The Maquis (DS9 episode)

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"The Maquis, Part I" and "The Maquis, Part II" are the twentieth and twenty-first episodes of the second season of the television series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Part I: Original airdate: April 24, 1994. Teleplay by James Crocker; story by Rick Berman & Michael Piller & Jeri Taylor and James Cocker. Directed by David Livingston. Part II: Original airdate: May 1, 1994. Teleplay by Ira Steven Behr; story by Rick Berman & Michael Piller & Jeri Taylor and Ira Steven Behr. Directed by Corey Allen.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Several Maquis leaders.

A Maquis raider fires at Sisko's runabout.

At the beginning of the episode, a Cardassian vessel, the Bok'nor, is shown preparing for departure from Deep Space Nine. During this scene, a human-looking character surreptitiously makes adjustments, presumably to the vessel itself. The opening title sequence immediately follows.

At the command centre, Jadzia Dax receives a request from the vessel to depart. After conferring with Kira Nerys, who is standing nearby, Dax grants permission. Shortly after departing, the vessel is destroyed, killing everyone on board.

The crew begins an investigation of the incident with the purpose of determining its cause. Starfleet sends LtCmdr. Calvin Hudson, stationed in the demilitarized zone along the Cardassian border and an old friend of both Sisko and Dax, to the station to investigate the possibility of retaliatory attacks. He tells Sisko his presence on the border is a joke; his assignment has been to help colonists whose land the Federation gave to Cardassia adjust to the new circumstances. Contrary to Starfleet's belief, Hudson is sure the Cardassians will not retaliate, but he guarantees a response will come.

Meanwhile, the man who sabotaged the Bok'Nor is abducted. When Sisko returns to his quarters that evening, he finds Gul Dukat waiting for him. Dukat explains that Cardassian Central Command is unaware of his presence on DS9, but he has come unofficially to help Sisko find the truth about the destruction of the freighter. In order to do so, the two of them take a runabout to a group of colonies in the demilitarized zone, which Dukat describes as "not so demilitarized any more." There, they find two Cardassian attack vessels attacking a Federation merchant ship; before the runabout can intervene, another Federation vessel arrives and destroys the Cardassians.

Quark has arranged a "business" dinner with a Vulcan woman named Sakonna. She is eager to begin negotiations but he quotes one of the Rules of Acquisition: "Never begin a business negotiation on an empty stomach." When he describes the Rules of Acquisition, she finds them logical and "quite reassuring." Once Quark is ready to discuss business, he is surprised to hear she is looking to acquire weapons: She wishes to acquire a continuous supply of "guns, phaser banks, photon torpedoes, troop transports, and a number of cobalt thorium devices," among others.

In the demilitarized zone, Gul Evek, the Cardassian attaché to the demilitarized zone, is in a heated debate with Cal Hudson when Dukat and Sisko enter the room. When they describe the incident they observed, both sides seem to feel that their colonists were justified. Evek then produces a confession from the Bok'Nor saboteur, William Patrick Samuels, but claims that Samuels committed suicide shortly after giving it. One of the colonists present attacks Evek and is restrained.

Later that night, Hudson warns Sisko that the Cardassians have no intention of allowing the Federation colonists to stay and tells him the Bok'Nor was likely transporting weapons to Cardassian colonists. He concedes that Samuels might have destroyed the freighter but claims the colonists have the right to defend themselves. On the way back to Deep Space Nine, Sisko discovers Dukat knew of Samuels' confession but knew nothing of the 'suicide'. Furthermore, Dukat swears on the lives of his children that the Bok'Nor was not transporting weapons.

Sekonna requests that Quark move the weapon shipment schedule forward and he complies greedily. Meanwhile, O'Brien has confirmed what Sisko believed: The bomb that destroyed the Bok'Nor was of Federation origin. Shortly after Sisko's and Dukat's arrival on the station, a group consisting of a man posing as a Starfleet security guard, Sekonna, and several colonists kidnap Dukat. Sisko and the rest of the crew determine the course the terrorists most likely took and he, Kira, and Bashir follow them in a runabout. Before the trio leaves, an anonymous transmission from the demilitarized zone attributes the bombing of the Bok'Nor and the recent kidnappings to a group calling itself the Maquis.

