Chakotay’s Cave

CHAKOTAY: 

From the look of these sensor readings, 

Seska wants us to come after her.

JANEWAY: 

Commander.

CHAKOTAY: 

I think Seska's leading us into another trap. 

She masterminded a precision raid 

that made us look like first year Academy students, 

but she left a warp trail for us to follow. 

After such a flawless performance, 

why would she suddenly made that kind of mistake?

JANEWAY: 

You think she wants more than the transporter. 

Are you suggesting we don't follow her?

CHAKOTAY: 

No, I agree with everything you said about preventing the spread of our technology. 

But conventional tactics aren't 

going to work with Seska. 

We'll need to come at her 

with a few surprises of our own.

JANEWAY: 

I'm open to suggestions.

TUVOK: 

Perhaps Commander Chakotay 

could use his intimate knowledge of Seska 

to manipulate her in much the same way 

She manipulated Us.

[Engineering]

TORRES: 

The module Seska stole contains 

a quantum resonance oscillator. 

So, we modify this coil scanner to detect the oscillator, 

then we get close enough to beam it back.

CHAKOTAY: 

I'm betting Seska's figured out a way 

to shield the module from our transporters. 

We might have to destroy it instead.

TORRES: 

How do we do that?

CHAKOTAY: 

We borrow a trick from Seska's book. 

Remember how we disabled the computer core on the Cardassian frigate orbiting Bajor?

TORRES:

Seska modified an anti-proton beam 

to penetrate its shields and hull.

CHAKOTAY: 

Exactly.

TORRES: 

But if I remember correctly, 

the beam was only effective from an extremely close range. 

How do we get near enough to the Nistrim ship?

CHAKOTAY: 

One thing at a time.

TORRES: 

You're taking this all very personally, aren't you?

CHAKOTAY: 

Why shouldn't I?

TORRES: 

You're not responsible for what happened.

CHAKOTAY: 

Oh no? I let her join the Maquis. 

I took her into my confidence. 

I even got intimately involved with her.

TORRES: 

So you have lousy taste in women. 

Look, Chakotay, she fooled us all. 

She was My Best Friend. 

Or at least, that's what I thought.

CHAKOTAY: 

Well, I for one, am through being manipulated by her.

TORRES: 

Are you sure? Because she's affecting you. 

That's just where she wants you. 

Don't tense up.

CHAKOTAY: 

So now I'm getting advice about 

controlling My Emotions from you.

[Ready room]

JANEWAY: 

Come in.

TORRES: 

Do you have a minute, Captain? 

It's about Chakotay.

JANEWAY: 

That's not exactly my favourite subject 

right now, Lieutenant.

TORRES: 

Well, I thought that maybe I could explain -

JANEWAY: 

Explain what? Why my First Officer 

publicly defied my authority by 

commandeering a shuttle 

without permission?

TORRES: 

I know it was never his intention to defy you. 

He respects Your Authority.

JANEWAY: 

But?

TORRES: 

But he's a very proud man. 

And he's been embarrassed by Seska. 

JANEWAY: 

What Seska did, she did to all of us. 

Frankly, I find it more than a little self-indulgent 

of Chakotay to assume this is all about him.

TORRES: 

He never said it to me directly but, 

I think he was in love with her. 

And then he found out that 

everything he knew about 

her was a lie. 

You said that he publicly 

defied Your Authority. 

Can you imagine what it 

must have been like for 

someone as private as Chakotay 

to be publicly humiliated 

by someone he loved? 

And then, as if that weren't enough, 

she came back to taunt him 

in front of the entire Bridge crew.

JANEWAY: 

I'm sure it was very painful for him. 

But what you're saying is, he's got 

a personal score to settle.

TORRES: 

That's only part of it. 

I know Chakotay. 

This is his way 

of Taking Responsibility. 

In His Mind, he's trying to protect The rest of Us 

from a dangerous situation which he created.

JANEWAY: 

Maybe. But that doesn't give him the privilege 

of ignoring this ship's chain of command.

TORRES: 

I know that. It's just that 

Chakotay would never 

tell you any of this himself.

JANEWAY: 

And, assuming we get him back in one piece, 

you want to make sure I take his personal feelings into account before I decide how to discipline him.

TORRES: 

I know that you're well within your rights 

to throw him into the brig, but, well —

JANEWAY: 

Chakotay is lucky to have 

such a good friend. 

I'll tell you what. 

Why don't we deal with getting him back 

in one piece first? 

We can worry about the discipline later.

TORRES: 

Thank you.

The Frontier

SISKO : 
Do you know what The Trouble is? 

