In the security office, Quark converses with his cellmate: Sakonna. He argues that the Maquis position is illogical. Citing the Third Rule of Acquisition (“Never spend more for an acquisition than you have to.”), he makes the case that, as neither side currently has a clear advantage, peace can be had for a “bargain price.”

She is swayed by Quark’s logic and informs Sisko that the Maquis plan to attack a secret Cardassian weapons depot within the next two days. Armed with this information, Dukat sets about determining the specific location of the weapons depot while Sisko tries yet again to talk some sense into the Maquis. Only Dukat succeeds.

The station crew takes a trip of runabouts – the Rio Grande, Mekong, and Orinoco – to intercept the Maquis at the depot. Despite finding themselves on opposite sides, neither Sisko nor Hudson actually wants to hurt the other, so when the battle does commence, the Starfleet runabouts and Maquis fighters alike focus their fire on secondary systems (though Dukat would rather shoot to kill). Eventually, though every ship is disabled save for Hudson’s fighter and Sisko’s runabout. The two fight to a standstill and Hudson begins to retreat.

As he does so, Sisko pleads with his friend to return to Starfleet, but to no avail. Much to Dukat’s frustration, Sisko refuses to kill a good man for defending his home. Later, Sisko has been receiving considerable praise from Starfleet for preserving the peace but to him, it’s a hollow victory. He can’t help but wonder if he has prevented a war or merely delayed the inevitable.

Did you like the first part? If so, then you’ll probably like the second. In contrast to the “Who blew up the Bok’Nor?” plot from last time, ‘The Maquis, Part II’ is a more straightforward “Stop the terrorists!” affair. Though this is ‘Deep Space Nine’ so it’s more like a “Team up with a longstanding antagonist to stop the morally ambiguous terrorists!” story. It’s a story that works in shades of grey, and that was always where ‘Deep Space Nine’ did its best work.

And at long last, that brings us to that big turning point I’ve been teasing. It’s Sisko’s speech to Kira after his incredibly pointless meeting with Nechayev, the “It’s easy to be a saint in paradise” monologue. As with ‘Next Generation’ before it, it’s common to say that ‘Deep Space Nine’ didn’t really “get good” until its third season. And, this being Berman-era ‘Star Trek’, that’s not inaccurate. But in a big, big way, that speech marks the point at which ‘Deep Space Nine’ started to become ‘Deep Space Nine’.

It’s telling that Ira Behr had been trying to work a line to that effect into his ‘Star Trek’ work since his days on ‘Next Generation’. Thanks to the fact that ‘Deep Space Nine’ was, in its day, often the red-headed stepchild of the franchise, it was here that he was finally able to get away with casting this more critical eye on the utopia that Gene Roddenberry had envisioned. And that willingness to step across the boundaries that constrained more traditional ‘Star Trek’ show stories would, in turn, shape the direction of the show for the remainder of its run. It’s a big part of what makes ‘Deep Space Nine’ stand out from the pack, even twenty tears after the fact. Without this scene in ‘The Maquis’, we may never have gotten episodes like ‘In The Pale Moonlight’ or the ‘Homefront’/’Paradise Lost’ two parter.

What do you think of ‘The Maquis, Part II’? Let us know in the comments and be sure to check back in two weeks for the next ‘Final Frontier Friday’!