End the Maquis storyline your way(RAR)

[FaxModem1]

Congratulations, by Act of Q, you get to write some Star Trek. Specifically, you get to write the end of the Maquis in season 5 of DS9. For the Uniform has already been written and shot, and they are working on 'In Purgatory's Shadow/By Inferno's Light' is in the middle of shooting. They can completely take out the line about Dukat having the Dominion wipe out the Maquis.

So, how would you utilize the Maquis? Write it your way. While a proper crossover with Voyager is unlikely, if you can pitch it to Rick Berman and he approves, it MIGHT happen.

Your only stipulations are, appease Ira Stephen Behr, the Maquis storyline has to end, the writers are juggling too many balls, and one way or another, they need to end that thread.

From Memory Alpha:

Ira Steven Behr decided to end the Michael Eddington/Maquis story arc because he felt that there were too many open threads leading into the sixth season, and he wanted to get some closure on at least one of them. Behr explains, "We were just desperate to finish something off. We had to finish a thread. It was necessary. We just had so many things. So I told them, 'We are going to end something and then not hear about it again'!" Indeed, Behr wanted to officially kill off every single member of the Maquis, but Rick Berman wouldn't allow him to do this in case Voyager wanted to use them at some stage in the future. As far as the Deep Space Nine writers were concerned however, the Maquis story arc was over. (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion)

So, what do you change about the Maquis, and the DS9 greater storyline with them?

EDIT: Corrected Behr's last name.

[Solauren]

Pretty much how things went, except this time, there was a real threat by the Marqi, and they launch an attack on the Dominion. Starfleet has to help stop the attack, ending up helping the Dominion deal with the Marqi. The end result is a battle between several Dominion ships against a large rag-tag Marqi fleet, that includes stolen/captured Cardassian, Klingon, (etc) ships, with the Defiant watching. The dominion ships rip the Marqi apart, further showing just how dangerous they are.

There is a Dominion observer on the Defiant (possibly Weyon, possibly the female changeling), and they comment on how foolish the Marqi resistant was, depsite seeiming to outnumber the Dominion ships. "Imagine what we can do with the fleets we still have in the Gamma Qaudrant"

[Sea Skimmer]

If the story line could be altered earlier it would have been a lot better if Bajor had been more effectively allied with the Maquis or the Ferengi or Breen became involved as arms dealers to both, instead of the former being made into cartoon and the later only appearing in handful of episodes. The whole series was predicated on the idea of DS9 being located at a nexus of civilizations...but that was never played up as much as it could have, even when the Klingons suddenly appeared. The show decided to have a big simple war instead of plots like that.

The Maquis story line was already pretty dumb by the point it was killed, I think simply having them end in one sentence was a pretty good call, because it was plausible and because the character delivering it had reason to downplay the Maquis's accomplishment, leaving something to the imagination. Some interesting characters at times, but the whole idea of them actually operating in direct combat against the Cardassians, while starfleet was actively conspiring against them for years no less, was just too implausible to withstand any scrutiny.

I guess if they did have say, Klingon medium scale warships as direct aid like Solauren suggests, it could be different but we never get indications of this. And the Federation would have had no choice within it's stated (rather stupid) peace policy but to take action against that.

I suppose it also depends on just how much of Space Arab Army you think the Cardassians were.

[Tribble]

Hmmmmmm

One of the things that bugged me about the original version was that it turned out the Maquis were absolutely right. During the entire Maquis arc the Federation had been claiming that the colonists still fell under Federation jurisdiction and that they were still looking out for their best interests, yet in the end the Federation was willing to stand by and do nothing while all of the colonists were slaughtered. Yes yes this things do happen, it could have been for the greater good, its typical behaviour from the Federation etc but I was kind of hoping that there would come a time when even the Federation drew a line in the sand and stood up for the colonists.

So in my version, the wiping out of the Maquis would play a major role in kicking off the Dominion War. Dukat kicks the Klingons out of Cardassian space. After that he goes to wipe out the Maquis and the colonies, and the Federation warns him that if the tries there will be war. Naturally Dukat ignores the warnings and attacks the colonies anyways, and the Federation declares war since even the idiots in charge know that one is investable anyways, and they might as well take a principled stand and declare war now before more Dominion ships come through. The Federation loses the battle to protect the colonies, but at least they tried rather than do nothing. In the meantime the Defiant and Co work out a way to mine the wormhole. Dukat finishes slaughtering the Maquis, rushes over the DS9, has his battle and captures it, but not before the minefield is closed. Events more or less continue as they were (though I would ax the stupid pahwrath plot).

[FedRebel]

The Maquis actually manage to carve out an effectual nation site by completely clearing out Cardassian presence in a few sectors, their fleet uses 'lend lease' Klingon ships, captured Cardassian hulls, their staple raider, and a few stolen/defected starfleet hulls.

"we had the Cardassians on the run"...."and they ran right into the arms of the Dominion."

the presence of stolen/defected starfleet hulls in the Maquis Armada puts the Federation in a sticky situation, the Dominion are telling the Cardassians that the Maquis was a deliberate Federation insurgency to break their people...and internationally the Dominion are posturing a war starfleet isn't ready for.

The Federation has to 'break' the Maquis and show they aren't backing the rogue state. A dilema surfaces at the climax, if starfleet succeeds they buy time at the cost of losing strategic advantages free Maquis space provides and losing the faith of border colonies at a time where the federation needs there fidelity more than ever. If Starfleet does nothing, the Dominion WILL go to war NOW, Minos Corva will be the first to fall, it's still several months before Starfleet's fleet reorganization and buildup will be complete, there's no way reinforcements could arrive before the Dominion entrenches themselves...and without Minos Corva, Starfleet defense of 3 sectors is compromised.

So our heroes have to aid Cardasian/Dominion ships that come under Maquis attack, but not out of "goody, goody". Sisko is trying to force the Maquis to risk a false flag op using their stolen/defected starfleet ships, they take the bait and a small task force lead by Sisko destroys the Maquis false flag fleet in full view of the Dominion. War is averted, silver lining is the battle leads the Dominion into a strategic reevaluation (meaning that when war does come they're not 100% as well), sour spot is that Maquis survivors are under the "tender" care of the Dominion...as are Maquis holdings.

Post war/Voyager aspect: What's 'left' of the Maquis was granted sovereignty by the Alliance as an apology....and the near extinction of the Cardassians by the Dominion + the sour spot where the Cardies cheered in the subjugation and atrocities of Maquis population....they ain't in position to argue. The Maquis crew on Voyager via the Pathfinder communications find that they have choices, repatriate to the Federation or join the 'Free Maquis Republic' where their experiences will go far. sticky point would be that Maquis-Federation relations aren't the coziest for obvious reasons.