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Destiny (episode)edit

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"Destiny"
DS9, Episode 3x15
Production number: 40513-461
First aired: 13 February 1995
← 60th of 173 produced in DS9 →
← 60th of 173 released in DS9 →
  {{{nNthReleasedInSeries_Remastered}}}th of 173 released in DS9 Remastered  
← 350th of 727 released in all →
Written By
David S. Cohen & Martin A. Winer

Directed By
Les Landau
48543.2 (2371)
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An ancient Bajoran prophecy of doom complicates the first joint Bajoran, Cardassian, and Federation science mission, which is a wormhole relay station, an attempt to establish a permanent communications link through the wormhole.

Contents

[edit] Summary

A team of Cardassian scientists is coming to Deep Space 9 to assist in deploying a subspace relay to allow communication through the Bajoran wormhole to the Gamma Quadrant for the first time. The entire crew is getting ready for their arrival and for the experiment, and even Quark has taken steps to welcome them – and perhaps unload some old kanar he's had since the Cardassian occupation. He's actually quite excited about welcoming Cardassians back onto the station. A pair of unexpected setbacks soon befalls them, however. First, Quark's kanar has gone bad over the years it sat in his store room. Second, Vedek Yarka requests a meeting with Commander Sisko.

Yarka is an older vedek who seems kindly but has come to discuss a serious matter. Sisko, he insists, must not allow the Cardassians aboard the station, for Trakor's Third Prophecy warns that doing so would bring catastrophe. The prophecy reads: "When the river wakes, stirred once more to Janir's side, three vipers will return to their nest in the sky. When the vipers try to peer through the temple gates, a sword of stars will appear in the heavens. The temple will burn, and its gates will be cast open." Yarka is certain that it means that allowing the Cardassians to enter the wormhole will destroy it.

Sisko is more than a little skeptical, especially since the Kai and the Vedek Assembly have already approved of the communications relay. He makes clear that he respects Bajoran beliefs, but that he must allow the project to go forward. Establishing communication with the Gamma quadrant is too important. What's more, there will be only two Cardassians – or "vipers" – and not the three Trakor prophesied. Yarka insists that there will be three, and expresses his hope that Sisko will change his mind, but leaves his office without incident.

Ulani and Gilora, the two Cardassian scientists also arrive without incident and brief the DS9 crew on their plans. Chief O'Brien will need to help modify the station's signaling array while the Defiant positions and monitors a signaling satellite at the other end of the wormhole. Aside from some tension between O'Brien and Gilora over the quality of the chief's earlier work at building a signaling platform, the meeting goes smoothly – until Ulani mentions offhand that a third Cardassian scientist, Dejar, will be joining them. Sisko is unfazed by the announcement, but Kira is awed at the realization that there will now be three "vipers," just as Yarka predicted.

Odo, however, soon reports that Vedek Yarka is actually no longer a vedek, having been stripped of his title three months earlier. He also reminds Sisko that his decision to proceed with the project may be influenced by his desire to distance himself from his Emissary title. Since Yarka insists that it is up to the Emissary to prevent the impending disaster, Sisko may be unwilling to put himself in that position. Sisko is skeptical, but hears what Odo has to say.

What's more, Yarka has begun trying to convince Major Kira that she must influence Sisko's decision. She wants to keep her role as an officer distinct from her religion, but Yarka points out that she may no longer be able to do so.

O'Brien and Gilora begin modifying the station, and again encounter personal tension when Gilora discovers some of the chief's modifications – and then refuses to listen to his suggestions. She's further annoyed when he reveals that her planned modifications won't work and finally reveals the source of her dislike for him: on Cardassia, males aren't generally adept at the sciences, a field which is almost entirely dominated by women. She does seem amused, or even pleased, when O'Brien finally steps in and begins making modifications himself.

With assurances that the station will be ready in time, however, the Defiant takes a quick jaunt through the wormhole to deploy the relay. There they discover something that could be a much bigger problem than any personal differences: a comet headed their way with a long, bright tail in the shape of a blade -- "the sword of stars," Kira observes. It will be passing near the wormhole, but not near enough to be a threat, so the crew proceeds with the mission.

Sisko isn't exactly thrilled when Kira voices her interpretation of the comet, though, and takes her to crew quarters to discuss it privately. She admits that she does view him as the Emissary, and not just as a Starfleet officer. To satisfy the need for a solid, reasonable, "Starfleet" reason for calling off the mission, Kira reminds the commander that the Prophets don't exist in linear time and may indeed have revealed knowledge of what Humans and Bajorans would consider "the future" to the Bajoran prophet Trakor three millennia ago. It is a convincing argument, but given the ambiguity in Trakor's words Sisko still refuses to turn back. They deploy the relay and begin testing it.

