#ds9 reboot

[Transcript: Jake smiled back at her, still feeling the alcohol, thinking that she was kind of attractive for a... for a female humanoid. /end transcript]

[Transcript: "I love Nog, though," Jake said. /end transcript]

[Transcript: "Ben knew the risks that came with his job, Dad," Judith said gently. "We all did. The day he left for Starfleet Academy, we knew we might have no deal with the possibility that he'd never come home."

"Don't talk to me about risks," Dad snapped. "He wasn't killed by the Tzenkethi or vaporized by the Borg or blown to hell by the Dominion. Even that I could accept. I could make peace with it and move on. But he was taken from us, Judith. That damn planet and those so-called prophets took him away from everything he loves, and everyone that loves him. And still they weren't satisfied. They had to take my grandson, too."

"We don't know that, Dad. What happened to Jake, wherever he is, it may have nothing to do with Ben."

He scowled at her. "Maybe you can convince yourself of that. I can't. The boy's ship disappears the moment it leaves for Earth, and you want me to believe it has nothing to do with that damned thing...that wormhole?"

Her father shook his head, muttering, "I told him not to take that assignment. Seven years ago, I told him. Stay on Mars, I said. Build ships. At least you'll be close to Earth. Or forget Starfleet and just come home. He wasn't over Jen's death. He needed more time. But he went anyway, and what's worse is that he took Jake with him to that floating junkyard. Now they're both gone." He buried his face in his hands. "God forgive me, sometimes I wish Ben had never been born."

"Dad, you don't mean that-"

"Sometimes I do," he confessed, eyes welling up with tears as he spoke. "I know I shouldn't, but I can't help it. They did it, Judith. They made him. Used me and Sarah both just so we'd bring Ben into the world, so that years later they could use him. Like they used me. Like they've used all of us." /end transcript.]

And the thing about the salmon is that earlier Quark was making a metaphor about the stupidity of salmon swimming against the current in order to reproduce.

[Transcript:

"So what are you saying?" Quark asked. "You think you made the wrong choices? Maybe you did, maybe you didn't. But that isn't really the issue."

"It isn't?"

"No. The problem with Starfleet is, its fundamental principles are flawed."

Ro raised a sardonic eyebrow. "Oh, I can't wait to hear where this is going."

Quark sighed, realizing he was joining the salmon again. "While it's all well and good to want everyone to be happy, the reality is that making sure every world has food, medicine and education doesn't guarantee happiness. As much as the Federation tries to fix what ails the quadrant - and hell, sounds like they're starting to preach their good news to the Gamma and Delta quadrants, too - their way of doing things doesn't work for everyone. Because no matter how hard they try, or how honorable their intentions, equality is a bogus ideal and you can never make everyone be 'good' the way they define it."

Even in the dark, Quark could sense Ro's dubious expression. He refused to give up without at least attempting to prove his point, so he continued, "You're one to believe in scientific principles. What's the law of thermodynamics that says that for every action there's an equal and opposite reaction? Or what about the one that matter moves from a state of order to disorder? Either way, no matter where you look, nothing and nobody stays the same. You can't have the good guys without the bad guys, and as quickly as you transform the fortunes of one backwater world, another one will be blown to hell. The Federation forgets that as quickly as you fix one problem, another one crops up. Starfleet flits about in their pretty starships, trying to make everyone happy and it's mostly an exercise in futility. Is that what you want from your life Laren? Chasing a dream that can never be realized?"