On Stardate 43997, Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the Federation starship Enterprise was kidnapped for six days by an invading force known as the Borg. Surgically altered, he was forced to lead an assault on Starfleet at Wolf 359.
Benjamin Sisko: Yes, sir, we met in battle. I was on the Saratoga at Wolf 359.
[Discussing Bajor's possible membership in the Federation]
Benjamin Sisko: Sounds like they're not ready.
Jean-Luc Picard: Your job—short of violating the Prime Directive—is to make sure that they are.
Kira Nerys: You are throwing it all away! All of you!
Bajoran Bureaucrat: You're being a fool!
Kira Nerys: Well, then, don't ask my opinion next time!
[about Sisko]
Kai Opaka: How ironic—one who does not wish to be among us is to be the Emissary.
Julian Bashir: This is where the adventure is. This is where heroes are made. Right here—in the wilderness.
Kira Nerys: This "wilderness" is myhome!
Miles O'Brien: Sir, have you ever served with any Bajoran women?
Benjamin Sisko: No. Why?
Miles O'Brien: I was just wondering, sir.
Benjamin Sisko: It's really quite simple, Quark. You're not going to leave.
Quark: Not going to leave? But we're packed and ready to go.
Benjamin Sisko: Unpack.
Quark: I don't understand, Commander. Why would you want me to stay?
Odo: I'm curious myself. The man is a gambler and a thief.
Quark: I'm not a thief.
Odo: You are a thief!
Quark: If I am, you haven't been able to prove it for four years.
Quark: Commander, I've made a career out of knowing when to leave. And this provisional government is far too provisional for my taste. And when governments fall, people like me are lined up and shot.
Benjamin Sisko: There is that risk, but then, you are a gambler, Quark.
Odo: And a thief.
Benjamin Sisko: You know, Quark, that poor boy is about to spend the best years of his life in a Bajoran prison. I'm a father myself. I know what your brother must be going through. The boy should be with his family, not in some cold jail cell. Think about it. It's up to you.
[He exits]
Odo: You know, at first, I didn't think I was going to like him.
Benjamin Sisko:[To Captain Picard] In the meantime, I will do the job I've been ordered to do to the best of my ability, sir!
Kira Nerys: Quark, if you don't take your hand off my hip, you'll never be able to raise a glass with it again.
Quark: Oh, I love a woman in uniform.
Benjamin Sisko: That may be the most important thing to understand about humans. It is the unknown that defines our existence. We are constantly searching, not just for answers to our questions, but for new questions. We are explorers. We explore our lives day by day, and we explore the galaxy trying to expand the boundaries of our knowledge. And that is why I am here—not to conquer you with weapons or ideas, but to coexist and learn.
Kai Opaka: Nine Orbs, like this one, have appeared in the skies over the past 10,000 years. The Cardassians took the others. You must find the Celestial Temple before they do.
Benjamin Sisko: The Celestial Temple?
Kai Opaka: Tradition says that the Orbs were sent by the Prophets to teach us. What we have learned has shaped our theology. The Cardassians will doanything to decipher their powers. If they discover the Celestial Temple, they could destroy it.
Benjamin Sisko: What makes you think I can find your... temple?
Kai Opaka:[gives Sisko the Orb Ark] This will help you.
Benjamin Sisko: Kai Opaka, I—
Kai Opaka: I can't unite my people until I know the Prophets have been warned. You will find the Temple. Not for Bajor, not for the Federation, but for your own pagh. It is quite simply, Commander, the journey you have always been destined to take.
Benjamin Sisko: I have a son that I’m raising alone, Captain. This is not the ideal environment.
Jean Luc Picard: Unfortunately, Starfleet officers do not always have the luxury to serve in an ideal environment.
Benjamin Sisko: Commander, help me! Jennifer, hold on...
Bolian commander: Sir...
Benjamin Sisko: Just help me to get her free!
Bolian commander: She’s gone. There’s nothing we can do. We have to leave. We have to go now, sir!
Benjamin Sisko: Dammit, we just can’t leave her here!
Benjamin Sisko: It won’t be so bad. I’ve heard that Bajor is a beautiful world.
Jake Sisko: So why can’t we live on the planet instead of some old space station?
Vedek: Welcome, Commander. Please enter. The Prophets await you.
Benjamin Sisko: Another time, perhaps.
Vedek:[Nods] Another time.
Miles O’Brien: That’s the Prefect’s office up there.
Benjamin Sisko: So all others have to look up with respect.Cardassian architecture.
Benjamin Sisko: Is something bothering you, Major?
Kira Nerys: You don’t want to ask me that, Commander.
Benjamin Sisko: Why not?
Kira Nerys: Because I have the bad habit of telling the truth, even when people don’t want to hear it.
Benjamin Sisko: Perhaps I want to hear it.
Kira Nerys: I don’t believe the Federation has any business being here.
Benjamin Sisko: The provisional government disagrees with you.
Kira Nerys: The provisional government and I don’t agree on a lot of things, which is probably why they sent me to this god-forsaken place. I have been fighting for Bajoran independence ever since I was old enough to pick up a phaser. We finally drive the Cardassians out, and what do our new leaders do? They call up the Federation and invite them right in!
Benjamin Sisko: The Federation is only here to help—
Kira Nerys:—help us, I know. The Cardassians said the same thing sixty years ago.
Benjamin Sisko: That’s enough!
Odo: Who the hell are you?
Kira Nerys: Odo, this is our new Starfleet Commander.
Kira Nerys: I suppose Starfleet officers aren’t used to getting their hands dirty.
Kira Nerys: [to Sisko] This government will be gone in a week and so will you.
Quark: I love the Bajorans. Such a deeply spiritual people, but they make a dreadful ale.
Kira Nerys: Red alert. Shields up.
Miles O’Brien: What shields?
Odo: Doctor, most people, in my experience, wouldn’t know reason if it walked up and shook their hand.
Kira Nerys: I am just a Bajoran who has been fighting a hopeless cause against the Cardassians all her life. So if you want a war, I’ll give you one!
Miles O’Brien: Bloody Cardassians! I just got the damned thing fixed.
Julian Bashir: So, where can someone practice with his phaser around here?
Odo: I don’t know where I came from, no idea if there are any others like me. All my life, I’ve been forced to pass myself as one of you, always wondering who I really am.
Odo: I choose not to. Too many compromises. You want to watch the Karo-Net tournament, she wants to listen to music, so you compromise: you listen to music. You like Earth jazz, she prefers Klingon opera, so you compromise: you listen to Klingon opera. So here you were ready to have a nice night watching the Karo-net match, and you wind up spending an agonizing evening listening to Klingon opera.
Odo: Killing your own clone is still murder.
Odo: Laws change depending on who's making them, but justice is justice.
Benjamin Sisko:[to Odo] If you can't work within the rules, I'll find someone who can.
Jadzia Dax: Just sit comfortably and release your tension into my hands.
Jadzia Dax:Concentrate on the sphere. Clear your mind. This requires focus and clarity of thought.
Julian Bashir: I understand completely. What is that exotic scent you're wearing?
Jadzia Dax:Focus and clarity of thought.
Quark: Everyone wants a piece of the new frontier.
Odo: And I'm sure you've already tried to sell it to a few of them.
Rom: My son cannot learn anything from a female hu-mon teacher.
Benjamin Sisko: I want you to know I don't personally believe that you're responsible for this.
Odo: Really? Now, how can that be true? You don't know me. You have no reason to believe I wouldn't kill Ibudan if it suited my fancy, so don't tell me there isn't some doubt inside of you, some question about whether or not I murdered the man.
Benjamin Sisko:[On Odo] Do not condemn this man because he is different than you are.
Benjamin Sisko: Well, Quark, I see even you couldn't weasel your way clear of this one.
Quark: You underestimate the Ferengi immune system, Commander. I'm merely here visiting my less-fortunate customers to make sure they're notfaking the illness to avoidpaying their bills.
Benjamin Sisko: No one could be that devious.
Quark: I am.[To patient] You...gold...owe...ME!
Odo: Quark, am I to believe that you're volunteering to help?
Quark: Who said anything about volunteering? We can haggle over price later.
Quark: Don't call me “barkeep”! I'm not a “barkeep”! I'm your host, the proprietor, a sympathetic ear to the wretched souls that pass through these portals.
Miles O'Brien: And a man that will exploit any vice you may have. Two synthales, barkeep.
Q: Indeed not. You’re much easier to provoke. How fortunate for me!
Odo: I’ll never understand this obsession with accumulating material wealth. You spend your entire life plotting and scheming to acquire more and more possessions until your living areas are bursting with useless junk. Then you die, your relatives sell everything and start the cycle all over again.
Benjamin Sisko:[referring to Dax] He taught me to appreciate life in ways I'd never thought about before. He taught me about art and science and diplomacy. Whatever sense of honor I have today, he nurtured.
Madame Arbiter:[referring to the extradition hearing proceedings] I intend to be here until supper, not senility.
Kira: When I was very small, I remember there was this tree right outside my window. It was the ugliest, most gnarled and battered old tree I'd ever seen. Even the birds stayed away from it.
Mullibok: But you loved it.
Kira: Ihated it, because it had grown so huge, its branches blocked out the sun for kelipates, and its roots buried themselves so deep in the soil nothing else could grow there. It was a big, selfish, annoying—
Mullibok: Nasty.
Kira: Nasty! Nasty old tree.
Mullibok: Sounds to me like it had a lot of character.
Lwaxana Troi: Yes, I know where it hurts the most, you little troll.
Lwaxana Troi(to Odo): All the men I've known have needed to be shaped and molded and manipulated. Finally I've met a man who knows how to do it himself.
Odo: Oh, I was just wondering how many volts are in that exposed socket.
[Bashir has been assigned to chaperone a trio of visiting diplomats]
Benjamin Sisko: Cheer up, Doctor. If you do well, it could help your career.
Julian Bashir: Another hour with them could destroy my career!
Benjamin Sisko: It's a simple job—just keep them happy, and away from me.
Julian Bashir: Simple? Nothing makes them happy! They are dedicated to being UN-happy, and to spreading that unhappiness wherever they go! They are the Ambassadors of Unhappy!
Benjamin Sisko: All of us have had these assignments, Doctor.
Julian Bashir: Have you, sir?
Benjamin Sisko: As a matter of fact, Curzon Dax used to take perverse pleasure in assigning me to take care of VIP guests.
Julian Bashir: Ah, and now you take the same perverse pleasure in doing it to me.
Odo: Survivors of Gallitep. They arrived here this morning. They've come to see justice done.
Quark: Gallitep... imagine living through that hellhole... the pain... the sorrow... Do you think they like to gamble?
[after being told that his war crimes tribunal is being prepared]
Gul Darhe'el: War crimes? How can there be war crimes when there hasn't been a war? Oh, I can understand your wish that therehad been a war. Your need to indulge some pathetic fantasy about brave Bajoran soldiers marching to honorable defeat, but in fact, Major, you and I know there was no war. No glory. Bajor didn't resist. It surrendered.
Kira Nerys: The Bajorans were a peaceful people before you came. We offered no threat to you. We could never understand why you had to be so brutal.
Gul Darhe'el: Well, we can't have that, Major. I want no more secrets between us. Anything you can't understand, I'll explain to you.
Gul Darhe'el: I did what had to be done! My men understood that and that's why they loved me. I would order them to go out and kill Bajoran scum. And they would do it! They'd murder them! And they'd come back covered in blood, but they feltclean. Now why did they feel that way, Major? Because theywere clean.
Kira: You're Marritza, aren't you?
Gul Darhe'el: You mistake me for that bug? That whimpering nothing? Ho-ho, you stupid Bajoran girl! Don't you know who I am? I'm your nemesis! I'm your nightmare! I'm the Butcher of Gallitep!
Kira: The Butcher of Gallitep died six years ago. You're Aamin Marritza, his filing clerk.
Gul Darhe'el: That's not true, I am alive! I will always be alive! It's Marritza who's dead! Marritza...who was good for nothing but cowering under his bunk and weeping like a woman! Who would, every night, cover his ears, because he couldn't bear to hear the screaming for mercy of the Bajorans…
[He breaks down and sinks onto his bunk, sobbing uncontrollably.]
Aamin Marritza: I covered my ears every night. But I couldn't bear to hear those horrible screams. You have no idea what it's like to be a coward. To see these horrors… and do nothing. Marritza's dead. He deserves to be dead.[With a look of tragic sympathy, Kira deactivates his cell] What are you doing?
Kira: I'm letting you go.
Aamin Marritza: Security! Get in here![Kira enters his cell and he backs away from her into a corner]
Kira: You didn't commit those crimes, and you couldn't stop them. You were only one man.
Aamin Marritza: No, no, don't you see? I have to be punished, we all have to be punished! Major, you have to go out there and tell them I'm Gul Dar'heel! It's the only way!
Kira:[close to tears herself] Why are you doing this?
Aamin Marritza: For Cardassia! Cardassia will only survive if it stands in front of Bajor and admits the truth! My trial will force Cardassia to acknowledge its guilt. And we're guilty, all of us! My death is necessary!
Kira: What you're asking for is another murder. Enough good people have already died. I won't help kill another.
[Aamin Marritza has just been stabbed by Kainon on the promenade]
Kira:[holding the rapidly dying Marritza]Why!?! He wasn't Darhe'el!
Kira Nerys: But she's teaching a fundamentally different philosophy—
Keiko O'Brien: I'm not teaching any "philosophy." What I'm trying to teach is pure science.
Kira Nerys: Some might say pure science taught without a spiritual context is a philosophy, Mrs O'Brien.
Odo: What do you know about the murder of Ensign Aquino?
Quark: You wound me. All these years together, I thought you knew me. Odo, I am not a killer!
Odo: No, but most of your friends are.
Quark: True, and I would gladly sell one of them to you if I could. But unfortunately, none of them have taken credit for the death of the Starfleet officer.
Odo: Keep your ears open.
Quark: Are you kidding? That's the Seventh Rule of Acquisition.
Winn: You live without a soul, Commander. You and your Federation exist in a universe of darkness and you would drag us in there with you. But we will not go.
Sisko: You have just made your first mistake, Vedek.
Winn: Have I?
Sisko: The Bajorans who have lived with us on this station, who have worked with us for months, who helped us move this station to protect the wormhole, who joined us to explore the Gamma Quadrant, who have begun to build the future of Bajor with us—these people know that we are neither the enemy nor the devil. We don't always agree. We have some damn good fights, in fact. But we always come away from them with a little better understanding and appreciation of the other. You won't succeed here. The school will reopen. And when your rhetoric gets old, the Bajoran parents will bring their children back.
Kira: Commander, I heard what you said to Vedek Winn at the school. I just wanted you to know you were right what you said about the Bajorans, at least about me. I don't think you're the devil.
Sisko: Maybe we have made some progress after all.
Jadzia Dax: Actually, I wasn't very successful either way.
Li Nalas: I'd die for my people, but…
Benjamin Sisko: Sure, you would. Dying gets you off the hook. Question is, are you willing tolive for your people? Live the role they want you to play? That's what they need from you right now.
General Krim:[to Sisko and Nalas] I'm returning to the surface immediately to consult with the Ministers. I expect I will be asked to resign. Commander, since the provisional government has prevailed, I believe it is appropriate to return the command of this station to Starfleet. Well fought, sir.
Verad Dax: Don't be ridiculous, you're not going to shoot me.
Commander Benjamin Sisko: What makes you so sure?
Verad Dax: This is Dax you're talking to, Benjamin. We both know that if you shoot me, even on stun, you risk killing the symbiont.
Commander Benjamin Sisko: If I let you go, Jadzia dies.
Verad Dax: But Dax will live. What's one girl's life compared to eight lifetimes of knowledge and experience?[smirks] You're not going to shoot me. You know that, and so do I. Goodbye, Benjamin.[he walks past Sisko into the shuttle]
Commander Benjamin Sisko: Verad![Verad turns around as Sisko raises his phaser] Don't call me Benjamin![Sisko shoots Verad]
Benjamin Sisko:[after his son Jake admits he doesn't want to join Starfleet] It's your life, Jake. You have to choose your own way. There is only one thing I want from you: find something you love, then do it the best you can.
Kira Nerys: Jadzia, your questions about my experience with killing— If you're wondering what it's like— When you take someone else's life, you lose a part of your own as well.
Jadzia Dax: Kang and Koloth don't want me to come with you.
Kor: Well, Kang thinks too much. Koloth doesn't feel enough.
Dax: And where do you stand?
Kor:[distracted] Huh? Hmm? Oh, of course you should come. The splendor of fighting and killing, a blood bath in the cause of vengeance. Whowouldn't want to come?
Kor: The only weight I carry now, dear comrade, is... is my own bulbous body. I was once, if you remember, far less than you see... and far more than I've become. I'm sorry.
Dax: What is this preoccupation you have with dying? I think living is much more attractive.
[outside the Albino's compound]
Kor: How do we even know if he's inside?
Dax: Good question.
Koloth:(gets up) Wait here.
Kor: Where are you going?
Koloth: I'm going to find out if he's inside.
Kor: And how do you intend to do that?
Koloth: I'llask somebody!
Kang I was right after all, Dax. It is a good day to die.(dies)
Jadzia Dax: It's never a good day to lose a friend.
Quark: It all comes down to the Third Rule of Acquisition. You don't know that one, do you?
Sakonna: I am not well-versed in Ferengi philosophy.
Quark: Remind me to give you a copy of the Rules; you'll never know when they'll come in handy. Now, the Third Rule clearly states, "Never spend more for an acquisition than you have to."
Sakonna: Logical. But I fail to see how that applies to my situation.
Quark: You want to acquire peace. Fine, peace is good. But how much are you willing to pay for it?
Sakonna: Whatever it costs.
Quark: That's the kind of irresponsible spending that causes so many business ventures to fail. You're forgetting the Third Rule! Right now, peace could be bought at a bargain price, and you don't even realize it.
Sakonna: ...I find this very confusing.
Quark:[sighs] Then I'll make it so simple that even a Vulcan can understand: the Central Command has been caught red-handed smuggling weapons to their settlers. So every ship that approaches the de-militarized zone will be searched. Without the support of the Central Command, the Cardassian settlers won't be so eager to fight.
Sakonna: You forget the weapons they already have.
Quark: They have weapons, you have weapons, everyone has weapons. But right now, no one has a clear advantage! So the price of peace is at an all-time low. This is the perfect time to sit down and hammer out an agreement. Don't you get it? Attacking the Cardassians now will only escalate the conflict, and make peace more expensive in the long run. Now, I ask you... is that logical?
Benjamin Sisko: On Earth, there is no poverty, no crime, no war. You look out the window of Starfleet Headquarters and you see paradise. Well, it's easy to be a saint in paradise, but the Maquis do not live in paradise. Out there, in the demilitarized zone, all the problems haven't been solved yet. Out there, there are no saints. Just people. Angry, scared, determined people who are going to do whatever it takes to survive, whether it meets with the Federation approval or not.
Elim Garak: Oh, you wouldn't have me any other way.
Julian Bashir: Well, in my medical opinion, it's sick.
Julian Bashir:(to Jadzia Dax) I'm a doctor, not a botanist!
