Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Season 1

Kira Nerys:
I suppose you want the office.

Benjamin Sisko:
Well, I thought I would say hello first and then take the office, but we can do it in any order you like.

Kira Nerys:
[sarcastically] Hello!

Jean-Luc Picard:
Have we met before?

Benjamin Sisko:
Yes, sir, we met in battle. I was on the Saratoga at Wolf 359.

[Discussing Bajor's possible membership in the Federation]

Benjamin Sisko:
Sounds like they're not ready.

Jean-Luc Picard:
Your job—short of violating the Prime Directive—is to make sure that they are.

Kira Nerys:
You are throwing it all away! All of you!

Bajoran Bureaucrat:
You're being a fool!

Kira Nerys:
Well, then, don't ask my opinion next time!

[about Sisko]

Kai Opaka:
How ironic—one who does not wish to be among us is to be the Emissary.

Julian Bashir:
This is where the adventure is. This is where heroes are made. Right here—in the wilderness.

Kira Nerys:
This "wilderness" is my home!

Miles O'Brien:
Sir, have you ever served with any Bajoran women?

Benjamin Sisko:
No. Why?

Miles O'Brien:
I was just wondering, sir.

Benjamin Sisko:
It's really quite simple, Quark. You're not going to leave.

Quark:
Not going to leave? But we're packed and ready to go.

Benjamin Sisko:
Unpack.

Quark:
I don't understand, Commander. Why would you want me to stay?

Odo:
I'm curious myself. The man is a gambler and a thief.

Quark:
I'm not a thief.

Odo:
You are a thief!

Quark:
If I am, you haven't been able to prove it for four years.

Quark:
Commander, I've made a career out of knowing when to leave. And this provisional government is far too provisional for my taste. And when governments fall, people like me are lined up and shot.

Benjamin Sisko:
There is that risk, but then, you are a gambler, Quark.

Odo:
And a thief.

Benjamin Sisko:
You know, Quark, that poor boy is about to spend the best years of his life in a Bajoran prison. I'm a father myself. I know what your brother must be going through. The boy should be with his family, not in some cold jail cell. Think about it. It's up to you.

[He exits]

Odo:
You know, at first, I didn't think I was going to like him.

Benjamin Sisko:
[To Captain Picard] In the meantime, I will do the job I've been ordered to do to the best of my ability, sir!

Kira Nerys:
Quark, if you don't take your hand off my hip, you'll never be able to raise a glass with it again.

Quark:
Oh, I love a woman in uniform.

Benjamin Sisko:
That may be the most important thing to understand about humans. It is the unknown that defines our existence. We are constantly searching, not just for answers to our questions, but for new questions. We are explorers. We explore our lives day by day, and we explore the galaxy trying to expand the boundaries of our knowledge. And that is why I am here—not to conquer you with weapons or ideas, but to coexist and learn.

Kai Opaka:
Nine Orbs, like this one, have appeared in the skies over the past 10,000 years. The Cardassians took the others. You must find the Celestial Temple before they do.

Benjamin Sisko:
The Celestial Temple?

Kai Opaka:
Tradition says that the Orbs were sent by the Prophets to teach us. What we have learned has shaped our theology. The Cardassians will do anything to decipher their powers. If they discover the Celestial Temple, they could destroy it.

Benjamin Sisko:
What makes you think I can find your... temple?

Kai Opaka:
[gives Sisko the Orb Ark] This will help you.

Benjamin Sisko:
Kai Opaka, I—

Kai Opaka:
I can't unite my people until I know the Prophets have been warned. You will find the Temple. Not for Bajor, not for the Federation, but for your own pagh. It is quite simply, Commander, the journey you have always been destined to take.

Benjamin Sisko:
I have a son that I’m raising alone, Captain. This is not the ideal environment.

Jean Luc Picard:
Unfortunately, Starfleet officers do not always have the luxury to serve in an ideal environment.

Benjamin Sisko:
Commander, help me! Jennifer, hold on...

Bolian commander:
Sir...

Benjamin Sisko:
Just help me to get her free!

Bolian commander:
She’s gone. There’s nothing we can do. We have to leave. We have to go now, sir!

Benjamin Sisko:
Dammit, we just can’t leave her here!

Benjamin Sisko:
It won’t be so bad. I’ve heard that Bajor is a beautiful world.

