrender to Sisko
"Sometimes I like it when the bad guy wins."
- Dax, to Sisko (last lines)
