- To save the Federation in a critical scheme, Sisko comes to realize that he must violate its fundamental principles to do so.
- The scene opens in Captain Sisko's quarters, opening a personal log. His mind is heavily preoccupied with something, that he quickly shows is bothering him. As he continues reciting the log, he says that he's done something terrible; something that could cost him the respect of all his friends and subordinates. So heavy is the burden weighing on his shoulders, that he can't even talk to his closest friend, Dax, about it. He struggles to lay it all out in his logs in an attempt to make sense of it.
As Sisko records his log, the events of the past few weeks are shown in flashbacks. Every Friday for the past three months, he's posted the latest casualty list for the war against the Dominion. Jem'Hadar technology and warships being superior to any Alpha Quadrant race, and Jem'Hadar soldiers being utterly ruthless, with no thought of self-preservation, ready to fight to the last soldier, the war is going badly for the Alpha quadrant.
The latest list includes a Starfleet Commander who was admired and loved by Dax during her time as an Academy student. The Commander's ship was ambushed and destroyed by Jem'Hadar ships sneaking through the Romulan Neutral Zone, which the Romulans tolerate because of their non-aggression pact with the Dominion. The Dominion regularly travels through such space to launch surprise attacks, which infuriates Sisko. Worf, Dax, and Bashir also find it repulsive. When Bashir says that they desperately need to convince the Romulans to join the war against he Dominion, Sisko comes to a snap decision: one way or another, he will do just that.
But almost immediately, he finds it's easier said than done. Dax, posing as the Romulan proconsul, engages Sisko in a debate and quickly outmaneuvers and corners him by showing that the Romulans have no reason to put their men and ships on the line because the Dominion travels through their territory to fight the Federation, which the Romulans regard with contempt; and that the Romulans would need solid proof that once the Federation and Klingons were conquered, the Dominion would turn to the conquest of Romulus next. If the Dominion had even begun to discuss such long-term plans, evidence of it would lie deep within their most fortified security quarters on Cardassia. No Federation agents or soldiers could hope to try and find such evidence there.
But Sisko believes one man could: Garak, the station's tailor; once a ruthless agent of the Cardassian's Obsidian Order. Going to Garak in his shop, Sisko discusses the idea of finding evidence of a planned Dominion invasion of Romulus, within their military wardrooms. Garak does still have contacts back on Cardassia; agents and military officers who loathe the current government and partnership with the Dominion. Still, such an operation is so daunting and dangerous, that it would mean calling in every favor Garak is owed; exhausting all his resources back on his home world. But he finds Sisko's plan and request intriguing enough, and potentially rewarding enough, that he agrees to help with its undertaking.
Sisko must wait to hear of any progress reports. The one he gets comes completely unexpected. Kira pages him in his quarters while he's asleep with urgent news: The Dominion has taken the Betazed system.
In Ops, discussing the attack with his officers, Sisko finds that there's plenty of blame to go around; Starfleet ships on guard duty were caught off-guard on a training exercise, while Betazed's automated gun emplacements are outdated and undermanned. The system was under Dominion control in ten hours. They are now in perfect position to launch attacks at key Federation strongpoints, including Alpha Centauri and the Vulcan homeworld.
Sisko goes to see Garak for any updates. But the news Garak brings isn't good. He's talked to some of his contacts, all of whom were eager to help in the undertaking. But within a day of talking to Garak, all of them were killed by the Jem'Hadar military police; a dire hint of their efficiency and their own intelligence network. Garak has come to the conclusion that the only way to bring the Romulans any proof of Dominion duplicity, is to manufacture it themselves; to give the Dominion a forgery. As Sisko says in his voiceover, he believes that was his first step along his personal road to damnation; when he decided he had to do whatever it took to win.
Garak has a plan to manufacture the forgery. If they can obtain a genuine Cardassian optolythic data rod, which can only be used once and, upon recording, cannot be altered, the odds of fooling a Romulan VIP will increase significantly. Garak knows of a man who can create a faked holorecording; an alien named Tolar. The first complication is that Tolar is in a Klingon prison awaiting execution. Sisko needs to contact Chancellor Gowron and arrange a pardon for Tolar.
When Tolar arrives on Deep Space Nine, Sisko sees through Tolar's weaselly, slick dialogue, which vanishes into reverent fear when Garak's name is dropped. In a voiceover, Sisko says he knew he should have listened to his inner voice warning him against trusting the scoundrel. But he was committed now; all-in on his venture to bring the Romulans into the war.
Garak is very fortunate to find a man who owns a genuine optolythic data rod. It's the only rod he's able to procure, but the price is very steep. The rod's owner refuses any payment offer other than 200 liters of biomimetic gel; an extremely dangerous and strictly controlled substance involved in bio-engineering experiments, usually illegal kinds. Sisko is apalled at such a demand, and is on the verge of backing out of the whole venture, when he reconsiders and states that there isn't that much gel in the whole sector, but he can probably acquire a lesser amount. Garak says they can probably negotiate the quantity.
To arrange the acquisition and preparation of the biomimetic gel to a cargo bay for transport, Sisko issues a direct order to Doctor Bashir; refusing to tell him the purpose for the order. Sisko has the authority to do this, even though he must issue the order in writing at Bashir's request, and accept Bashir noting his protest of the order in his medical logs and with the medical board.
Sisko's distrust of Tolar comes to a head when Odo comms him to let him know that Tolar has been taken into custody for trying to kill Quark. He'd gone into Quark's bar and gotten drunk on four bottles of his favorite spirit. He then came onto a dabo girl and tried to force her to dance with him. When Quark tried to intervene on the girl's behalf, Tolar stabbed him with a knife. On being taken into custody, Tolar promptly dropped Sisko's name in order to keep himself out of jail. Sisko admits that Tolar is working for him, and for reasons of Federation security, there can't be any official record of Tolar being on the station. Despite this, Odo is bound by law to arrest and hold Tolar if Quark presses charges-- which, of course, Quark is determined to do. But as a Ferengi, Quark can be bought, and he's especially delighted at the idea of being bribed by Sisko himself.
