Line #13 Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS01E13BattleLines


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ds9_battlelines142.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:Do Bashir, Kira and Kai Opaka look confused to you? That's because [[BackFromTheDead Opaka died a few minutes ago]].]]
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4	Kai Opaka pays a visit to [=DS9=], her first trip off of Bajor in her lifetime, to see the Celestial Temple. As no ships are scheduled to come through the wormhole, Commander Sisko decides to take the Kai through on the runabout ''Yangtzee Kiang''. Major Kira (who notices that the Kai seems distracted) and Doctor Bashir (who has nothing better to do) accompany Sisko and the Kai to the runabout pad, where Opaka meets Chief O'Brien. Realizing that the chief has a daughter, she gives him a necklace to give to her.
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6	Opaka is delighted to go through the wormhole, a trip that Sisko notes is the smoothest to date. As they prepare to return, the ''Yangtzee Kiang'' picks up a weak subspace signal that the Kai insists on investigating, as she notes that she doesn't get out much. They track the signal to a moon in a nearby system, but the runabout is shot down by the moon's orbital defense systems. The ''Yangtzee Kiang'' crashes; although Sisko and Bashir manage to escape injury, and Kira is a little banged up, the Kai is dead. Kira doesn't have much time to mourn, though, as they find themselves surrounded by a group of unfriendly faces.
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8	The leader of the group, Golin Shel-la, takes the crew back to their cave and identifies his people as the Ennis. He tells them that they are in conflict with a group known as the Nol-Ennis. As it turns out, the planet is a penal colony where the two groups were banished when authorities on their homeworld couldn't settle their conflict. The Nol pick this time to stage an attack on the Ennis camp, and several members of the two sides are killed before Kira drives off the Nol. Before the Ennis can recover, though, Kai Opaka appears at the mouth of the cave.
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10	Bashir examines the Kai, who appears to be healthy; she doesn't remember dying in the crash, only waking up outside the runabout. While Bashir continues his examination, Sisko and Kira aren't impressed with the lack of defenses that allowed the Nol to stage such a brazen attack. Shel-la reveals the reason why they don't bother, as the fallen rise up as if nothing's happened. Nobody on this moon can die, at least not for long, thanks to artificial microbes. When the Ennis realized they couldn't die anymore, defensive tactics became pointless. Sisko suggests that Starfleet could rescue the two sides, resettling them separately and allowing them to end the fighting. Bashir, meanwhile, goes back to the runabout to salvage the computers and analyze the microbes.
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12	As O'Brien and Dax begin searching for the ''Yangtzee Kiang'', Sisko convinces Shel-la to have the Ennis and Nol-Ennis call a cease-fire and meet at a neutral site, near the runabout. Kira stays back at the cave with Opaka, who helps the major overcome her guilt for the things she did during the Cardassian occupation. Sisko makes his offer to both sides, but neither side takes him seriously, and the cease-fire is quickly broken. Bashir emerges from the runabout in time to save Sisko from being attacked, and the doctor tells the commander that they can't afford to die on this moon, not even once.
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14	Bashir explains that the biomechanical microbes that revive the Ennis and Nol-Ennis cannot survive in any environment other than that moon, and thus they - and Opaka - are stuck here. The Kai reveals that she knew she would not be returning to Bajor. She believes she is answering the call of the Prophets by trying to find a way to bring peace to these people who haven't known anything but fighting for untold ages. She states that she is there to begin their healing process - and that Kira had been there to begin her own.
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16	The ''Rio Grande'' finds the planet and manages to disrupt the satellite defenses enough to allow transport. Bashir suggests that he might be able to disable the microbes to allow the people to die for good, but when Shel-la suggests he would only take the opportunity to wipe out the Nol-Ennis, Bashir drops the idea. Sisko insists that they will find a way to get Opaka off the moon, but she interrupts him and tells him her work is there now, but that their ''paghs'' will cross again. With that, Sisko, Kira, and Bashir beam up.
17	----
18	!!Tropes:
19	* ActionGirl:
20	** Shel-la's right-hand-woman, Nima, who mixes it up with the rest of the guys.
21	** Deconstructed by Kira, who vocally exhorts the Ennis to fight better while Sisko criticizes her for jumping into the conflict. She ultimately must [[TheAtoner come to terms]] with her role in the war with the Cardassians.
