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Susan_Delgado

Two questions

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We just finished watching "Treachery, Faith and the Great River" (Season 7). Dark Reality -- please don't read this if you don't want to get "spoiled."

 

Click for Spoiler:

This is the episode where we see Weyoun 6 trying to defect from the Dominion. Ultimately he enacts his termination chip to save Odo's life.

 

Also, this is the episode where we first see the female shapeshifter suffering from the effects of the virus Odo passed to her unknowingly after Section 31 infected him at Starfleet Medical.

 

Now -- first question: When did Odo infect the Link? Was it during his trial for killing that shapeshifter, or was it later during the Cardassian/Dominion occupation of DS9 (end of Season 5, beginning of Season 6)?

 

We see the Prophets close the wormhole against the Dominion when Sisko and the gang retake Deep Space Nine at the beginning of Season 6. The female shapeshifter is on the Alpha Quadrant side of the wormhole when this happens. If this is when Odo infects her, how did the Great Link become infected? She does not return to the Great Link after she links with Odo, nor can she after DS9 is back in Federation hands. THE WORMHOLE IS CLOSED.

 

Second, where are the Vorta clones kept prior to their activation?

 

We have Weyoun 5 dying in a transporter accident, then instantly Weyoun 6 is activated. He's "defective" so they activate Weyoun 7. Now we have two Weyouns running around the Alpha Quadrant ... wouldn't the cloning facility for the Vorta have been on the Gamma Quadrant side of the wormhole (which is still closed)? How did Weyoun 6 and 7 get to the Alpha Quadrant?

 

:( Is this a plothole, or did I miss something?

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I think you've forgotten a key event...

 

Click for Spoiler:

The wormhole is re-opened in the second episode of the 7th season (Shadows and Symbols). It was closed by Dukat in "Tears of the Prophets" which was the final episode of season 6 (when Jadzia gets killed). Dukat releases a Pah'wraith into it and that seals it. The closure of the wormhole in early season 6 is done by Rom's self-replicating cloaked mines, not by the Prophets. Once Dukat and company are able to remove the minefield the wormhole is once again accessible. Remember in "Sacrifice of Angels" Sisko flew into it while the Dominion fleet was coming at him from the other direction and he convinced the Prophets to do away with the Dominion fleet?

 

We know that Odo was infected when he was on Earth in "Homefront" & "Paradise Lost", so we have to assume that he infected the Link in that same season's "Broken Link" though he could have infected the female shapeshifter in "Behind the Lines" and then she infected the rest of the link when she returned to the Gamma Quadrant after Sisko re-opened the wormhole. I think I'd go with "Broken Link" though.

 

 

As for the Vorta clones, they never really addressed where they were kept. I just assumed that they were kept in a pre-embryonic state in some cloning facility. But you have to go back to my last answer for the location of that facility, it likely is in the Gamma Quadrant though they could have built one in the Alpha Quadrant during the time that the wormhole was closed.

 

In fact, thinking back to the final episode when Garak (I think it was Garak) kills Weyoun the female shapeshifter says that he was the last one so they must not have had time to re-clone him at one of their facilities.

 

So I would say that it's not a plot hole, you've just forgotten a few key events.

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Maybe the term "wormhole closed" was a poor choice on my part.

Rom's mines did not close the wormhole, they merely barred the gate, so to speak, for the Dominion.

So you have female shapeshifter and Weyoun both trapped on the Alpha Quadrant side of the wormhole during the Cardassian/Dominion takeover of DS9.

Then Sisko goes into the wormhole, the Prophets intercede at his request, and eliminate the Dominion fleet that is trying to pass through.

Now, are you saying that the elimination of the Dominion fleet by the Prophets was a "one-shot deal" and that the wormhole was potentially open to Dominion traffic after the episode "Sacrifice of Angels?" I was always under the impression that Weyoun and the female shapeshifter were trapped on the Alpha Quadrant side in Season 6 and 7. Which is why they were having to manufacture Ketracel White over on this side and breed Alpha Quadrant Jem Hadar .... because there was no way to pass through the wormhole going either way. At least not for the Dominion.

Are we to think that little old DS9 was the only thing standing in the way of the Dominion sending reinforcements through the wormhole? Even with Martok on patrol, that was a pretty tall order. I always assumed that the Prophet intervention occuring during "Sacrifice of Angels" was more than just a quick fix for the problem, but a lasting solution provided by the Prophets at the behest of the Emissary.