KIRA : 
….no. 

SISKO : 
The Trouble is Earth. 

KIRA : 
Really? 

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 Demilitarised 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 

Federation approval or not. 

KIRA : 
Makes sense to me. 

SISKO : 
I'm glad someone understands. 

 

SISKO:
 Mister Eddington. 

I have just one question. Why? 

EDDINGTON 

[on monitor]: 
Will knowing my personal motivation 

change anything at this point? 

SISKO: 
No, I don't suppose it will. 

EDDINGTON 

[on monitor]: 
Then let's table that for now. 

The only reason I've contacted you 

is to ask you to leave us alone. 

Our quarrel is with the Cardassians, 

not the Federation. 

Leave us alone and I can promise you 

you'll never hear from the Maquis again. 

SISKO: 
Unless you see another shipment you want to hijack. 

EDDINGTON 

[on monitor]: 
You keep sending replicators to Cardassia 

and you're going to have a lot more 

to worry about than hijackings. 

SISKO: 
I don't respond well to threats. 

I thought you would know that by now. 

But I'm beginning to see that 

you don't know me at all. 

EDDINGTON 
[on monitor]: 
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 

because 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. 

SISKO: 
You know what, Mister Eddington? 
I don't give a damn what you think of the Federation, 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 will see you standing before a court-martial 

that'll break you and send you to a penal colony, 

where you will spend the rest of your days 

growing old and wondering whether 

a ship full of replicators was really worth it.




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.

 

There are Heroes on Both Sides. 

Evil is Everywhere.


EDDINGTON: 
But think about those people you saw in the caves, 

huddled and starving. 
They didn't attack the Malinche.

SISKO: 
You should have thought about that before 

you attacked a Federation starship. 

(Sisko turns his back on the Eddington hologram) 


(Transmission ends)

Captain's log, supplemental. 
Resettlement efforts in the DMZ are underway. 

The Cardassian and Maquis colonists 

who were forced to abandon their homes 

will make new lives for themselves 

on the planets their counterparts evacuated. 

The balance in the region will be restored, 

though the situation remains far from stable.

He is The Chosen One.

He will bring Balance.

SISKO: 

Are you all right? 

EZRI: 

I talked with Worf.

 He doesn't want to have anything to do with me. 

SISKO: 

Perhaps I should have a talk with him. 

EZRI: 

Absolutely not. You intimidate him. 

SISKO: 

Me? 

EZRI: 

Don't tell him I told you. 

SISKO: 

I intimidate Worf, huh? 

EZRI: 

You like that, don't you? 

SISKO: 

Of course not. 

EZRI: 

Come on. I've been a m

The Hero is a Villain

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.

“The answer to all of this, everything that we’re talking about, is education into early history. 

Until people understand the Stone Age, the nomadic period, the agrarian era, and how culture, how civilization built up. . . 

In Mesopotamia - the great irrigation projects. Or in Egypt where you had. . . Centralized government authority became necessary to master these. . . 

You had a situation, an environmentally difficult situation like the deserts Mesopotamia, or the peculiar character of Egyptian geography where you can only have a little tiny fertile line along the edges of the Nile. 

Otherwise, desert landscape. 

So [understanding] civilization and authority as not necessarily about power grabbing but about organization to achieve something for the good of the people as a whole. 

Peterson: 

That’s exactly the great symbolism of 

The Great Father. 

Paglia: By reducing all hierarchy to power, and selfish power, is utterly naive. It’s ignorant. 

I say education has to be totally reconstituted, including public education, to begin in the most distant past so our young people today, who know nothing about how the world was created that they inhabit, can understand what a marvelous technological paradise they live in. 

And it’s the product of capitalism, it’s the product of individual innovation. 

Most of it’s the product of a Western tradition that everyone wants to trash now. If you begin in the past and show. . . And also talk about War, because War is the one thing that wakes people up, as we see. 

Peterson: And as we may see. 

Paglia: Yes, War is The Reality Principle. 

My father and five of my uncles went to World War II. 

My father was part of the force that landed in Japan. 

He was a paratrooper at the time of the Japanese surrender. And a couple of uncles got shot up and so on. 

When you have the reality of war, when people see the reality, the horrors of war - Berlin burned to a crisp and so on. 

Starvation and all. . . Then you understand this marvelous mechanism that brings water to the kitchen. 

And you flip on a light and the electricity turns on. 

Peterson: I know, for me, and I suppose it’s because I have somewhat of a depressive temperament. . . 

I mean one thing that staggers me on a consistent basis is the fact that anything •ever• works. 