Elim Garak: Doctor, has anyone ever told you that you are an infuriating pest?
Julian Bashir: Chief O'Brien—all the time, and I never pay any attention tohim either!
Julian Bashir: And so they exiled you.
Elim Garak: That's right! And left me to live out my days with nothing to look forward to but having lunch with you.
Julian Bashir: I'm sorry you feel that way. I thought you enjoyed my company.
Elim Garak: Oh, I did! And that's the worst part. I can't believe that I actually enjoyed eating mediocre food and staring into your smug sanctimonious face.
Bashir: Try not to yell at any more admirals for a while.
Sisko: I wasn't yelling. I was expressing my opinion loudly.
Quark:"How'd you like to earn a little extra latinum? Maybe enough to buy yourself a promotion?"
Boheeka:"You have my undivided attention.""Quark, you idiot!"
Quark:"Is something wrong?"
Boheeka:"Is something wrong?! I'm ruined! My career is over!"
Julian Bashir: That Cardassian Quark was talking to, Boheeka. I suppose he really did have a reason to fear the Obsidian Order."
Enabran Tain,:Everyone has reason to fear the Order.
Julian Bashir: What I want to know is: out of all the stories you told me, which ones were true and which ones weren't?
Keiko O'Brien: Last night, when we were going over the list in bed.
Miles O'Brien: Not me. I was dead as soon as my head hit the pillow.
Keiko O'Brien: You talked to me for a half hour.
Miles O'Brien: No, there must have been someone else in bed with us.
Miles O'Brien: I've been told that I've already been charged, indicted, convicted, and sentenced. What would I need with a lawyer?
Kovat: Ah, Mister O'Brien, if it seems immodest of me, I apologize, but the role of Public Conservator is key to the productive functioning of our courts. I'm here to help you concede the wisdom of the state, to prepare you to accept the inevitable with equanimity. There is an old Cardassian expression: “Confession is good for the soul.” But it's also good for the populace to see people like you confess. It makes them feel better about themselves. It makes their lives more bearable.
Miles O'Brien: So that's what this is all about? Make the people of Cardassia feel better, huh?
Kovat: No, no, no, but that's not a bad side effect.
Miles O'Brien: Have you ever won a case?
Kovat: Winning isn't everything.
Miles O'Brien: You don't know me very well, Constable, but I've been in service to the Federation—Starfleet—all my adult life. No one has ever questioned my loyalty. No one in my entire life has ever had cause to ask, “Miles O'Brien, are you a criminal?” I took an oath to defend the Federation and what it stands for. I don't steal from them. I don't lie to them. I'm no angel, but I try to live every day as the best human being I know how to be. I need my little girl to wake up in the morning and look up at me and see a man she can respect. Until now, she always could.
Odo: Being accused of a crime is not a disgrace, Chief. Some of the great figures of history have shared the honor with you.
Miles O'Brien: I didn't figure on dying a martyr.
Odo: Not all of them were martyrs; not all of them died. Some of them were just innocent men, like you.
Quark: The way I see it, humans used to be a lot like Ferengi: greedy, acquisitive, interested only in profit. We're a constant reminder of a part of your past you'd like to forget.
Benjamin Sisko: Quark, we don't have time for this.
Quark: You're overlooking something. Humans used to be a lot worse than Ferengi: slavery, concentration camps, interstellar war. We have nothing in our past that approaches that kind of barbarism. You see? We're nothing like you: we're better.
[Sisko and Quark have been captured by the Jem'Hadar]
Third Talak'talan: A Ferengi and a human. I was hoping the first race I'd meet from the other side of the anomaly would be the Klingons.
Benjamin Sisko: I'm sorry to disappoint you.
Third Talak'talan: It's too late for apologies. The Dominion will no longer stand by and allow ships from your side to violate our territory.
Garak: Oh, you misunderstand me, Lieutenant. All I meant was, it's a little foolish to worry about your careers at a time like this, when there's a good chance we're all about to be killed.
Garak: Didn't anyone tell you? You see, I pretend to be their friend...then I shoot you.
Grilka: I really am very grateful for all you have done, Quark. That is why I'm going to let you take your hand off my thigh instead of shattering every bone in your body.
Quark: I am Quark, son of Keldar. And I have come to answer the challenge of D'Ghor, son of...(pause) whoever.
[as D'Ghor raises hisbat'leth, Quark drops his on the floor]
Quark: Having me fight D'Ghor is nothing more than an execution. Well, if that's what you want, then that's what you'll get, an execution. No glory. No honor.[he kneels] And when you one day tell your children how you came to power and took Grilka's house from her, I hope you remember to tell them how you "heroically" killed an unarmed Ferengi, half your size.
D'Ghor: Whatever you say, Ferengi!
[He raises thebat'leth to swing at Quark, but Gowron seizes his arm.]
Gowron: D'Ghor, what are you doing?! I didn't want to believe the things he said about you yesterday... but if you can stand here and murder this pathetic little man, then you have no honor.(takes the Bat'leth from him and tosses it to the ground) You have no place in this hall.
Gowron: A brave Ferengi. Who would have thought it possible?
Grilka: You have given me back my house and my family name. How can I repay you?
Quark: I would like a divorce, please. No offense!
Grilka: None taken. I can give it to you right away...
(Grilka backhands Quark, shouts aKlingon insult, and spits at him)
Grilka:(smug) You're a free man.
Rom: Brother, I haven't told you: when you stood in the Great Hall, in front of D'Ghor, you were magnificent!
Quark:[shrugs] I was lucky, that's all. If it didn't work, I didn't have another card to play. Business is dropping off again.
Rom: Money isn't everything.
Quark: If Father were alive, he'd wash your mouth out with galcor!
Rom: You can't buy respect, brother. And that's what you have now—respect! That's what you wanted, isn't it?
Garak: You can't be serious! Commander, if I were allowed on Cardassia, do you really think I'd be living here?
Sisko: Which brings up an interesting point. There're certain ministers in the Bajoran government who are concerned about your presence on the station; in fact, they want you removed. Right now, I see no alternative but to honor their request, unless of course... I can show them how you might be valuable to us.
Odo: Rescuing Kira would go a long way toward improving your standing with the Bajoran government.
Garak: Why should I care what the Bajoran government thinks of me?
Sisko: I don't know. But it seems to me, if someone were in trouble with the Cardassian Central Command, a Bajoran space station under Federation control might just be the safest place in the galaxy.
[Quark has bought some wreckage that turned out to be an incubator containing a child]
Sisko:[angry] You bought a child?!
Quark: I just thought that I was buying some wreckage. How was I supposed to know that there was a baby in there?
Sisko: Maybe you should inspect the merchandisebefore you make the deal. Or isn't there a Rule of Acquisition for that?
Quark: There is, and usually I do.
Quark: Now, wait a minute! I paid good money for that wreckage and[Sisko gives him a baleful look]...now it's yours. Enjoy.
Jadzia Dax: I think we've solved the mystery of our young visitor, Benjamin. He's a Jem'Hadar.
Chief O'Brien:[discussing the Jem'Hadar youth] I still don't understand why they would engineer someone to be addicted to a certain chemical.
Odo: I suspect it's another way of ensuring the loyalty of the Jem'Hadar to the Founders. If your soldiers are addicted to a drug that can't be replicated and only you can provide, that gives you a great deal of control over them.
Chief O'Brien: Seems a pretty cold-blooded thing to do.
Odo: My people don't have blood, chief.
Major Kira Nerys:[referring to the Jem'Hadar youth] How long do you think you're going to be able to control him?
Odo: I'm not trying to control anybody. I'm just trying to give him some choices other than becoming a laboratory specimen or a Jem'Hadar soldier.
Major Kira Nerys: I never thought I would say this to you, Odo, but you are listening to your heart, not your head. That boy was created in a laboratory! His body, his mind, his instincts, are all designed to do one thing; to kill.
Odo: My body, mind, and instincts were designed to be a Founder. You were trained to be a terrorist. But each of us chose to be something different. I just want to give him the same chance we've had!
Major Kira Nerys: All right. Give him a chance. Just don't forget: he is a Jem'Hadar. He's dangerous.
Quark: 75: “Home is where the heart is, but the stars are made of latinum.” "You're telling me I'm stuck here with you?"
Odo:"No… I'm stuck here with you. Believe me, a far worse fate."
Quark:"I should've listened to my father. He always warned me this was going to happen."
Odo:"What, that you'd spend your final hours in jail? I could've told you that.""Quark, I've met a lot of Ferengis in my time, and the truth is, while some of them have been more wealthy, I've never met one more devious."
Quark:"Really?"
Odo:"Would I lie?"
Quark:"I guess not. Thank you, Odo. That means a lot to me. Now, can I have the phaser back?"
Odo:"No."
Quark:"Why go to so much trouble to keep people out of the security office?"
Odo:"It's not to keep people out, it's to keep me in. I suppose, during the Occupation, the Cardassians considered their security chief a security risk."
Quark:"And I know why."
Odo:"Oh, do you?"
Quark:"It's because they knew you were an honorable man. The kind of person who would do the right thing regardless of the circumstances. And now your integrity… is going to get us both killed. I hope you're happy."
[Dukat has accidentally activated an old recording left by his former commanding officer]
Legate Kell: Dukat! If you are seeing this recording, it means you tried to abandon your post while the station's self-destruct sequence was engaged. That will not be permitted.
Dukat:(flustered) This is outrageous!
Legate Kell: You have lost control of Terok Nor, disgracing yourself and Cardassia. Your attempt to escape is no doubt a final act of cowardice. All fail-safes have been eliminated. Your personal access codes have been rescinded. The destruct sequence can no longer be halted. All you can do now is contemplate the depth of your disgrace... and try to die like a Cardassian.
Gul Dukat: ...but someone has to pay for what's happened here, and I don't want that someone to beme.
Thomas Riker:[saying the same thing William T. Riker will say about the Defiant in Star Trek: First Contact] Tough little ship.
Gul Dukat: Today is his eleventh birthday. I'd promised to take him to the amusement center in Lakarian City. He always wanted to go but I never have the time. I told him, this year will be different this year, Mekor. This year I will make the time.
Benjamin Sisko: I've had the same experience with Jake. At that age they never understand, do they? You just hope that one day they'll look back and say, “Now I understand, now I know why he did that.”
Gul Dukat: When my son looks back on this day, the only thing he'll remember is that a Federation officer on a Federation ship invaded his home and kept his father away from him on his eleventh birthday. And he won't look back with understanding, he'll look back with hatred. And that's sad.
Benjamin Sisko: She will be. And stop calling her “Nerys”.
Lwaxana Troi: Zanthi Fever?!? Oh, that— that's ridicu- that's impossible. That only affects older Betazoids.
Julian Bashir: Well, that may be, but according to my tests, you show all the symptoms. Zanthi Fever is a virus which affects the empathic abilities of um... mature Betazoids. It causes them to project their emotions onto others.
Benjamin Sisko: Then Mrs. Troi's amorous feelings for— [knowing smile] someone on the station were being passed along to the people around her.
Julian Bashir: Not everyone, only those within close proximity to her when she had an attack; and even then, there would have had to have been some pre-existing latent attraction.
Benjamin Sisko:[concerned] You're saying Dax—
Julian Bashir: Only on a subconscious level. Best not think about it too much, if you ask me.
Lwaxana Troi: I'm terribly sorry, Commander. I hope I haven't caused too much trouble.
Benjamin Sisko: I'm sure no permanent harm was done. Right, Doctor?
Julian Bashir: A simple wide-spectrum anti-viral agent should cure Mrs. Troi, and as for everyone else, well, they'll be back to normal in a day or two. Excuse me.[to Sisko] I promised Nerys that I'd meet her in her quarters this evening.
Benjamin Sisko:[stopping him] I think you ought to postpone that visit... for a day or two.
Julian Bashir: That's your fifth cup of coffee in twenty minutes.
Miles O'Brien: I didn't realize you were keeping track.
Julian Bashir: Oh, nervous and irascible.
Miles O'Brien: If you hadn't seen your wife and child for two months, you'd be irascible too.
Julian Bashir: Well, believe me, I'm looking forward to Keiko and Molly's visit as much as you are.
Miles O'Brien: Ha, I doubt that.
Julian Bashir: How many games of raquetball have we played in the last two months?
Miles O'Brien: I don't know. Fifteen, maybe twenty.
Julian Bashir: Try seventy. I've been keeping track of that, too, and do you know what all those games have proved to me? That I'm a poor substitute for your wife.
Miles O'Brien: I could have told you that sixty games ago.
Julian Bashir: Causing people to suffer because you hate them is terrible, but causing people to suffer because you have forgotten how to care— That’s really hard to understand.
[Kai Winn is trying to compel Dr. Bashir to treat Vedek Bareil in a way that will endanger his health]
Dr. Julian Bashir: Listen to me. I don't care about your negotiations, and I don't care about your treaty. All I care about is my patient, and at the moment he needs more medical care and less politics. Now, you can either leave here willingly or I'll call security and have you thrown out.
Major Kira Nerys: You won't need to call them. I'll do it myself.
Kai Winn: How is Bareil?
Dr. Julian Bashir: The organ replacement surgery went well. He's still unconscious, but he should be awake within the hour.
Kai Winn: Oh, good. There are still several points I have to discuss with him before the next negotiating session.
Dr. Julian Bashir: That's why I'm here. When you see Bareil, I want you to tell him that you don't need him, that you can complete these negotiations without him.
Kai Winn: But I do need him, Doctor.
Dr. Julian Bashir: I realise that. But I want you to tell him that you don't.
Kai Winn: You seem to be asking me to lie.
Dr. Julian Bashir: I'm asking you to free Bareil of his obligations to you. The only way he'll accept that is if you tell him he's no longer needed, that you can go on without him. Now, if that's a lie, then so be it.
Kai Winn: That doesn't sound like a Starfleet officer.
Dr. Julian Bashir: I'm a doctor first. And right now, I'm trying to give my patient his best chance to live. The only way to do that is to put him in stasis. Bareil knows that, but his desire to complete these negotiations is so strong that he's forcing me to keep him conscious and mentally alert, even though it may kill him.
Kai Winn: None of us wants that to happen, Doctor. But if I'm not mistaken, the decision regarding Bareil's treatment is up to him.
Dr. Julian Bashir: Yes. As the patient, it is his right to make that choice. But I'm asking you to help me change his mind. Eminence, you're the Kai. These are your negotiations. Let this be your moment in history. Finish the talks on your own and you won't have to share the credit with anyone.
Kai Winn: You say that as though success is guaranteed, Doctor.
Dr. Julian Bashir: Of course. If the talks fail, you'll need someone to accept the blame. A scapegoat.[disgusted] You're a coward. You're afraid to stand alone.
Kai Winn: Bareil's already made his decision, Doctor. I won't interfere. And Doctor?[in a threatening tone] I won't forget what you've said here.
Dr. Julian Bashir:[coldly] Neither will I.
[Bareil has been declared brain-dead]
Kira Nerys:[fighting back tears] Julian, you can't give up now. You have to keep going.
Dr. Julian Bashir:[sadly] Nerys, if I remove the rest of his brain and replace it with a machine, he may look like Bareil, he may even talk like Bareil, but he won'tbe Bareil. The spark of life will be gone. He'll be dead. And I'll be the one who killed him.
Kira Nerys:[sobbing] But if we do nothing, he'll die!
Dr. Julian Bashir: That's right, he will. But he'll die like a man, not a machine. Please, don't make me fight you on this one. Just let him go.
Kira: You're right. The next time we are asked out to dinner, I'll make sureyou're the one who says, "No".
Odo: I'd appreciate that.
[Nog has been asking Sisko for a letter of recommendation to join Starfleet Academy; Sisko has refused, thinking it's some kind of scam]
Sisko: I'm not going to put my reputation on the line just to satisfy some whim of yours.
Nog: It's not just a whim. I'm serious about joining Starfleet.
Sisko:: I don't have time for this, Nog. Now whatever little scheme you had, you can forget it. I'm not giving you that letter.
Nog:[angered] It's not a joke or a scheme! I want to join Starfleet. I want it more than anything I've ever wanted anything in my life!
Sisko: You're a Ferengi. Why would you want to be in Starfleet? Where's the profit in it?
Nog: I don't care about profit!
Sisko: Then whatdo you care about!?[Sisko takes Nog's shoulders and shakes him] Come on, Nog, tell me! Why is it so damned important for you to get into Starfleet? Why are you doing this?
Nog:[voice breaking] Because I don't want to end up like my father! [shocked, Sisko releases him]
Sisko: Your father?
Nog: That's right. My father. He's been chasing profit his whole life, and what has it gotten him?Nothing. And you know why? Because he doesn't have the lobes...and neither do I.
Sisko:[quoting] "And a Ferengi without profit..."
Nog: …"is no Ferengi at all."
Sisko: The eighteenth Rule of Acquisition.
Nog: My father is a mechanical genius. He could've been Chief Engineer of a starship if he'd had the opportunity. But he went into business, like a good Ferengi. The only thing is, he's not a good Ferengi, not when it comes to acquiring profit. So now all he has to live for is the slim chance that someday, somehow, he might be able to take over my uncle's bar. Well, I'm not going to make the same mistake. I want to do something with my life. Something worthwhile.
Sisko: Like joining Starfleet.
Nog: I may not have an instinct for business, but I have my father's hands and my uncle's tenacity. I know I've got something to offer, I just need the chance to prove it.
Sisko: All right. I'll see that you get that chance.
Nog:[overjoyed] You're going to recommend me to Starfleet Academy?
Sisko: I'll send the letter the first thing tomorrow morning.
Nog: Commander, I don't know how to thank you![he tries to embrace Sisko, only for Sisko to hold him at arm's length]
Sisko: Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! Don't thank me yet. You still have a lot of work ahead of you.
Nog: Don't worry. You're never going to regret this.[he offers his hand and Sisko shakes it]
Female Changeling:[to Odo, regarding Major Kira] She is never going to love you. How could she?You are aChangeling.
[after Bashir tells the story of The Boy Who Cried Wolf]
Julian Bashir: The point is, if you lie all the time, nobody's going to believe you even when you're telling the truth.
Elim Garak: Are you sure that's the point, Doctor?
Julian Bashir: Of course. What else could it be?
Elim Garak: That you should never tell the same lie twice.
Elim Garak: The truth is usually just an excuse for the lack of imagination.
Bashir: Is there anything you need me to do while you're gone?
Garak: Like what?
Bashir: I don't know— Any unfinished business?
Garak: Actually, Doctor, there is something. If you go into my quarters and examine the bulkhead next to the replicator, you'll notice there’s a false panel. Behind that panel is a compartment containing an isolinear rod. If I'm not back within 78 hours, I want you to take that rod and eat it.
Bashir: Eat it?!
Garak: Um-hum.
Bashir: You're joking.
Garak: Yes, Doctor, I am.
Bashir: Very. Funny.
Garak: I thought so! But the answer to your question, Doctor, is, “No. There is nothing you can do for me while I'm away.”
Enabran Tain: Do you remember getting that confession out of Dr. Parmak?
Elim Garak: I never even touched him.
Enabran Tain: That was the beauty of it. You just sat there for—what, three hours?
