To Boldly Sew is a recap of DS9 episodes, with a specific focus on the fashions of the many aliens and other characters that make up the series. Feel free to discuss general Star Trek things in the comments. All screenshots come from trekcore.com, which is the same place as the original TNG fashion blog (http://sttngfashion.tumblr.com/).
Synopsis: While traveling in a Runabout, Kira and Odo learn that a Maquis ship has ambushed a Lissepian vessel.
Kira reports that she and Odo are returning to DS9 after reviewing security procedures at a Bajoran colony near the Cardassian border called Prophet’s Landing. They are travelling in a runabout.
She talks about some orbital sensor platforms that should give colonists advance warnings, but Odo doesn’t seem in the mood to talk. She asks directly how his meeting with Security Chief Bemar went. “Fine.”
Finally, Kira asks straight out if something’s bothering him, as he’s barely said five words since they left. She wants to know if she’s offended him. He says it’s not important and not worth making an issue about, which makes her grumpy.
Odo at last admits that he’s unhappy that Kira turned down a dinner invitation from the governor without asking him if he wanted to go. She’s surprised that he wanted to go. He didn’t want to, but he wanted her to ask. Kira points out that he doesn’t eat and hates socializing with people he doesn’t know.
He insists this is beside the point and he wanted to be consulted. Kira is clearly kind of annoyed by his complaints but says next time they are invited out to dinner, he can be the one to say no. He appreciates this.
Further discussion is halted when they pick up a subspace transmission from a Lissepian supply ship that says they’ve been attacked by the Maquis. Odo checks long-range sensors; they’re detecting a modified Peregrine-class courier ship armed with a one-man crew. Kira notes that the Maquis use Peregrine-class ships.
The Lissepians didn’t sustain serious damage, so she wants to go after the Maquis. Odo agrees. They warp off.
Kira notes that the Maquis did something to the ship’s engines as it is fast, but Odo reassures her that they’re closing on it anyway. They’re entering the Badlands.
Suddenly, Odo says they’ve lost the ship as the plasma fields of the Badlands are disrupting the sensors. Kira tells him to increase the bandwith to compensate. They find him again, trying to land on the moon of a nearby gas giant, but it looks like his attitude stabilizers have failed.
Kira asks if they can get a transporter lock on him. No, too much interference. Then they lose him. Odo isn’t sure if his landing was successful as the moon’s atmosphere is jamming the sensors. She decides to land and see for themselves.
Back on DS9, Sisko is in his office when O’Brien calls to tell him Nog wants to see him.
Nog says it’s urgent so Sisko agrees to see him, much to Nog’s delight.
A new outfit for Nog! I am super excited to see this, as his previous outfits were pretty childish, with bright colors. This outfit has a nice dark red color, with shiny highlights on the sleeves. It’s not clear here whether it’s a jacket or just made to look like a jacket, but either way I like it, and I imagine that maybe Quark helped him pick it out, as Quark has pretty good fashion sense.
Coming into the office, Nog expresses his sincere thanks for being allowed in, and shakes hands with Sisko. Sisko, bemused, asks what this is all about.
Nog presents him with a gift wrapped in a bag of some sort. Sisko opens it and it’s a pile of latinum. Why is Nog giving this to him?
Those be some shiny bricks of gold gold pressed latinum!
Nog explains that he completed the Ferengi Attainment Ceremony and is now an adult. I assume the award for this was a new outfit and a pile of money. Sisko congratulates him but still doesn’t understand the gift.
According to Ferengi bylaws, upon reaching adulthood, Ferengi males must purchase an apprenticeship from a suitable role model. Nog has chosen Sisko.
He explains he wants to be the first Ferengi in Starfleet and asks how to get a uniform.
Sisko explains that to become a Starfleet officer, you have to attend the Academy. Nog asks how to sign up. Sisko says it’s not that simple – as a non-Federation citizen, you need a letter of reference from a command-level officer before he can take the entrance exam.