Jake Sisko:
So why can’t we live on the planet instead of some old space station?

Vedek:
Welcome, Commander. Please enter. The Prophets await you.

Benjamin Sisko:
Another time, perhaps.

Vedek:
[Nods] Another time.

Miles O’Brien:
That’s the Prefect’s office up there.

Benjamin Sisko:
So all others have to look up with respect. Cardassian architecture.

Benjamin Sisko:
Is something bothering you, Major?

Kira Nerys:
You don’t want to ask me that, Commander.

Benjamin Sisko:
Why not?

Kira Nerys:
Because I have the bad habit of telling the truth, even when people don’t want to hear it.

Benjamin Sisko:
Perhaps I want to hear it.

Kira Nerys:
I don’t believe the Federation has any business being here.

Benjamin Sisko:
The provisional government disagrees with you.

Kira Nerys:
The provisional government and I don’t agree on a lot of things, which is probably why they sent me to this god-forsaken place. I have been fighting for Bajoran independence ever since I was old enough to pick up a phaser. We finally drive the Cardassians out, and what do our new leaders do? They call up the Federation and invite them right in!

Benjamin Sisko:
The Federation is only here to help—

Kira Nerys:
—help us, I know. The Cardassians said the same thing sixty years ago.

Benjamin Sisko:
That’s enough!

Odo:
Who the hell are you?

Kira Nerys:
Odo, this is our new Starfleet Commander.

Kira Nerys:
I suppose Starfleet officers aren’t used to getting their hands dirty.

Kira Nerys:
[to Sisko] This government will be gone in a week and so will you.

Quark:
I love the Bajorans. Such a deeply spiritual people, but they make a dreadful ale.

Kira Nerys:
Red alert. Shields up.

Miles O’Brien:
What shields?

Odo:
Doctor, most people, in my experience, wouldn’t know reason if it walked up and shook their hand.

Kira Nerys:
I am just a Bajoran who has been fighting a hopeless cause against the Cardassians all her life. So if you want a war, I’ll give you one!

Miles O’Brien:
Bloody Cardassians! I just got the damned thing fixed.

Julian Bashir:
So, where can someone practice with his phaser around here?

Odo:
I don’t know where I came from, no idea if there are any others like me. All my life, I’ve been forced to pass myself as one of you, always wondering who I really am.

Julian Bashir:
You know, some people say that you remained on DS9 as the eyes and ears of your fellow Cardassians.

Garak:
You don't say! Doctor, you're not intimating that I'm some sort of spy, are you?

Julian Bashir:
I wouldn't know, sir.

Garak:
Ah, an open mind. The essence of intellect.

Julian Bashir:
You’re very kind, Mister Garak.

Garak:
Oh, it’s just Garak. Plain, simple—

Bashir and Garak:
Garak.

Odo:
You can leave your weapons or leave the station. Please choose now.

B'Etor:
Who are you?

Odo:
The one giving you the choice.

Benjamin Sisko:
I suggest you get your priorities straight, Major, because I don’t have any room for divided loyalties in this command.

Benjamin Sisko:
In war, both sides commit atrocities.

Odo:
It sounds like you’re trying to talk yourself into something. Or out of something.

Kira Nerys:
Either way, I have to betray someone.

Odo:
The only important thing is not to betray yourself.

Kira Nerys:
How can I possibly turn against my own people?

Odo:
Are they? Your own people?

Kira Nerys:
They’re no different than I used to be.

Odo:
Used to be?

Benjamin Sisko:
[to Kira] Go over my head again, and I'll have yours on a platter.

Benjamin Sisko:
[to Dr. Bashir] I think, Doctor, that you could definitely use a new suit.

Odo:
I'll never understand the humanoid need to... couple.

Quark:
You've never "coupled"?

Odo:
I choose not to. Too many compromises. You want to watch the Karo-Net tournament, she wants to listen to music, so you compromise: you listen to music. You like Earth jazz, she prefers Klingon opera, so you compromise: you listen to Klingon opera. So here you were ready to have a nice night watching the Karo-net match, and you wind up spending an agonizing evening listening to Klingon opera.

Odo:
Killing your own clone is still murder.

Odo:
Laws change depending on who's making them, but justice is justice.

Benjamin Sisko:
[to Odo] If you can't work within the rules, I'll find someone who can.