Elim Garak: Four!
Enabran Tain: And after four hours of watching you stare at him, he confessed.
Elim Garak: I was good, wasn't I?
Enabran Tain: You were brilliant. Afterwards, he just kept saying, "His eyes... his eyes."
Colonel Lovok: The fleet has re-cloaked and is heading to our destination at Warp six.
Elim Garak: Warp six? That's a little slow, isn't it?
[the Jem'Hadar is firing on their ship]
Enabran Tain: How could this be? What could have happened?
Elim Garak: I'm afraid the fault, dear Tain, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.
Enabran Tain: What?
Elim Garak: Something I learned from Doctor Bashir.
Chief Miles O'Brien: My mother always said, 'If you try to combine talking and eating, you'll end up doing neither very well.'
Elim Garak:(to Odo) Tell me something, Odo! Lie if you have to, but say it, now, please!
Lovok Changeling: The Tal Shiar and the Obsidian Order are both ruthless, efficient organizations—a definite threat to us.
Odo: But not after today?
Lovok Changeling: No, after today the only threat remaining to us from the Alpha Quadrant are the Klingons and the Federation. And I doubt either of them will be a threat for much longer.
[Sisko tells of the Cardassian/Romulan fleet being wiped out by the Jem'Hadar]
Admiral Toddman: Sounds like Wolf 359 all over again.
Elim Garak: Do you know what the sad part is, Odo? I'm a very good tailor.
Rom:(having finally had enough of Quark and their mother arguing) That's enough bickering! You're both acting like children! I will not stand by and let this family fall apart! Quark, you should be ashamed of yourself! I've seen you treatCardassians with more respect than you show your own mother! And Moogie, if Quark can uncover your hidden investments, eventually the FCA will too! And then all that profit will be lost! Think about that for a moment! Now, neither of you is going to leave this room until you've settled things! Is that clear? AND NO SHOUTING! (Beat) I'm going to take a nap.(leaves)
Benjamin Sisko:[discussing Curzon Dax] Let me tell you something about Curzon. He was my friend, he was my confidant, in a way he was my teacher as well. But he was also manipulative, selfish, and arrogant. Most people let him get away with it because he was so charming. Sometimes I let him get away with it too. But from time to time, he'd push me too far, and I'd have to stand up to him. Tell him he'd crossed the line.
Jadzia Dax: And how would he react?
Benjamin Sisko: Sometimes he'd just laugh and admit it. Sometimes he'd be furious. But either way, he'd back off because he knew he was wrong.
[Rom finds out Quark deliberately sabotaged Nog's entry exam to Starfleet Academy]
Quark: I did it for his own good, Rom. I couldn't just stand by and watch my nephew throw his life away.
Rom: You had no right to interfere! I've already told Commander Sisko what you did, and he's going to let Nog retake the test!
Quark: You what?!
Rom: You heard me! And if youever do anything to hurt Nog again, I'll burn the bar to the ground!
Quark: You wouldn't dare.
Rom: Oh. yes, I would. My son's happiness is more important to me than anything, even latinum! Remember that, brother!
Michael Eddington: People don't enter Starfleet to become commanders, or admirals for that matter. It's the captain's chair that everyone has their eye on.
Chief Miles O'Brien:(looking at two Odos, one is real and the other a Changeling imposter) I have more important things to do than play "Choose the Changeling"!
Odo: The Changeling, before he died, he whispered something to me.
Benjamin Sisko: Go on.
Odo: He said, "You're too late. We're everywhere."
Chief O'Brien: I never thought I'd say this, but right now I'm glad the Dominion's around. Otherwise, we never would have started these upgrades, let alone have them almost finished by now.
Major Kira: There's something to be said for incentive.
Chief O'Brien: Uh-huh. I just hope everything works okay.
Major Kira: You're saying you're not sure?
Chief O'Brien: The way I see it, there are two possibilities: either everything will be fine, or...
Major Kira: Or?
Chief O'Brien:[slightly hesitant] Or we end up blowing the station to pieces.[chuckles]
Major Kira: Oh. Well, let's hope we don't have to find out.
Elim Garak:[while sniping Klingons] I find this hand-to-hand combat really quite distasteful!
Gul Dukat:[duelling another Klingon] I suppose you prefer the simplicity of an interrogation chamber?!
Elim Garak: You have to admit, it's much more civilized!
Benjamin Sisko: Arm quantum torpedoes. Drop the cloak and raise shields. We're going in.
Benjamin Sisko: I finally realized that it wasn't Starfleet that I was trying to get away from. I was trying to escape the pain I felt after my wife's death. I thought I could take the uniform, wrap it around the pain, and toss them both away. But it doesn't work like that. Running may help for a little while, but sooner or later the pain catches up with you, and the only way to get rid of it is to stand your ground and face it.
Julian Bashir: I'm sure there's more than one Klingon who thinks that slaying a Changeling would be worthy of a song or two.
Odo: Doctor, if a Klingon were to kill me, I'd expect an entire opera on the subject.
Odo: Come on, Quark, move it along. You should be in the emergency shelter by now.
Quark: I'm not going to any emergency shelter! This is my bar and I'm going to defend it.
Odo: Really? And how do you plan to do that?
Quark: With this.(holds up a closed box)
Odo: You're going to hit them with a box?
Quark: No, this is my disruptor pistol, the one I used to carry back in the old days when I was serving on that Ferengi freighter.
Odo: I thought you were the ship's cook.
Quark: That's right, and every member of that crew thought he was a food critic. If the Klingons try to get through these doors, I'll be ready for them.
(He opens the box, which is empty save for a note. Odo takes it out.)
Odo:(reads aloud) "Dear Quark, I used parts of your disruptor to fix the replicators. Will return them soon. Rom."
Quark:(grabs the note) I will kill him!
Odo: With what?
[Kira and Dax come down the stairs dressed as medieval ladies.]
Quark: I know. It's so bubbly and cloying and happy.
Elim Garak: Just like the Federation.
Quark: And you know what's really frightening? If you drink enough of it, you begin to like it.
Elim Garak: It's insidious.
Quark: Just like the Federation.
[pause]
Elim Garak: Do you think they can save us?
Quark: I hope so.
Benjamin Sisko: We've had a year to prepare this station for a Dominion attack, and we're more than ready.
Gowron:(laughs) You're like a toothless oldgrishna cat, trying to frighten us with your roar!
Benjamin Sisko: I assure you, this old cat may not be as toothless as you think. Right now I've gotfive thousandphoton torpedoes armed and ready to launch. If you don't believe me, feel free to scan the station.
[Martok and Gowron look across the bridge to their sensor officer, who nods.]
Martok: It's a trick! An illusion created by thoron fields and duranium shadows.
Benjamin Sisko: It's no illusion.
Gowron: We shall see.(in Klingon) Today is a good day to die!
Gowron: Your shields are down, your station boarded, and more Klingon ships are on their way! Surrender while you can!
Benjamin Sisko: I don't think so. My shields are holding, your boarding parties are contained, and my reinforcements are closer than yours.
Gowron: Captain, your shields have been weakened, your station boarded, and more Klingon ships are on their way. Surrender while you can.
Benjamin Sisko: I don't think so. My shields are holding, your boarding parties are contained, and my reinforcements are closer than yours. You're facing a war on two fronts. Is that what you really want?
Worf: The Empire is not strong enough to fight the Federation and the Cardassians. End this now, Gowron, before you lead the Empire to its worst defeat in history.
Martok: We will not surrender!
Benjamin Sisko: This is exactly what the Founders want! Klingon against Cardassian, Federation against Klingon. The more we fight each other, the weaker we'll get, and the less chance we have against the Dominion.
Worf: Consider what you do here, Gowron. Kahless himself said"destroying an Empire to win a war is no victory".
Gowron: And ending a battle to save an Empire is no defeat.
Martok: We can still win!
Benjamin Sisko:(referring to the Federation reinforcements) Not before those starships get here. Now, what do you want me to tell them? To stand down or come in firing?
Gowron: ...It is we who shall stand down.
Martok: Agh Dogh!
Gowron: Enough! Cease fire. Order our ships in Cardassian territory to halt their advance. I do not intend to hand victory to the Dominion! But hear this. The Klingon Empire will remember what has happened today. You have sided against us in battle! And THIS we do not forgive or forget!
Benjamin Sisko: I'm no writer, but if I were, it seems to me I'd wanna poke my head up every once in a while and take a look around—see what's going on. It's life, Jake! You can miss it if you don't open your eyes!
Jake Sisko: This is the last chance I'm ever going to have to help you. [Jake fades in and out] [Pained] No!
Benjamin Sisko: Jake, it's over. It's not going to work.
Jake: It has to.
Benjamin: Let go, Jake! If not for yourself, then for me. You still have time to make a better life for yourself. Promise me you'll do that. [Pleading]Promise me!
Jake: Read the dedication.
Benjamin: "To my father, who's coming home". Thank you, but I— I don't understand.
Jake: It was me. It was me all along. I've been dragging you through time like an anchor, and now it's time to cut you loose.
Benjamin: Jake, what are you saying?
Jake: It won't be long now.
Benjamin: Jake, you didn't have to do this. Not for me.
Jake: For you, and for the boy that I was. He needs you, more than you know. Don't you see? We're going to get a second... chance.
Miles O'Brien: Keiko only spends a few days at a time on the station. I'm the one living in those quarters, and if I want to set up a little workshop in the bedroom—
Julian Bashir: You set up a workshop in the bedroom?
Miles O'Brien: Yeah. I don't use it when she's visiting.
Julian Bashir: No, of course not.
Miles O'Brien: She says I'm trying to live like a bachelor again, that I'm expressing a subconscious desire to push her out of our quarters.
Julian Bashir: Now thatis ridiculous.
Miles O'Brien: That's what I said!
Julian Bashir: I mean, if anything, by spending your free time in the bedroom, a place you intimately associate with Keiko, you are actually expressing...a desire to be closer to her...during her absence. It's quite touching, really.
Miles O'Brien: Exactly! Exactly! See, you understand. Why can't she see that? Why can't she be more like—
Julian Bashir: More like?
Miles O'Brien:[Beat] Uh, a man. Y—you know, more like a man.
Julian Bashir: So...you wish that Keiko...was a man.
Miles O'Brien: I wish I was on this trip with someone else, that's what I wish.
Bashir: What a lovely place. Smells like a garbage dump.
O'Brien: I'm sorry I couldn't find a nicer place to crash-land. Should we try again?
Kira Nerys: Tell me something—who's Tora Ziyal? When I reactivated the Ravinok's computer, I downloaded the manifest. There were two civilians on board, in addition to the prisoners and the crew. Your... friend Tora Naprem and a Tora Ziyal, a thirteen year-old girl.
Gul Dukat: I suppose you wouldn't believe me if I told you she was Naprem's sister?
Worf: Things that will send cold chills down your spine and wake you in the middle of the night. No, it is better that you do not know. Excuse me.[He leaves]
Kira Nerys: I can never tell when he's joking.
Lenara Kahn: Perhaps it is better that we 'do not know'.
Jadzia Dax: Everyone's trying to... look out for us. Protect us from ourselves. But in the end, all that matters is how we feel... and what we do about it. Because either way, we're the ones who have to live with the consequences.
Lenara Kahn: That's the tricky part though, isn't it? Living with the consequences. When I'm not with you, when you're not around, it's like part of me is missing. I want to be with you more than anything. But I don't think I can do this.
Jadzia Dax: Can you really walk away from me, from us? After all this time, we're back together. Don't throw that away.
Lenara Kahn: I don't want to. Maybe I need more time. Maybe if I go back to Trill for a while—think it over. I could always come back later.
Jadzia Dax: I wish I could believe that. But ultimately, it comes down to this—if you feel about me the way I feel about you, you won't get on that transport tomorrow. And if you do leave, I think we both know you're never coming back.
Quark: All I ask is a tall ship— And a load of contraband to fill her with.
Quark: All hu-mons look alike.
Rom: New customers are like razor-tooth gree-worms—they can be succulent, but sometimes they bite back.
[Rom has explained how he'll save their lives with a long string of technobabble]
Quark: Rom! You're a genius!
Rom: You think so?
Quark: How should I know? I have no idea what you're talking about.
Nog: Tries to warn his father not to interfer with theUniversal timeline
Quark: "within a year we'll be running this planet," and dreams of cultivating a vast Ferengi economic empire with himself as the Grand Nagus. [Tribute to Charleton Heston remarks in "Planet of the Apes"[!}
General Denning: What do you know about atom bombs?
Quark: My people have been watching your world for years. We know all about you—baseball, root beer, darts, atom bombs.
Odo: Hello Quark!.
Nog: The first landing parties will arrive here!(points at a random spot on a map)
Wainwright: Where?
Nog: Here, right next to this blue blob!
Wainwright: You mean your people are going to invade— Cleveland?
[Quark's cousin has tried to kill him earlier]
Quark: I'm innocent, I tell ya! This is all a misunderstanding! Rom, get me a lawyer!
Rom: I'll call Cousin Gaila. I'm sure he'll know a good one.
Quark:[as he's being dragged away] ROM, YOU IDIOT!
Elim Garak: Kiss the girl, get the key. They never taught methat in the Obsidian Order.
Elim Garak: Interesting. You saved the day by destroying the world.
Julian Bashir: I'll bet they didn't teach youthat in the Obsidian Order.
Elim Garak: No. No, there were a good many things they didn't teach me. Like the value of a good game of chance. Or how indulging in fantasy keeps the mind creative.
Julian Bashir: Lunch tomorrow?
Elim Garak: Of course. But why don't we have it atyour place. In Hong Kong. Unless this was your last adventure.
Julian Bashir: Oh, I think it's safe to say that Julian Bashir, Secret Agent, will return.
[Re: the decor in the holodeck, circa 1964]
Elim Garak: Another decorator's nightmare. This era had a distinct lack of taste.
[Bashir has shot Garak, who is lightly bleeding from his neck]
Julian Bashir: You'll be fine. It's just a flesh wound.
Elim Garak: That was awfully close. What if you'd killed me?
Julian Bashir: What makes you think I wasn't trying?
Elim Garak:[Brightening] Doctor, I believe there's hope for you yet.
Caprice: Thank you, Mister— Mister—
Julian Bashir: Bashir. Julian Bashir.
[They kiss]
Elim Garak: Is that your plan?
Julian Bashir: Shut up!
Julian Bashir: Baccarat and geology are my life.
Noah (holographic Sisko): If you think you are gonna destroy my keyboard, you are wasting your time!
Bashir presses the button and floods the world
Flacon (holographic O'Brien):It's working just as you planned! You've done it, doctor."
Noah (holographic Sisko): "Yes. But somehow, I didn't expect towin."
- Falcon and Hippocrates Noah; after Bashir destroys the world
Elim Garak:"Interesting, you saved the day by destroying the world."
Julian Bashir: "I bet they didn't teach you that in the Obsidian Order."
Joseph Sisko: I'm not sleeping. I was checking my eyelids for holes.
Benjamin Sisko: I hope you don't take this the wrong way, Constable... but there are times when I wish you'd never found your people.
Odo: Believe me, Captain, sometimes I feel the same way.
[In Ops, the DS9 crew discuss the strange activity of the wormhole]
Lt. Commander Worf: When was the last time the wormhole opened?
Major Kira Nerys: Twelve hours ago.
Worf: Perhaps it has returned to normal?
Kira: I suppose so.
Chief Miles O'Brien: You sound disappointed, Major.
Kira: I guess I am. Part of me was hoping that the Prophets were behind it, that they were finally going to show themselves to the Bajoran people.
Worf: I prefer Klingon beliefs.
Kira: I suppose your gods aren't as cryptic as ours.
Worf: Our gods are dead. Ancient Klingon warriors slew them millennia ago. They were more trouble than they were worth.[Kira and O'Brien exchange looks]
Kira: I don't think I'll ever understand Klingons.
O'Brien: Don't worry about it, Major. Nobody does. That's the way they like it.
Chief O'Brien: You probably wouldn't understand this, Quark, but when you care about a place and it's in trouble and you want to do something about it, and you can't, it's very frustrating.
Quark: I know exactly what you mean! When the Great Monetary Collapse hit Ferenginar, I was hundreds of light-years away serving as a ship's cook on a long-haul freighter. I can't tell you the heartbreak I suffered, knowing that rampant inflation and currency devaluation were burning like wildfires through the lush financial foliage of my home. It still depresses me, even today. I remembered thinking my accounts needed me and there was nothing I could do! I felt so... so helpless. So you see, I do understand.
Chief O'Brien: Somehow, you telling me that doesn't make me feel the least bit better.
(Joseph has cut his finger)
Joseph: I've got a dermal regenerator under the...(Joseph notices Sisko staring at the blood, and realises what he's wondering about) Benjamin Lafayette Sisko! What the hell has gotten into your head? You actually thought I was one of them, didn't you?
Sisko(desperate, upset): I don't know. I wasn't sure.
Joseph: This business has got you so twisted around you can't think straight. You're seeing shape-shifters everywhere. Maybe you ought to think about something for a minute. If I was a smart shape-shifter, a really good one, the first thing I would do would be to grab some poor soul off the street, absorb every ounce of his blood, and let it out on cue whenever someone like you tried to test me. Don't you see? There isn't a test that's been created a smart man can't find his way around. You aren't going to catch shape-shifters using some gadget.
Federation President Jaresh-Inyo: Earth is in your hands, gentlemen. Do what needs to be done.
Benjamin Sisko: There comes a time in every man’s life when he must stop thinking and start doing.
Nog: I'm sorry, Captain, the names of Red Squad members are supposed to be secret.
Benjamin Sisko: But you know who they are?
Nog: Hee-hee. It's not easy keeping secrets from a Ferengi, and I feel funny telling anyone else. Besides, if they found out I told you, I'd never get in.
Benjamin Sisko: Cadet, you are obviously under the mistaken impression that I am asking a favor.[increasingly hostile voice] I want a name and I want it now and that is an order. Understood, Mr. Nog?
Nog: Yes, sir.
[Sisko interrogating a Cadet]
Cadet Shepherd: ...and our role would go unrecognized, at least for now.
Benjamin Sisko: Maybe if you had done your job right it would have. But you fouled it up, didn't you? You cadets did some sloppy work—somedamn sloppy work.
[Sisko enters Leyton's office pointing a phaser at him]
Admiral Leyton: Are you planning on using that?
Benjamin Sisko: Against a fellow officer? I hope not.[Takes off Leyton's combadge] But I will have to ask for your resignation.
Admiral Leyton: You'll forgive me if I don't leap at the opportunity.
Benjamin Sisko: I have enough evidence to convict you of treason. We have Lieutenant Arriaga in custody on the Defiant, and he is ready to admit that under your orders, he attached a subspace modulator to the relay satellite on the far side of the wormhole. That's why it was opening and closing at random.
Admiral Leyton: Why would anyone want to do that?
Benjamin Sisko: To make it look like a cloaked Dominion fleet was coming through the wormhole. That way, when Earth's power relays were sabotaged, people would think that an invasion was imminent.
