Recommended mood music: “Klingon Imperial Theme“, Jerry Goldsmith

When I did a full DVD watch-through of DS9 back in the mid-late 2000s, I was confused. Where was  the episode where the Klingons took over the station, and Bashir and O’Brien were crawling through the station’s access tunnels and quarrelling the entire time?  The closest I’d seen was Way of the Warrior, but the Klingons had only attacked the station then, not taken it, and anyway Sisko and Dax were fighting when they were supposed to have been in the Gamma Quadrant!  I hadn’t imagined that episode, had I?

Well,  yes and no. I’d evidently visualized Dafydd ab Hugh’s Vengeance so well that it felt like an episode to me.  This is the earliest adult Star Trek novel I can remember reading (I read the TNG Starfleet Academy titles at the library),  and my copy from the 1990s is so battered it doesn’t even have a cover.  In Vengeance, the Klingons believe the Federation is not up to the task of defending the Alpha Quadrant against the Dominion; after setting up a wild goose chase to take the Defiant away from the station – chasing a red herring well into the Gamma Quadrant, in fact – the Klingons  orchestrate a surprise attack on the station and take it from a skeleton crew fairly quickly. Leading the assault is Worf’s blood-brother, causing divided loyalties.  Staggeringly, Worf appears to support his brother in return for lenient treatment of the  prisoners,  forcing O’Brien and Bashir into a guerilla defense of the station while Sisko and Dax quote Sherlock Holmes to one another and Kira fumes over the constant inside references. 

Vengeance really lived up to my memories of it; both the A and B plots are action-oriented and move quickly, ab Hugh knows his Niner characters and handles their voices well, especially in little pairings like Bashir/O’Brien,   Bashir/Garak, and Sisko/Dax, and he’s funny.  There were a lot of lines I just had to laugh at, and as great as the Relaunch era was,  I don’t remember it having humor.  Action drama, character drama? Sure, in spades – especially with David Mack, who  excelled in making you care about someone and then torturing and killing them.  It also touched on potential stories that later DS9 episodes developed, like Jake Sisko having to ‘grow up’: he’s suddenly thrust into a position of responsibility and danger – with his dad absent.  Interestingly, Dr. Bashir is his mentor of sorts, a dynamic we saw on the show in “Nor the Battle to the Strong”, where Jake and Bashir are attacked and Jake panics. Jake as his own man was also heavily developed through the Dominion War arc, especially after the Dominion seized Deep Space Nine and Jake willfully stayed behind to play journalist.  

I really enjoyed going back to this. Part of it is nostalgia, yes, and part of it is irrational delight in being back in the ‘company’ of these fictional characters whom I like so much.

Quotations

“[Klingons] aren’t supposed to use cloaking technology,” said Dax.
“Maybe this one has a problem with authority figures,” [Kira] said politely.

Quark still worked his mouth, though now no words came out. But Rom didn’t even notice. He was still shouting something about barbarians or invaders or tax collectors — the Ferengi word he used could have meant any of the three.
“We’ve been invaded by tax collectors?” shouted Quark, suddenly realizing what his brother was saying.
“Worse!” responded Rom.
Quark was puzzled. “What could be worse than tax collectors?”
“Klingons! We’ve been invaded by Klingons!”
Quark stared at his obviously demented brother. “Rom, ring up the sum! Klingons can’t collect taxes here, it’s not their financial jurisdiction!”

“That was an extra-base hit, Major,” grinned Sisko.
“He’ll follow,” said Kira, as the ensign lay in the course and engaged the warp drive.
“But he has a weak arm,” said the captain, still in a mood for baseball metaphors. “And I’ll bet the Defiant can beat the throw to the plate any day.”

Jake held up his wrench. “I have a club.”
“Club!” exploded the chief. “That’s a fine, precision piece of equipment, Jake!”
“Well,” said the doctor, “Unless we find a bit of wiring that needs to be adjusted, it’s a club.”