Jadzia Dax:
Just sit comfortably and release your tension into my hands.

Julian Bashir:
Your hands—they're cold.

Jadzia Dax:
It's a peculiarity of the Trill.

Julian Bashir:
Cold hands, warm heart.

Jadzia Dax:
Concentrate on the sphere. Clear your mind. This requires focus and clarity of thought.

Julian Bashir:
I understand completely. What is that exotic scent you're wearing?

Jadzia Dax:
Focus and clarity of thought.

Quark:
Everyone wants a piece of the new frontier.

Odo:
And I'm sure you've already tried to sell it to a few of them.

Rom:
My son cannot learn anything from a female hu-mon teacher.

Benjamin Sisko:
I want you to know I don't personally believe that you're responsible for this.

Odo:
Really? Now, how can that be true? You don't know me. You have no reason to believe I wouldn't kill Ibudan if it suited my fancy, so don't tell me there isn't some doubt inside of you, some question about whether or not I murdered the man.

Benjamin Sisko:
[On Odo] Do not condemn this man because he is different than you are.

Jadzia Dax:
I forgot how different it was.

Kira Nerys:
How different what was?

Jadzia Dax:
Being female. I haven't been one for over eighty years. All this attention...

Kira Nerys:
I imagine it must take some getting used to.

Jadzia Dax:
Actually, I find it quite enjoyable.

Odo:
Unauthorized entry into crew quarters is a crime, Quark. You could have just asked to use the replicators.

Quark:
There's an old Ferengi saying: "Never ask when you can take." How did you figure it out?

Odo:
You claimed Rom fixed your replicators.

Quark:
So?

Odo:
Rom's an idiot. He couldn't fix a straw if it was bent.

Quark:
You're right, Rom is an idiot. Remind me to get rid of him tomorrow.

[Quark is yelling at an Aphasia victim]

Quark:
Food...Dabo...drinks...money...hand...mine...give!

Benjamin Sisko:
Well, Quark, I see even you couldn't weasel your way clear of this one.

Quark:
You underestimate the Ferengi immune system, Commander. I'm merely here visiting my less-fortunate customers to make sure they're not faking the illness to avoid paying their bills.

Benjamin Sisko:
No one could be that devious.

Quark:
I am. [To patient] You...gold...owe...ME!

Odo:
Quark, am I to believe that you're volunteering to help?

Quark:
Who said anything about volunteering? We can haggle over price later.

Miles O'Brien:
Hey, barkeep!

Quark:
Don't call me “barkeep”! I'm not a “barkeep”! I'm your host, the proprietor, a sympathetic ear to the wretched souls that pass through these portals.

Miles O'Brien:
And a man that will exploit any vice you may have. Two synthales, barkeep.

[Handing Odo a phaser]

Kira Nerys:
You may need this.

Odo:
Thanks, major. You know I never use them.

Tosk:
Die with honor, O'Brien.

Miles O'Brien:
Die with honor, Tosk.

Vash:
It's over, Q. I want you out of my life. You are arrogant, you're overbearing, and you think you know everything.

Q:
But I do know everything.

Vash:
That makes it even worse.

Q:
You hit me! Picard never hit me!

Benjamin Sisko:
I'm not Picard!

Q:
Indeed not. You’re much easier to provoke. How fortunate for me!

Odo:
I’ll never understand this obsession with accumulating material wealth. You spend your entire life plotting and scheming to acquire more and more possessions until your living areas are bursting with useless junk. Then you die, your relatives sell everything and start the cycle all over again.

Quark:
Remember, bid high and bid often.

Julian Bashir:
No sign of disease or malnutrition or parasitic infection.

Vash:
You sound disappointed.

Julian Bashir:
I am. Now I have no reason to keep you here.

Vash:
You're almost making me wish I wasn't feeling well.

Vash:
They weren't exactly thrilled to see you on Brax, either. What do they call you there? "The God of Lies"?

Q:
They meant it affectionately.

Q:
Do I know you?

O'Brien:
O'Brien, from the Enterprise.

Q:
Enterprise, ah yes! Weren't you one of the little people?

Q:
An abysmal place, Earth. A thousand years ago, it had character—Crusades, Spanish Inquisition, Watergate—now, it's just incredibly dull.