Admiral Leyton: That's a very interesting theory, but it's not going to do you much good. Lieutenant Arriaga isn't going to get to Earth. I've sent theLakota to intercept theDefiant.
Benjamin Sisko: You really think one Starfleet starship will fire on another?
Admiral Leyton: As far as Benteen's crew is concerned, theDefiant isn't a Starfleet ship. They've been told that everyone on theDefiant 's been replaced by Shapeshifters.
Tora Ziyal: When I look at my father, I have a hard time seeing a murderer.
Kira Nerys: And when I look at him, I have a hard time seeing anything else.
Gul Dukat: What is this I hear about you and Shakaar?
Kira Nerys: I don't know what you've heard.
Gul Dukat: First it was Vedek Bareil, and now it's the head of the Bajoran government. You do like powerful men, don't you?
Kira Nerys: First of all, Shakaar's an old friend. Second of all, whatbusiness is it of yours?
Gul Dukat: Let's just say it's further incentive for me to regain my former position.
Tora Ziyal: You don't like my father very much, do you?
Kira Nerys: No, I don't.
Tora Ziyal: I understand. He did some very bad things during the Occupation.
Kira Nerys: Yes, he did.
Tora Ziyal: It bothers him, you know?
Kira Nerys:[Disbelieving] Does it?
Tora Ziyal: Very much. He talks about it sometimes. He'd never admit it to anyone else, but he thinks the Occupation was a mistake.
Kira Nerys: Somehow, I don't think he'd say that if the Cardassians had won.
Tora Ziyal: Maybe not, but maybe losing made him a better person.
Kira Nerys: Well, then, a lot of innocent people died for his education.
Gul Dukat: You judge me too harshly. Maybe I am seeking to regain my former position, one which I earned through hard work, dedication, and sacrifice, but redemption is not my sole motivation. I care about my people, and I don't intend to allow the Klingons to get away with murdering them. I'm a much more complicated man than you give me credit for.
Kira Nerys: Well, if that's true, I suppose I prefer simpler men.
Gul Dukat: Like Shakaar? It amazes me that a woman as intelligent and sophisticated as you could be attracted to such a lumbering, simplistic fieldhand. I mean, what could the two of you possibly talk about?
Kira Nerys: That lumbering fieldhand is the First Minister of Bajor, and he knows more about how to talk to me than you ever will.
Gul Dukat: How can you be so sure? After all, you don't know me well enough to make a comparison.
Kira Nerys: I don't want to know you well enough. And if you want to keep working with me, I suggest you stick to business.
Gul Dukat: I'm sorry, Major. I didn't mean any harm. I was just making conversation.
Gul Dukat: Major, is it my imagination, or do you have a hard time accepting compliments?
Kira Nerys: I have a hard time accepting compliments from you.
Gul Dukat: Well, I'll try to restrain my enthusiasm,[Leans in and whispers] but I can't make you any promises.
[Dukat has asked Kira to join him in his fight against the Klingons]
Gul Dukat: You know how to organize a resistance cell, you're an expert at terrorist tactics, you have close ties with Bajoran and Federation officials, and besides all that, it would give you a chance to do what you were meant to do.
Kira Nerys: No, thanks. I've already got a job.
Gul Dukat: What do you mean? On that space station? We both know your talents are being wasted there, co-ordinating docking assignments and leading training exercises. On Deep Space Nine, you're nothing but a bureaucrat, an administrator. If you come with me, you can be a soldier again. Think about it, Major—the chance to fight again against a superior foe in a righteous cause, to protect a defeated and broken people from a cruel aggressor. You know as well as I do that if Cardassia falls, Bajor is next. Help me stop the Klingons before you become their next target.
Kira Nerys: You're really serious about this.
Gul Dukat: Absolutely! Look, Major, I'm not asking you to like me or to be my friend. I'm asking you to join me, to fight at my side. You know what I'm doing is right, and it's what you want to do as well. I know that our past makes it difficult for you to accept me as an ally. I also know that every fiber of your being is telling you to say, "No, no, no," but somewhere I know there's a "Yes." You need to listen to that "Yes," not for my sake, not for Cardassia's, not even for Bajor's, but for your sake.
Gul Dukat: Well, Major, it appears that whether you like it or not, our lives have become deeply intertwined.
Kira Nerys:[Smiles] That really pleases you, doesn't it?
Gul Dukat: Pleases me? Major, it gives me reason to live.
Miles O'Brien: Oh, I'm perfectly healthy, except I've got a disgusting cyst on the back of my neck. Now either I paint a nose, eyes, and mouth on it and pretend I've got two heads, or you take it off.
Julian Bashir: I'll get you some paint.
Miles O'Brien: Julian! Get it off me!
Julian Bashir: Alright, alright. But you know what they say: two heads are better than one.
Miles O'Brien: Julian, I'm waiting!
Unidentified: 211: “Employees are the rungs on the ladder of success—don't hesitate to step on them.”
Rom: “Never allow doubt to tarnish your lust for latinum.”
Liquidator Brunt:[threatening Rom's union members] If this was Ferenginar, I'd have you all taken to the spire of the Tower of Commerce, displayed to the crowds in the Great Marketplace below, thenshoved off!One! By! One! Small children would bet on where you would land, and your spattered remains would be sold as feed mulch for gree-worms!
Benjamin Sisko: Part of being a captain is knowing when to smile. Make the troops happy! Even when it's the last thing in the world you want to do. Because they are your troops, and you have to take care of them.
Worf: Life is a great deal more complicated in this red uniform.
Benjamin Sisko: Wait till you get four pips on that collar. You'll wish you had gone into botany.
Julian Bashir: Look, I don't claim to know what you're going through, but whatever it is, it's not worth dying for.
Miles O'Brien: You don't understand at all. I'm not doing this for me. I'm doing it to protect Keiko and Molly and everyone else on this station.
Julian Bashir: Protect us from what?
Miles O'Brien: From me. I'm not the man I used to be. I'm dangerous. I nearly hit Molly today. All she wanted was a little attention, and I nearly hit her.
Julian Bashir: But you didn't. You're a good man, Miles Edward O'Brien, and whatever it is you think you've done wrong, you don't deserve to die.
Michael Eddington: I know you. I was like you once, but then I opened my eyes. Open your eyes, Captain. Why is the Federation so obsessed about the Maquis? We've never harmed you. And yet we're constantly arrested and charged with terrorism. Starships chase us through the Badlands, and our supporters are harassed and ridiculed. Why? Because we've left the Federation, and that's the one thing you can't accept. Nobody leaves Paradise. Everyone should want to be in the Federation. Hell, you even want the Cardassians to join. You're only sending them replicators so that one day they can take their rightful place on the Federation Council. You know, in some ways you're worse than the Borg. At least they tell you about their plans for assimilation. You're more insidious—you assimilate people and they don't even know it.
Benjamin Sisko: You know what, Mr. Eddington? I don't give a damn what you think of the Federation, or the Maquis, or anything else. All I know is that you betrayed your oath, your duty, and me. And if it takes me the rest of my life, I'll see you standing before a court-martial that'll break you and send you to a penal colony where you'll spend the rest of your days growing old and wondering whether a ship full of replicators was really worth it.
Elim Garak:(re: a Cardassian phaser) I guess I won't be needing this then.
Weyoun: Captain Benjamin Sisko. Your psychographic profile is required reading for Vorta Field Supervisors. I probably know things about you that you don't know yourself.
Benjamin Sisko: If you're trying to impress me, you can forget it.
Weyoun: What would you say if I offered to make you absolute ruler of the Federation? No President, no Starfleet Chief of Staff, just you.
Benjamin Sisko: I'd say your psychographic profile of me isn't as good as you think.
Weyoun:(laughs richly) Just doing my job.
Worf: It has come to my attention that Omet'iklan has made a threat against your life.
Benjamin Sisko: I didn't think it was public knowledge.
Worf: You told Commander Dax.
Benjamin Sisko: Well, that explains it.
[Dax is trying to work, but Virak'kara is staring at her]
Jadzia Dax: Am I really that interesting? You've been standing there staring at me for the last two hours.
Virak'kara: You are part of my combat team. I must learn to understand your behaviour, anticipate your actions.
Jadzia Dax: There must be something you'd rather do. Maybe get some sleep?
Virak'kara: We don't sleep.
Jadzia Dax: How about getting something to eat?
Virak'kara: The white is the only thing we need.
Jadzia Dax: Don't sleep, don't eat. What do you do for relaxation?
Virak'kara: Relaxation would only make us weak.
Jadzia Dax: You people are no fun at all. I'm glad I'm not a Jem'Hadar woman.
Virak'kara: There are no Jem'Hadar women.
Jadzia Dax: So what do you do? Lay eggs?
Virak'kara: Jem'Hadar are bred in birthing chambers. We are able to fight within three days of our emergence.
Jadzia Dax: Lucky you. So let me get this straight—no sleep, no food, no women. No wonder you're so angry. After thirty or forty years of that, I'd be angry too.
Virak'kara: No Jem'Hadar has ever lived thirty years.
Jadzia Dax:[puzzled] How old are you?
Virak'kara: I am eight.
Jadzia Dax: I would have guessed at least fifteen.
Virak'kara: Few Jem'Hadar live that long. If we reach twenty, we are considered honored elders.[leans in] How old are you?
Jadzia Dax: I stopped counting at three hundred.
Virak'kara:[amazed] You don't look it.
Jadzia Dax: Thank you.
Omet'iklan: I am First Omet'iklan, and I am dead. As of this moment, we are all dead. We go into battle to reclaim our lives. This we do gladly, for we are Jem'Hadar. Remember, victory is life.
Jem'Hadar: Victory is life.
[The Jem'Hadar march out.]
Weyoun: Such a delightful people.
Miles O'Brien: I am Chief Miles Edward O'Brien. I am very much alive and I intend to stay that way.
Quark:[as a jingle for his bar] Come to Quark's, Quark's is fun, come right now, don't walk, run!
Major Kira Nerys:[threatening Quark for inserting advertisements for his bar in DS9's systems] If all your little advertisements aren't purged from our systems by the time I get back from the Gamma Quadrant, I will come to Quark's, and believe me, Iwill have fun.
Julian Bashir: I was looking forward to tomorrow—to see Kira again, asking, "How was the nebula? And by the way, I cured that blight thing those people had."
Jadzia Dax: It's not a crime to believe in yourself.
Julian Bashir: These people believed in me, and look where it got them. Trevian was right—there is no cure. The Dominion made sure of that, and I was so arrogant, I thought I could find one in a week!
Jadzia Dax: Maybe it was arrogant to think that. But it's even more arrogant to think that there isn't a cure just becauseyou couldn't find it.
Quark: Awful! Did you hear that sound of bone snapping? I don't want that to be the last thing I hear!
Elim Garak: It wasn't that loud.
Quark: You don't have these ears. Snapping vertebrae is out.
Elim Garak: We're running out of options, Quark. You don't want to be vaporized because you need a body. The disruptor ruined your clothing, the knife was too savage, the nerve gas smelled bad, hanging took too long, and poison... What was wrong with poison?
Quark: It doesn't work. If I know the food is poisoned, I won't eat it.[motions to the "corpse"] Could you get rid of this? The sight of it is making me sick.
Elim Garak: Computer, remove corpse.[it vanishes] For a man who wants to kill himself, you are strangely determined to live.
Quark: I'm going to die; don't you worry about that. I just want to find the right way.
Elim Garak: "Right way"?
Quark: I don't want to see it coming, or hear it, or feel it, or smell it. I just want to go on with my life, and then... I'm dead.
Elim Garak: Ah. You want to be surprised.
Quark: Exactly. I want to wake up in the Divine Treasury and have no idea how I got there.
Elim Garak: I see. Perhaps that can be arranged.
Quark: Really?
Elim Garak: You have my word. You'll never know what hit you.
Rom: Rule of Acquisition Number 17: “A contract is a contract is a contract. But only between Ferengi.”
Grand Nagus Gint: I am Gint, the first Grand Nagus!
Quark: You look like my brother, Rom.
Grand Nagus Gint: That's because this is a dream, you imbecile!
Quark: A dream. That explains why this place looks so tacky.
Grand Nagus Gint: Never be afraid to mislabel a product.
Quark:[to FCA Liquidator Brunt] Look, I've broken the contract, so do your job. Take my assets, revoke my Ferengi business license. Do whatever you have to do, then get out. And if Iever see you walk into my bar again...
Miles O'Brien: It's funny. I've served on half a dozen different ships and none of them have had cloaking devices except theDefiant. Now that we're not using it, I feel naked.
Benjamin Sisko: Gentlemen, I feel the same breeze you do.
[Dax smiles]
Miles O'Brien: What are you smiling at?
Jadzia Dax: I don't know. I guess it's just being in the same room as so many naked men.
[after Garak inquires about Cardassian survivors of the attack on the Founders' homeworld]
Female Changeling: There were no Cardassian survivors.
Elim Garak:[shocked] You mean... they'reall dead?
Female Changeling: They're dead. You're dead. Cardassia is dead. Your people were doomed the moment they attacked us. I believe that answers your question.
Benjamin Sisko: Brag all you want, but don't get between me and the bloodwine!
Miles O'Brien: So, let me get this straight: all we have to do is get past an enemy fleet, avoid a tachyon detection grid, beam into the middle of Klingon headquarters and avoid the Brotherhood of the Sword long enough to set these things up and activate them in front of Gowron?
Worf: If we succeed, there will be many songs sung in our honor.
Miles O'Brien: Let's hope we're there to hear them.
Kira: I just hope I can survive one.
Bashir: You're doing great.
Kira: Oh, I don't feel great.
Bashir: You're... positively glowing!
Kira: Oh, really?
Bashir: I think so. But I suppose my opinion doesn't count.
Kira: Oh, it counts—but don't forget that this is still YOUR fault.
Bashir: MY fault?
Kira: You performed the transfer from Keiko to me.
Bashir: After you volunteered.
Kira: After you put the idea in my head!
Bashir: After you flew the runabout into an asteroid field!
Kira: After you insisted on checking those anomalous bio scans!
Bashir: That was Keiko!!
Kira: That's right, it was! But I'd rather blame you!
Bashir: Whatever makes you happy.
Gul Dukat: Major, I must say I'm shocked. You use my daughter to lure me here, you're asking me to risk my ship on some fool's errand into the Klingon Empire, and you're pregnant. I hope First Minister Shakaar appreciates what a lucky man he is.
[Sisko stops O'Brien and Worf from fighting due tocabin fever and pulls them apart]
Sisko: I said, that's enough! You're Starfleet officers. Now start acting like it!
Jadzia Dax: Tough guys. A little pressure and they buckle.[Sisko rounds on her]
Sisko: Dax, maybe you haven't noticed, but no one's laughing! Now I know it's hot, we're filthy, tired, and we've got ten isotons of explosives going off outside, but we will never get out of this if we don't pull it together and start to act like professionals.
Kilana: Do you have any gods, Captain Sisko?
Sisko: There are... things I believe in.
Kilana: Duty? Starfleet, the Federation? You must be pleased with yourself. You have the ship to take back to them. I hope it was worth it.
Sisko:[sadly] So do I.
[after the mission on DS9]
Sisko: Starfleet Command is waiting for my official report, but every time I try to get it started, I find myself staring at the casualty list and reading the same five names over and over again. T'Lor, Rooney, Bertram, Hoya, Muniz.
Jadzia Dax: It may sound cruel, but we both know that ship out there was worth it. Those five deaths may save five thousand lives, or maybe even five million.
Sisko: And if I had to make the same trade all over again, I would. But five people are dead. Fine men and women who deserved a lot more than to die on some lonely planet fifty thousand light years away from home.
Sisko:[quoting one of his instructors at Starfleet Academy] "Always maintain emotional distance between yourself and those under your command."
Jadzia Dax: It's good advice.
Sisko: And I try to follow it. But it's a lot more complicated outside of the classroom. Did you know that Jake and Muniz have the same birthday? That I performed the ceremony at Hoya's wedding? And Rooney, he could play the trumpet. I heard him at Quark's once and he had the people dancing in the aisles.
Jadzia Dax: I remember. And you know something else I remember about him? How proud he was to wear his uniform. And how proud he was to serve under you. The same as Hoya, T'Lor, Bertram and Muniz. They chose a life in Starfleet. They knew the risks and they died fighting for something that they believed in.
Grilka: The recent hostilities between the Federation and the Empire have been very costly to my family. We have suffered great losses in ships, lands, warriors.
Jadzia Dax: If I were in your shoes, I would be looking for someone a little more entertaining, a little more fun... and maybe even a little more attainable.
Worf: You are not in my shoes.
Jadzia Dax: Too bad. You'd be amazed at what I can do in a pair of size 18 boots.
Worf: Grilka is from theMekro'vak region. It is customary among her people for the man to bring the leg of a Lingta to the first courtship dinner. Make sure it is fresh, as if you had just killed it. Then, use the leg to sweep aside everything on the table... and declare in a loud voice, "I have brought you this. From this day, I wish to provide food for you and your House, and all I ask is to share your company and do honor to your name."
Dr. Julian Bashir:(examining an injured Quark) A compound fracture of the right radius, two fractured ribs, torn ligaments, strained tendons, numerous contusions, bruises, and scratches. Whathave you been doing?
Quark: You mean,(taking Grilka's hand) what havewe been doing?
(Quark and Grilka erupt into naughty laughter)
Dr. Julian Bashir:(unsettled) Never mind. I don't need that particular image running around my head. I'll just treat you.
[He turns around to see Worf and Dax, both bruised and bleeding, entering the infirmary.]
Dr. Julian Bashir: What happened to you two?
Lt. Cmdr. Worf: We, uh...
Jadzia Dax: Well, if you must know—
Dr. Julian Bashir:[becoming flustered] No! I don't need that particular image, either. In fact, I'm going to stop asking that question altogether! People can come in, I will treat them, and that will be all.
Dulmer: Be specific, Captain. WhichEnterprise? There've been five.
Lucsly: Six.
Sisko: This was the firstEnterprise. Constitution-class.
[Both agents sit back, astonished]
Dulmer:His ship.
Lucsly: James T. Kirk.
Sisko:[grins] The one and only.
Dulmer: Seventeen separate temporal violations. The biggest file on record.
Lucsly: The man was a menace.
Bashir: I'm a doctor, not an historian.
Sisko: In the old days, Operations officers wore red, Command officers wore gold.
Jadzia Dax: And women wore less.[shows off her outfit...which suits her]
Bashir: I think I'm going to like history.
Dax: I had no idea.
Sisko: What?
Dax: He’s so much more handsome in person. Those eyes.
Sisko: Kirk had quite the reputation as a ladies’ man.
Dax: Not him — Spock.
Worf: Where did you get that...thing?
Odo: From a man named Cyrano Jones. He told me tribbles like everyone. Well, this one doesn't seem to like you.
Worf: THE FEELING'S--[lowers his voice] The feeling's mutual. They are detestable creatures!
Odo: Hm... interesting. It's been my observation that most humanoids love soft, furry animals, especially if they make pleasing sounds.
Worf: They do nothing but consume food and breed. If you feed that thing more than the smallest morsel, in a few hours you'll have ten tribbles, then a hundred, then a thousand!
Odo: Calm down.