Nog pushes the latinum back toward Sisko and asks if he’ll write the letter. Sisko pushes the latinum back and says he’ll think about it. Nog tells him to keep the latinum as a token of his appreciation and leaves.
Kira and Odo have landed on the moon and are wandering through some caves with useless tricorders (thanks to atmospheric ionization or something) looking for the Maquis pilot they were chasing.
Odo explains that the pilot wasn’t in the wreckage of the ship and the weather conditions outside were terrible, so he concluded the pilot has gone into the caves. I’m not sure I’d want to go into them without a working tricorder or a lot of other people, but that’s probably my claustrophobia talking.
There’s a quake then, the third since they’ve arrived. Kira concludes the moon is seismically unstable. Odo agrees they should find the fugitive.
Kira points out the caverns could go on for some distance and the moon is unstable, so proposes splitting up, then meeting back there in 20 minutes. If they haven’t found him by then, they leave without him. Odo says if he’s smart he’ll let them find him as a prison would be paradise in comparison to the moon.
They separate. Odo gets a static-filled call from Kira saying she has been trapped and she needs his help. He heads off in her direction.
As he gets closer, Kira’s voice is audible, and he finds her sitting on a rock. Her foot is stuck in a fissure and she can’t get it loose. He looks.
It’s not a fissure, her foot’s been encased in some kind of crystal and it looks like it’s spreading.
There’s another quake.
Odo suggests she try slipping her foot out, but she can’t, or maybe slipping out of the boot, but she says she can barely feel her foot as the crystal is pushing against her so hard.
He picks up a rock and tries bashing it against the crystal, but the rock breaks and the crystal is undamaged.
Kira finds the situation humorous and ridiculous. Odo is not amused.
She decides to try shooting it with her phaser, which worries him, but she says she has no intention of giving Bashir the opportunity to brag about what a wonderful doctor he is after she shoots off her foot.
Unfortunately, the crystal actually spreads in response.
Odo observes that the crystal seems to have fed off the energy from her phaser.
There’s another quake. He calls the Mekong and orders them beamed out, but there’s no response because there’s too much interference. He decides to walk back to the landing site and try to transport her from there.
He takes a few steps and then looks back. Kira concludes he’s worried about leaving her there and he admits this is true. She says she’ll be fine and won’t go anywhere, so he starts walking.
Back on DS9, Rom is fixing something with Nog’s help.
Nog is still wearing his new outfit. Rom is wearing his usual green jacket with green patterned shirt.
Quark comes to ask if it is fixed yet and urge them to work faster.
Quark has on my second-favorite outfit of his: red pants, reddish patterned jacket, teal vest, and off-white ruffled shirt.
Nog explains that the replicator’s power supply is shorted out. Rom says Quark should shut them down once a week for routine maintenance or you get system overload.
Quark says that Rom said that it might overload the system, not that it definitely would. Rom apologizes for not explaining it clearer, even though Nog tries to defend him. Quark says everything that goes wrong is Rom’s fault.
He wants everything cleaned up by lunch or he’s taking the losses out of Rom’s pay. Rom doesn’t argue. He sees Nog looking at him with some disapproval, and says he has to go get a replacement power coupling from the storage room, and leaves.
Jake comes into Quark’s wearing a terrible shirt.
I overall approve of Jake moving away from horrible jumpsuits and into horrible shirts. I just wish that they were less horrible.
Nog says if he wants to order lunch he’ll have to come back in an hour. Jake says he already ate.
He says that Nog pulled a funny joke on his dad about wanting to join Starfleet. Nog says he wasn’t joking. Jake doesn’t believe him.
Nog asks if he told his dad it was a joke. Jake says yes. Nog is very upset and wants him to go back and tell Sisko he was wrong.
Jake agrees but is surprised; Nog never said he wanted to join Starfleet before. Nog says he’s saying it now.
Jake asks for reasons, which Nog is reluctant to provide. Jake says friends don’t keep secrets from one another. He says that it’s not a secret but he doesn’t want to talk about it because it’s personal. Jake says if it’s a trick, his dad will figure it out. Nog says there’s nothing to figure out and it’s not a trick, and he has a lot of work to do.
