History Recap / StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS03E07CivilDefense

* WorthyOpponent: Quark expresses this sentiment towards Odo, stating that if there were a slave revolt in progress, it's not surprising that the Cardassians would lock Odo in his office: Odo's sense of justice and morality would ensure he joined the fight on the side of the slaves.

* DidntThinkThisThrough: Invoked; Dukat says he would have made an exception in the phaser turret program to target Garak if he knew Garak during the creation of the program. Garak then pokes at Dukat for being "short-sighted".

* DidntThinkThisThrough: Garak hits Dukat with this, accusing Dukat of being so short-sighted as to not consider the possibility that his superiors may have overriden the program. Dukat then lampshades this on himself by saying that he would have made an exception in the phaser turret program to target Garak if he knew Garak during the creation of the program.

* AnOfferYouCantRefuse: Dukat offers to deactivate the station's self-destruct in exchange for allowing his soldiers to establish a garrison on the station. When Kira refuses, Dukat reminds her that there are many more lives than her own at stake.

* ForeShadowing: Garak stands up in Ops, figuring that the replicator gun doesn't fire at Cardassians. Dukat comments that if he had known Garak at the time he would have made an exception. [[spoiler:Two years later in ''[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS05E15ByInfernosLight By Inferno's Light]]'' Cardassia allies with the Dominion and Garak is the only Cardassian ''not'' released from Dominion prison, precisely because Dukat - by then leader of Cardassia's government - ordered them to keep him.]]

* PetTheDog: Dukat turns off the automated phaser in Ops, which is programmed to only target non-Cardassians, as "the least he can do."

** Odo praises Quark for his deviousness, until it turns out that he was just being nice in what seemed like their last few hours of life.

* FunnyBackgroundEvent: Several times, while the main characters are discussing how to get out of the mess they're in, the recording of Dukat continues to prattle on in the background, encouraging the 'rebel Bajorans' to surrender, warning them how dangerous and barren Bajor is compared to the [[BlatantLies good life they have on Terok Nor]], and warning them that other Cardassian officers won't be as lenient as he is...

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Each time the heroes think they've figured out a solution, the security program thinks it has to get even tougher on the "Bajoran workers."

Eager to capitalize on their distress, Dukat offers to shut down the program in exchange for allowing his troops to establish a garrison aboard the station. Unsurprisingly, Kira finds death a more appealing choice. Dukat decides to return to his ship to allow them time to think things over, but finds the security program has surprises even for him. As soon as Dukat tries to radio his ship, he finds he is unable to, and a new recording plays -- this time from his supervisor, who gives him a brutal TheReasonYouSuckSpeech for attempting to abandon his post in the middle of a Bajoran rebellion. The supervisor recording also reveals another twist: that Dukat's codes have been voided and that the self-destruct system can no longer be stopped.

Now that he's in the same boat as everyone else, Dukat is much more eager to help, but all security codes, including his (and Garak's) have been voided. Their only option is to try to deactivate the main reactor before it explodes. To that end, they {{Technobabble}} a way to overload the force fields on the station so that they can move freely again, but there's not enough time for them to get where they need.

Eager to capitalize on their distress, Dukat offers to shut down the program in exchange for allowing his troops to establish a garrison aboard the station. Unsurprisingly, Kira finds death a more appealing choice. Dukat decides to return to his ship to allow them time to think things over, but finds the security program has surprises even for him. As soon as Dukat tries to radio his ship, he finds he is unable to, and a new recording plays -- this time from his supervisor, who gives him a brutal TheReasonYouSuckSpeech for attempting to abandon his post in the middle of a Bajoran rebellion.

* ForeShadowing: Garak stands up in Ops, figuring that the replicator gun doesn't fire at Cardassians. Dukat comments that if he had known Garak at the time he would have made an exception. Two years later in ''[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS05E15ByInfernosLight By Inferno's Light]]'' Cardassia allies with the Dominion and Garak is the only Cardassian ''not'' released from Dominion prison, precisely because Dukat - by then leader of Cardassia's government - ordered them to keep him.

Now that he's in the same boat as everyone else, Dukat is much more eager to help, but his (and even Garak's) security codes have been voided. Their only option is to try to deactivate the main reactor before it explodes. To that end, they {{Technobabble}} a way to overload the force fields on the station so that they can move freely again, but there's not enough time for them to get where they need.

As it turns out, even this eventuality was considered by the program. As soon as life support is take offline, Dukat appears yet again to warn them that they have two hours to halt the imaginary revolt before the station self-destructs.

---> '''O'Brien:''' I heard stories that the temperature in here reached 55 degrees. [[note]]That's 131 in Fahrenheit. [[/note]]\\

-->'''Garak:''' Plenty, Major. Unfortunately, all of it bad.

* ArtisticLicenseGunSafety: Kira aims her phaser at the door to Ops -- while Bashir is still in the line of fire. Does she really find him ''that'' annoying?

--> '''Dukat:''' ''(sighs)'' Let me guess--someone tried to duplicate my access codes, hmm?

O'Brien, Jake, and Sisko are in one of the station's abandoned ore processing facilities, getting started on a project to turn it into a deuterium refinery. While trying to reformat the computer, Jake comes across a mysterious Cardassian file that doesn't want to be deleted. When O'Brien tries to mess with it, the file triggers an old security program that locks down the room and shows them a prerecorded video of everyone's favorite prefect, Gul Dukat. Turns out the computer thinks the trio are "revolting workers", and without the password, no one - not even the staff in Ops - know how to convince it otherwise.

Ops is sealed - ostensibly to protect the senior staff, but it also means they are trapped there. Odo, who has been trying to help shut down the program, is also sealed inside his office along with Quark, who [[{{Foreshadowing}} had a bad feeling about this whole thing and decided it would be a safe place to hide]].

A new strategy for disabling the security program fails when a force field comes on over a circuit box in Ops and nearly takes off Dax's hands. In response, the program again tightens its grip, threatening to kill everyone on the habitat ring with neurocine if the "revolt" is not put down soon. Garak, whose old Cardassian codes give him enough access to move through the force fields, shows up in Ops with fresh ideas on how to defeat the program. His first recommendation is to destroy the life support system, preventing the neurocine gas from being released and giving them a new time limit - 12 hours, then they run out of air.

Eager to capitalize on their distress, Dukat offers to shut down the program in exchange for allowing his troops to establish a garrison aboard the station. Unsurprisingly, Kira finds death a more appealing choice. Dukat decides to return to his ship to allow them time to think things over, but finds the security program has surprises even for him. As soon as Dukat tries to radio his ship, he finds he is unable to, and a new recording plays - this time from his supervisor, who gives him a brutal TheReasonYouSuckSpeech for attempting to abandon his post in the middle of a Bajoran rebellion.

* CrazyPrepared: Cardassians tend to plan ahead and Gul Dukat's counterinsurgency program was ready for pretty much every possible scenario.

** The audience learns that Cardassian forcefields are designed to be lethal. The reason they aren't on [=DS9=] is because the Federation wisely disabled that "feature" when they took over.

* LastSecondWordSwap: When Dukat asks Kira, "Are you willing to let two thousand people aboard this station die simply because you don't like... ''us?"'', he was clearly about to say "me" but changed his mind at the last instant.

* DissonantSerenity: Dukat strolling about the command center talking while everyone else is hiding under any available cover.

* CannedOrdersOverLoudspeaker: It says a lot about Dukat that he saw fit to delegate the task of handling riots to a recording of himself.