... Are you seriously telling me the Ascendants story line is to be the "Noodle Incident" of Trek Lit? No detail spoilers after the end of Soul Key, please, I'm working my way to Destiny and Typhon Pact. But from what spoilage I've already read, all I'm going to get on the Ascendants is "FOUR YEARS LATER" and "some stuff also happened" without any clarification. What the frak?? Is this true? So like, what, the new editor at Pocket Books just up and decided I don't really need to know what happens in the b'hava'el system between 2377 and 2381?
The official line (AFAIR) was that they did it to bring all the "modern era" series in line with each other, to avoid DS9 being "left behind" and enable the characters to be used in crossovers more easily (it's difficult to establish a storyline for the "present" and use the same characters in the "future" without risking serious mess-ups in continuity). I'm sure one of the authors will be along shortly to give a more in-depth answer than I'm capable of, though. They can always go back and fill in the blanks... whether they will or not is another story.
I am desperately waiting for someone to at least give us some flashbacks on this story. An antholgy showing stories from the entire missing era would be my dream.
It definitely should be told, as once of the recent David R. George III mentions that the Ascendants left trail of destruction between Bajor and Cardassia.
I’ve recently started working my way through the DS9 relaunch, about halfway through Abyss, and I was wondering if anyone could tell me how big a part of the series the ascendants storyline is? Is it a minor subplot or is it the main arc that runs through the books? Im just a bit apprehensive about investing time in a story that may have no ending.
It's neither. The DS9 novels are like the series in that they had multiple story arcs developing side by side. What could be a minor thread in one episode/book could become central in another and then be secondary again in the one after that. But what we got of the Ascendants arc in the novels was really more setup than anything else. It was a side element while other stuff was going on, or a secondary factor in that other stuff, building toward some future book where it came to the fore. Think of how the Dominion was handled in season 2 of the show. But we never actually got to the book(s) where the story became central. The main focus of the books we got was on other story arcs.
It was a lot of set up that, thus far has had no resolution other than "some really cool stuff happened but we decided it was more important to have all these multi-series crossovers so DS9 just sort of skipped over it. Trust us, it was really, really cool."
Cynical me says: sounds about right. But I don't know if it'll be completely glossed over. Otherwise, wasn't it in... Spoiler: Rough Beasts of Empire RBoE that an Ascendant appeared on Bajor with Kira as a member of the Bajoran religion? So it makes me think it's not going to be completely dropped, but rather will form Lost-esque foundation for flashbooks in the DS9 books. But who knows.
Yeah - could someone post a precis of the whole storyline ? I remember something about the changelings creator dying and them being involved but it's been a good many years since I read this...
^ A basic summary : The Ascendants worship the wormhole aliens, which they apparently know as "the True". The True dwell in a hidden fortress and watch with eyes of fire (implicitly, referring to the wormhole and the orbs). The Ascendants are supposedly on a quest to find the fortress and unite with their gods, whereupon they'll be judged. In their link to the wormhole aliens they're like the Bajorans and the Eav'oq (a pacifist race introduced also in the DS9 relaunch books), but unlike those two cultures they're violent zealots; long ago they cleansed whole worlds of blasphemy against the True. The surviving Eav'oq were hidden in subspace, to protect them from Ascendant purges. But the Ascendants are widely dispersed and their numbers have dwindled; there are few of them now. They rely on their advanced technology where once they possessed great numbers. They became legend in the Gamma Quadrant, but are apparently remassing as of 2376/77. Opaka met one whose scout ship crashed on the prison moon where we left her in DS9 season 1. This Ascendant, named Raiq, disabled the satelite network and the nanotech, freeing Opaka and the trapped tribesmen and letting them survive off of the moon. Odo started investigating the Ascendants, because they're apparently a threat to the Dominion. The Ascendants blew up a star with a subspace weapon, killing the Progenitor Changeling and causing the Great Link to dissolve itself in shame at their failure. Apparently, the Ascendants also attacked Dominion space in some other capacity. While Kira Nerys, now "the Hand of the Prophets", was unconscious in the infirmiry, she experienced an extended vision in which she and the rest of the Bajorans (and the DS9 crew) defended the Eav'oq and the fortress from an overwhelming Ascendant assault. More foreshadowing for a coming conflict. Following the Mirror Universe crisis, Iliana Ghemor was deposited by the wormhole aliens at an Ascendant conclave, declaring herself "the Fire". Kira is "the Hand", as mentioned, Mirror Universe Iliana Ghemor is "the Voice". The Ascendants are massing still. By 2381, the conflict has apparently passed - Raiq is studying under Vedek Kira on Bajor.
So, in other words, we basically got the first 3 chapters of a 30 chapter book, kind of like a sampler, and then someone just said
Didn't they also kidnap (off-page) Sisko's kid and that is why she needs a bodyguard or am I mixing that up with another storyline?
Yeah, it was extremists or something. Kind of a throwaway line when Sisko is reflecting on recent years in RBoE (IIRC).
Ohalavaru extremists, if I recall. Not part of the Ascendant storyline, but one of a series of events (along with the Ascendant storyline) that led to Sisko's state of depression as seen in Rough Beasts. .
You see, it turned out the Ascendents were some pretty cool dudes. They ended up throwing the craziest party on Deep Space Nine -- a party so crazy most of the details are now highly classified. Some of the known highlights include: *Miles O'Brien throwing out his shoulder while break dancing. (Yes, Miles was at the party. It was that crazy.) *Worf made out with the subjectively hottest of the ascendant female warriors *The "Kira Trio" regaled the party goers with their renditions of the pop songs of the day At the end of the party they all agreed to do it again in a decade's time.