Jake solemnly leaves, and Nog goes back to work.
Back on the moon, Odo reaches the runabout and tells the computer to beam out Kira. The computer can’t do it because of atmospheric interference. Nope, can’t compensate. Nope, can’t do it.
He tries to send a distress signal to DS9 but the computer can’t do that either because of the interference. He tries launching a probe into the atmosphere and having that send a distress signal, and this seems to work.
The computer says that DS9 will get the distress signal in about two days.
Odo goes back into the cave and hears phaser fire. Kira is standing knee-deep in crystal and says that he just missed the fugitive, who seemed as surprised as she was. She points him in the direction the guy ran. He didn’t miss Kira by much.
On DS9, Sisko and Bashir are walking along the promenade and talking. Bashir has requested to move an ensign from cargo inspection given his medical condition. He’s budding – or pregnant – with twins. Sisko approves the reassignment and says he’ll have to offer his congratulations next time he sees the ensign.
Bashir says he and O’Brien are throwing him a baby shower and invites Sisko to join. Sisko asks about gifts. He says O’Brien is building a hatchling pond and he’s ordered some new baby clothes from Garak. Sisko agrees to join.
Nog chases down Sisko and asks if he’s made up his mind about writing the letter. “Not exactly.” He asks what that means.
Sisko admits that when he thinks of candidates for the Academy, his name is not the first that comes to mind. Nog asks if this is because he’s a Ferengi. Sisko points out that he has a reputation on the station. His grades in school are mediocre and he’s had some run ins with Odo.
Nog says he knows he has made mistakes but he could do better, and pleads with Sisko to give him a chance. He holds out his hand again for shaking. Sisko just kind of sighs.
Dax goes in to Sisko’s office. Sisko says he wants Cargo Bay 12 inventoried, and he’d like Nog to do it. She is surprised, not only because they just inventoried it last week.
He explains that Nog has asked for a recommendation to the Academy. Dax is as surprised as Sisko.
Sisko says that it seems unlikely but he wants to give Nog a chance to prove himself. Dax points out there is some valuable stuff in that cargo bay. He knows.
Dax suggests assigning some crew members to assist him. Sisko says no, no interference, no assistance, no one looking over his shoulder.
Back in the cavern, Kira is now up to her waist in crystals.
Odo wishes he could analyze the material, but the tricorders don’t work. Or anything else. Odo thinks it’s convenient the fugitive decided to hide there.
Kira wonders if they were lured there. He says maybe but it’s not going to work – he’s going to get her out. She asks how long he thinks she has. Long enough. She estimates that at the rate it’s been growing less than 12 hours until she’s covered completely.
There’s another quake, and she adds, “unless this cave collapses first!”
Odo thinks there has to be a way to shatter the crystal. She doesn’t think they’ll find it in less than 12 hours. He is optimistic.
He asks if she looks at the criminal activity reports they get from Starfleet Security. She says not often. He says she should, they’re fascinating reading.
A few months ago they got a report of a theft on Remmil VI. The natives there spin a kind of crystalline webbing they use to construct buildings. A band of raiders broke into the Central Museum by using a high-frequency ultrasonic generator to create a sympathetic vibration inside the webbing and shatter it.
He thinks he can put together a makeshift generator using a covariant oscillator from the runabout. The hardest part will be finding the right frequency. He needs to go back to the runabout.
Kira says when they return to the station she’ll make sure to read the criminal activity reports. He says he’ll make sure she gets them.
In the cargo bay, Dax tells Nog they lost the entire manifest of the cargo bay due to a computer error and Sisko wants him to re-inventory it. She tells Nog that Starfleet isn’t just about diplomacy and exploration, it’s often just hard work.
Nog asks when Sisko wants it done. First thing in the morning. Nog says he’ll have it tonight. She gives him the padd needed and leaves. Nog gets to work.
The cargo bay looks more full than I think I’ve ever seen a cargo bay before. There are boxes and tubs and all sorts of containers stacked higher than both of them.