Benjamin Sisko:
[referring to Dax] He taught me to appreciate life in ways I'd never thought about before. He taught me about art and science and diplomacy. Whatever sense of honor I have today, he nurtured.

Madame Arbiter:
[referring to the extradition hearing proceedings] I intend to be here until supper, not senility.

Odo:
I have my eye on you, Quark.

Quark:
[Jadzia Dax walks by] And I have my eye on you, Jadzia.

Jake Sisko:
Dad, I'm fourteen.

Benjamin Sisko:
I'm glad we agree on something. Go to bed.

Benjamin Sisko:
Major, I gave you a direct order.

Kira Nerys:
Court-martial me.

Benjamin Sisko:
I can't. You're not in Starfleet.

Jadzia Dax:
If I were your superior officer, I'd court-martial both of you.

Chandra:
[chanting] Allamaraine, count to four. Allamaraine, then three more. Allamaraine, if you can see, Allamaraine, you'll come with me.

[Rom has returned a lost wallet]

Quark:
Have you forgotten the First Rule of Acquisition?

Rom:
No, brother.

Quark:
Then say it!

Rom:
"Once you have their money, you never give it back."

Quark:
The Sixth Rule of Acquisition expressly states—

Zek:
"Never allow family to stand in the way of opportunity." I certainly never have.

Nog:
The 9th Rule of Acquisition clearly states, "Opportunity plus instinct equals profit."

Kira:
When I was very small, I remember there was this tree right outside my window. It was the ugliest, most gnarled and battered old tree I'd ever seen. Even the birds stayed away from it.

Mullibok:
But you loved it.

Kira:
I hated it, because it had grown so huge, its branches blocked out the sun for kelipates, and its roots buried themselves so deep in the soil nothing else could grow there. It was a big, selfish, annoying—

Mullibok:
Nasty.

Kira:
Nasty! Nasty old tree.

Mullibok:
Sounds to me like it had a lot of character.

Kira:
[after a pause] A lot.

Odo:
Ladies and gentlemen and all androgynous creatures, please stop using your imaginations!

Kira Nerys:
Yellow alert? Against our own imaginations?

Julian Bashir:
She has a sense of humor, as I've always imagined you do.

Jadzia Dax:
I could use one about now.

Odo:
Madam, I am not like you! Every sixteen hours, I turn into a liquid!

Lwaxana Troi:
I can swim.

Odo:
Procreation does not require changing how you smell, or writing bad poetry, or sacrificing various plants to serve as tokens of affection!

[Mrs. Troi has lost a piece of jewelry and is accusing Quark of theft, grabbing his ears]

Quark:
Not my ear! Please!

Lwaxana Troi:
Yes, I know where it hurts the most, you little troll.

Lwaxana Troi (to Odo):
All the men I've known have needed to be shaped and molded and manipulated. Finally I've met a man who knows how to do it himself.

Lwaxana Troi:
What are you looking at?.

Odo:
Oh, I was just wondering how many volts are in that exposed socket.

[Bashir has been assigned to chaperone a trio of visiting diplomats]

Benjamin Sisko:
Cheer up, Doctor. If you do well, it could help your career.

Julian Bashir:
Another hour with them could destroy my career!

Benjamin Sisko:
It's a simple job—just keep them happy, and away from me.

Julian Bashir:
Simple? Nothing makes them happy! They are dedicated to being UN-happy, and to spreading that unhappiness wherever they go! They are the Ambassadors of Unhappy!

Benjamin Sisko:
All of us have had these assignments, Doctor.

Julian Bashir:
Have you, sir?

Benjamin Sisko:
As a matter of fact, Curzon Dax used to take perverse pleasure in assigning me to take care of VIP guests.

Julian Bashir:
Ah, and now you take the same perverse pleasure in doing it to me.

Benjamin Sisko:
Exactly.

[Bajoran survivors of a Cardassian labor camp have gathered on DS9]

Quark:
Who are they?

Odo:
Survivors of Gallitep. They arrived here this morning. They've come to see justice done.

Quark:
Gallitep... imagine living through that hellhole... the pain... the sorrow... Do you think they like to gamble?

[after being told that his war crimes tribunal is being prepared]

Gul Darhe'el:
War crimes? How can there be war crimes when there hasn't been a war? Oh, I can understand your wish that there had been a war. Your need to indulge some pathetic fantasy about brave Bajoran soldiers marching to honorable defeat, but in fact, Major, you and I know there was no war. No glory. Bajor didn't resist. It surrendered.

