History Recap / StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS03E07CivilDefense

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. It turns out the computer thinks the trio are "revolting workers." Without the password, no one -- not even the staff in Ops -- knows how to convince it otherwise.

* InterspeciesRomance: The Cardassian Dukat is revealed to have a VillainousCrush on the Bajoran Kira. The feeling is decidedly one-sided, as Kira will always find Dukat to be loathsome. Previous episodes of ''Star Trek: The Next Generation'' have shown other Cardassians with the hots for Bajoran women,

* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Dukat gets a fairly spectacular one from his former commanding officer. It leaves him, for once, at a complete loss for words

** Kira is able to shut down the entire life-support system...by shooting one console.

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

--> '''Sisko:''' You know, I never knew how much this man's voice annoyed me.

* DidntSeeThatComing: Dukat clearly did not expect that his superiors might have added their own scenarios to the counter-insurgency program accounting for Dukat's own behavior during a rebellion.
* DidntThinkThisThrough: Garak hits Dukat with this, accusing Dukat of being so short-sighted as to not consider the possibility that his superiors may have made their own additions to the program specifically in consideration of how Dukat might respond.

* SimpleSolutionWontWork: When Sisko tries to do as the Dukat recording says and surrender on behalf of the "Bajoran workers" to end the lock-down, it naturally doesnt work, since there's no Cardassian security on the station to surrender to anymore.

The program had automatically notified Dukat of the "worker rebellion" in Terok Nor, so he came running. But he's much more interested in gloating and watching the crew squirm than actually helping. When they finally ask for his help, 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 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 announces that all security codes have been voided, and the self-destruct system can no longer be stopped.

* SpotOfTea: Dukat pauses the replicator's automated phaser turret to order a cup of red leaf tea. After he takes his drink, the phaser is reactivated.

* AirVentEscape: Jake uses an old processing shaft to escape the ore refinery.

Garak is unfortunately limited to read-only access. He is able to see everything that is going on but is powerless to make any actual changes to the program, which at this late stage can only be deactivated by Dukat himself. In desperation, they come up with a plan to spoof the computer into thinking Garak ''is'' Dukat. Before they can finish their plan, the overly-paranoid program once again takes offense to their tampering and responds by replicating a phaser turret in Ops itself. One {{Redshirt}} is cut down before the rest manage to take cover. And if it looks like it can't get any worse... the real Dukat beams in. [[SmugSnake even more pompous than his recording]].

* BlackComedy: The complex series of security failsafes the Cardassians left on [=DS9=] quickly becomes absurd, especially since each one is accompanied by a pre-recorded message from Dukat and is usually triggered by trying to bypass the previous security measures. And each time a new level is triggered, the danger and risk to the current crew grows more and more serious. This reaches its xenith when Dukat tries to transport off [=DS9=] and is stopped, and a pre-recorded message for ''him'' from his superior plays accusing him to trying to flee the rebels that have taken over the station, so they've disabled his security codes for trying to abandon his post.

* SmugSnake: Dukat is at his most smug and self-important during this episode, cheerfully gloating about the situation, believing that only he can resolve it. When he tries to leave everyone to stew for a while, he ends up being trapped on the station, no longer in a position to fix the crisis, in exactly as bad a position as the people he was just mocking, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking subject to Garak's barbs]]. The rapid shift from his smug self-assurance to [[OhCrap realising how screwed he is]] is hilarious, made even moreso by the fact that Dukat clearly ''knows'' how much he's made an ass of himself.

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

[[caption-width-right:350:"Would you allow 2000 people aboard this station to die simply because you don't like... us?"]]

* DeadlyGas: Sisko, Jake, and O'Brien barely escape a room full of it. Kira then shoots the life-support system to stop it from spreading gas all over the station.

* 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. She also points out that neither the Federation or Bajor would ever honor a deal made under duress, but Dukat wants to put them in the situation of having to force his soldiers off the station after they've gained a foothold. His smugness backfires when he tries to beam away so they can stew on the offer, triggering a protocol that blocks the transport and revokes his command codes for perceived cowardice.

-->''"Everyone makes it to cover but the redshirt. Ouch. I mean, death by replicated [[BuffySpeak shooty ball thing]]. [[UndignifiedDeath What a way to go.]]"''
-->-- [[http://eponymous-rose.dreamwidth.org/316150.html Recap]] of ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', "Civil Defense"

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.

Dukat's talking head invites them to surrender or be killed. As the clock ticks down, Sisko and the others narrowly manage to find a way out of the room before neurocine gas floods the room. This buys them some time, but they find themselves in yet another dead-end room of the ore processing labyrinth. To make matters worse, the computer notices their escape, and decides it must get even more serious with its security measures, including another grim lecture from Dukat.

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]].

->'''Quark:''' You telling me I'm stuck here... with you?
->'''Odo:''' No. I'm stuck here with ''you''. Believe me, a far worse fate.

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.

Garak is unfortunately limited to read-only access. He is able to see everything that is going on, but is powerless to make any actual changes to the program, which at this late stage can only be deactivated by Dukat himself. In desparation, they come up with a plan to spoof the computer into thinking Garak ''is'' Dukat. Before they can finish their plan, the overly-paranoid program once again takes offense to their tampering, and responds by replicating a phaser turret in Ops itself. One {{Redshirt}} is cut down before the rest manage to take cover. And if it looks like it can't get any worse... the real Dukat beams in, [[SmugSnake even more pompous than his recording]].