The crystal has made its way to chest height on Kira. Odo is working on the generator thing.
Kira wants to know how long before it reaches the right frequency. Odo doesn’t know – might take hours. No way to speed things up? Nope.
Odo is optimistic and says he has every intention of returning to the station by tomorrow night as he has an appointment with Chief O’Brien.
Kira is curious about the type of appointment. He’s reluctant to say, but she wants him to talk to pass the time, so he admits they are supposed to go kayaking together in a holosuite. She’s surprised.
How did he talk Odo into it, she wonders. Odo admits it’s enjoyable and they’ve gone kayaking twice before. He accepted one evening when he had no other plans and enjoyed it. Kira finds it hard to imagine the two of them in a boat.
Odo says that if it makes her feel better, O’Brien does all the singing. He says it’s necessary to establish a smooth paddling rhythm. She asks about the types of songs he sings.
Ancient human sea chanteys, mostly. He’s particularly fond of one called “Louie, Louie.” Kira finds this hilarious and says she’s never pictured O’Brien as the nautical type. Odo says that after work and family, shooting the rapids is O’Brien’s favorite activity and he’s had the holo-programs since he was on the Enterprise.
Kira asks how long the trips usually take. Depends on how many times they capsize. She comments it must be difficult, and Odo agrees it’s extremely difficult. He says that O’Brien reports having dislocated his shoulder half a dozen times.
Why keep doing it? she wonders. Because he loves it, Odo replies. He also says he’s observed that humanoids have a hard time giving up the things they love no matter how much they might hurt them.
She says she’s glad he’s there. He says he’s also glad. Then there’s another quake and rocks fall from the ceiling.
Kira puts up her hands to shield herself, and Odo forms a big tent type structure to protect her.
The quake stops and he returns to his usual shape, asking if she’s okay. She is more worried about the generator, which he confirms is fine. Still hasn’t found the right frequency though.
Kira is worried that if they don’t find the right frequency soon, the cave will collapse around them. Odo says they’ve been in worse situations and come out fine.
She asks him to name three. He doesn’t answer. She says she can’t think of any either.
He says, no that wasn’t the response he was expecting. In detective novels (which O’Brien gave him to read), when the hero says “we’ve been in tougher situations than this one,” his friends agree. Kira says she never read those book.
Odo wants to find a platitude to cheer her up, but Kira says she doesn’t have much use for platitudes. She’d rather face the truth of a situation and go on. He agrees. She says that’s why they get along so well. He agrees again, but says the truth this time is that he’s going to get her out of there.
Back on DS9, Sisko and Dax meet for a meal and Sisko reviews Nog’s work.
At first I thought they were eating sushi, but on closer inspection it looks like grapefruit, so I suppose this is either a midday snack or breakfast.
Sisko says that it’s impressive; Dax says it’s incredible. Nog inventoried the entire cargo bay in under five hours. Sisko wonders if he had some help.
Dax says the internal sensors show no one entered the cargo bay the whole time Nog was there. Sisko guesses he must have learned something working in Quark’s store room. He also subtly asks if anything is missing. Dax says nothing was stolen, and he found some things missed on the last inventory.
Okay, Sisko says, he’s a hard worker. But why does he want to join Starfleet?
Dax has no idea.
In the cavern, Kira is almost completely covered with crystal.
Odo is frustrated. He’s run through basically the entire spectrum and none of the frequencies have had any effect on the crystal. It’s like the structure of the crystal is mutating to prevent them from finding the right frequency.
Kira is having trouble breathing or speaking thanks to the rocks. She rasps out his name. He wishes there was something else he could do. She just wants him to keep talking to him.
There’s another, brief quake. Odo asks what he should say and she says to tell her a story. He’s not sure of what to say, so she suggests he tell her how he got his name.
He agrees this is an amusing story so begins to tell it. When Dr. Mora first brought Odo to the laboratory it was overseen by Cardassians. All the specimens had to be labeled in Cardassian so the Overseers would always know what the scientists were working on. Since no one was sure what he was, Mora labeled him as “unknown sample,” and the Overseer translated into Cardassian as “odo’ital.”