Worf: They were once considered mortal enemies of the Klingon Empire.
Odo:[scoffs] This?! A mortal enemy of the Empire?
Worf: They were an ecological menace, a plague to be wiped out.
Odo: Wiped out?! What are you saying?!
Worf: Hundreds of warriors were sent to track them down throughout the galaxy. An armada obliterated the Tribble homeworld. By the end of the 23rd century, they had been eradicated.
Odo: Anotherglorious chapter of Klingon history. Tell me, do they still sing songs of the Great Tribble Hunt?[chuckles]
[regarding the appearance of 23rd-century Klingons]
Montgomery Scott: Laddie... don't you think you should... rephrase that?
Korax: You're right. I should. I didn't mean to say that theEnterprise should be hauling garbage. I meant to say that it should be hauled awayas garbage.
Leonard McCoy:[about tribbles] They'reborn pregnant.
James T. Kirk: I want these things off the ship. I don't care if it takes every man we've got. I want them off the ship.
Darvin: Iwill be. I've been thinking about my statue in the Hall of Warriors. I want it to capture my essence. Our statues can be so generic, don't you think?
Odo: I take it whatever your plan is, you've already set it in motion?
Darvin: I see myself standing with Kirk's head in one hand...and a tribble in the other.
Benjamin Sisko: Before we left, I realized there was one last thing I had to do. Something I'd been thinking about ever since I saw that ship on the viewscreen...
[in the past, Sisko hands a tablet to Captain Kirk on the Enterprise Bridge]
Benjamin Sisko: Excuse me, Captain. Here's tomorrow's duty roster for your approval.
James T. Kirk: Lieutenant... Ah, Lieutenant...?
Benjamin Sisko: Benjamin Sisko, sir. I've been on temporary assignment here. Before I leave, I just want to say... It's been an honor serving with you, sir.
James T. Kirk: Alright, Lieutenant, carry on.
Benjamin Sisko: Thank you, sir.
[in the present...]
Benjamin Sisko: Now... if you want to put a letter of reprimand in my file for that, then go ahead.
Odo:(after Dulmer and Lucsly have left) Did you tell them?
Sisko: They didn't ask. I'm open to suggestions, people.
(We see Quark, in much the same situation that K-7's bartender was left in, with one tribble perched on his head and hundreds more scattered throughout the bar)
Sisko:[broadcasting a message to the Maquis] To all members of the Maquis resistance: this is Captain Sisko of the USS Defiant. In response to the Maquis's use of biogenic weapons in their recent attacks, I am about to take the following action. In exactly one hour, I will detonate two quantum torpedoes that will scatter trilithium resin in the atmosphere of Solosos Three. I thereby will make the planet uninhabitable to all human life for the next fifty years. I suggest evacuation plans begin immediately.
[In response to Maquis terrorist attacks, Sisko has detonatedbiological weapons in the atmosphere of one of their colony worlds]
Michael Eddington:[aghast]Do you realise what you've done?
Sisko: I've only just begun. I'm going to eliminate every Maquis colony in the DMZ.
Eddington: You're talking about turning hundreds of thousands of people into homeless refugees!
Sisko: That's right. When you attacked theMalinche, you proved one thing; that the Maquis have become an intolerable threat to the security of the Federation, and I am going to eliminate that threat.
Eddington: But think about those people you saw in the caves, huddled and starving. They didn't attack theMalinche.
Sisko: You should have thought about that before you attacked a Federation starship.
Elim Garak:[Jem'Hadar soldiers beam onto Runabout] Ah! Thank you for coming. Now would you kindly point us in the direction of the wormhole?[Jem'Hadar soldier angrily hits Garak in the face with a rifle and takes him and Worf hostage]
Elim Garak: I only wish I were still a member of the Obsidian Order. This would make a wonderful interrogation chamber. Tight quarters, no air, bad lighting, random electric shocks—it’s perfect.
Gul Dukat:[To Kira] You and me on the same side? It never seemed quite... right, did it?
Gul Dukat:[speaking to his people] You might ask, should we fear joining the Dominion? And I answer you—not in the least. We should embrace the opportunity. The Dominion recognizes us for what we are, the true leaders of the Alpha Quadrant. And now that we are joined together, equal partners in all endeavors, the only people with anything to fear will be our enemies. My oldest son's birthday is in five days. To him, and to Cardassians everywhere, I make the following pledge: By the time his birthday dawns, there will not be a single Klingon alive inside Cardassian territory. Or a single Maquis colony left within our borders. Cardassia will be made whole; all that we have lost will be ours again. And anyone who stands in our way will be destroyed. This I vow with my life's blood, for my son, for all our sons.
Martok:[regarding Garak's claustrophibia] There is no greater enemy than one's own fears.
Quark: The Jem Hadar don't eat, don't drink, and they don't have sex. And if that wasn't bad enough, the Founders don't eat, and don't drink, and they don't have sex, either. Which, between you and me, makes my financial future less than promising.
Ziyal: It might not be so bad. For all we know the Vorta might be gluttonous, alcoholic sex maniacs.
Quark:[brightened] I never thought of that! I wonder what their favorite food is?
Miles O'Brien: You're not a fraud. I don't care how many enhancements your parents had done. Genetic recoding can't give you ambition or a personality or compassion or any of the things that make a person truly human.
[Leeta and Rom have just professed their love for each other]
Leeta: Oh, Doctor, I'm sorry.
Lewis Zimmerman: No, don't be. True love should always win.[Unconvincingly] I'm happy for you. Really.
Leeta: You're a sweet, wonderful, and brilliant man. There's someone out there for you, Doctor. I know it.
Lewis Zimmerman: I don't think so. Perhaps I'm better suited to a life of solitary research—
[attractive alien woman walks by] —and dedication to my chosen field of study. Don't worry about me; I’ll be fine. Goodbye.
Leeta:[focused on Rom] Bye.
Lewis Zimmerman:[to alien woman] Excuse me, are you familiar with an ancient text known as the Kama Sutra?
[O'Brien wins at darts]
Julian Bashir: So, I guess it's your game again.
Miles O'Brien: What's that? Five in a row?
Julian Bashir: At least.
Miles O'Brien: Wait a minute. You haven't been letting me win, have you?
Julian Bashir: What makes you think that?
Miles O'Brien: You said your hand-eye coordination had been genetically enhanced.
Julian Bashir: Well, maybe I have been letting you win, a little bit.
Miles O'Brien: I don't believe it. I don't need you to patronize me. I can play at your level.
Julian Bashir: I never said you couldn't.
Miles O'Brien: Well, play then. Really play!
[Bashir quickly throws his darts. O'Brien sees Bashir has thrown three straight bulls-eyes]
Miles O'Brien: Alright, from now on, you play from over here,
[moves Bashir behind a pole]
Miles O'Brien: I play from up here,
[stands in his usual spot]
Miles O'Brien: If that doesn't work, we'll try a blindfold.
[Odo has interrupted Bashir's holosuite program seeking advice.]
Bashir: Whatis this all about, Odo? You didn't come here to talk to me about women.[Odo looks away] Did you?[realizing] Aaah. This is about "Bedroom Eyes", isn't it?
Odo: Who told you about her? Kira?
Bashir: Nope.
Odo: Dax.
Bashir: Actually, it was Miles.
{Odo groans in embarrassment.]
Bashir:[continuing] If people are talking, it's only because they care. You put on a good front. But anyone who really knows you can tell that you're lonely. If you're interested in this woman, you have to let her know.
Odo: I can't.
Bashir: Why not?
Odo: What if I— What if she—
Bashir: Rejects you? She might. But you can't go through life trying to avoid getting a broken heart. If you do, it'll break from loneliness anyway. So you might as well take the chance. If you don't, she'll move on and you'll never know what you might have had. And living withthat is worse than having a broken heart. Believe me.
Arissa: I'm not in your way, am I?
Odo: No. No, not at all. I, uh... I usually read for an hour or two.
Quark: None of these charges are gonna stick! I haven't broken any laws![beat] I have alicense to run holosuites.
Odo: But youdon't have a license to sell weapons, do you?
Quark:[pause] I defy you to prove that I've brought a single weapon onto this station.
Odo: It's a mere technicality; we both know what you're doing. And I promise you, you're going to face the consequences.
[Sisko and Kira enter while Odo is saying this]
Sisko: Not today, he isn't![pause] Let him go.
Odo:[incredulous] Let him go?!
Sisko: Major, tell the constable what you told me.
Kira: The Bajoran government insists that Deep Space 9 not interfere with the lawful transactions of Hagath and his associates. Hagath supplied arms to the resistance—without him or people like him, we would all be dead, and the Cardassians would still be in power.[beat] We owe him.
Odo:[exasperated] Captain!
Sisko: I don't like it any more than you do.
Quark:[smug] Better luck next time.[a furious Sisko spins Quark's chair around to face him]
Sisko:[angrily] You'd better hope thereisn't a "next time," mister! I have cut you alot of slack in the past—I even looked the other way once or twice when I could have come down hard on you—but those days areover! Now, we may not be able to get you for selling weapons, but you so much aslitter on the Promenade, and I will nail you to the wall!!
Gaila:[nostalgic] I'll never forget how many people told us we were making a mistake. "Sell weapons to the Bajorans?"
Hagath: "What chance do they have?", they said. "Invest in a winner, sell to the Cardassians."
Quark: Butwhy? They couldn't have had any money...
Hagath: My dear Quark, not every deal is about making money. Sometimes, you have to look at the big picture. And, at times, gaining a friend is more important than making profit.
Gaila: I admit, it's not the Ferengi way, but it's good business nonetheless.
Hagath: I knew eventually the Cardassians were going to lose, and do you know why?
Quark: Because they were overly confident?
Hagath: Exactly! They underestimated the Bajoran thirst for freedom,I didn't.
Quark: Twenty-eight million people dead? Couldn't we just... wound some of them?
Sisko: You're facing some serious charges here, Quark: incitement to riot, endangering the public safety, disregarding...
Quark: How was I supposed to know everyone was going to start shooting? I just wanted them to cross paths so that the deal would fall through.
Sisko: It fell through all right. Hagath and Gaila barely managed to get off the station alive!
Quark: I hear General Nassuc sent a Purification Squad after them.
Sisko: I wouldn't count on seeing your former business partners again.
Quark: I can live with that.
Sisko: What about the Regent's death?
Quark: The Regent's dead?
Sisko: A Purification Squad caught up with him this morning.
Quark: I can live with that, too. And I can think of twenty-eight million other people who won't mind, either.
Captain Benjamin Sisko: Still calling yourself gul? I'm surprised you haven't promoted yourself back to legate by now.
Dukat: I prefer the title 'gul'; so much more hands-on than legate. And less pretentious than the other alternatives: president, emperor, chancellor, first minister...Emissary.
Sisko: How about Dominion puppet?[Dukat chuckles, but the Cardassian guard behind him glances warily at his opposite number, a Jem'Hadar]
Dukat: Captain, such comments only reveal a deep misunderstanding of the intricacies of the Dominion political system. Under our new administration, Cardassia enjoys unparalleled autonomy and-
Sisko:[irritably] You can justify yourself later, Dukat. I'm a busy man.
Dukat: Very well. We have reason to believe you have one of our citizens aboard your station. A certain Tekeny Ghemor, formerly a Legate in the Cardassian Central Command.
Sisko: And if we do?
Dukat: Well, we want him back. To put it mildly, he has a lot to answer for.
Sisko: I will take your request under advisement. But considering the Federation doesn't recognise your government, and that Cardassia has never agreed to anextradition treaty with Bajoror the Federation,[Sisko grins] you shouldn't get your hopes up.[Sisko terminates the call on a displeased Dukat]
Sisko: There's enough poison in this bottle to kill twenty Cardassians.
(Weyoun picks up Dukat's glass and drains it.)
Gul Dukat: Wha-?!
Weyoun:(chuckling) Oh, my! That is quite toxic, isn't it?
Gul Dukat: Are you insane?
Weyoun: The Vorta are immune to most forms of poison. Comes in handy when you're a diplomat.
Dr. Julian Bashir: Regardless of what Ghemor's done in the past, he doesn't deserve to die alone. No one does.
[In Deep Space 9's medbay after Ghemor has died]
Kira: He fought for every last second. I don't even think he knew I was there.
Bashir: He knew. You gave him what he needed. He didn't die alone.
Kira: Maybe he gave me somethingI needed too. I missed my father's death by less than an hour. Did you know that? Less than an hour. I always told myself that it was bad luck, bad timing, the will of the Prophets. But the truth is, I didn't have to go when I did. I could have stayed a while longer. I saw my chance to get out and I took it. I saw so much death during the occupation, I felt so much pain. But my father, he was my strength, and I couldn't stand to see that strength slipping away. So I ran.
Bashir: Just like you tried to run from Ghemor.
Kira: He reminded me so much of my father. Going through it again, I just couldn't face it.
Bashir: But in the end, you did. You were there for Ghemor.
Kira: I owed it to him. I owed it to my father to get it right this time.
Odo: We caught him. Or rather, Major Kira caught him.
Kira: I didn't really do anything. I was in the Bajoran shrine, meditating, and he burst in, stark naked, fell to his knees, crying out to the Prophets for protection!
Bashir: Morn, of all people. Who would've thought he'd just snap like that?
Odo: Certainly not me. Which leads me to wonder, what could have pushed him over the edge?[looks pointedly at Quark]
Quark: Why are you looking at me?I'm the victim here![Odo scoffs] He hit me with a bar stool!
Kira: Why did he hit you?
Quark: I don't have the faintest idea.
Kira: Think harder.
Odo: Witnesses say you were talking to him right up until the moment he went berserk.
Quark: Of course I was talking to him. That's what bartenders are supposed to do—talk to their customers.
Kira: What exactly was it that you were talking to him about?
Quark: All I said was that the military personnel on this station were starting to look a little nervous. When they get nervous, I get nervous.
Odo: And that's all you said?
Quark: Basically.[beat] I might've done some harmless theorizing.
Bashir: About what?
Quark: Oh, something like it was only a matter of time until the Dominion launched a full-scale assault on the Federation, and when that happened, this station would undoubtedly be their first target.[long pause] And I might've idly suggested that there wasn't a chance in hell of any of us getting out of here alive.
Odo: And that's when Morn hit you with a bar stool and ran onto the Promenade screaming, "We're all doomed"?
Quark: ...Some people just don't react well to stress.
[Eddington and Sisko, forced to work together to thwart a Maquis missile attack on Cardassia, get into an argument]
Eddington: You're the one who made it personal. You could've looked the other way. You could've left the Maquis alone, but you didn't do it. You hunted us, hounded us, fought us every chance you got. And in the end, you set us up for the slaughter. I expected better of you than that. So did a lot of people. People like Cal Hudson.I bet you haven't heard that name in a while.
Sisko: You're right about that.
Eddington: He told me the two of your were friends at the Academy.
Sisko: And a long time after.
Eddington: Until he joined the Maquis.
Sisko: He betrayed his oath to Starfleet.
Eddington: If it makes you feel any better, he paid for his sins. He was killed in a skirmish with the Cardassians.
Sisko:[sombre] He was a good man.
Eddington: He felt the same about you. He thought you were wrong about the Maquis, but he forgave you, which is ironic considering you never forgave him. You can't forgive any of us. And not because we betrayed Starfleet or the Federation, but because we betrayedyou. That's what this is all about. Your ego. Where Benjamin Sisko leads, all must follow.
Sisko:[incredulous] Is that what you really believe?
Eddington: It's the truth, isn't it? The Maquis were never much of a threat to the Federation, but we were a threat to you. We were a stain on your record and you couldn't have that. Not when you were so busy measuring yourself for an admiral's uniform.[an enraged Sisko gets to his feet]
Sisko: You want to blame me for what happened to the Maquis? Fine. Go ahead, blame me. Blame Starfleet. Blame the Federation. Blame everyoneexcept Michael Eddington.
Eddington: The Maquis won its greatest victories under my leadership.
Sisko:[scoffs] Your leadership. Your shining moment of glory. Michael Eddington gets to take off his gold uniform and play hero. That's what you always wanted, to lead troops in a glorious cause. Well, you had your chance and look where you led them. Right into their graves.
Eddington: They died because I wasn't there when they needed me most, because you put me in jail.
Sisko: They died because you filled their heads with false hopes! Sold them dreams of a military victory when what they needed was a negotiated peace!
Dr. Elias Giger: I haven't done anything wrong, and I won't be hounded by you and your soulless minions of orthodoxy.
Dr. Elias Giger: Since you are not, in fact, working for the soulless minions of orthodoxy that have hounded my work and plagued my existence, I have decided to open negotiations regarding the sale of a mint condition 1951 Willie Mays rookie card—without the original packaging or chewing gum.
Dr. Elias Giger: And while the soulless minions of orthodoxy refused to follow up on his important research, I could hear the clarion call of destiny ringing in my ears.
Nog: Maybe the soulless minions of orthodoxy finally caught up with him.
Dr. Elias Giger: You turned me over to these soulless minions of orthodoxy.
[Working for a scientist named Geiger, and also searching for a missing teddy bear]
Jake Sisko: We're going to beard the lion in its den.
Nog:[Confused] Lions, Geigers, bears...
Jake Sisko: Oh, my.
Benjamin Sisko: Even in the darkest moments, you can always find something that will make you smile.
Benjamin Sisko: When I first took command of this post, all I wanted was to be somewhere else—anywhere but here. But now, five years later, this has become my home, and you have become my family. And leaving this station—leaving you—is one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. But this war isn't over yet. I want you to know that while we were keeping the Dominion occupied, a Starfleet-Klingon task force crossed the border into Cardassia and destroyed the Dominion shipyards on Torros III. Your sacrifices, our sacrifices made that victory possible. But no victory can make this moment any easier for me. And I promise, I will not rest until I stand with you again—here—in this place where I belong.
Quark: All I know is that any marriage where the female is allowed to speak and wear clothing is doomed to failure.
Weyoun: It would appear Captain Sisko removed or destroyed everything of value.
Gul Dukat:[Noticing Sisko's baseball] Not everything.
Jadzia Dax: So, what do you plan on doing for the next couple of hours?
Benjamin Sisko: I hadn't given it much thought.
Jadzia Dax: Maybe now would be a good time to contact your father.
Benjamin Sisko: Maybe.
Jadzia Dax: Benjamin, you haven't spoken to him for months. And Jake is his grandson.
Benjamin Sisko: How do I explain that I evacuated every Federation citizen off Deep Space Nine except his grandson?
Jadzia Dax: You'll think of something. You always do.
Joseph Sisko: Are things really as bad as the news services say?
Benjamin Sisko: Maybe worse.
Joseph Sisko: Well, you certainly know how to comfort a frightened old man.
Benjamin Sisko: You didn't raise me to be a liar.
Joseph Sisko: I raised you to be a chef, for all the good it did me.
Joseph Sisko: You know, there's something I just don't understand. You're always telling me that space is big, that it's an endless frontier, filled with infinite wonders.
Benjamin Sisko: It's true.
Joseph Sisko: Well, if that's the case, you would think it would be more than enough room to allow people toleave each other alone.