->'''Dukat:''' A short time ago, I had a very strange experience. There I was, patroling the Demilitarized Zone, when I received a distress signal... from me. It seems the Bajoran workers were rioting on Terok Nor. I must admit, it piqued my curiosity.

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 all security codes have been voided and that the self-destruct system can no longer be stopped.

* ButtMonkey: When Sisko and O'Brien go into the green-fire Jeffries Tube, they agree that if one gets into trouble, the other one keeps going. Guess who doesn't make it through? (Hint: The one who's not Ben Sisko.)

** Cardassians tend to plan ahead and Gul Dukat's counterinsurgency program was ready for pretty much every possible scenario. The only one it didn't account for was the failure of the self-destruct mechanism, as the program presumably shuts down on its own after the reactor overload fails to destroy the station.

* DidntThinkThisThrough:
** Garak hits Dukat with this, accusing Dukat of being so short-sighted as to not consider the possibility that his superiors may have made their own additions to the program specifically in consideration of how Dukat might respond.
** Dukat previously lampshaded this on himself because he programmed the phaser turret to only target non-Cardassians, but wishes that he had made an exception for Garak.
** Garak himself seems to have a moment of this, as it doesn't occur to him to wait for Kira and Dax to be ready with the sensor changeover before making the attempt to duplicate Dukat's access code.

* 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]], insisting the other Cardassian officers won't be as lenient and merciful as he is...

* PetTheDog:
** For whatever it's worth, Dukat's counterinsurgency program does offer several chances for the "rebelling workers" to surrender before resorting to force. [[SubvertedTrope Of course]], subsequent levels of the program involve killing everyone on the station, so this may be more a case of PragmaticVillainy.
** Dukat turns off the automated phaser in Ops, which is programmed to only target non-Cardassians, as "the least he can do."

* SnarkToSnarkCombat: Dukat vs. Garak. Kira and Bashir repeatedly tell them to shut up.

* 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. It ends up backfiring on him, however.

* CrazyPrepared: Cardassians tend to plan ahead and Gul Dukat's counterinsurgency program was ready for pretty much every possible scenario. The only one it didn't account for was the failure of the self-destruct mechanism, as the program presumably shuts down on its own after the reactor overload fails to destroy the station.
** Not only that, but even Dukat's superior wrote in a scenario in case Dukat was unable to quell the rebellion and tried to escape.

-->'''Kira:''' Any luck?
-->'''Garak:''' Plenty, Major. [[BaitAndSwitchComment Unfortunately, all of it bad]].
* DidntSeeThatComing: Dukat clearly did not expect that his superiors had a few surprises for him.
* 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.

* {{Irony}}:
** Garak lampshades the irony that the one place in the galaxy that still recognizes his access codes is a Bajoran space station.

** The audience learns that Cardassian forcefields are designed to be lethal (or at least have no safeguards to limit the damage they can do). The reason they aren't on [=DS9=] is because the Federation wisely disabled that "feature" when they took over.

* OhCrap: The look on Dukat's face when he finds out that his security codes have been voided.

* 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 prevent him from automatically siding with the Cardassians. Subverted a moment later, as Quark follows this up by chiding Odo for those traits potentially getting them killed.

* YouKilledMyFather: Implied to be the source of Dukat's loathing for Garak; apparently, Dukat's father trusted Garak, which led to a trial, and given the Cardassian justice system, more than likely an execution. Garak seems to feel that the elder Dukat brought it on himself, which (unsurprisingly) doesn't mollify Dukat.

* {{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.]]
** According to Garak, Dukat's father expressed a regret that "his ambition outweighed his patriotism" during his trial. [[spoiler:The apple clearly didn't fall far; Dukat himself will later sell out Cardassia to the Dominion in order to get himself a place at the top of the Cardassian hierarchy.]]

** Quark laments not listening to his father and staying on Feringinar where (his father said) there were plenty of business opportunities. Later we'll learn his father was a ''terrible'' businessman.

* BlackComedy: The complex series of security failsafes the Cardassians left on [=DS9=] quickly becomes absurd, especially since each one is accompanied by a pre-recorded message from Dukat and is usually triggered by trying to bypass the previous security measures. And each time a new level is triggered, the danger and risk to the current crew grows more and more serious. This reaches its xenith when [[spoiler:Dukat tries to transport off [=DS9=] and is stopped, and a pre-recorded message for ''him'' from his superior plays accusing him to trying to flee the rebels that have taken over the station, so they've disabled his security codes for trying to abandon his post.]]

* BlackComedy: The complex series of security failsafes the Cardassians left on DS9 quickly becomes absurd, especially since each one is accompanied by a pre-recorded message from Dukat and is usually triggered by trying to bypass the previous security measures. And each time a new level is triggered, the danger and risk to the current crew grows more and more serious. This reaches its xenith when [[spoiler:Dukat tries to transport off DS9 and is stopped, and a pre-recorded message for ''him'' from his superior plays accusing him to trying to flee the rebels that have taken over the station, so they've disabled his security codes for trying to abandon his post.]]

** Quark laments not listening to his father and staying on Feringinar where (his father said) there were plenty of business opportunities. Later we'll learn his his father was a ''terrible'' businessman.

* {{Irony}}: Garak lampshades the irony that the one place in the galaxy that still recognizes his access codes is a Bajoran space station.