So your name is unknown sample? Kira concludes, finding this kind of amusing. Odo says no, odo’ital literally means “nothing.” Even after it became clear he was sentient, the scientists continued to call him that, and as a joke, split it into two names like the Bajorans used: “Odo Ital,” which became just Odo.
There’s another quake.
Odo continues and says that for a long time when people used his name he thought of what it meant: nothing. He had no friends or family or anywhere he belonged and thought it was the most appropriate name anyone could give him. Then he met Kira.
…And the others. Sisko, Dax, and even Quark. Now when he hears his name, he doesn’t think of himself as nothing, but as me.
Kira is crying now, so he apologizes that the story was not as amusing as he’d hoped. She says no, she liked it a lot.
They conclude the ultrasonic generator is not going to work. She asks if he has any other ideas. He wishes he did and is frustrated that it doesn’t work.
She says he did his best and he should go, since the place is going to probably collapse soon and the Maquis fugitive is probably dead anyway. She orders him to leave.
He refuses the order and says he’s resigning his commission. She says if he stays he’ll die. He says she doesn’t know that for certain and even if she did he’s not abandoning her. There’s more shaking.
Odo says he can’t leave. She says he has to and begs him to go. He refuses and says he won’t leave her. Why? Because!
Because…he’s in love with her.
He sinks down to the ground and sits on the rocks. So, now she knows.
Kira says she’s in love with him also.
Back on DS9, Nog goes to see Sisko.
Sisko says he’s given the request a lot of thought but he’s going to have to turn him down.
Why? Did he doe something wrong?
No, Sisko says, he’s just not Academy material. He tries to give back the latinum.
Nog pleads that they speak about it, but Sisko refuses.
He says there’s nothing to talk about – they both know that Nog won’t be able to handle the workload or discipline and he wouldn’t last two weeks. Nog says he’s a hard worker and has proved that.
Sisko says it doesn’t matter and he’s not going to put his reputation on the line to satisfy a whim. Nog says it’s not a whim and he’s serious about joining Starfleet. Sisko says whatever scheme he has he can forget it.
Nog says it’s not a joke or a scheme and he wants this more than anything he’s ever wanted in his life. Sisko says he’s a Ferengi, and why would he want to join Starfleet when there’s no profit in it. Nog says he doesn’t care about profit.
What do you care about? Sisko demands. Why is it important he get into Starfleet? Why is he doing this?
Nog finally breaks and says he doesn’t want to end up like his father.
Sisko is surprised by this.
Nog says his dad has been chasing profit his whole life and what has it gotten him? Nothing, because he doesn’t have the lobes, and neither does Nog.
Sisko recalls the 18th Rule of Acquisition: A Ferengi without profit…
Nog finishes:…is no Ferengi at all. He says his father is a mechanical genius who could have been Chief Engineer on a starship if he’d had the opportunity, but he went into business like a good Ferengi. But 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 one day he might be able to take over Quark’s bar. Nog says he won’t make the same mistake – he wants to do something with his life that’s meaningful.
Like joining Starfleet? Sisko asks.
Nog says that even though he doesn’t have an instinct for business, he has his father’s hands and his uncle’s tenacity. He knows he has something to offer, he just needs a chance to prove it.
Sisko says all right, he’ll see that Nog gets the chance. He says he’ll send the letter first thing in the morning.
Nog is overjoyed and goes to hug Sisko, who says not to thank him yet – he still has a lot of work ahead of him.
Don’t worry, Nog says, you won’t regret this. He holds out his hand to shake again.
Back in the cavern, Kira points out that Odo hasn’t said anything in over an hour. He says he’s been going over things in his mind.
She says she’s sorry she waited so long to tell him how she felt; if she’d said something earlier, maybe things would have been different.
Odo smiles and says he’s figured out what’s going on. The whole situation hasn’t seemed right from the beginning – too many coincidences and unanswered questions.
