Re: Typhon Pact: Zero Sum Game Review thread
2. The forced relocation of the Baku? No.
Interesting note...we only have Vaughn's belief that 31 was behind it.
1. No, we have the fact that Vaughn had obtained control of the Holoship from Section 31, so his "belief" is backed up by physical evidence.
2. Vaughn is an expert on Section 31; he's authoritative. If he says they did it, they did it.
It's worth noting that the good then-Commander didn't even address that Dougherty was acting on orders from the COUNCIL--which Riker confirmed with his "top-level review" line.
I only remember Admiral Dougherty
claiming to be acting on orders from the Federation Council. To what line of Riker's are you referring?
My guess is that in his own obsession with taking The Bureau down...he made a similar stretch of the imagination as Julian, who claimed that 31 was responsible for the New Bejing Massacre--just because he saw a photo of Agent Cole on Dr. Lockeman's desk. (Note that Cole had seemed genuinely unsure as to whether the Bureau had even known about the planned attack.)
And now you're creatively re-interpreting authorial intent about what Section 31 did or did not do in order to make them less morally objectionable.
The conclusion that Section 31 arranged the New Beijing Massacre may not hold up in a court of law, but it's a completely reasonable hypothesis -- 'cause, really, the idea that a high-ranking Section 31 operative would just
happen to be on New Beijing, trying to recruit a genetically engineered doctor into the Bureau, when the one thing that finally drives that doctor to join Thirty-One finally happens -- and event that was completely unexpected -- just
happens to occur, is beyond implausible.
Bashir's murders have a gratuitous quality to them that completely contradicts his character as established in the series.
Well, yeah, that's the
point of the novel: That Bashir has allowed his feelings for Sarina (and, indeed, his loneliness prior to her return to his life) to drive him to do things he would never otherwise do in order to "earn" her love. That he is betraying himself because of his need for love.
Zero Sum Game is the story of how a man allows himself to become corrupted.
His actions are at exactly the same level as Section 31's: making 'tough decisions' just because one can, not because these decisions are necessary.
No. There's still the fact that Bashir's actions were undertaken within the context of the Federation's social contract. He acted on orders from the democratically-elected Federation government, and remained accountable to Federation authorities. Section 31, by contrast, is accountable to no one and operates outside of the social contract.
julian doesnt even know her. how long did they "date"? a week? tops.
I seem to remember "Chrysalis" spanning at least a month or two. Which, no, is not enough time for a reasonable person to conclude that she's his One True Love Who Was Meant To Be -- but, there again, I don't think Julian was in an emotionally stable frame of mind when the story began.
And to be fair, emotionally traumatic events -- such as the events of this novel -- can drive people to enter relationships with much more emotional intensity than they normally would.
I'd have to look back at the book, but didn't Julian think the people in the command center were soldiers? Don't we only find out they're unarmed scientists and engineers from the point of view of the Breen designer?
That was the impression I got.
And, frankly, I'm not entirely persuaded there's a moral difference between blowing up a shipyard full of unarmed civilians and shooting a few.
But either way, I got the impression that Julian honestly didn't know that the guys in the command center were unarmed when he did the deed -- he just went in and shot them before he had enough time to actually assess the situation (and before any of them had the chance to alert security).
Becoming an intelligence operative, I'm not surprised she'd have evolved a persona consistent with the real life Faith Salie, which was likely Mack's intent.
I hadn't realized that the actress who played Sarina had had such a successful career -- thanks for that tip-off!
Bacco is well-written again. When Mack writes her, it’s clearly the same character as KRAD gave us. She’s not an imposter, it’s recognisably Bacco.
You know, I read that and thought that President Bacco seemed a bit different this time around. She seemed much darker, much more cynical than we've previously seen her. "How do we spin this for the media?," "I've got to bullshit the Federation Council," etc. Whereas in
Articles of the Federation, she'd seemed much more upbeat and idealistic.
There again, one could probably argue that she's never had to issue any truly morally ambiguous orders before. Throughout
Articles of the Federation, her options were never really immoral -- she was consistently able to take actions that were morally unobjectionable. Same thing in
Destiny -- even when she offered a blanket pardon if Picard committed any crimes in defeating the Borg, the situation was so desperate that it's understandable.
But her orders here are much darker, much more
realpolitik, so to speak. She has to know that giving the order to destroy the Breen prototype will almost inevitably lead to the deaths of civilians and innocent people -- yet, believing that the costs of not issuing such an order would be greater, she does it anyway. She's in a much darker position than she was in in prior novels.
Section 31 again? Ugh... unnecessary. Could have done without that little bit at the end.
"Again?" It's been
years since they played a prominent role in a novel other than in the ENT Relaunch. And it's been almost a
decade since the
Star Trek: Section 31 miniseries set things up for a confrontation between Section 31 and Our Heroes in DS9, VOY, TNG, etc., which still hasn't happened yet.
I'd argue it's not so much, "Section 31? Again?" as it is, "Section 31? About time!"
I know they broke off their romance in the DS9 relaunch, but if I remember correctly, they were still on good terms with one another.
You're remembering incorrectly. They broke up in
Trill: Unjoined and it was very awkward and uncomfortable between them afterwords.
His feelings for Sarina were deeper than those for Ezri? Meh... I don't buy it.
I do. His feelings for Ezri always had more to do with his feelings for Jadzia than for the woman he was actually with.
But I personally saw that part of the scene in terms of Dax's annoyance with Bashir's inability to move on with his life. Whether its repeating descriptions given of the newly joined Ezri Dax when describing the current Ezri Dax (and worse, given by another woman who he doesn't seem to realize might have changed or grown in the years since that moment), or whether it's more "playing spy like you did before", it seemed to me that what annoyed Dax was the sense that Bashir was still trapped in his old mindsets. She had moved on and changed, as had everyone else...except Bashir.
) while actually camping out on the far side of the line. Bacco won't do a Zife, but has she misjudged her ability to walk the line effectively? 
). By which I mean he’s bold, takes the initiative, and potentially causes headaches for the government and observers back home. He seems to have been set up here as Dax's enemy counterpart; how large a role is he going to play, then? 