The first test has absolutely no effect, good or bad. Their second attempt, however, causes trouble. The wormhole opens, its gravity well increases threefold, and shakes the ship until they terminate the test. The signalling array is undamaged, as is the Defiant, but when the wormhole got "heavier" during the test it drew the comet on a course directly toward it. If the comet enters the wormhole, the silithium in its core will cause a cascade reaction and destroy the wormhole forever. Trakor's prophecy seems to be coming true.

Sisko takes the Defiant back to the station to meet with the entire science team, but they have precious few options. The comet is large enough that a tractor beam would only break it apart, sending multiple fragments into the wormhole, with the same catastrophic result. The same problem prevents them from simply blasting the comet with ordinary phasers. Chief O'Brien suggests modifying the phaser array to generate a wide beam that can encompass the entire comet at once and vapourize it evenly, but he can't have the modifications ready until a mere two hours before the comet is due to enter the wormhole. While working, he experiences still more personal differences with Gilora, but of a very different sort. She has interpreted his irritability towards her as a sign that he was interested in pursuing a physical relationship. She's embarrassed and quite upset upon realizing that "overt irritability" means something very different to Humans than it does to Cardassians, and leaves Miles to finish the maintenance by himself.

With the chief's modifications to the phasers, the Defiant heads back into the Gamma Quadrant. Unfortunately, the entire weapons array shorts out almost immediately after firing, leaving the Defiant defenceless. Even worse, the modified phasers never fired at all; the beam that was emitted was a standard phaser beam that, as predicted, splits the comet into three pieces, all still on course for the wormhole. O'Brien's examination of the system suggests he made a mistake even a first-year engineering student wouldn't make. Gilora defends him, however, by revealing that Dejar is an operative of the Obsidian Order and she sabotaged the system in order to prevent peace talks from progressing between Cardassia and Bajor.

That still leaves the problem of protecting the wormhole from the comet. Ulani suggests creating a subspace field around the fragments that would keep the silithium from reacting with the wormhole, but the Defiant is too large to fit between the fragments. Sisko decides to take a shuttlepod out instead, ordering the Defiant to return to the Alpha Quadrant, knowing that if he fails, he'll either die or be trapped in the Gamma Quadrant forever. Kira asks to accompany him, not as a colleague, but as an assistant to the Bajoran Emissary. He agrees.

The plan works almost flawlessly, and does protect the wormhole from serious damage, but some silithium still leaks out and reacts with the wormhole. When they meet the Defiant on the Alpha terminus of the wormhole, though, they get good news. The Defiant is receiving the signalling relay's test signal. The silithium interacted with the wormhole just enough to let a subspace filament form along the entire length of the wormhole, which will leave it permanently "wedged open" just enough for subspace transmissions to pass through.

With awe, Kira realizes that the entire prophecy actually came true. The "three vipers" were the three comet fragments. The silithium ignited the wormhole, "burning the temple gates – so they'd never close again". Sisko finally agrees: Trakor saw it all and wrote it down three thousand years before. He's even willing to discuss another prophecy about the Emissary with Yarka as the Cardassians depart the station.

[edit] Memorable Quotes

"I assure you: I'm quite fertile... I could provide you with many healthy children, if that's your concern, but frankly I think you're getting a little ahead of yourself."

- Gilora

[edit] Background Information

[edit] Video and DVD releases

[edit] Links and references

[edit] Starring

[edit] Also Starring

[edit] Guest stars

[edit] References

Bajoran-Cardassian Treaty; Bajoran prophecy; Bajoran religion; Bajoran wormhole; bridge; Cardassian First Republic; Cardassian history; Cardassian Science Ministry; Cardassian vole; cargo bay; comet; Dax, Tobin; Dominion; Emissary; field coil; gravity well; Iloja of Prim; Janir; Obsidian Order; Orb of Prophecy and Change; phaser; phaser array; Regova egg; serialist poets; silithium; Starfleet; subspace; subspace inversion; subspace relay station; Sword of Stars; Tojal; tractor beam; Trakor; Trakor's Third Prophecy; Trakor's Fourth Prophecy; type-18 shuttlepod; viper; warp drive; wormhole relay station; yamok sauce

[edit] External links


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"Heart of Stone" 		Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
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"Prophet Motive"
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