He goes over to a particular spot in the cave and asks if that’s where the Maquis was standing when he shot at her. Yes. How tall? She says maybe shorter than Odo. He bends down. Like this?
Maybe, she says, what does it matter?
He says that from where he’s standing, she’s blocking phaser hits. There’s no way someone standing where he is could hit the rocks behind Kira without hitting her first. She says maybe he was standing somewhere else.
Maybe, or maybe she was lying – which makes twice she’s lied. That was the first lie and also she lied when she said she loved him. She says she does love him.
He says he wishes she did, but she doesn’t. He’s watched her for three years and in all that time she’s never given any indication of such feelings. She likes him and thinks of him as a close friend, but love? Nope.
She suggests maybe she said it because she thought it’s what he wanted to hear. He thinks she’s still lying and Kira has too much regard for their friendship to lie. She says she can explain.
Odo raises Kira’s weapon and points it at her and says she can start by saying who she is and what she’s done with Kira.
“Kira” smiles and then morphs into the female changeling we’ve met before.
Well done, Odo, she says, and compliments his investigating abilities. He says she’s a skillful changeling.
She says he still has a lot to learn. He says if she wants to share wisdom, tell him where Kira is. Close by. She confesses to being the Maquis fugitive they were chasing, but declines to tell him how she got a Maquis ship.
Why lead them here and replace Kira?
She says she needed to understand why he chose to live with the Solids rather than her own people, and she suspected Kira was involved. Now she’s certain.
Odo concludes that the plan was to let him think Kira died. That would take away his link to the Solids? He says nothing will ever make him do that. The female changeling is skeptical.
He wants to know where Kira is and demands she tell him. Or what, he’ll shoot her? No changeling has ever harmed another. He says there’s always a first time.
She tells him that Kira is down the tunnel. Save her if he wants but she’ll never love him. How could she? He’s a changeling.
Then she transports out.
Odo finds Kira in a box.
He opens it and she is awake and alert immediately, though has no idea why she’s there. Odo says there’s no time to explain and they have to get back to the Mekong.
Back on DS9, Odo and Kira come back to the station through the airlock. Kira doesn’t understand why the Founder was testing his allegiance to the Solids by impersonating Kira.
Odo says he supposes it’s because she was in the runabout and it could have been anyone.
Kira asks how he figured out the truth and he says that the changeling said something he knew Kira would never say. What was that? He says just a slip of the tongue and nothing important.
At Quark’s, Quark is unhappy with Nog’s decision.
I am, however, mostly happy with Quark’s outfit, and also it seems that Rom has finally gotten a new jacket! I like it. The other jacket looks more like your grandfather’s sweater, and made him look old and schlubby and this is a cleaner and more put-together look.
Quark says no nephew of his will disgrace the family name by joining Starfleet and he forbids it.
Rom steps up and says he does not. Quark tries to tell him to shut up, but Rom says that when it comes to the bar, Quark is in charge, but he makes the decisions on his son.
Fine, says Quark. You tell him he can’t go.
Rom turns to his son and says Nog, good luck. He says he would be proud to have a son in Starfleet. Quark thinks they’re both insane.
Stray Thoughts:
* This was a waaaaaay better episode than the last one. Solid characterization for Nog and Odo, and great acting on all parts. Such a relief.
* I guess I hadn’t seen this episode before, or didn’t remember it, because the ending was a complete surprise to me. It seemed like a pretty convoluted plot on the part of the Founders, but I guess Odo is very important to them.
* Also, it hasn’t been explained yet how the Dominion knows so much about the Alpha Quadrant. (To be fair, this is the first time we’ve really talked about the Dominion much since last season.) I have to assume that they have spies/hidden changelings/sympathizers on DS9 and throughout Starfleet who are passing info on.
* I was kind of surprised by Odo’s talk of spending time kayaking with O’Brien, as I didn’t remember them having developed a friendship, unlike O’Brien and Bashir. Also, interesting to note that it’s O’Brien who’s passing on the detective novels.
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