22	* AlienNonInterferenceClause: The Prime Directive is discussed when Sisko contemplates taking the prisoners away from the moon (before it's established that they can't do that). Bashir observes that taking the prisoners may be considered interference with an alien justice system, but Sisko hotly states that their microbe-infected state basically make them a separate species, and they had certainly suffered enough for their original sins after being stuck in a cycle of resurrection.
23	* TheAtoner: Kira qualifies, breaking down in front of Opaka as the horrors of her past in LaResistance catch up with her.
24	-->'''Kira:''' ''[tearfully]'' I'm afraid the Prophets won't forgive me.\
25	'''Opaka:''' They're just waiting for you to forgive yourself.
26	* BackFromTheDead: Kai Opaka, and anyone else who dies on the moon. But only as long as they stay on the moon.
27	* DeathIsCheap: [[SubvertedTrope ...or so one might think]]. The microbes on the moon that prevent anyone on the moon from dying permanently only work on the moon: if the microbes brought you back, and you try to leave the moon, you will die.
28	* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: UsefulNotes/TheYugoslavWars were still going on while the episode was made, with the conflict being fueled by [[AppealToObscurity long-standing]] ethnic and religious issues that seemed incomprehensible to the Western media. Hence the endless and meaningless war between the Ennis and Nol-Ennis.
29	* DramaticallyMissingThePoint: When the subject of possibly disabling the resurrecting microbes is brought up, Sisko and his crew propose it as a means of ending the war between the Ennis and Nol-Ennis ''peacefully''. Shel-la, however, wants to disable the Nol-Ennis' microbes to kill them, weaponizing Sisko's proposal because he had been fighting a war for so long that peace is a completely alien concept to him.
30	* DudeWheresMyRespect: Kira is pissed that the official Cardassian file on her describes her as a "minor operative" and errand-girl.
31	* ForeverWar: What the Ennis' and Nol-Ennis feud is, thanks to the microbes.
32	* HumanAliens: The Ennis and Nol-Ennis look entirely human, though battle-scarred.
33	* IChooseToStay: Kai Opaka decided to stay on the moon and help the warring factions find peace. She doesn't actually have a choice, but she made this decision before she knew that.
34	* InelegantBlubbering: Kira, and why shouldn't she be? Her Kai is ''dead!''
35	* InnocuouslyImportantEpisode: While it's not technically a Wham Episode, the 'death' of Opaka, i.e. the Bajoran Pope, obviously will have a ''major'' impact on the Bajoran status quo moving forward. The now-vacant Office of the Kai will lead to the introduction of recurring characters Bariel Antos and Winn Adami in the Season One finale. The election of the new Kai will also carry over into Season Two and its outcome will affect the series for the remainder of its run.
36	* PlotArmor: Despite all four sitting within a few feet of each other during the crash, the three regular characters escape with few injuries, whereas the character whose only previous appearance had been back in the pilot episode is so catastrophically injured that she dies within less than a minute of the crash.
37	* PutOnABus: Kai Opaka. Sisko mentions trying to find a way to rescue her, but it never comes up again in the series.
38	* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight: Sisko's idea to find a way to transport the Ennis and Nol-Ennis from the prison planet so they can die naturally. When Bashir brings up the Prime Directive, Sisko argues that their circumstances make them essentially a separate species from their original civilisation, and also tells Bashir that whatever their original crimes, they've more than paid for them.
39	* SealedEvilInACan / SealedEvilInADuel: The Ennis and Nol-Ennis are both of these. They're trapped without the resources to even attempt an escape, but it never occurs to them to stop fighting long enough to try.
40	* SillyReasonForWar: According to Shel-la, no one even remembers the reason for the war between the Ennis and Nol-Ennis. It has perpetuated itself through a desire for revenge for the most recent atrocities by each side.
41	* {{Technobabble}}: {{Lampshade\|Hanging}}d:
42	-->'''Dax:''' The magnetic deflection of a runabout's hull is extremely weak. The probes will never be able to detect it.\
43	'''O'Brien:''' They will if I outfit them with a differential magnetomer.\
44	'''Dax:''' A differential magnetomer?\
45	'''O'Brien:''' Mm-hmm.\
46	'''Dax:''' I've never heard of a differential magnetomer. How does it work?\
47	'''O'Brien:''' I'll let you know [[GadgeteerGenius as soon as I finish making one]].
48	* WhoWantsToLiveForever: Not someone who's destined to die and come back over and over again.

Context Recap / StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS01E13BattleLines