Benjamin Sisko:[sighs] It just doesn't work that way. It should, but it doesn't.
Keevan: I assume you've brought along one of those famed Starfleet engineers who can turn rocks into replicators.
Dr. Julian Bashir:(as he is preparing for surgery on Keevan, several Jem'Hadar soldiers gather around) I'm not going to hurt him.
Keevan: They're not here to protect me. They've just never seen what the inside of a Vorta looks like.
Benjamin Sisko: And when they've reached this point, we'll have them in a crossfire.
Paul Gordon: They won't have a chance.
Elim Garak: That is the point. In case you've forgotten, we're in a war.
Miles O'Brien: There are rules, Garak, even in a war.
Elim Garak: Correction. Humans have rules in war. Rules that tend to make victory a little harder to achieve, in my opinion.
Paul Gordon: So we just shoot them down?
Lisa Neeley: They wouldn't hesitate if the situation was reversed.
Nog: But we're not the Jem'Hadar. It is our duty to—
Benjamin Sisko: This isn't a vote. The decision's mine. And Mister Garak is right. We are at war. Given the choice between us or them, there is no choice. Let's move out.
Remata'Klan: I have my orders.
Benjamin Sisko: Keevan doesn't deserve the unwavering loyalty you're giving him.
Remata'Klan: He does not have to earn my loyalty, Captain. He has had it from the moment I was conceived. I am a Jem'Hadar. He is a Vorta. It is the order of things.
Benjamin Sisko: Do you really want to give up your life for the order of things?
Remata'Klan: It is not my life to give up, Captain. And it never was.
Benjamin Sisko: We will fight, and we will keep on fighting, until we can't fight anymore!
Quark:[drunk and miserable] I tried. I tried my best to run my establishment under this occupation. But you know what? It's no fun. I don't like Cardassians. They're mean and arrogant. And I can't stand the Jem'Hadar. They're creepy. They just stand there like statues, staring at you. That's it. I don't want to spend the rest of my life doing business with these people. I want the Federation back! I want to sell root beer again!
Jadzia Dax: Are you two ever gonna be finished?
Nog: Just a few more minutes, Commander.
Chief O'Brien: That's 'Captain'. It's an old naval tradition. Whoever's in command of a ship, regardless of rank, is referred to as 'Captain.'
Nog: You mean if I had to take command, I would be called 'Captain,' too?
Chief O'Brien: Cadet, by the time you took command, there'd be nobody left to call you anything.
Kira Nerys: Oh, you bet I'm angry. Do you have any idea what's going on?
Odo: Yes... well, sort of. I've been... occupied.
Kira Nerys: Dukat is bringing down the mine field, the Federation fleet is about to be overrun by Dominion reinforcements, and Weyoun has ordered Rom's execution and you have beenoccupied?
Odo: I just wanted to say I'm sorry.
Kira Nerys:Sorry? That's all you have to say? Well, let me tell you something. We are way, way past sorry.
Prophets: That(the Dominion reinforcements) is a corporeal matter. Corporeal matters do not concern us.
Benjamin Sisko: The hell they don't. What about Bajor? You sent the Bajorans orbs and emissaries. You even encouraged them to create an entire RELIGION around you. So don't you tell me corporeal matters don't concern you. You even told me once that you are of Bajor. You don't want me to end my life? Well, fine, neither do I! You want to be gods, thenbe gods. Look, I need a miracle here. Bajor needs a miracle.Stop those ships!
Prophet Gul Dukat: We are of Bajor.
Prophet Odo: But what of the Emmissary?
Prophet Weyoun: He is intrusive—
Prophet Odo: Belligerent—
Prophet Damar: Adversarial.
Prophet Gul Dukat: He tries to control the game.
Prophet Jake Sisko: A penance must be exacted.
Prophet Gul Dukat: We agree.
Prophet Weyoun: You are the Sisko.
Prophet Odo: The Emissary is of Bajor, but he will find no rest there.
Alexander: I flooded the entire deck with superheated hydraulic fluid. It took me three days to clean up! But I swear, it still smells like burned dog hair in there.
Julian Bashir: There's nothing more romantic than a wedding on DS9 in the springtime.
Martok: It's back on! Worf is apologizing to Jadzia at this very moment.
Benjamin Sisko: Quark, take it all away! No food for those on the path to Kal'Hyah!
Quark: No refunds for those on the path to Kal'Hyah, either. Sorry.
[Bashir and O'Brien, starving, thirsty, and hanging off a pole during Kal'Hyah (The Path of Clarity) before Worf's marriage]
Julian Bashir: Miles?
Miles O'Brien: Yeah?
Julian Bashir: It works. I've had a vision about the future. I can see it so clearly.
Miles O'Brien: What is it?
Julian Bashir: I'm going to kill Worf. I'm going to kill Worf! That’s what I'm going to do. I see it so clearly!
Miles O'Brien: Kill Worf.
Julian Bashir: Yeah, kill Worf.
[They lapse into a mantra of "Kill Worf".]
Martok: We are Klingons. We don't embrace other cultures; we conquer them.
Martok:[to Worf, before his wedding] We are not accorded the luxury of choosing the women we fall in love with. Do you think Sirella is anything like the woman I thought I'd marry? She is a mercurial, arrogant, prideful woman who shares my bed far too infrequently for my taste. And yet... I love her deeply. We Klingons often tout our prowess in battle and our desire for honor and glory above all else, but how hollow is the sound of victory without someone to share it with. And honor gives little comfort to a man alone in his home... and in his heart.
Keevan: Truer words have never been spoken. I'll advise you all to send final messages to your loved ones and make sure your wills are in order.
Rom: Why?
Keevan: Because the moment we leave the station, you'll have signed your death warrants. Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to take a nap.
Yelgrun: Your people have a reputation for cunning. I see that it's well-earned. Perhaps one day, the Ferengi will take their place as valued members of the Dominion.
Quark: Anything's possible.
Yelgrun:[trying to negotiate with Quark] And I thought the Breen were annoying.
Quark: No one's hiding, no one's escaping, and no one's surrendering! What's the matter with you people? Have you forgotten the Battle of Prexnak?
Rom: Who could forget the most important battle in Ferengi history?
Quark: Ten Ferengi stood alone against two hundred and seventy-three Lytasians.
Gaila: As I recall, all ten Ferengi were slaughtered.
Quark: The point is, we Ferengi are just as tough as anybody in the galaxy. And this is our chance to prove it once and for all.
Leck: Quark's right. Let's do it for Ishka. Let's do it for the Grand Nagus. Let's do it for Ferengis everywhere.
Brunt: Let's do it for an equal share of fifty bars of gold-pressed latinum. That they can all agree on.
Gaila: It always comes down to profit with you people, doesn't it?
Brunt: We're Ferengi.
Quark: And that's why I love you. Fifty bars it is. Minus my usual finder's fee.
[Gaila tries to shoot Quark but accidentally shoots Keevan.]
Benjamin Sisko: Captain's log, stardate 51408.6. I've been aboard theHonshu for two days now and I still haven't spoken tohim, although the doctors have assured me that he's made a full recovery. Maybe that's what I'm afraid of. Maybe I prefer to think of him as a crazy man, a broken man. He'd be less dangerous that way. As terrible as it sounds, there's a part of me that wishes he were dead. But that's a thought unworthy of a Starfleet officer. He lost an empire, he lost his daughter, and he nearly lost his mind. Whatever his crimes, isn't that enough punishment for one lifetime?
Benjamin Sisko: Now, let me get this straight: you're not responsible for what happened during the occupation, the Bajorans are, hmm?
Sisko: So, why do you think they didn't appreciate this rare opportunity you were offering them, hmm?
Dukat: Because they were blind, ignorant fools. If only they had cooperated with us, we could have turned their world into a paradise! From the moment we arrived on Bajor, it was clear that we were the superior race. But they couldn't accept that. They wanted to be treated as equals when they most certainly werenot. Militarily, technologically, culturally, we were almost a century ahead of them in every way! We did not choose to be the superior race! Fate handed us our role! And it would've been so much easier on everyone if the Bajorans had simply acceptedtheir role. But no. Day after day, they clustered in their temples and prayed for deliverance, and night after night, they planted bombs outside of our homes!Pride. Stubborn, unyieldingpride. From the servant girl that cleaned my quarters, to the condemned man toiling in a labour camp, to the terrorist skulking through the hills of Dahkur Province. They all wore their pride like some twisted badge of honour.
Sisko: And you hated them for it.
Dukat: Ofcourse I hated them! I hated everything about them! Their superstitions, and their cries for sympathy, their treachery and their lies! Their smug superiority and their stiff necked obstinacy! Their earrings and their broken wrinkled noses!
Sisko: You should've killed them all, hmm?
Dukat: Yes!Yes! That's right, isn't it? I knew it! I've always known it! I should have killed every last one of them! I should have turned their planet into a graveyard the likes of which the galaxy had never seen!I should have killed them all...
[Sisko clubs him over the head with a metal pole]
Sisko: And that is why you're not an evil man.
Gul Dukat:[attacking Sisko] I'm so glad we had this time together, Benjamin, because we won't be seeing each other for a while. I have unfinished business on Bajor. They thought I was their enemy? They don't know what it is to be my enemy, but they will! From this day forward, Bajor is dead! All of Bajor!! And this time, even their Emissary won't be able to save them!
[After the Defiant has rescued Sisko]
Sisko: Sometimes life seems so complicated; nothing is truly good or truly evil. Everything seems to be a shade of grey. And then you spend some time with a man like Dukat, and you realize that there is such a thing as trulyevil.
Jadzia Dax: To realize that is one thing. To do something about it is another. So what are you going to do?
Sisko: I'll tell you what I'mnot going to do. I'm not going to let him destroy Bajor. I fear no evil. From now on, it's him or me.
[Quark's obtained a cache of what he thinks are bricks of gold-pressed latinum]
Quark: It's mine, all mine![he holds up two bricks to Odo] What you are about to hear is the mostbeautiful sound in the galaxy![He knocks the two bricks together, but instead of making a clinking sound, they crumble. To Quark's horror, when he checks other bricks, the same thing happens] No, that, that can't be! There's no latinum in these bricks!
Odo: What?
Quark: Someone's extracted all the latinum! There's nothing here but worthless gold!
Odo:[unable to hide his amusement] And it's all yours.[he chuckles and walks away, while Quark frantically checks the bricks for any sign of latinum]
Benjamin: I have begun to wonder. What if it wasn’t a dream? What if this life we’re leading, all of this—you and me, everything—what if all of this is the illusion?
Joseph: That’s a scary thought.
Benjamin: I know. I know. But maybe, just maybe, Benny isn’t the dream. We are. Maybe we’re nothing more than figments of his imagination. For all we know, at this very moment, somewhere far beyond all those distant stars, Benny Russell is dreaming of us.
Worf: She is still in surgery, but Doctor Bashir is hopeful she will make a full recovery.
Sisko: Lasaran's dead. Starfleet Intelligence intercepted a transmission saying that he'd been killed trying to re-enter the base at Soukara. Could you have made the rendezvous?
Worf: Yes.
Sisko: Yet you turned back to save Jadzia?
Worf: Yes.
Sisko: Were you aware that the information that man had could have saved millions of lives?
Worf: Yes.
Sisko: So what happened?
Worf: You may not understand.
Sisko: Try me.
Worf:You were at my wedding. You heard the story of the first two Klingon hearts and how nothing could stand against them, and how they even destroyed the gods that created them. I have heard that story since I was a boy but I never understood it, I mean really understood it, until I was standing in the jungle with my heart pounding in my chest and I found that even I could not stand against my own heart. I had to go back and it did not matter what Starfleet thought or what the consequences were. She was my wife and I could not leave her.
Sisko: As your captain, it is my duty to tell you that you made the wrong choice. I don't think Starfleet will file any formal charges. Even a secret court martial would run the risk of revealing too much about their intelligence operations. But this will go into your service record, and to be completely honest, you probably won't be offered a command on your own after this.
Worf: I understand.
Sisko: I have also issued new orders. You and Jadzia are not to be assigned to a mission on your own ever again. And one last thing.As a man who had a wife, if Jennifer had been lying in that clearing, I wouldn't have left her either.
Odo: Well, if you won't talk about it, perhaps you should considerdoing something about it.
[After Kira's experience with the Orb of Time proved her mother was Gul Dukat's mistress]
Kira: I've always hated collaborators. I mean, what could be worse than betraying your own people? During the occupation, if I ever had doubt about what their fate should be, all I would think of my mother, how she gave her life for Bajor. She was a hero, they were traitors. It was that simple. Or so I thought.
Sisko: She did what she had to do to save her family. To save you.
Kira: It doesn't make it right.
Sisko: Maybe not, but it was her decision to make.
Kira: I did some checking. She died in a Cardassian hospital seven years after she met Dukat. Seven years. Do you know how many Bajorans died in labour camps during that time? Died, while my mother sat sipping kanar with Dukat.
Sisko: Tell me something, Nerys. If you hate her that much, why did you save her life?
Kira: Believe me, there's a part of me that wishes that I hadn't. But the fact is, no matter what she did, she was still my mother.
Luther Sloan: We keep a low profile. Works out better that way for all concerned.
Julian Bashir: And what does Section 31 do, apart from kidnapping Starfleet officers?
Luther Sloan: We search out and identify potential dangers to the Federation.
Julian Bashir: And once identified?
Luther Sloan: We deal with them.
Julian Bashir: How?
Luther Sloan: Quietly.
Julian Bashir: So if I had been a Dominion agent, what would have happened to me?
Luther Sloan: We wouldn't be standing here having this conversation.
Julian Bashir:[appalled] Starfleet sanctions what you're doing?
Luther Sloan: We don't submit reports or ask approval for specific operations, if that's what you mean. We're an autonomous department.
Julian Bashir: Authorized by whom?
Luther Sloan: Section 31 was part of the original Starfleet charter.
Julian Bashir: But that was 200 years ago. Are you telling me you've been working on your own, ever since? Without specific orders? Accountable to nobody but yourselves?
Luther Sloan: You make it sound so ominous.
Julian Bashir: Isn't it? Because if what you say to me is true, you function as judge, jury,and executioner, and I think that's too much power. Foranyone.
Luther Sloan: We're on the same team. We believe in the same principles that every other Federation citizen holds dear.
Julian Bashir: And yet you violate those principles as a matter of course.
Luther Sloan: In order to protect them.
Julian Bashir: Well, I'm sorry. But the ends don't always justify the means.
Luther Sloan: Really?[considers for a moment] How many lives do you suppose you've saved in your medical career?
Julian Bashir: What has that got to do with anything?
Luther Sloan: Hundreds? Thousands? Do you suppose those people give a damn thatyou lied to get into Starfleet Medical? I doubt it. We deal with threats to the Federation that jeopardize its verysurvival. If you knew how many liveswe've saved, I think you'd agree that the ends do justify the means. Now, I'm not afraid of bending the rules every once in a while if the situation warrants it. And I don't think you are, either.
Quark: Thank you, Captain. Thank you for restoring my faith in the 98th Rule of Acquisition: "Every man has his price."
Benjamin Sisko: My father always used to say that the road to Hell is paved with good intentions. I laid the first stone right there. I'd committed myself. I'd pay any price, go to any lengths, because my cause was righteous, my intentions were good.
Benjamin Sisko: That was my first moment of real doubt, when I started to wonder if this whole thing was a mistake. So then I went back to my office. And there was a new casualty list, waiting for me. People are dying out there, every day! Entire worlds are struggling for their freedom, and here I am still worrying about the finer points of morality! No, I, I had to keep my eye on the ball, win the war, stopping the bloodshed—those were the priorities. So I pushed on, and every time another doubt appeared before me, I just found another way to shove it aside.
Benjamin Sisko:[threatening Tolar] If that program passes inspection, you walk free. But if there is even theslightest flaw, then I will send you back to that Klingon prison, and tell Gowron to take his time while he executes you.
Benjamin Sisko: Welcome aboard, Senator, I'm Captain Benjamin Sisko.
Vreenak: So... you're the Commander of Deep Space Nine and the Emissary to the Prophets, decorated combat officer, widower, father, mentor, and oh yes, the man who started the war with the Dominion. Somehow, I thought you'd be taller.
Benjamin Sisko: Sorry to disappoint you.
Vreenak: To be honest, my opinion of Starfleet Officers is so low, you'd have to work very hard indeed to disappoint me.
Benjamin Sisko: Who's watching Tolar?
Elim Garak: I've locked him in his quarters. I've also left him with the distinct impression that if he attempts to force the door open, it may explode.
Benjamin Sisko: I hope that'sjust an impression.
Elim Garak: It's best not to dwell on such minutiae.
[Sisko, having realised Garak has assassinated the Romulan Senator Vreenak to provoke the Romulan Star Empire to enter the Dominion War on the Federation's side, storms into Garak's shop and strikes him]
Benjamin Sisko: You killed him.
Elim Garak: That's right.
Benjamin Sisko: That's what you planned to do all along, isn't it? You knew the data rod wouldn't hold up to scrutiny: you just wanted to get him on the station so you could plant a bomb on his shuttle!
Elim Garak: It wasn't quite that simple. I did have hopes that the rod would somehow pass inspection, but I suspected that Tolar might not be up to the task.
Benjamin Sisko: And what about Tolar? Did you kill him too?
Elim Garak: Think of them both as tragic victims of war.[a furious Sisko strikes Garak again] If you could allow your anger to subside for a moment, you'll see that they didnot die in vain! The Romulans will enter the war!
Benjamin Sisko: There's no guarantee of that!
Elim Garak: Oh, but I think that thereis. You see, when the Tal Shiar finishes examining the wreckage of Vreenak's shuttle, they'll find the burnt remnants of a Cardassian optolithic data rod which somehow miraculously survived the explosion. After painstaking forensic examination, they'll discover that the rod contains a recording of a high level Dominion meeting at which the invasion of Romulus was being planned.
Benjamin Sisko: And then they'll discover that it is afraud!
Elim Garak: Oh, I don't think that they will! Because any imperfections in the forgery will appear to be a result of the explosion! So, with a seemingly legitimate rod in one hand, and a dead Senator in the other, I ask you, Captain—what conclusion wouldyou draw?
Benjamin Sisko:[sighs] That Vreenak obtained the rod on Soukara, and that the Dominion killed him to prevent him from returning to Romulus with it.
Elim Garak: Precisely! And the more the Dominion protests its innocence, the more the Romulans will believe that they're guilty because it isexactly what the Romulans would have done intheir place. [pauses]That's why you came to me. Isn't it, Captain? Because you knew I could do those things that you weren't capable of doing. Well, it worked. And you'll get what you want—a war between the Romulans and the Dominion. And if your conscience is bothering you, you should soothe it with the knowledge that you may have just saved the entire Alpha Quadrant. And all it cost was the life of one Romulan Senator, one criminal, and the self-respect of one Starfleet officer. I don't know about you, but I'd call that a bargain.
