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TREKCORE >
DS9
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THE CIRCLE >
Synopsis
Episode Synopsis
by
Tracy Hemenover
Sisko has a talk with Minister Jaro in his office. The
commander is not happy that Major Kira has been recalled to
Bajor without anyone consulting him. Jaro is surprised -- he
had heard that Sisko didn't get along with Kira. But Sisko
says she has been invaluable to him. Jaro tries to tell him
this is a promotion for Kira, a reward for her rescue of Li
Nalas. Sisko smiles. "Well, then that's a different matter."
He mentions a saying about a famous ambassador who was a bag
of hot air -- "not at all like you or me." Sisko also says
that he had thought Jaro would want Li in the capital to help
strengthen the provisional government, but Jaro says it's not
safe for Li there. A Bajoran minister has been attacked and
beaten. "Look at it this way, Commander -- we're entrusting
Bajor's greatest hero to you. Could you have a better liaison
officer than Li Nalas? I think not."
After Jaro leaves, a call comes in from Jake, who thinks Sisko
should come down to their quarters right away. Hearing the
concern in his son's voice, Sisko goes, and finds Jake
standing in front of the door, which has been painted with the
symbol of the Circle.
An upset Odo enters Kira's quarters, and is disturbed to find
her packing to leave, seemingly resigned to her fate. "You
break the rules, you pay," she tells him, but Odo points out
that she has made a career out of breaking the rules. "Cardassian
rules, Bajoran rules, Federation rules -- they're all
meaningless to you, because you have a personal code that's
always mattered more. And I'm sorry to say you're in slim
company!" Kira smiles slightly. "I'll miss you too, Odo." Odo
isn't through yet; he exhorts her to fight for what she wants.
"It's what you do best!" He claims he doesn't want to have to
break in a new man, even if Kira says Li Nalas can handle the
job. "You did fairly well at it, once I smoothed your rough
edges," Odo says, and Kira chuckles, telling him she'd thought
the same thing about him.
The moment is interrupted by Dax, who comes in to return some
cream she had borrowed. Then Bashir visits to wish Kira luck.
O'Brien drops by to say it's been a pleasure serving with Kira.
Quark enters with a bottle of synthale to commemorate their
parting. The room gets noisier and noisier with each newcomer,
until Kira's living room is practically crowded with people,
and she is starting to feel a little overwhelmed by their
concern. Finally the door chimes once again. This time, to
Kira's surprise, it's Vedek Bareil, who says he didn't mean to
intrude. "No, please, come in. These are my..." Kira looks
around at everyone, realizing how much they all have come to
mean to her. "These are my friends."
Bareil hadn't announced his coming to the station, thinking it
wise since the violence on Bajor has escalated. He invites
Kira to stay at his monastery for a while. "It can help when
the spirit gets a little bruised." Kira accepts.
Later, she goes to Ops to look around one last time, and is
joined by Li Nalas, her replacement. "I'm sorry. I didn't want
this job," he tells her sincerely. Kira smiles. "Neither did
I. I mean, back when I was sent here in the first place. But
it turned out better than I expected." Li says he doesn't even
know what a Navarch is supposed to do. Sisko enters, and Kira
asks for permission to disembark. "I'm going to get you back,
Major," Sisko says. "I promise that to both of us." And the
turbolift takes her out of sight.
Sometime later, in Bareil's monastery garden, Kira talks with
Bareil as she adjusts some rocks. "This isn't working, Bareil,"
she says. "...The stones are straight. I'm the one who's
crooked." Bareil suggests, not seriously, that she try her
hand at woodcrafts, and Kira confesses that she's terrible at
art. She feels useless here. "It might be interesting to
explore useless for awhile," Bareil says. Then he takes her
inside, to a part of the monastery she hasn't seen before.
There sits the ark of an orb, and Bareil is opening it.
"All my life I've dreamed of this," Kira gasps, bowing her
head reverently. "What do I do?" "Be useless, Nerys," Bareil
tells her. "Allow the Prophets to guide you." The light
swallows her, and she is standing in the Chamber of Ministers,
with legislators shouting, but she can't hear them. Then Dax,
in a Vedek's robe, hugs her, but turns into Vedek Winn as she
pulls away. Kira backs into Jaro, who says the voices are
calling to him. But Bareil appears and says they're calling to
her. With a gasp, she realizes she is now naked, and pleads
with Bareil to help her hear them. Naked as well, he embraces
and kisses her. The vision ends.
On DS9, Odo is talking with a friend of his on Bajor, a peace
officer who tells him there were dozens of beatings last night
alone. It sounds to Odo as if the Circle has powerful friends
to warn them where the authorities are looking. The peace
officer thinks that the troops the provisional government is
bringing into the capital will stop it. Odo signs off to find
Quark standing in the office. "It's over," the Ferengi says.
"Everything -- Bajor, the provisional government, the
Federation being here, all of it. We've gotta leave. Well, I
do anyway. You can just turn into a couch." Odo dismisses the
Circle as a bunch of hooligans, until Quark says he happens to
know they've got enough weapons, explosives, and supplies to
support an army.
This gets Odo's attention. He asks where the Circle are
getting these weapons, and Quark says the Kressari, which
doesn't make sense to Odo; the Kressari don't even have a
military. But he asks the computer when the next Kressari
vessel is due, then he orders Quark to find out where the
weapons are going on Bajor. Over Quark's protests, Odo
announces that the Ferengi is now a deputy. Either that or Odo
will arrest him for impeding an investigation.
Sisko gets the news, and decides to go to Bajor, telling Li to
use his military contacts to get a feeling for how much
support the provisional government has. Meanwhile, he's asked
Odo to assign Li a bodyguard. Li demurs, but Sisko is adamant.