Because it’s so unlikely, you know, to be in a situation where our electronic communications work, where our electric grid works. And it works all the time, it works one hundred percent of the time. 

And the reason for that is there are mostly men out there who are breaking themselves into pieces, repairing this thing which just falls apart all the time. 

Paglia: Absolutely. I said this in the Munk Debate in Toronto several years ago. All these elitists and professors sneering at men. It’s men who are maintaining everything around us. 

This invisible army which feminists don’t notice. 

Nothing would work if it weren’t for the men. 

Peterson: A professor is someone who’s standing on a hill surrounded by a wall, which is surrounded by another wall, which is surrounded by another wall - it’s walls all the way down - who stands up there and says I’m brave and independent. It’s like, you’ve got this protected area that’s so unlikely - it’s so absolutely unlikely - and the fact that people aren’t on their knees in gratitude all the time for the fact that we have central heating and air conditioning and pure water and reliable food. . . It’s absolutely unbelievable. 

Paglia: Yes, I mean people used to die. . . The water supply was contaminated with cholera for heaven’s sake. People don’t understand. To have clean water, fresh milk, fresh orange juice. All of these things. These are marvels. 

Peterson: And all of the time. 

Paglia: All of the time. Western culture is heading - because we are so dependent on this invisible infrastructure - we’re heading for an absolute catastrophe when jihadists figure out how to paralyze the power grid. The entire culture will be chaotic. You’ll have mobs in the street within three days when suddenly the food supply is interrupted and there’s no way to communicate. 

That is the way Western culture is going to collapse. And it won’t take much. 

Peterson: Single points of failure. 

Paglia: Because we are so interconnected, and now we’re so dependent on communications and computers. . . I used to predict for years it’ll be an asteroid hitting the earth, and then we’ll have another ice age.

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.

How Assimilation Became a Dirty Word : MANIFEST DESTINY

We are The Borg. 

Lower your shields and surrender your ships.

We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. 

Your culture will adapt to service us. 

Resistance is Futile.

Assimilation : The Arthurian Dream

 

[Captain's office]

(Sisko switches on a wall monitor.) 

EDDINGTON [on monitor]: 

Captain. 

SISKO: 

Mister Eddington. 

I have just one question. 

Why? 

EDDINGTON 
[on monitor]: 

Will knowing my personal motivation change anything at this point? 

SISKO: 

No, I don't suppose it will. 

EDDINGTON 
[on monitor]: 

Then let's table that for now. 

The only reason I've contacted you is to ask you to leave us alone. 

Our quarrel is with the Cardassians, not the Federation. 

Leave us alone and I can promise you you'll never hear from the Maquis again. 

SISKO:

 Unless you see another shipment you want to hijack. 

EDDINGTON 
[on monitor]: 

You keep sending replicators to Cardassia and you're going to have a lot more to worry about than hijackings. 

SISKO: 

I don't respond well to threats. 

I thought you would know that by now. 

But I'm beginning to see that you don't know me at all. 

EDDINGTON 
[on monitor]: 

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 because 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. 

SISKO: 

You know what, Mister Eddington? 
I don't give a damn what you think of the Federation, 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 will see you standing before a court-martial that'll break you and send you to a penal colony, where you will spend the rest of your days growing old and wondering whether a ship full of replicators was really worth it.

"For [Sisko/Roddenbury, The United Federation of Planets] means... a fixed array of behavior like a breed of dog or a species of animal. 

He is not thinking of a national community united by a literate language and a classical culture to which any person can become assimilated through a political choice. 

For [Sisko/Roddenberry, The United Federation of Planets] is unchangeable, and [The Federation] is destiny. 

It is a matter of blood and soil. 

The United Federation of Planets fights the Klingons,

and then assimilates them,

The United Federation of Planets fights Romulans,and then assimilates them,

The United Federation of Planets fights Ferrengi,  

and then assimilates them,

The United Federation of Planets fights The Borg,

and then assimilates them,

The United Federation of Planets fights The Cardassians,

and then assimilates them,

The United Federation of Planets fights The Dominion,

and then assimilates them,

and so on through all eternity. 

These hatreds are the main datum of sensory perception.

[Roddenberry's] warhorse is the Territorial Imperative. 

Each is obsessed with borders and territory [Neutral Zones and Demilitarised Zones, Badlands and Briar Patches], and each finds a way to oppose and sabotage dirigistic economic development. 

Each one is eager to submerge and repress other national groupings in pursuit of its own mystical destiny. 

This is [Roddenberry's] racist gospel of universal ethnic cleansing.