Alternate Reality: DS9 in Delta Quadrant

What do you supposed would have happened if - instead of the U.S.S. Voyager making the journey to the Delta Quadrant - Deep Space 9 (and several starships, Federation and otherwise) was pulled across the galaxy by the Caretaker?

I've always wanted to do something with this scenario, but I'm not even sure where to start.

The station itself would be seriously damaged by such a trip, but would probably be repairable.

Deep Space 9 itself would be quickly replaced by a Starfleet starbase, no doubt... one probably more heavily armed than DS9 ever was.

I'd probably leave most or all of the main cast of DS9 behind, but some of the recurring secondary characters would be nifty transplants.

I'd also send Voyager along as well. I mean, what the heck, right? It went through in the standard reality, so why not send her along again?

Lots of Bajorans, some humans, Vulcans, Klingons perhaps...

I think that I'd still blow up the Caretaker's station and leave DS9 orbiting the Ocampa planet. The crew could chase away the Kazon, and even if they came back in force, DS9 should be able to easily repel them.

I think it would be especially interesting to have Seska show up disguised as a Bajoran resistance fighter and try to take over the station, perhaps bringing along some Kazon allies as backup.

Golly, I might actually have to put a little more thought into this one...

mactavish out.

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Originally Posted by mactavish

Deep Space 9 itself would be quickly replaced by a Starfleet starbase, no doubt... one probably more heavily armed than DS9 ever was.

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Remind me–did the collapse of the Cardassian military government happen before or after the events of "Caretaker"?

If after, I could see the Cardassians attempting to secure the wormhole themselves. Maybe not Bajor itself again, but definitely the Denorios Belt.

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Originally Posted by The Tatterdemalion King

Remind me–did the collapse of the Cardassian military government happen before or after the events of "Caretaker"?

If after, I could see the Cardassians attempting to secure the wormhole themselves. Maybe not Bajor itself again, but definitely the Denorios Belt.

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Well, Emmisary is set shortly after the Cardassian withdrawl and is 2 years prior to that in Voyager... So STarfleet and Bajors application for Federtion membership is well underway at that point. So should the Cardassians come to take advantage of the situation in the Alpha Quadrant then it could quickly turn hostile, temperateures would already be high anyway due to the activities of the Maquis.

As for DS9 in orbit around Ocampa... Its not where they would have started. The Caretaker dragged everything to his array. But wouldn't have left anyone behind, so unless the crew was off-station with Siako (I am sure the prophets would not have let Sisko get dragged away), it would have to have been an early Defiant mission, although Odo rarely went on those, which would mean that Odo would get dragged away...

The implications of Odo's absence and its effect on the outcome of the Dominion war is of course another story, arguably the presence of a Founder stopped the Dominion from brutaly subjugating the Bajorans, and he certainly stopped the planetary genocide of the Cardassians and brokered the peace treaty.

But thats all by-the-by.

Should DS9 have found itself dragged into the Delta Quadrant with nowt but a few Runabouts, they might be able to pull the same trick that got them from Bajor to the Wormhole to eventually end up in orbit of Ocampa, but unlike Voyager the station would simply not be able to make a return trip. So even if you were to pull Voyager across with them, its debatable what would happen next.

Captain Janeway would have been the ranking officer, and we all know what her decision was, now they may have taken some time to decommission the high-tech from the station before taking the crew aboard voyager and beginning the long-trek home. But to do so might dangerously over-load the resources available aboard an Intrepid Class. So perhaps this might influence her decision to stay.

If they would leave, I suspect that she would scuttle the station. But to do so would really spoil the point of such a plot, so we have a station and one starship effectively taking over the stewardship of the Ocampan people, and going on from there, exploring and settling, making a new life for themselves knowing that without a drastic alteration in circumstances that they would be unable to undertake the voyage home...

Without my DS9 core book handy, what's the standard crew compliment of DS9?

Besides the crew, how many non-crew are typically aboard?

What species do we typically find aboard DS9? Humans and Bajorans, obviously, but who else?

As for changing the course of the war with the Dominion, I was thinking that the main crew and other important personages would be left behind. That is, Sisko, Kira, Odo and the rest are all still in the region, perhaps on Bajor when the station is removed by the Caretaker.