Benjamin Sisko: At 0800 hours, station time, the Romulan Empire formally declared war on the Dominion. They have already struck fifteen bases along the Cardassian border. So, this is a huge victory for the good guys! This may even be the turning point of the entire war. There is even a 'Welcome to the Fight' party tonight in the ward room. So... I lied. I cheated. I bribed men to cover the crimes of other men. I am an accessory to murder. But the most damning thing of all is—I think I can live with it. And if I'd have to do it all over again, I would. Garak was right about one thing. A guilty conscience is a small price to pay for the safety of the Alpha Quadrant, so I will learn to live with it... because I can live with it. [pauses] Ican live with it. [pauses] Computer, erase that entire personal log.
Major Kira Nerys:[discussing Kai Winn] In a way, I feel sorry for her. She spends her whole life in service to the Prophets, and then one day, after years of self-sacrifice and commitment, she gets her reward – she's elected Kai. It should've been the greatest moment of her life.
Benjamin Sisko: But my being the Emissary spoiled it for her.
Major Kira Nerys: The Kai has always been the spiritual leader of Bajor, but Winn has to share that role with you. And to make matters worse, you're an outsider, a non-Bajoran – that's something she cannever forgive you for.
Jake Sisko: Quark, listen. I'm working on a crime novel, but I've hit a wall in my writing. It's not truthful anymore—phony, artificial. I'm having trouble creating real, flesh-and-blood characters, especially nefarious ones. If you could just let me just watch and listen as you pull off whatever it is you're going to pull off, it could really help me out. You could give me insight. I could even model my lead character after you.
Quark: Lesson number one: no one involved in an extralegal activity thinks of themselves as nefarious.
Jake Sisko: Sorry.
Quark: I'm a businessman, okay? Now, if you're interested in learning more about my business, I think that could be arranged.
Quark: I should have remembered the 285th Rule of Acquisition: “No good deed ever goes unpunished.”
Julian Bashir: Uh, look, um, I don't want to dampen your spirits, Jadzia, but I told you before you were married that, from amedical point-of-view, it wouldn't be easy for a Trill and a Klingon to have a child.
Quark: AndI'm worried the kid'll end up looking like his father.
Jadzia:[offended] Well, I hope she does.[makes a face and walks off in a huff]
Bashir: Ababy.
Quark: It's bad enough shemarried that Klingon psychopath.
Bashir: A baby. Do you have any idea what that means?
Quark: That their marriage is gonna last. Alot longer than we thought.
[Odo and Kira have just patched up their first argument as a couple.]
Odo: You know, Nerys,observing humanoid relationships and being in one... are very different things.
Joseph Sisko: Life is full of choices. You make them and hope for the best. Sometimes you're right. Sometimes you're not.
Benjamin Sisko: Are there any other secrets I should know about?
Joseph Sisko: Just mygumbo recipe. But I'm taking that to my grave.
Quark: What makes you think shewants to spend eternity there[inSto-Vo-Kor]? I knowI certainly wouldn't. Imagine what it must be like. Hordes of rampaging Klingons. Fighting and singing, sweating and belching.
Julian Bashir: Sound likethis place on a Saturday night.
Ezri Dax: I can hardly believe it myself. But I'm Dax. I mean, I'm not Jadzia Dax—I'm Ezri Dax. But I have all of Jadzia's memories. Not to mention Lela's, Tobin's, Emony's, Audrid's, Joran's, Curzon's. Am I forgetting anyone?
Benjamin Sisko: Torias.
Ezri Dax: Right. You are probably asking yourself, who is this person? How did she get the symbiont? Do I want another Dax in my life? Does she always talk this much? These are very good questions. And I wish I had good answers for you.
Elim Garak:[to Ezri] I don't need someone to walk in here and hold my hand. I want someone to help me get back to work and you, my dear, are not up to this task. Well, look at you; you're pathetic. A confused child trying to live up to a legacy left by her predecessors. You're not worthy of the name Dax. I knew Jadzia. She was vital, alive. She owned herself, and you, you don't even know who you are. How dare you presume to help me? You can't even help yourself. Now get out of here, before I say something unkind.
Ezri Dax: It's a strange sensation, dying. No matter how many times it happens to you, you never get used to it.
Miles O'Brien: Gum. It's traditional. I had the replicator create me some.
Julian Bashir: They just chewed it?
Miles O'Brien: No, they infused it with flavor.
Julian Bashir: What did you infuse it with?
Miles O'Brien: Scotch. Here—try some.
Julian Bashir: Mmmm!
[Odo declares that Worf has struck out]
Worf: WHAT?! What are you talking about?! That ball was at least half a metre out! How could you call it a strike?! REVERSE THE CALL! REVERSE THE CALL!
Benjamin Sisko:[rushes over] Are you blind?! That was low and outside!
Worf: The ball was clearly outside!
Benjamin Sisko: What the hell were you looking at?! You can't tell me that ball was over the plate! What were you doing—REGENERATING?!
[Worf and Sisko continue to protest over each other]
Worf: THE OUTSIDE CORNER?! THE CORNER OF THE DUGOUT, PERHAPS! MAYBE THE CORNER OF THE STADIUM! BUT NOT THE CORNER OF THE PLATE!
Benjamin Sisko: THE CORNER, MY FOOT! THAT WAS A BALL, AND YOU KNOW IT! WE SHOULD HAVE TWO MEN ON! TWO MEN ON! TWO MEN ON!
Odo: Gentlemen, you are trying my patience.
Benjamin Sisko: You stole the run from us! You stole it, just as if you reached up and tore it off the score board!
[Begins poking Odo in the chest]
Benjamin Sisko: You stole it from us!
Odo: You. YOU'RE OUTTA HERE!
Benjamin Sisko: What?!
Odo: “No player shall at anytime make contact with the umpire in any manner. The prescribed penalty for the violation is immediate ejection from the game.” Rule number 4.06, subsection A, paragraph four. Look it up, but do it in the stands. YOU'RE GONE!
[Sisko walks off]
Benjamin Sisko:[Muttering to himself] It was a ball. It was no strike. I know it was a ball.
Julian Bashir: Chief?
Miles O'Brien: What?
Julian Bashir: I think that means you're in charge now.
Miles O'Brien: You're right.[To the team] What are you standing around for? You never seen a man thrown out of a game?
[Nog catches the ball as the Vulcan runs past him. We see that the Vulcan's foot does not actually touch home plate. Odo (the umpire) says nothing.]
Jack: The fact is that the universe is going to stop expanding and it is going to collapse in on itself. We have to do something before it is too late.
Patrik: How much time do we have left?
Jack: 60 trillion years. 70 at the most.
Patrik: Oh, no.
Sarina: If I had to choose someone to replaceAtlas and hold up the world, it'd be Miles. He'd do it with a smile, too. And Kira. She never doubts herself. Which is what Odo finds so fascinating, because he doubts everythingbut her.
Sarina:[considers] The moment she realizes she's more than just the sum of her parts, she's really going to be something.
Bashir: I can't believe you saw all that after only just a few hours. I'm going to have to start putting on my poker face.
Sarina: Too late. You've already given yourself away.
Bashir: Really?[Sarina nods] And how would you describe me?
Sarina: Compassionate. Brilliant. Lonely.
Bashir: Well, two out of three isn't bad.
Sarina: Which two?
Bashir: That would be telling.
Bashir: Sarina. Talk to me… please. I know you can. What’s wrong? Is it me? If it is, don’t be afraid. I’m going to do whatever it takes to make it right… because I love you. I want us to be together. Tell me. Do you love me?
Sarina: I don’t know. I don’t even understand what love is. I don’t understand anything.
Bashir: Sarina—
Sarina: What am I supposed to do? What am I supposed to feel? Tell me. I want to make you happy. I owe you everything.
Bashir: Shh. You don’t owe me. You don’t owe me anything.
Sarina: I’m sorry. I wish I could be the woman you want me to be.
Bashir: Shh.
Bashir: How could I have been so blind? What was I thinking, trying to move things along so fast? She needed time. I didn’t give it to her. I came this close to driving her back inside herself. I’m supposed to be a doctor. I’m supposed to put my patient’s needs above my own.
Miles O’Brien: You didn’t want to be lonely anymore. Nobody does.
Nog: Rule of Acquisition 168: "Whisper your way to success."
Kira Nerys:[to Odo] I know to Starfleet the Prophets are nothing more than wormhole aliens, but to me, they're gods. I can't prove it. Then, again, I don't have to because my faith in them is enough. Just as Weyoun's faith in you was enough for him.
Odo: Has it ever occurred to you that the reason you believe the Founders are gods is because that's what they want you to believe? That they built it into your genetic code?
Weyoun: Of course they did; that's what gods do. After all, why be a god if there's no one to worship you?
Odo: You still haven't answered my question. Why did you decide to defect?
Weyoun: I realize my place is with you.
Odo: You can do better than that.
Weyoun: Then let's just say I left Cardassia because my life was in danger.
Odo: From whom?
Weyoun: Everyone.
Odo: Aren't you being a little paranoid?
Weyoun: Of course I'm paranoid—everyone's trying to kill me.
Miles O'Brien: How could he do this to me? How could he leave me adrift, mid-river, without a paddle?
Kor: Help me, Worf. Help me end my life as I've lived it—as a warrior.
Kor: Savor the fruit of life, my young friends. It has a sweet taste when it is fresh from the vines. But don’t live too long: the taste turns bitter.
Martok:[on Kor] I've hated his name for almost thirty years. I've dreamed of the day when I would see him stripped of his rank and privilege, left without honor or a friend, or the power of his birthright. And I've had that moment now... and I took no joy from it.
Darok:[talking to a depressed Kor] We are being pursued by a Jem'Hadar fleet. Worf believes he can stop them with a single ship.
Kor:[intrigued] How?[Darok hands him a PADD with the details]
Darok: It's a good plan, but it has one flaw. It depends entirely on Worf successfully engaging the whole enemy fleet, if only for a short time.
Kor: It can be done; the key would be to confuse their sensors in the opening moments with a spread of torpedoes.
Darok: Perhaps, but it would take a warrior with three times the experience to accomplish such a feat. And such a man would have to becertain of his abilities.
Kor:[reinvigorated] Such a man would not take the job… unless hewere certain.[Recognizing what Kor intends to do, Darok bows respectfully to him]
Darok: It has been an honour serving with you, Kor, son of Rynar.
Kor:(as Worf is departing to lead a suicide mission) I came to wish you well. I look forward to seeing you at the gates toSto-Vo-Kor.
Kor: Do you have any message you would like me to convey toJadzia?
[He presses a hypospray to Worf's neck, knocking him unconscious.]
Kor: When I reach the halls of the hallowed dead, I will find your beloved, and remind her that her husband is a noble warrior, and that he still loves no one but her. Goodbye, my friend. Live well.
Kor:(as he is beamed away) Long live the Empire!
(Kor's ship has saved the rest of the Klingon Fleet)
Kolana: He's done it. The Jem'Hadar are out of time. They can no longer overtake us before we reach theDefiant.
Martok: How? How did that pompous old man hold off an entire Jem'Hadar fleet with only one ship?
Martok: Darok, give me that bottle![seizes a bottle of bloodwine from one of his subordinates and knocks the top off it with his dagger] To Kor! The Dahar Master, and noble warrior to the end!
Quark: Let me tell you something about hu-mons, nephew. They're a wonderful, friendly people as long as their bellies are full and their holosuites are working, but take away their creature comforts, deprive them of food, sleep, sonic showers, put their lives in jeopardy over an extended period of time and those same, friendly, intelligent, wonderful people will become as nasty and as violent as the most bloodthirsty Klingon. You don't believe me? Look at those faces. Look in their eyes.
Quark: Rule of Acquisition 125: “You can't make a deal if you're dead.”
Sisko:(looking around at the aftermath of the battle) We held.
Reese: Those were our orders, sir.
Worf:(searching for words to console Sisko) This was a great victory. One worthy of story and song.
Kira Nerys:(to Benyan, a Pagh-Wraith worshipper) I've always found that when people try to convince others of their beliefs, it's because they're really trying to convince themselves.
Gul Dukat:(toKira Nerys) Your anger is a challenge. I welcome it, because in the end it will only help me better serve the Pagh-Wraiths.
[Aboard theDefiant after Dukat has escaped and the Pah-Wraith cult has collapsed]
Kira: I thought Dukat was just claiming to share their faith because he wanted them to love him, but it was more than that. He's changed.
Odo: If you hadn't stopped him, he would've killed them all, and no one would have known his body wasn't among the remains. That sounds like the same old Dukat to me.
Kira: I know this is going to sound crazy, but I think Dukat convinced himself that he was doing what the Pah-wraiths wanted.
Odo: Who knows? Maybe he was.
Kira: Either way, he believes. And that makes him more dangerous than ever.
Nog: When the war began, I wasn't happy or anything. But I was eager. I wanted to test myself. I wanted to prove I had what it took to be a soldier. And I saw a lot of combat. I saw a lot of people get hurt. I saw a lot of people die. But I didn't think anything was going to happen to me. And then suddenly, Dr. Bashir is telling me he has to cut my leg off. I couldn't believe it. I still can't believe it. If I can get shot, if I can lose my leg, anything can happen to me, Vic. I could die tomorrow. I don't know if I'm ready to face that. If I stay here, at least I know what the future is going to be like.
Vic Fontaine: You stay here, you're gonna die. Not all at once, but little by little. Eventually, you'll become as hollow as I am.
Nog: You don't seem hollow to me.
Vic Fontaine: Compared to you, I'm hollow as a snare drum. Look, kid, I don't know what's going to happen to you out there. All I can tell you is that you've got to play the cards life deals you. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. But at least you're in the game.
Yanas Tigan: Ezri Tigan—Dax—you tell your commanding officer that your mother is avery difficult woman and that she refuses to help look for Mr. O'Brien unless you're allowed to return home right away.
Benjamin Sisko: You want to know? You really want to know what my problem is? I'll tell you—Las Vegas, 1962.That's my problem. In 1962, black people weren't very welcome there! Oh, sure, they could be performers or janitors, but customers? Never!
Kasidy Yates: Maybe that's the way it was in the real Vegas, but that's not the way it is at Vic's. I have never felt uncomfortable there, and neither has Jake.
Benjamin Sisko: But don't you see?! That's the lie! In 1962, theCivil Rights Movement was still in its infancy! It wasn't an easy time for our people, and I'm not going to pretend that it was!
Kasidy Yates: Baby... I know that Vic's isn't a totally accurate representation of the way things were, but... it isn't meant to be. It shows us the way thingscould have been—the way theyshould have been.
Benjamin Sisko: We cannot ignore the truth about the past.
Kasidy Yates: Going to Vic's isn't going to make us forget who we are or where we came from. What it does is reminds us that we are no longer bound by any limitations, except the ones we impose on ourselves.
Julian Bashir: A vodka martini. Stirred, not shaken.
Garak:[laughing] Ah, yes, Romulus. Howwell I remember it. You'll find the predominant color to be grey. The buildings, the clothes, the people. Did you know that the Romulan heart itself is grey? It's true. And altogether appropriate for such an unimaginative race.
Garak: How sad. I must tell you, I'm disappointed in hearing you mouth the usual platitudes of peace and friendship regarding an implacable foe like the Romulans. But I live in hope that one day you'll come to see this universe for what it truly is, rather than what you wish it to be.
Bashir: Then I shall endeavor to become more cynical with each passing day, look gift horses squarely in the mouth, and find clouds in every silver lining.
Garak: If only you meant it.
Julian Bashir: This war isn't over, and you're already planning for the next.
Julian Bashir: "In times of war, the law falls silent."Cicero. Is that what we've become? A 24th Century Rome driven on nothing more than the certainty thatCaesar can do no wrong?
Dukat: What happened to the brave officer I served with? The one who stood at my side as we fought the entire Klingon Empire with a single ship?
Damar: Those were simpler times.
Dukat: Those days might be gone, but the man I served with isn't. He's still within you. Reach in and grab hold of him, Damar. Cardassia needs a leader.
Damar: You were its leader once. You could be again.
Dukat: The Pah-wraiths have shown me that I have another destiny.(offering his hand) Good luck, old friend.
[Worf has just killed Weyoun Seven. Damar checks for a pulse and, after confirming Weyoun is dead, bursts into laughter]
Damar:[to Weyoun Seven's corpse] Overconfidence... the hallmark of the Weyouns. Maybe the Founders should eliminate that from your genetic recipe next time![to Worf] They'll just make another copy of him, you know. You should have killed me; there's only one Damar.
[Damar is drinking alone when Weyoun Eight walks in]
Damar:[mockingly raises his glass] Well hello![chuckles to himself]
Weyoun Eight:[annoyed] I'm glad to see you find the death of my predecessor so amusing.
Damar: Oh, you misjudge me, I miss him deeply. Here![pours himself another drink] Let's drink to Weyoun Seven!
Weyoun Eight: When will the prisoners be executed?
Damar: When the trial is completed. Legal protocol must be observed.
Weyoun Eight:When?
Damar:[irritated] The execution is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon, fourteen hundred hours.
Weyoun Eight: Have they agreed to cooperate?
Damar: No. Maybe you should talk to Worf again![cackles gleefully]
[Damar, Weyoun and the Breen officer Thot Gor are overseeing Dominion military reports]
Damar: Septimus Three has fallen.
Weyoun Eight: Excuse me?
Damar: Septimus Three. An entire Cardassian Order has been wiped out. Five hundred thousand men!
Weyoun Eight:[dismissive] Oh, yes. A great tragedy.
Damar: You promised reinforcements!
Weyoun Eight: I promised nothing of the kind. I said the situation would be dealt with, and it was.
Damar:[appalled] By leaving them to be slaughtered by the Klingons?!
Weyoun Eight: If you will calm down and listen, I will explain. The sacrifice made by the Eleventh Order will not be in vain. They forced the Klingons to commit worthwhile valuable troops and resources to capture a strategically worthless planet.[Thot Gor makes an affirmative noise] I'm glad you agree.
Damar:[outraged] Well, I don't. You condemned a half million loyal Cardassians!
Weyoun Eight: If they were truly loyal Cardassians, then they died willingly for the Dominion. There can be no greater sacrifice.
Damar: How many more sacrifices will my people be asked to make?!
Weyoun Eight:Your people, Damar? We are all one with the Dominion. Vorta, Cardassian, Jem'Hadar, the Breen. We all serve the Founders and we will all make whatever sacrifices they deem necessary.
[Damar has just killed the Jem'Hadar guards taking Worf and Ezri to their execution]
Damar:[handing over the guards' plasma rifles] There's a Cardassian patrol ship sitting in Launch Bay 3-A, two levels above us. Its computer has all the necessary information to get you past our security checkpoints.
Ezri: Why are you doing this?
Damar: I want you to give a message to the Federation. Tell them they have an ally on Cardassia.
Worf: Why should we trust you?
Damar: You can either trust me, or you can stay here and be executed.
Damar:[to Weyoun Eight, who has to inform the Founder Worf and Ezri escaped] Oh, I'm sure she'll understand. But if she doesn't... I look forward to meeting Weyoun Nine.
Martok:[after the Breen have attacked Earth] We must give the enemy credit. To launch an attack against Starfleet Headquarters... Evenmy people never attemptedthat.
Weyoun: There's something different about you today, Damar, I can't quite put my finger on it. It’s almost as if you're half dressed—
[Legate Damar and Gul Rusot are plotting to secede from the Dominion]
Rusot: It doesn't seem right, all this plotting and secrecy. What are we, Romulans?
