My Random Journey Through Trek #32

Deep Space Nine
Empok Nor

Quark is having issues with retaining customers in his bar thanks to ongoing maintenance by the Chief and Nog, unable to totally fix the problem and with no replicator sourced replacement parts they decide to visit the sister station to DS9 "Empok Nor" which was recently abandoned by the Cardassians. Garak is invited along since it's common practice to booby trap a resource and that is proven to be a good idea as Garak is able to gain entry and power up the station without incident or so they think. It turns out that there were three soldiers in statis left to deal with any intruders, two survive and are revived and begin to hunt down the Starfleet personnel.

It's not all plain sailing though as Garak becomes infected by a compound they find smeared on a railing, it's the same drug that is driving the even more determined Cardassians to hunt down intruders and as time passes Garak himself becomes more of a threat to the remaining Starfleet crew.

Empok Nor is an entertaining episode, its slow pace works to perfection to enhance the suspense and danger involved with being on this moth balled space station. Garak and Miles are great fun as the initial friendly banter which supports the first half of the episode and as the situation evolves into a life and death struggle their dialogue remains the most important aspect. There were some issues most of which exist to make the plot work beginning with the rather suspect inability to repair DS9 in the first place, a conduit shouldn't rely on a like for like original replacement rather than a replicated part. It was rather amusing to see that Health and Safety in terms of noisy working conditions and the environment weren't an issue for Starfleet or Quark missing the opportunity for compensation for loss of business. I also wondered why Empok Nor seemed to be in the middle of nowhere, the design after all seemed to be intended for ore processing but it wasn't in orbit or close to an asteroid belt and while yes Cardassians would bobby trap a resource you would think it would make more sense to destroy it or move it. There was also evidence the station was abandoned quickly which goes against the more organised security measures so when we see a girder has smashed into one of the pods you wonder why, these stations are built strong.

Got to have an audience

Empok Nor is a very good example of what DS9 was created to provide, a much darker and gritty episode of Star Trek with many shades of grey and who else but Garak (Andrew Robinson) could maximise that potential. It was great to see Garak even more dry and cutting as the drug began to take effect and when he gutted the security officer and pointed out he had fetched the wrong tool you had to smile despite the loss of another "red shirt". Speaking of which I was not impressed with the Starfleet personnel both in terms of attitude, tactics and awareness when they knew they were in danger but they were there to set the scene for Garak and Miles with Nog (Aron Eisenberg) thrown in as a pawn in the spirit of the game which was a constant in the story.

IMDB

Rating 8

The Never Ending Sacrifice

If someone would have told me even a fortnight ago I would have enjoyed a Star Trek novel which focused on the Cardassian race and culture I would have been sceptical but I've learnt from various interviews and reviews that Una McCormack is well respected in creating stories within the Trek universe and really bringing the Cardassian people to the fore. This may just be my thing but it didn't hurt that The Never Ending Sacrifice weaved it's story around a character introduced in the Deep Space Nine tv series (which I rate highly) and the story evolves with the events in the tv show over the next few years playing out as background. This approach added a huge amount of depth to the novel and I suspect anybody reading this novel will be familiar with the tv series and the extra detail the story provides in turn makes you appreciate DS9 even more.

While the novel centers on Rugal Pa'Dar (Featured in the DS9 second season episode "Cardassians" in which as a war orphan adopted by a Bajoran couple it's revealed his "real" father who thought he was dead has returned to claim his son. Behind all this is the devious hand of Gul Dukat and it's this hugely complex culture of political maneuvering and posturing combined with a fierce pride in the culture and society Rugal has to deal with when he returns as a dutiful son of Cardassia. As you would imagine a young man raised on Bajor having seen the atrocities committed by his people will have issues dealing with the Cardassian society and that's the tale we are being told and you will see a culture that isn't as black & white as we first thought and given the chance there are those who are striving for a better and fairer Cardassia unshackled from the repeating cycle of domination, control, and destruction used to maintain the political and military society all have to live under.

The Never Ending Sacrifice is a very enjoyable read which I didn't want to put down and despite not being totally familiar with the Trek universe post DS9 it was very easy to slip into the universe as created by Una's story telling, I can highly recommend the novel for a Star Trek fan or someone looking to dabble into the franchise without getting into one of the long running series or maybe use this as a stepping stone into an ongoing series.

Una McCormack

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