As for that sort of transfer, what kind of damage would you expect to see on DS9? Casualties? Equipment destroyed?

Moving the station to the Ocampa's planet is what I'd expect, too, but how would that work?

I know that DS9 is heavily armed, so the Kazon - even in force - pose little threat. Would it become a center of trade in the region? Since it's technically the property of the Bajorans, would they assume control? I find it hard to believe that any Starfleet personnel would allow that, but you never know.

Maybe in the short term the station would remain to stabilize the region, then the Prophets would return it to its place near the Celestial Temple...

I like the idea of DS9 becoming the center of a Delta Quadrant-style Federation (as mentioned in another thread) with the ideals of the United Federation of Planets - under the control of a perhaps less zealous supporter of the Prime Directive than Captain Janeway (like Lt. John Smith, for instance) - "adjusted" to the new circumstances.

Certainly DS9 has industrial replicators and a whole mess of other advanced devices and technologies - far more than Voyager did - that would allow it to quite literally reshape the region.

I've also toyed with the idea of having the religion of the Bajoran people spread to the Ocampa, perhaps in syncretism with their near-worship of the Caretaker... The Bajoran religious folk aboard the station might find the Ocampa to be kindred spirits, and their concept of pagh might make the Ocampan psionic abilities a force to be reckoned with (in much the same way that Tuvok helped train Kes using Vulcan meditation techniques and so forth).

Just a few ideas.

mactavish out.

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As for that sort of transfer, what kind of damage would you expect to see on DS9? Casualties? Equipment destroyed?

Moving the station to the Ocampa's planet is what I'd expect, too, but how would that work?

I know that DS9 is heavily armed, so the Kazon - even in force - pose little threat. Would it become a center of trade in the region? Since it's technically the property of the Bajorans, would they assume control? I find it hard to believe that any Starfleet personnel would allow that, but you never know.

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TBH, I suspect the first point is the hardest, its one thing to transfer a Starship, shielded and designed for FTL travel, a station is another thing entirely. We saw the damage done by the Caretakers Transfer that killed a significant number of the crew on Voyager. Personally short of magic TM, I suspect that the majority of the station would crumple and collapse. Casualties would be enormous. This is not really the point though, so can safetly be ignored.

At the very least the station would be incapacitaed for a significant time stuck out where the Caretakers array was until they could trade/salvage enough parts to get it back up and running.

Of course the Caretakers array would still be there as they would not be destroying it to protect the Ocampa.

Second point. The station would move the same way it does in Emissary, by raising an inertial dampening field that lowers the subjective mass enabling the station to move at relative low impulse speeds just with its maneuvering thrusters...

Third point. The station is not however heavily armed during the prescribed time period. Those weapons upgrades were being installed and setup during third season in response to the raised threat level from the Domiion and didn't come online until Way of the Warrior, season 4. During the third year the Defiant was on hand for defensive purposes. Of course the Defiant is likely to be the route to remove the main characters. So the station would be a sitting duck but would have Voyager and the Runabouts to defend.

Now longer term, its quite likely that they would have some SCE specialists on board who may have been assessing the installation, and may even have some systems ready for initial trial installs. but they certainly would need to jury-rig something to get them into action fast.

Now the SCE specialists are probably the biggest advantage they have there... What with a now defunct Caretakers station and nearby starship graveyard...

Call me stupid, but I can't help wondering whether the Caretaker seeding experiments (that's why he was abducting people in the first place, right ?) could have succeeded on some of the DS9 crew.
Especially if the main characters have been transferred as well, maybe the Trill or Changeling physiology could prove to be a better host for the Caretaker's offspring.
If so, the displaced crew would also have the task to nurture a young Caretaker (forgot the name fo the species)...

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Originally Posted by C5

Especially if the main characters have been transferred as well, maybe the Trill or Changeling physiology could prove to be a better host for the Caretaker's offspring.
If so, the displaced crew would also have the task to nurture a young Caretaker (forgot the name fo the species)...

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Which would also give them a reason to stick around and b an eventual deadline for going home–at some point the young Caretaker would be able to use the station's technology.