Date: 07 May 2012 16:05 Title: Consequence
Nice look at a command gone wrong in the Dominion. It makes sense to me that the Dominion wouldn't want to just mindlessly slaughter its potential subjects. I also really loved the range of Vorta personalities in this, particularly Nalla.
Author's Response: Thanks! One of my complaints with DS9, which is still my favorite of the franchise, is how they only had two recurring Vorta: Weyoun and Keevan (on a technicality). It would have been great if they were able to bring back Eris; I'm helping compensate for that by featuring her extensively in my work.
Date: 05 May 2012 15:55 Title: Consequence
I get the sacrifice - Weyoun made Liska do the dirty work of removing Cerrein after he committed genocide on an innocent and defenseless civilization. What I don't get, is if everyone was so upset by it (Weyoun, Liska, the crew of the Devastator) why wasn't he held accountable for the crime? Why the lateral assignment, instead of a trial by a military tribunal?
Author's Response: This is in the early months of the Dominion War, when Weyoun and Dukat had to force smiles. They intended to keep Cerrein out of the way until after the end of hostilities and try him then.
Date: 04 May 2012 14:49 Title: Consequence
I was a tad confused as well (sorry!!), but reading what some of the others saw and your own statement, I did get the feeling that the Dominion only resorted to genocide when opposition was too great. In a sense, a very Borg-like attitude; assimilate or, in the face of resistance, destroy. In a war where even the Federation didn't hold back (resorting to allowing Sec. 31 to release the virus on the Founders that would amount to genocide as well), having to take the time to look at yourself (or your forces) and say "we CAN'T sacrifice who we are just to get the job done" would be just as big of a sacrifice. I definitely got the impression that Cerrein was a very capable (and absolutely atrocious) leader; having to pull him off the front lines in order to preserve whatever "honor" the Dominion had, even if it meant making their own forces weaker, definitely would be a blow to them. Sometimes, tying your own hands to save face is a necessary evil.
Author's Response: As you may recall, the Skrreea had already been enslaved. We don't know the particulars of the conflict between the Dominion and the Skrreea's oppressors, so for all we know, the Dominion intended to liberate them. But, unstoppable and invincible super-soldiers coming didn't send the right message across and so they panicked. One thing I want to do with my writing is show the Dominion is not inherently evil. As was said in background materials, they were intended to be the mirror image of the Federation. The Federation is bound by peace, the Dominion is bound by force. Initially. After that, they mostly let people do their own thing.
Date: 04 May 2012 13:42 Title: Consequence
For me, the sacrifice is of Liska taking Cerrein on even though she didn't want to, but I'm not so sure I see it as a sacrifice versus her just swallowing her orders and accepting them, even if they were distasteful to her.
Author's Response: In my initial writing, I was intending for it to be the Dominion effectively "avenging" the millions of Skrreea. Their extermination was so shocking that they were willing to pull one of their best field commanders off the front and essentially into a desk job as punishment, at least until the war was over.
Date: 04 May 2012 08:09 Title: Consequence
I am not sure I understood. Was Cerrein relieved of duty because he killed all Skrreeans? The Dominion wouldn't care about wiping out an entire race, and Liska's words that they were defenceless was even more confusing, since it's also not something I'd expect any Vorta or Jem'Hadar to be bothered by.
Was there any reason the Skrreeans were treated any different than any other solids? Was it because they were farmers and could produce food for everyone? Or the problem was that Cerrein didn't get any orders to do that and acted on his own, which was frowned upon?
Author's Response: In my opinion, the Dominion doesn't view genocide very well when it is conducted on a whim. An exception would be the Founder ordering the extermination of the Cardassians, since she is a god and was suffering from the morphagenic virus. The Founders view solids differently. The Vorta don't; after all, they're solids. I'll try to expand more on this later, but as I briefly mentioned, the Dominion attacked the T-Rogorans with the side goal of liberating the Skrreea. After all, a liberation would do well for propaganda. And yes, Cerrein did it on his own authority.