Kira Nerys:
The Bajorans were a peaceful people before you came. We offered no threat to you. We could never understand why you had to be so brutal.

Gul Darhe'el:
Well, we can't have that, Major. I want no more secrets between us. Anything you can't understand, I'll explain to you.

Gul Darhe'el:
I did what had to be done! My men understood that and that's why they loved me. I would order them to go out and kill Bajoran scum. And they would do it! They'd murder them! And they'd come back covered in blood, but they felt clean. Now why did they feel that way, Major? Because they were clean.

Kira:
You're Marritza, aren't you?

Gul Darhe'el:
You mistake me for that bug? That whimpering nothing? Ho-ho, you stupid Bajoran girl! Don't you know who I am? I'm your nemesis! I'm your nightmare! I'm the Butcher of Gallitep!

Kira:
The Butcher of Gallitep died six years ago. You're Aamin Marritza, his filing clerk.

Gul Darhe'el:
That's not true, I am alive! I will always be alive! It's Marritza who's dead! Marritza, who was good for nothing but cowering under his bunk and weeping like a woman! Who would, every night, cover his ears, because he couldn't bear to hear the screaming for mercy of the Bajorans…

[He breaks down and sinks onto his bunk, sobbing uncontrollably.]

Aamin Marritza:
I covered my ears every night. But I couldn't bear to hear those horrible screams. You have no idea what it's like to be a coward. To see these horrors… and do nothing. Marritza's dead. He deserves to be dead.[With a look of tragic sympathy, Kira deactivates his cell] What are you doing?

Kira:
I'm letting you go.

Aamin Marritza:
Security! Get in here! [Kira enters his cell and he backs away from her into a corner]

Kira:
You didn't commit those crimes, and you couldn't stop them. You were only one man.

Aamin Marritza:
No, no, don't you see? I have to be punished, we all have to be punished! Major, you have to go out there and tell them I'm Gul Dar'heel! It's the only way!

Kira:
Why are you doing this?

Aamin Marritza:
For Cardassia! Cardassia will only survive if it stands in front of Bajor and admits the truth! My trial will force Cardassia to acknowledge its guilt. And we're guilty, all of us! My death is necessary!

Kira:
What you're asking for is another murder. Enough good people have already died. I won't help kill another.

[Aamin Marritza has just been stabbed by Kainon on the promenade]

Kira:
[holding the rapidly dying Marritza] Why!?! He wasn't Darhe'el!

Kainon:
He was Cardassian! That's reason enough!

Kira:
No. No, it's not.

Kira Nerys:
But she's teaching a fundamentally different philosophy—

Keiko O'Brien:
I'm not teaching any "philosophy." What I'm trying to teach is pure science.

Kira Nerys:
Some might say pure science taught without a spiritual context is a philosophy, Mrs O'Brien.

Odo:
What do you know about the murder of Ensign Aquino?

Quark:
You wound me. All these years together, I thought you knew me. Odo, I am not a killer!

Odo:
No, but most of your friends are.

Quark:
True, and I would gladly sell one of them to you if I could. But unfortunately, none of them have taken credit for the death of the Starfleet officer.

Odo:
Keep your ears open.

Quark:
Are you kidding? That's the Seventh Rule of Acquisition.

Winn:
You live without a soul, Commander. You and your Federation exist in a universe of darkness and you would drag us in there with you. But we will not go.

Sisko:
You have just made your first mistake, Vedek.

Winn:
Have I?

Sisko:
The Bajorans who have lived with us on this station, who have worked with us for months, who helped us move this station to protect the wormhole, who joined us to explore the Gamma Quadrant, who have begun to build the future of Bajor with us—these people know that we are neither the enemy nor the devil. We don't always agree. We have some damn good fights, in fact. But we always come away from them with a little better understanding and appreciation of the other. You won't succeed here. The school will reopen. And when your rhetoric gets old, the Bajoran parents will bring their children back.

Kira:
Commander, I heard what you said to Vedek Winn at the school. I just wanted you to know you were right what you said about the Bajorans, at least about me. I don't think you're the devil.

Sisko:
Maybe we have made some progress after all.