Sloan even considered using thalaron radiation as a means of beating back the Dominion? Ever Sloan is the luckiest individual in all of the Federation or he has always had a plan at any crisis and opportunity. I mean he risks his neck so many times, like boarding the Damocles and I wonder does Sloan have a plan B up his sleeve? Some kind of hidden transporter to take him back to a safe location, even if he was on the Damocles?

What a guy, he has a few screws loose, but what a guy.

Author's Response: Hee hee, yes Sloan was quite resourceful. This piece provides a tie-in between ST: Nemesis and "Inter Arma...", especially with the explanation of how Sloan got Koval, a man so vehemently against a wartime Federation-Romulan alliance, under his thumb.

Ah the good old chase scene in a grimy urban area, ala Star Trek style! And now it's time for Section 31's motives concerning Nimbus Three to be teased out in the next few chapters! It's really clever how you are going through all the relevant parties in such a roundabout way as the story linearly progresses. Very clever indeed!

I may not know much about Zeyner, but I really like the angst and bitterness between Zeyner and Ro. I would not even say it is soaplike but a legitimate grudge Ro holds against this dubious individual so here are two DS9R characters that I am starting to like!

Ezri though is still rather socially awkward but I'm not surprised given how she has returned to the station of her former host Jadzia, and for of her recent maturity, she can still come off as really timid, shy and cute at times and I like. You portray her innocence rather well and how there is still a lot of Ezri Tigan in this individual.

On a different note, I wonder just how far Sisko really will go to protect his family? Great scenes by the way! Concise and they deliver man!

Author's Response: Actually, Ro is from DS9-relaunch. Zeyner and Ro's relationship with him are not. And I'm glad enjoyed the scenes involving Ezri and Sisko. They were two of the more interesting characters during the final stretch of Season 7.

"He started wheezing to the point where the younger Klingon officer thought he would cough out his internal organs.

What a great description!

I must admit that Omega is incredibly ambitious tying together so many elements from DS9 (and even in places TNG and building up this mystery concerning Romulan, Klingon and Federation interests in the Alpha Quadrant, and in particular Nimbus Three. I have never read a story on your part which attempts to do so much, and each scene has a weight to it and has importance, yet I just you are going to pull it off!

This is like constructing a jigsaw puzzle going through each chapter, cross-referencing events which have come before and working out the bigger picture. So this is incredible and the set-up is just building and building and building!

Why do I get the feeling that Sisko's part in the tale is not quite over?

And now the stakes really have risen! Klingons being able to synthesize omega molecules? God help us all!

Nice reference by the way! Though you shouldn't have given out the clue! I would be more cooler that way!

While these flashbacks both answer some questions and raise other questions. I mean if there was a recording of this off-the-record conversation between Gelnon and Vreenak, why wasn't it used against Vreenak by the Romulan senators who wanted the Empire to side with the Federation/Klingon Alliance? It could have saved Sisko and Garak a great deal of effort!

Author's Response: Good question. On a similar note, Vreenak could have contacted the Senate right away saying the fraudulent recording was a fake? Perhaps he had hoped to blackmail Starfleet later on down the road. One possibility is that whoever recorded Vreenak and Gelnon could have chosen to expose Vreenak in small increments so as to prevent the true source from being revealed.

Wait a minute! I thought Verad wanted to cripple the station and not destroy it? Wouldn't those explosives breach the fusion reactor, causing it to overload and take out most of the station?

Author's Response: As I understand it, a fusion reactor isn't the same thing as a warp core. An overload the warp core where matter and anti-matter collide would definitely destroy a whole starship, but an explosive of a fusion in just the right spot could either destroy or only damage a space station (certainly blowing everything around it), not destroy it, since it's not based on matter-antimatter fusion. Hope that clarifies things.

I'm really getting sucked into the story now! Though one thing which caught my eye in this chapter is that you said Sisko believed Quark helped Verad the first time out of malice. Perhaps I misread that but I always thought Quark helped Verad board the station purely out of greed.

Other than little inconsistency this story has a very good feel about it and has a considerable amount of focus and pace whilst not sacrificing any important opportunities for character development. I also like that there is a lot going on so half the fun is just working out who's doing what and what all the parties concerned want!

Author's Response: You must've misread it. The statement was, "At least Quark was acting out of selfish desire to make a huge profit RATHER THAN out of malice..."

For his first time as a spy, Sisko is doing pretty well!

I'm really starting to warm up to this story. It feels like a feature-length episode of DS9 plus the DS9R elements feel more or less familiar to anyone who has repeated watched DS9 but never read the relaunch books. Plus the lack of any crazy mumbo-jumbo from the Prophets helps solidfy this stories DS9 feel.

And I must say with everything going on, this hast to be one of your most ambitious stories so I see why you like Omega so much.

Author's Response: Now that I think of it, yes, the Prophets involvement does complicate things a lot more. That doesn't mean I didn't approve of working them into the Dominion War, added extra conflict to Sisko in duel roles.

How does Vaughn do it? This guy is 101 years of age and he has such vitality!?! Is he an augment or something? How does this guy have the mental and physical faculties required of him to still be a Starfleet officer?

On a more humurous note, Jake with a goatee? I can't see it man I really can't! It wouldn't look right on him! But like father, like son...

Author's Response: I don't think the Treklit writers who had conceived of Elias Vaughn really gave it much thought. It's generally accepted that 24th century humans regularly live to 150. Other examples are a 90 year old human UFP president considered "middle-aged", Uhura and Chekov are semi-retired admirals at 130+, and Beverly Crusher able to become pregnant and give birth to a child with no noticeable genetic defects at age 57. That doesn't really explain how someone like Mark Jameson could be stricken with a degenerative neurological disorder in his 80's. Perhaps the Elias Vaughns and the Nan Baccos of the Trek universe have a genetic abnormality similar to that of Flint, that extends human life expectancy. In the case of Jake with a goatee, I guess you haven't recent photos of Cirroc Lofton. He's recently gone with the shaved head and goatee look, especially when he played Uhura's half-Vulcan son in the online fan film "Of Gods and Men".

This story is becoming more and more intriguing, and in true DS9 complexity there are sorts of characters involved even if it is a little hard to follow! Plus this story is set in DS9R's universe (two years in) a universe I have very little love for, but I'm enjoying this story none the less.