whatever happened to the changling's on Earth

[mr friendly guy]

From the episode Paradise lost and the preceding episode homefront.

Basically Starfleet elements sabotage Earth's power stations and blame it on the Changlings in an attempt to implement martial law. During the episode Homefront Odo manages to detect a changling but he manages to escape. The changling visits Sisko in Paradise Lost disguised as O'Brien and tells Sisko that there are mainly 4 changlings on Earth not counting Odo.

So whatever happened to those 4 changlings throughout the series. Was there any mention of them afterwards?

[Gandalf]

I think Behr or Moore once mentioned that they were still running around sabotaging things, but it was all off screen.

[SeaTrooper]

Would they not have been infected with the virus created at the command of Section 31? Once they began showing visible symptoms (rotting away on the outside), then they should have been identified and picked up in fairly quick order. Unless, of course, they'd escaped Earth by then.

Perhaps there are even Conspiracy Theorists within the Fed claiming that Section 31 has a couple of captive Founders in a secret lab somewhere...

[Gandalf]

Would they not have been infected with the virus created at the command of Section 31? Once they began showing visible symptoms (rotting away on the outside), then they should have been identified and picked up in fairly quick order. Unless, of course, they'd escaped Earth by then.

No. Odo was infected during Homefront, when the changelings were wreaking their havoc.

It wouldn't reach the rest of the link until he next linked with them.

[mr friendly guy]

Well he did link with one of the Changlings in Homefront. Assuming he had already been infected then that Changling would have been as well. Its possible that one could have spread to the other three, however if what Gandalf says is correct, it most likely didn't happen.

[SeaTrooper]

Ok, then that leaves us back at the original post. DS9 ends without hearing anything more of the 4 Founders reported to be acting within the Fed, and I don't remember this being mentioned at all in Voy. So... any more ideas what happened to them?

I've also got to question the number that would have been sent. Odo was told 4, but the Founder taboo against killing each other does not extend to lying. 4 seems either too many for a basic sabotage operation, and way too few if they meant to collect intel from more than just SF. How did they get their reports out? Where did they spend their regeneration cycles? Who watched over them while they were in a bucket somewhere?

Frankly, so long as noone knew they were even there, I'd think them fairly safe to conduct a purely intel-collection mission. But once they'd attracted the kind of attention seen in Homefront, especially with so many freaking Betazoids roaming around with (apparently) no compunctions about invading people's mental privacy, then I suspect their 'sabotage' mission was complete. The Psych Warfare angle of having Changlings roaming around within your cities only works so long as you can't find them, so these Founders should have done a bunk.

[Kythnos]

But once they'd attracted the kind of attention seen in Homefront, especially with so many freaking Betazoids roaming around with (apparently) no compunctions about invading people's mental privacy, then I suspect their 'sabotage' mission was complete. The Psych Warfare angle of having Changlings roaming around within your cities only works so long as you can't find them, so these Founders should have done a bunk.

It is funny you should bring up the "Psych Warfare angle" in Star Trek EU the goal of the Dominion was not completely the conquest of the alpha quadrant. Their main goal was to eliminated the telepathic races that could detected them, allowing them to replace the leaders with their own agents. They Conquered Betazed, in the early drafts destroyed with an orbital bombardment. Infected the Vulcans with some bio-weapon. Even attacked Talos IV, if the early script for Nemesis is true that is where B4 was found. If all these attacks succeed then you could make a good case that they won the war.

[SeaTrooper]

It is funny you should bring up the "Psych Warfare angle" in Star Trek EU the goal of the Dominion was not completely the conquest of the alpha quadrant. Their main goal was to eliminated the telepathic races that could detected them, allowing them to replace the leaders with their own agents. They Conquered Betazed, in the early drafts destroyed with an orbital bombardment. Infected the Vulcans with some bio-weapon. Even attacked Talos IV, if the early script for Nemesis is true that is where B4 was found. If all these attacks succeed then you could make a good case that they won the war.

Yup, I was thinking of that invasion when writing my previous post. Taking out the Betazoids had to be a primary objective, so NOT vaping them from orbit never really made sense. As shown in DS9, the Dominion weren't conducting a genocidal slaughter, thereby leaving us with trying to find some other reason why they bothered invading that world in the first place. Hell, I'd thought it a strategic decision, with the Dom intending to use that world as a stepping-stone for further offensives.

I hadn't heard about the Vulcans or Talos IV, but such attacks would naturally follow. Bio-weapon attacks against Fed members would also justify Section31s anti-Founder virus as a 'measured retaliation', rather than the bloody-minded escalation I'd always thought it to be. A tit-for-tat response, instead of the apparent act of genocide that never really gelled with the Fed's own enlightened self-image.