They follow the Maquis into an area called the Badlands with which Bashir is unfamiliar. Kira explains that it is an area of the Cardassian-Federation border with frequent plasma storms, which pilots generally try to avoid. "Sounds like the perfect place for a hideout," he observes. They beam to the surface of a planet, where the armed Maquis members emerge from nearby foliage — followed by Cal Hudson, out of uniform. It is revealed he is part of the Maquis. Sisko demands to see Gul Dukat, whom the Maquis abducted, to which Hudson accuses Sisko of siding with the Cardassians over him. According to Hudson, the Maquis's top priority is peace but insists the Cardassians' crimes cannot go unpunished, and Sisko points out that it is revenge, not peace, they seek. "I prefer to call it retaliation," Hudson smirks. After Sisko declines an offer to join the Maquis, the Maquis stun him, Kira, and Bashir.

Admiral Nechayev is waiting for Sisko when he returns to Deep Space Nine, and Dax informs him that Legate Parn of the Cardassian Central Command will be arriving soon as well. Nechayev refers to the Maquis as "a bunch of irresponsible hotheads" and tells Sisko to talk to them, although he finds such sentiments out of touch with reality. When Nechayev leaves, Kira informs him that Legate Parn has just arrived. He is on his way to greet the Cardassian leader when Odo reports that he has caught "one of the Vulcan's accomplices."

Sisko arrives in the security office to find Quark in a holding cell. Quark attempts to evade discussion of his business with Sakonna but eventually reveals that he arranged for the Maquis to acquire weapons. While he had not heard of the Maquis at the time, he is sure Sakonna plans to execute her plans within the next few days. Legate Parn upon meeting with Sisko informs him and Kira that the Cardassian Central Command has discovered Dukat to be the leader of "a small group of misguided officers" who were smuggling weapons to the demilitarized zone. However, neither Sisko nor Kira believe him.

On one of the Maquis worlds, Sakonna attempts to establish a Vulcan mind meld with Dukat, who openly mocks his captors. When Sisko, Bashir, and Odo interrupt the interrogation, there is a momentary standoff, during which Dukat grows impatient. "Shoot them!" he yells and knocks Sakonna over, triggering a firefight. The Maquis are arrested, but Sisko allows one of them named Amaros to go free with a message to Cal Hudson that it is not too late to settle things peacefully. They bring Dukat back to Deep Space Nine, where he inquires about the fact that Federation not Cardassian forces rescued him. Sisko tells Dukat about Legate Parn turning him into a scapegoat and the two men put past differences aside to work together to stop both the weapons smuggling and the Maquis. By this time, Odo has obtained an extensive list of weapons Sakonna bought from Quark, but he has been unable to find out more. The crew focus on the weapons smuggling instead for the time being. With Dukat's help, they find a Xepolite trader and detain a shipment of weapons from him, finally obtaining proof of the conspiracy.

Back on the station, Quark and Sakonna share a holding cell. He calls her position with the Maquis illogical and Uses the Rules of Acquisition to explain that with the Cardassian plan exposed, "peace can be bought at a bargain price." She informs Sisko that the Maquis are planning to blow up a hidden Cardassian weapons depot in the next 52 hours, but she does not know where it is. Dukat says he can find the depot's location, and in the meantime, Sisko visits Cal Hudson one final time. He brings along Hudson's uniform, which Hudson vaporizes with a phaser.

The crew is waiting in runabouts when the Maquis arrive at the depot, and as neither Hudson nor Sisko wants to hurt the other, the resulting dog fight is relatively slow paced. Sisko's runabout and Hudson's raider each try to disable the other. Hudson manages to knock out Sisko's engines, but his own phasers are disabled. He flees and, over Dukat's objections, Sisko allows him to escape. Ultimately, Sisko wonders if he has prevented a war or delayed the inevitable.

[edit] Trivia

This set the stage for the Badlands as a Maquis hideout later seen in the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Caretaker"
This is the first of a darker story arc involving dissatisfaction with the Federation. See DS9 Themes for a fuller explanation of this.