THANK YOU for helping me out with that virus timeline .... infection during "Broken Link" makes it much more plausible: Odo infects the Link during his trial, they kick him out and make him human (thus he's no longer infected), he becomes a changeling again when he finds the infant shapeshifter, then he gets reinfected with the virus when the female shapeshifter oozes back on to the station and links with Odo during the first few eps of season 6.

I do wonder, though, why it took so long for the virus to take affect? That's at least a couple of years.

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I'll re-watch "Sacrifice of Angels" and a few episodes after it tonight and see if it says anything about the wormhole being basically cut off. I don't remember that being the case though. It has always been my impression that it was a one shot deal with the Dominion fleet.

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Well my season 6 case seems to be missing so I'll have to search for it, it's probably been packed in a box accidentally.

 

I've done a little reading on the question of the wormhole and the Gamma quadrant though, and my conclusion is...

 

Click for Spoiler:

While the Prophets destroyed the Dominion fleet in the wormhole they didn't close it off. At least there's no evidence that I can find that they did. This is from ST.COM's synopsis of "Sacrifice of Angels":

 

Click for Spoiler:

Inside the wormhole, the entire Dominion fleet — and certain destruction — awaits the single ship. Suddenly, the wormhole aliens communicate with Sisko — they do not want him to die. Sisko pleads with them to save the Bajorans, who created an entire religion around them. He is then abruptly returned to the Defiant, but the enormous Dominion fleet still approaches.

 

Sisko gives the order to fire, but the ships are hit with a series of energy jolts and mysteriously disappear. Dukat is shocked when the Defiant emerges from the wormhole — alone. As Sisko opens fire in the station, Damar learns 200 more Federation ships are headed their way. The Dominion troops are all ordered to retreat to Cardassia, and Dukat asks his daughter to accompany him, but Ziyal refuses. She reveals that she helped Kira and the others escape from the holding cell, but she tells Dukat that she loves him just before Damar kills her. Devastated, Dukat remains — a shell of his former self — while the others evacuate and Sisko and the crew joyfully return home, achieving a major victory in the ongoing war.

 

From that we can assume that the vast majority of the Dominion's Gamma Quadrant fleet (if not all of it) were destroyed in the wormhole. Any remaining Dominion military in the Gamma Quadrant would be needed to protect their bases and planets there.

 

We don't have anymore Gamma episodes for the rest of the series but they never say that there is no way to get to the Gamma Quadrant. In fact in the final episode when Odo returns to the Link it is in the Gamma Quadrant so we know that it is possible at that point to get there.

 

Also, I do remember in one of the final episodes that the Female shapeshifter asked Weyoun if their cloning facility was operational yet, which the implication was that she wanted to get rid of that Weyoun and clone a new one. Weyoun answered that it would take a couple more weeks to get it operating again and the Female Shapeshifter instructed him to inform her as soon as it was operational again. So that indicates that they do have access to that facility but they never say if it's in the Gamma or Alpha Quadrant.

 

My conclusion is that I'm going to continue believing my initial impression but I will look for proof that the wormhole is closed off to traffic.

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Are we to think that little old DS9 was the only thing standing in the way of the Dominion sending reinforcements through the wormhole?


It's a small thing, but don't forget that DS9 served as the headquarters for the combined allied Ninth Fleet, and was a major repair and resupply depot. There was always a large military presence surrounding it, making it unlikely that any Dominion ships would risk trying to get past an entire fleet and a heavily armed space station.

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I've rewatched the series again and I am under the impression that the Prophets stepped in to eliminate the Dominion Fleet AND to prevent any further Dominion forces from coming through the wormhole.

 

Then Dukat's nutty pah-wraith scheme closed the wormhole at the end of Season 6. Sisko finds the Orb of the Emissary, the wormhole reopens at the beginning of Season 7.

 

Were the Prophets still preventing Dominion traffic through the wormhole after it reopened? I assumed they were. Then when Odo went back through (being a Founder), Sisko was already in the Celestial Temple and would have said to his brethren, "Yo, dudes, Odo's cool. He can go through." haha.

 

Funny to see spoiler tags for a show that has been off the air for ten years now! I guess four years ago when this thread was started, somebody out here was watching the show for the first time.

 

Wish I could see it again for the first time!

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