One piece of the puzzle remains: An appropriate Romulan dignitary to view the faked holorecording once it's finished. Garak learns that a senator named Vreenak is on a diplomatic mission to a neutral planet to meet with Weyoun, the chief Vorta overseer for the Dominion war effort. Garak is sure that if invited by Captain Sisko himself, Vreenak would be willing to make an unannounced, 'secret' visit to Deep Space Nine.
Tolar puts together the holorecording, editing and updating as needed until it satisfies both Sisko and Garak. Once it's all recorded on the data rod, his weaselly and condescending attitude angers Sisko, and both he and Garak warn Tolar that their business isn't finished until it passes scrutiny with Vreenak.
Sisko arranges for Worf to cordon off a sector of the habitat ring, and Kira puts through a coded signal for Sisko, who uses a remote terminal in the cordoned-off section to aid in the docking of Vreenak's shuttle. This all shows that, although the upper brass of Starfleet Command are aware of Sisko's plan and given it their approval, none of the officers on Deep Space Nine know what's going on, or even that Vreenak has arrived at the station.
Garak knows that for a diplomatic missions, Vreenak will have no more than four bodyguards with him on his shuttlecraft, and that two of them will accompany him to his quarters, leaving two at the ship. Garak will have no trouble sneaking onto the shuttlecraft to scan for any valuable intel and download it.
As Garak forewarned Sisko, Vreenak regards Sisko coldly and without any respect. When Sisko plays the holorecording, Vreenak watches with keen interest. As Sisko knew he would, Vreenak requests to examine the data rod. Sisko gives it to him, and then, once again, he must play the waiting game. Although a patient man, as Sisko describes himself, the stakes of this performance were so high that he found himself sitting on pins and needles. Sisko knew the cost of failure: if he was caught trying to fool the Romulans into plunging their whole empire into war, it could swing the pendulum all the way in the opposite direction. The Romulans could begin openly providing the Dominion with medical supplies, weapons, and cloaking technology. At worst, they could join the war on the Dominion's side.
The moment of truth arrives. Vreenak nods curtly to his guards, who exit his quarters. He and Sisko look at each other. Vreenak holds up the rod and hisses that it's a fake.
Back in his quarters, continuing to recite his personal log, Sisko notes how it all blew up in his face. He admits he'd have been as furious as Vreenak was, in his place, and that Vreenak promised he'd expose the deception to the whole Alpha Quadrant. Sisko vacantly returned to the grim task of posting the weekly casualty lists and awaited for the fallout to drop into his lap.
Then, as Bashir and Dax are examining the list, Worf suddenly arrives with urgent news. A Romulan senator named Vreenak was returning to Romulus from a diplomatic mission when his shuttlecraft exploded. The Romulan Tal Shiar is investigating, but all preliminary reports indicate sabotage-- and the Dominion being the primary suspect. Dax and Bashir are shocked. That the Dominion assassinated a Romulan senator on a diplomatic mission could be the turning point they'd all prayed for-- one that could bring the Romulans into the war.
Sisko knows better. Stomping to Garak's office, Sisko bashes Garak with a vicious backfist punch and confronts him on planting a bomb on Vreenak's shuttle. Garak doesn't bother trying to play innocent, but insists he had hopes for the data rod to pass scrutiny, before resorting to bombing the shuttlecraft. Garak also admits he quietly rubbed out Tolar so he wouldn't talk.
Garak then finally reveals the trump card; The Tal Shiar's investigation would find the burnt remnants of the data rod in the wreckage of Vreenak's shuttle, and after a forensic examination, they'd find the damaged holorecording of the planned Dominion invasion of Romulus. Damage to the rod from the shuttlecraft's explosion would be deemed to be the cause of the recording appearing imperfect; hiding the fact that it's a forgery. Given that Vreenak had told nobody that he was making a stop at Deep Space Nine on his way back home, the whole of the Romulan government would assume he acquired the rod from the site of the diplomatic meeting, and was intercepted by the Dominion to keep the evidence from being returned to Romulus. Given that the Romulans would have done the exact same thing were the situation reversed, they'd have no reason to believe any protests of innocence by the Dominion. Garak states that this is why Sisko came to him in the first place; that he knew Garak could cross those lines Sisko was too afraid to cross himself. Now the mission is accomplished, and the whole list of casualties was not numbered in the thousands or hundreds, but merely three: one Romulan senator, one criminal that nobody would miss, and Sisko's self-respect. To Garak, this was one of the best bargains Sisko could ask for.
Finishing up his personal logs, Sisko announces that early that morning, the Romulan government formally declared war on the Dominion, and has already attacked 15 of their bases along the Cardassian border. Deep Space Nine was going to hold a 'welcome to the fight' party in the wardroom that night.
Sisko states his crimes; perjury, cheating, bribery for the purpose of hiding another man's crimes, and worst of all, he's an accessory to murder; an accomplice to political assassination. But the most damning thing of all, in his mind, is that he feels he can live with it, and that he'd do it all again to protect the Alpha Quadrant. In the end, he feels that any self-loathing and guilt he's incurred from the whole experience is a small price to pay to protect the lives and freedom of thousands of star systems and billions of people.
But as Sisko tells himself that he can, and therefore will, live with it, his voice cracks with uncertainty. He instructs his computer to erase the entire personal log entry. Fade to black.
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