It's really good to see O'Brien again. I don't think he's appeared in anything since Worlds of DS9: Cardassia? Was somewhat surprised that Dax didn't even make an appearance (ultimately I think I might have preferred her and co. to Picard and co., but no biggie), but ah well; like Sisko and Robinson might end up being she and Aventine are pretty much "general universe show up when needed" characters. The DS9 "cast" as it stands now is a pretty fun mix of tv show (O'Brien, Bashir, Nog, Quark), "first wave" novels (Ro, Prynn, Treir, Cenn) and "second wave" novels (Blackmer, Stinson, Slane, Candlewood, and I'm counting Sarina here). Plus of course whatever role the Siskos play but it sounds like they're leaving Bajor more or less. Now if only we knew what was up with plain, simple Garak...