Javert

SISKO: 

Well, well, Mister Eddington. 

EDDINGTON: 

(hologram) 

You just couldn't resist the temptation to come after me, could you, Captain. 

SISKO: 

I like to finish what I start.
 

EDDINGTON: 

Well, I'm afraid you're going to be disappointed, again. 

You won't get me, Captain. 

But I do have a consolation prize for you. 

Actually it's more of a gift.
 

KIRA: 

 Incoming transmission. 

Sending over a document. 

EDDINGTON: 

It's a book. One of my favourites. 

Les Miserables. 

 
SISKO: 

Thank you, but I've read it. 

EDDINGTON: 

Recently? If not, you should read it again. 

Pay close attention to the character of Inspector Javert, 

The French policeman who spends twenty years chasing a man for stealing a loaf of bread.

Sound like anyone you know? 

[Mess hall]

(Miserable Sisko is reading a PADD.) 

DAX: 

We've towed the transport ship out of the planet's gravitational pull. 

SISKO: 

Once our repair team is back onboard, release the tractor beam. 

The Cardassians can limp their way home in a day or two. 

DAX: 

Les Miserables. 

SISKO: 

You know it? 

DAX: 

I can't stand Victor Hugo. 

I tried reading The Hunchback of Notre Dame, but I couldn't get through it. 

It was so melodramatic and his heroines are so two dimensional. 

SISKO: 

Eddington compares me to one of the characters, Inspector Javert. 

A policeman who relentlessly pursues a man named Valjean, guilty of a trivial offence, 

and in the end Javert's own inflexibility destroys him. 

He commits suicide. 

DAX: 

You can't believe that description fits you. Eddington is just trying to get under your skin. 

SISKO: 

He did that eight months ago. 

What strikes me about this book is that Eddington said that it's one of his favourites. 

DAX: 

There's no accounting for taste. 

SISKO: 

Let's think about it. 

A Starfleet security officer is fascinated by a nineteenth century French melodrama, and now he's a leader of the Maquis, a resistance group fighting the noble battle against the evil Cardassians. 

DAX: 

It sounds like he's living out his own fantasy.

SISKO: 

Exactly. And you know what? 

Les Miserables isn't about the policeman.

It's about Valjean, the victim of a monstrous injustice who spends his entire life helping people, making noble sacrifices for others. 

That's how Eddington sees himself. 

He's Valjean, he's Robin Hood, he's a romantic, dashing figure, fighting the good fight against insurmountable odds. 

DAX: 

The secret life of Michael Eddington. 

How does it help us?

SISKO: 

Eddington is the hero of his own story. 

That makes me the villain. 

And what is it that every hero wants to do? 

DAX: 

 Kill The Bad Guy. 

SISKO: 

That's part of it. 

Heroes only kill when they have to. 

Eddington could have killed me back in the refugee camp or when he disabled the Defiant, but in the best melodramas The Villain creates a situation where the hero is forced to sacrifice himself for the people, for the cause. 

One final grand gesture. 

DAX: 

What are you getting at, Benjamin?
 

SISKO: 

I think it's time for me to become The Villain.