Damar: No, we're Cardassians. But right now, Cardassia is an occupied territory, and to defeat an occupying army requires careful planning and secrecy.
Rusot: Can we really hope to defeat the Dominion? With the Breen on their side, they're stronger than ever!
Damar: But we will be fighting to win back our homes and our freedom, and that will make us even stronger.
[Damar and Rusot are making their final preperations to betray the Dominion]
Rusot: We're going to lose many fine soldiers.
Damar: At least they'll be dying for Cardassia, and not the Dominion.
Damar: And so two years ago, our government signed a treaty with the Dominion. In it, the Dominion promised to extend Cardassia's influence throughout the Alpha Quadrant. In exchange, we pledged ourselves to join the war against the Federation and its allies. Cardassians have never been afraid of war, a fact we've proven time and again over these past two years. Seven million of our brave soldiers have given their lives to fulfil our part of the agreement, and what has the Dominion done in return?Nothing. We've gained no new territories. In fact, our influence throughout the quadrant has diminished. And to make matters worse, we are no longer masters in our own home. Travel anywhere on Cardassia and what do you find? Jem'Hadar, Vorta, and now Breen. Instead of the invaders, we have become the invaded. Our 'allies' have conquered us without firing a single shot. Well, no longer. This morning, detachments of the Cardassian First, Third and Ninth Orders attacked the Dominion outpost on Rondac III. This assault marks the first step towards the liberation of our homeland, from the true oppressors of the Alpha Quadrant. I call upon Cardassians everywhere. Resist. Resist today. Resist tomorrow. Resist till the last Dominion soldier has been driven from our soil!
[After Damar's broadcast announcing a Cardassian rebellion, Weyoun receives a military report]
Weyoun: It's confirmed. Our cloning facility on Rondac III has been destroyed.[fearfully] I could be the last Weyoun. That's why he picked that target.
Solbor: Anjohl Tennan died nine years ago in the labor camp at Batahl. I warned you not to trust him! I had a sample of his DNA sequenced. He's not even a Bajoran. He's a Cardassian!
Dukat:[disguised as Anjohl Tennan] We were brought together for a cause, a great cause! Our destinies are linked!
Solbor: Don't listen to him! Look at him! Don't you recognize the face of your enemy? It's Gul Dukat!
Dukat: He doesn't understand, Adami! He couldn't possibly understand the love of the Pagh-wraiths!
Solbor: The love of the Pagh-wraiths?! You're trying to release them! That's why you wanted the text of the Kosst Amojan!
[Kira is informed of her new orders to teachguerilla tactics to the Cardassian Rebellion]
Kira: You want me to go behind enemy lines and teach a bunch of Cardassians how to be resistance fighters?
Sisko: I'm aware of the irony.
[Odo and Kira are proposing the Cardassian Rebellion attack a Dominion weapons depot on Adarak Prime]
Rusot: Adarak Prime is defended by a Cardassian garrison.
Odo: That's correct.
Cardassian soldier: You expect us to attack our own people?
Kira: If necessary, yes.
Rusot: That is out of the question!
Damar: I agree. We'll limit ourselves to targets defended by the Jem'Hadar and the Breen.
Kira: Believe me, I understand how you feel. During the occupation, I didn't want to attack any facility that had a Bajoran working in it, but I did it because they were collaborators. They were working with the enemy.
Rusot: We're not Bajorans! We don't kill our own.
Kira: Well then you might as well just give up right now, because the minute the Dominion realises you will not attack your own people, they will station a Cardassian atevery base they have.
Odo: She's right. The Founders won't hesitate to play your own people against you.
Kira: Anyone who is not fighting with you is fighting against you.
[Damar has just learned his entire family has been killed by the Dominion in retaliation for his rebellion.]
Damar:[taking in the news] They weren't a part of this rebellion. The Dominion knew that. The Founder knew that.Weyoun knew that. To kill her and my son. The casual brutality of it. The waste of life. What kind of state tolerates the murder of innocent women and children? What kind ofpeople give those orders?
Kira Nerys: Yeah, Damar, what kind of people give those orders?
[Damar silently stares at Kira, but then, realizing Kira's words are correct, he leaves.]
Kira: Oh, that wasstupid.
Garak: Not at all. Damar has a certain... romanticism about the past. He could use a dose of cold water.
Kira: Well, I could have picked a better time.
Garak: If he's the man to lead a new Cardassia, if he's the man we all hope him to be, then the pain of this news made himmore receptive to what you said, not less.
Ezri Dax: Look. I'm just not sure that I should be giving you advice on what to do in this situation. It's a Klingon matter.
Worf: You are still a member of the House of Martok.
Ezri: This is the first thatI've heard of it.
Worf: The General and I talked about it weeks ago. He likes you. And he considers you an honorable woman. A worthy successor to Jadzia. And so do I.
Ezri: That's very sweet of him.
Worf: "Sweet"?
Ezri: Not a very 'Klingon' word, is it?
Worf: No.
Ezri: It's very... honorable.
Worf: Better. Albeit a little obvious.
[Rusot is a standoff with Kira and Garak]
Rusot: You're still a Cardassian, Garak. You're not going to kill one of your own people for a Bajoran woman!
Garak:[aiming a phaser at Rusot's head] How little you understand me.
Damar: Put your weapons down, both of you!
Rusot: You want her dead too, Damar, I know you do. But you're the leader of the rebellion, and don't want to kill someone wearing a Starfleet uniform. Let me do it for you![an electronic alert bleeps]
Damar: They've finished installing the dampening weapon.
Kira: Then let's all get the hell out of here.
Rusot: Not you.[aims his rifle at Kira's head]
Garak: I'm still here, Rusot.
Rusot: Damar, shoot him. We can kill them both and keep the Breen weapon for ourselves. I believe in you, Damar. I know you're the right man to restore the Empire we so loyally served. The Empire we loved. Together we can lead our people to greatness again. Just aim and fire.[Damar aims and fires his disruptor, killing Rusot]
Damar:[to a shocked Kira and Garak] He was my friend. But his Cardassia's dead, and it won't be coming back.
Worf: You rule without wisdom and without honour. The warriors that are gathered here will not say this to you, but I will. You are squandering our ships and our lives on a petty act of vengeance.
Gowron:[angrily] I should have known better than to trust you again! If you were a true Klingon, I would kill you where you stand! Fortunately for you, that child's uniform shields you from your rightful fate.[Worf removes his comm badge]
Worf: What I say now, I say as a member of the House of Martok, not a Starfleet officer. You have dishonoured yourself and the Empire, and you are not worthy to lead the Council!
Gowron:[outraged] There can be onlyone answer tothat!
[During a trial by combat, Worf fatally stabs Gowron.]
Gowron:[weakly] You will not have this... day.[collapses and dies]
Odo:[to Sisko] Interesting, isn't it? The Federationclaims to abhorSection 31's tactics. But when they need the dirty work done, they look the other way. It's atidy little arrangement, wouldn't you say?
Quark: Taxes go against the very foundation of free enterprise! That's why it's called "free"!
Quark: Whatever happened to the survival of the fittest? Whatever happened to the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer? Whatever happened to pure, unadultered greed?
Mila: You should hear the stories. "Damar's alive, my cousin saw him on Kelvas Prime." "He faked his own death." "He's plotting a new offensive from his secret mountain hideaway."
Garak: You never told me you had a secret mountain hideaway.
[Captain Sisko and Admiral Ross are discussing the Dominion military's retreat with Chancellor Martok and the Romulan general Velal]
Admiral Ross: According to our intelligence report, the Dominion has withdrawn completely from Klingon, Federation and Romulan space. They seem to be forming a new defensive perimeter within Cardassian territory.
Velal: They must know we've developed a counter-measure to the Breen weapon.
Martok: There are advantages to falling back. They shorten their supply lines while forcing us to lengthen ours.
Ross: And with a smaller perimeter, they're less vulnerable to hit and run attacks. It would take a major offensive to break through their lines.
Velal: At a cost of thousands of ships. The wiser course would be to simply contain them within their perimeter.
Sisko: That's what they'rehoping we'll do, to give them time to rebuild their forces.
Martok: He's right. We have them on the defensive. We should hit them with everything we've got!
Ross: Breaking through that line would be a very ugly, very bloody job.
Sisko: If we do nothing, the Dominion could sit behind that perimeter for the next five years rearming themselves. And when they're ready to come out, God help us all.
Martok: The Klingon Empire votes to attack, now! Before they have time to recover.
Ross: Considering the alternatives, I'm afraid I have to concur.[All eyes turn to Velal, who reluctantly nods]
Weyoun: We know that these disgraceful acts of sabotage were carried out by a mere handful of extremists, but these radicals must come to realize that their disobedience will not be tolerated, and that you—the Cardassian people—will suffer the consequences of their cowardly actions. Which is why I must inform you that just a few moments ago, Dominion troops reduced Lakarian City to ashes. There were no survivors. Two million men, women, and children gone in a matter of moments. For each act of terrorism against the Dominion, another Cardassian city will be destroyed. I implore you not to let that happen. Let us return to the spirit of friendship and cooperation between our peoples so that together we can destroy our common enemies—the Federation, the Klingons, the Romulans, and all others who stand against us. Thank you.
Damar: I should have killed that Vorta jackal when I had the chance!
Weyoun: The Cardassian fleet has turned against us.
Female Changeling: Tell our forces to pull back to Cardassia Prime. There will be no more running. We should have rid ourselves of the Cardassians at the first sign of rebellion.
Legate Broca: If I could talk to them, get them to change their minds—
Weyoun: You might be able to reawaken their patriotic spirit.
Legate Broca: Exactly.
Weyoun: On the other hand, they might just as easily convinceyou to betray us.
Legate Broca: Me? Betray you? Never!
Female Changeling: Correct. We are not going to give you that opportunity.
Female Changeling: I want the Cardassians exterminated.
Weyoun: Which ones?
Female Changeling: All of them. The entire population.
Weyoun: That will take some time.
Female Changeling: Then I suggest that you begin at once.
Damar:(rallying the men) Once we are inside Dominion headquarters, we stop at nothing until we capture the Female Changling!
Cardassian soldiers: Let it be done! We're with you!
Garak:(as Jem'Hadar soldiers destroy his childhood home) All during the years of my exile, I imagined what it would be like to come home. I even thought of living in this house again, with Mila. But now she's dead, and this house is about to be reduced to a pile of rubble. My Cardassia is gone.
Kira:(holds out a gun) Then fight for a new Cardassia.
Garak:(takes it) I have an even better reason, Commander—revenge.
Garak: It's a rather large problem. The cargo bay door is made of neutronium.
Kira Nerys: Then the explosives we brought aren't even going to make a dent.
Garak: You see the problem.
Ekoor: What do we do?
Damar: I don't know. But I'm through hiding in basements.
[Garak begins to laugh]
Damar: I fail to see what is so funny, Garak.
Garak: Well, isn't it obvious? Here we are, ready to storm the castle, prepared to sacrifice our lives in a noble effort to slay the Dominion beast in its lair—[Kira begins to laugh uncontrollably] —and we can't even get inside the gates!
[They all begin to laugh.]
Kira: Maybe— maybe we could go up to the door and ask the Jem'Hadar to let us in.
Damar: Or just send the Shapeshifter out to us.
[They group laughs even louder.]
Garak:[sobers gradually] As I said, we have a problem.
Female Changeling: I wish you hadn't done that. That was Weyoun's last clone.
Female Changeling: It is always good to see you, Odo, but I have no intention of surrendering my forces. It would be sign of weakness, an invitation to the Solids to cross into the Gamma Quadrant and destroy the Great Link.
Odo: Believe me when I say that the Federation has its flaws, but a desire for conquest is not one of them.
Female Changeling: And what of the Romulans and the Klingons? Can you say the same for them?
Odo: The Romulan and Klingon Empires are in no position to invade anyone. Besides, the Federation would not allow it.
Female Changeling: The Dominion has spent the last two years trying to destroy the Federation, and now you're asking me to put our fate in their hands?
Odo: Yes.
Female Changeling: I'm sorry, Odo. I do not have your kind of faith in the Solids.
Martok: Before you shed too many tears, let me remind you these areCardassians who lie dead at your feet! Bajorans would call this poetic justice.
Benjamin Sisko: That doesn't mean I have to drink a toast over their bodies.
Garak: The casualty report's still coming in.(Turns to Bashir) Well, aren't you going to congratulate me, Doctor? My exile is now officially over; I've returned home.(pause) Or rather to what's left of it.
Bashir:(stammering, looking for the right thing to say) Listen, I— I— I know that this must seem...
Garak: You know, some may say that we've gotten just what we deserved. After all, we are not entirely innocent, are we? And I'm not just speaking of the Bajoran occupation. No, our whole history is one ofarrogant aggression. We've collaborated with the Dominion, betrayed the entire Alpha Quadrant. Oh, no, no, no, there's no doubt about it—we'reguilty as charged.
Bashir: You and I both know the Cardassians are a strong people, they'll survive. Cardassia will survive—
Garak: Oh, please, Doctor, spare me your insufferable Federation optimism! Of course, it'll survive. But not as the Cardassia I knew! We had a rich and ancient culture—our literature, music, art was second to none! And now so much of it is... lost. So many of our best people, our most gifted minds....
Bashir:(places a hand on Garak's shoulder) I'm sorry, Garak. I didn't mean—
Garak: Oh, it's... it's quite alright, Doctor. You've been such a good friend, I'm going to miss our lunches together.
Bashir: Oh, I'm sure we'll see each other again.
Garak: I'd like to think so, but one can never say. We live in uncertain times.(leaves)
Admiral Ross:(to Worf) How would you feel being named Federation Ambassdor toQo'noS?
Benjamin Sisko: To the best crew any captain ever had. This may be the last time we're all together. But no matter what the future holds, no matter how far we travel, a part of us—a very important part—will always remain here on Deep Space Nine.
Dukat:[to Winn] Did you really think the Pah-Wraiths would chooseyou as their Emissary? Soon, the Pagh-Wraiths will burn across Bajor, the Celestial Temple, the Alpha Quadrant. Can you picture it? An entire universe set in flames! To burn for all eternity![Sisko enters and Dukat grins gleefully] The Prophets have sent me a gift. Their beloved Emissary, sent forth like an avenging angel to slay the demon.
Sisko: I should have known the demon would beyou.
Dukat:[spreads his arms] Go ahead. Kill me...if you can.
Benjamin Sisko: First the Dominion, now the Pah-Wraiths. You have a talent for picking the losing side!
Dukat: Benjamin, please. We've known each other too long, and since this is the last time we will ever be together, let's try to speak honestly. We've both had our victories and our defeats. Now, it's time to resolve our differences and face the ultimate truth. I've won, Benjamin. You've lost.
Benjamin Sisko: The Pah-Wraiths will never conquer anything! Not Bajor, not the Celestial Temple, andcertainly not the Alpha Quadrant!
Dukat: And who's going to stop us?
Benjamin Sisko: I am!
Dukat:[cackles] You can't even stand up!
Winn: ThenI'll stop you![She tries to throw the Book of the Kosst Amojan into the Fire Caves, only for Dukat to telekinetically snatch it from her]
Dukat:[angered] Are you still here?
Winn:[to Sisko] EMISSARY! THE BOOK![Dukat directs flames from the Fire Caves at Winn, which encircle and then incinerate her]
Dukat:[venomously] Farewell, Adami.[seizing upon Dukat's distraction, Sisko gets to his feet and charges Dukat, sending them over the edge of the Fire Caves. A screaming Dukat and the Book of the Kosst Amojan are incinerated, but in a burst of white light, Sisko is transported to the Celestial Temple, where his mother greets him]
Mrs Sisko:The Emissary has finished his task.
Benjamin Sisko: The Book was the Key, wasn't it?
Mrs Sisko: To a door that can never be opened again.
Benjamin Sisko: And Dukat? Is he dead?
Mrs Sisko: He is trapped there with them.
[After Odo's seemingly impassive farewell to Quark]
Kira: Don't take it hard, Quark.
Quark: Hard? What are you talking about? That man loves me! Couldn't you see? It was written all over his back.
Contrary to a comment from NY Comic Con, Michael Piller and I pitched our ideas for DS9 to Gene, and he gave us his enthusiastic approval.
We pitched the concept and characters. We didn't lay-out 7 years of story arcs. It was far too early to know where it was going.
Rick Berman, Twitter, October 13th 2014.
When Gene died, both Michael Piller and I were involved in creating and writing Deep Space Nine, and we never really got a chance to talk to him about it because he was quite ill at that point. But even with Deep Space Nine and later Voyager, and Enterprise I felt it was important that as long as something had the Star Trek name on it that it stayed true to Gene’s belief of what Star Trek was all about.
I think Deep Space [Nine] was the show that really took Star Trek as far as you could take it. You have the original series which is a sort of a landmark, it changes everything about the way science fiction is presented on television, at least space-based science fiction. Then you have Next Generation which, for all of its legitimate achievements is still a riff on the original. It's still sort of like, ok, it's another star ship and it's another captain – it's different but it's still a riff on the original. Here comes Deep Space [Nine] and it just runs the table in a different way. It just says ok, you think you know what Star Trek is, let's put it on a space station, and let's make it darker. Let's make it a continuing story, and let's continually challenge your assumptions about what this American icon means. And I think it was the ultimate achievement for the franchise. Personally, I think it's the best of all of them, I think it's an amazing piece of work.
Ronald D. Moore, 'Ending an Era' featurette Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – Season Seven DVD, interview dated December 10, 2002.
The truth is that if Gene (Roddenberry) was alive -had been alive- DS9 would have never been made, because he absolutely said “no” to it when it was presented to him. He said ‘Star Trek is about exploring space, it’s not about a hotel in space.’ So, it would never have happened.
Were Piller and Berman aware of B5 at any time? No. Of that I am also confident. The only question in my mind is to what degree did the development people steer them? One scenario is that they did not steer them at ALL…but knowing of B5, and knowing how swell it would be if they could co-opt B5, if Piller and Berman came up with a space station on their own, they would likely say nothing, even though they might be viewed as being under a moral obligation to say something. Another scenario is that they gave direction to the creative folks without telling them the origin of that direction. There are several ways of dealing with this. One is to launch a major suit with full powers of discovery. The result is that DS9 gets tied up for months, maybe even years inlitigation, and maybe the show doesn’t go forward. It also means hundreds of thousands of dollars spent by Warners and me and others pursuing this…not to mention the sense of ill will that will fly back and forth.
The people that really understand and love Star Trek are no longer there. When Gene Roddenbery passed, that really was the end of Star Trek, as we knew it. The series that came on immediately after was Deep Space Nine, which was the polar opposite of Gene’s philosophy and vision of the future, Star Trek lost it’s way then and now the people at Paramount are all new people. Herb Solow who was the executive in charge of Desilu Studios is now a professor in Wales. We became very good friends and we had dinner with him and his wife before they left, and when I was in London last year I saw an article about a Professor Herb Solow! But, basically the people now at the studio have absolutely no connection with Star Trek as we knew it, sadly.
