User:Mardus/In the Pale Moonlight

The notes to the following snippets are some of the most important and well-hidden pieces of the masterful In the Pale Moonlight DS9 episode. These were removed, but this is also heavy spoiler material.

Snippets from the episode summary

As yet another casualty list is posted by Sisko for public viewing by the crew, he realizes that the list is likely to grow far longer; the Federation seems headed for defeat. During this posting, Sisko spontaneously decides to get the neutral Romulan Empire to join the Federation against the Dominion. To this end, Sisko enlists the help of the station's resident tailor, Garak. His experience as a high-ranking member of the Cardassian intelligence agency, the Obsidian Order, makes for a long list of useful contacts back on Cardassia Prime. The initial plan is for those contacts to obtain evidence of Dominion plans to eventually conquer the Romulan Empire. Shortly after the Dominion unexpectedly conquers Betazed, Sisko checks back with Garak, who informs him that the people he contacted have all been killed.^[I]

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To construct the holographic recording, Sisko secures the release of Grathon Tolar, an expert forger and con artist who is currently on Klingon Death Row. Tolar quickly proves himself as troublesome as he is skilled when he gets into an altercation with local bartender Quark, and Sisko must bribe the Ferengi to keep things quiet. Quark, amazed at the human's willingness to commit a Ferengi-like ethical breach, smugly quotes Rule of Acquisition 98 to Sisko: "Every man has his price." This, and having to use dangerous bio-memetic gel to acquire the rare data rod^[II] makes Sisko continue to question his actions.

Notes

• ^ I.: It has been suggested Garak lied about this intelligence failure and never contacted his sources because he believed this would happen anyway.
• ^ II.: It has also been suggested that the biomimetic gel, which is a dangerous and controlled substance and which Garak requested to buy the data rod with, was in fact used to blow up Vreenak's ship. Use of the biomimetic gel just about left an impression of Dominion's interference, with their being highly advanced in biotechnology.

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