Kira approaches Bareil in the garden. "Woodcrafts. Definitely
the way to go." Bareil guesses that she doesn't want to talk
about her experience. But he tells her about the last one he
had. It included her; that was why he invited her here. They
hear noise in the distance, which Kira identifies as gunfire.
Then Winn speaks to them from a bridge just overhead. As
deceptively sweet and subtle as ever, she chides Bareil for
letting Kira experience the orb without consulting the Vedek
Assembly.
Sisko visits General Krim, a military leader whom he met last
year, and who is in command of the forces defending the
capital. Sisko mentions the concern some people have that the
military is unwilling to confront the Circle. Every time
there's a potential confrontation, the military withdraws. But
the provisional government needs the military to back it up,
Sisko says. "We are all patriots, Commander," Krim replies. He
seems surprised by the news that the Circle is being armed by
the Kressari. Sisko promises to let him know when they find
out where the weapons are stored. He also mentions the
possibility of getting Kira reassigned back to DS9, which Krim
says is out of his purview. But he will remember that Sisko
did not attempt to trade the information for the favor.
In Ops, Li and Dax are stalling the captain of the Kressari
ship while O'Brien and Odo make an "inspection". The captain
calls, ticked off at the delay, but Li bluffs him. Dax calls
O'Brien to tell him they don't want to hold up the Kressari
ship any longer; O'Brien sets down a container on the deck of
the ship and leaves. As the captain prepares to disembark,
part of the container slides off unnoticed and turns into a
rat.
While Sisko is on Bajor, he goes to the monastery to see Kira,
who has been daydreaming in the garden. He tells her he hasn't
given up on getting her back yet, and that the Circle has been
armed for a coup. Sisko isn't sure the provisional government
can count on the military's support. After he leaves, Kira
turns around and is accosted by three figures wearing masks
and robes who squirt something in her face, causing her to go
limp, and then carry her away.
In a cargo bay on board the Kressari ship, Odo the rat watches
as a Cardassian gul beams aboard with several crates. The
captain inspects the weapons inside, and has the gul sign off
on the shipment by pressing his thumbprint onto a PADD. The
Cardassian beams away.
Kira is brought into the Circle's underground bunker, where
she is surprised to see none other than Minister Jaro
presiding. "So you're involved with the Circle," she says. "I
am the Circle, Major," Jaro replies. Kira, who now understands
why Jaro shunted Li off to DS9 -- to avoid having Li's
popularity interfere with the Circle's plans -- asks how he
could betray his government, and Jaro calls the government
powerless. "I won't allow the Bajoran people to be powerless
anymore...we are a people who brought art and architecture to
countless planets. We don't deserve to be victims." But
they'll discuss politics later. Jaro asks her what the
Federation will do once the Circle's objective becomes clear.
He promises to give her the station after they get rid of
Starfleet if she'll answer the question. Will they continue to
support the provisional government? She knows Sisko; what will
he do? When Kira is silent, Jaro informs her that the Circle
has learned a few things from the Cardassians -- "like how to
encourage people to talk."
Sisko and the DS9 officers are discussing Kira's abduction,
and Li offers to use his name to get some cooperation. Quark
enters to say that he's found out where the Circle's
headquarters are, in the labyrinths beneath the Perikian
peninsula. Sisko immediately heads for the turbolift, calling
for security, and telling the others to come with him. Li
wants to come too. After all, he can fight and take orders as
well as anyone, and he owes Kira. Sisko finally agrees.
They materialize in the caverns, and Sisko hands out extra
combadges; whoever gets to Kira first will pin theirs on her
and call for beamout. With that, they charge in. During the
ensuing firefight, Bashir is the one who finds Kira, battered
and bloody after her torture by the Circle. He is knocked
down, and Kira grabs the combadge. The rescuers then
dematerialize.
Kira is treated in the infirmary, where she says Li is the one
force who could stop Jaro, if they can get him to the Chamber
of Ministers. But Sisko says that Li would be dead before he
got to speak. "Courtesy of a Cardassian weapon," announces Odo,
who has returned to the station with the manifest PADD that
contains the proof of Cardassian involvement, the gul's
thumbscan. The Circle doesn't know the true source of the
weapons. As for the Cardassians' motives, it's simple: once
the Circle is in power and forces the Federation out, they can
move back in.
Sisko calls Dax and tells her to open a channel to Bajor so
that Li Nalas can address the Chamber of Ministers on
subspace. But Dax says all frequencies to Bajor are jammed.
The coup has begun. Sisko has her call Admiral Chekote at
Starfleet Command.
Meanwhile, at a temple shrine on Bajor, Jaro confers with
Vedek Winn, asking for her public support. She says her voice
is rarely heard in the assembly, but he tells her that can
change with the prestige of having Bajor's new leader a member
of her order. And there will be even more. "I can think of no
one more worthy of being the next Kai than you, Winn," Jaro
says. "I shall do everything in my power to see that you are."
"The Prophets are smiling on you today, Minister," Winn says.
O'Brien reports that two assault vessels are headed this way
from Bajor, giving all non-Bajorans seven hours to evacuate.
Sisko speaks with the admiral, and brings him up to date on
the grim situation. Unfortunately, it sounds to Chekote like a
genuine political revolution, even despite the Cardassian
involvement. He tells Sisko that the Prime Directive applies,
and orders him to evacuate.
Going back out into Ops, his mind racing, Sisko asks O'Brien
how long it will take to evacuate -- a complete evacuation,
meaning all Federation property of every kind. O'Brien says
that would take days, and the assault vessels will arrive in
seven hours. "Then I guess some of us won't quite be done by
the time they get here," Sisko says.
To be continued...
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