STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE
"THE ALLIANCE OF PLANETS"
A Story Treatment
by Clive G Molyneux - Original Concept
LOGLINE
Two compassionate scientists who befriended stranded Ferengi at Roswell in 1947 are abducted a decade later by the Briori, drift in stasis for 400 years, and are revived on Deep Space Nine — where they discover their 'little green men' have been waiting for them all along.
CANON FOUNDATION
This story is a direct sequel to two canonical episodes:
1. DS9 4x08 'Little Green Men' - Quark, Rom, Nog and Odo crash near Roswell, July 1947. They are helped by Nurse Faith Garland and Professor Jeff Carlson, an engaged couple who express a hopeful belief that humanity will one day join an 'Alliance of Planets.'
2. VOY 2x01 'The 37's' - Voyager discovers humans abducted from Earth in 1937 by the alien Briori for slave labour. The humans overthrew the Briori and founded their own colony.
THE PREMISE
It is 1958. Faith and Jeff Carlson are now married. Faith is still nursing, Jeff is teaching physics at New Mexico State. They have never told anyone the full truth about the three strange visitors they met in 1947.
While driving through the desert near the original crash site, they witness another light. This time it is not Ferengi. A Briori resource freighter, on a second, undocumented sweep of Earth for genetic stock, abducts them along with twelve others.
Midway through the Delta Quadrant, the freighter suffers a cascading warp-core containment failure. The Briori crew abandon ship, assuming their stasis cargo will perish. Automated systems keep a handful of pods alive, but one by one they fail over the centuries.
In 2372, the Federation science vessel USS Probert discovers the derelict freighter adrift near the Demilitarized Zone. Only two pods remain viable. The occupants are revived: Faith and Jeff Carlson, biologically 35 and 40, chronologically 425 years old.
Due to her unique temporal displacement status and psychological expertise, Dr. Bashir requests they be transferred to Deep Space Nine for rehabilitation under Starfleet's Temporal Displacement protocols. Starfleet Command agrees.
TREATMENT - A TWO-PART STRUCTURE
Part One: Ghosts
DS9 receives the Carlsons. The culture shock is immense and handled with care by Bashir and Dax. Faith is luminous, resilient, and clings to her 1947 idealism. Jeff is analytical, quietly terrified that his entire field of physics is now a museum exhibit. They are told Earth is fine, but everyone they ever knew is long dead.
Sisko orders Kira to give them a tour to orient them. They see the wormhole, the Promenade, dozens of alien species living together. Faith whispers, 'The Alliance... you did it.'
Kira brings them to Quark's for dinner. Quark is mid-scheme with a Klingon. Rom is fixing a replicator. Nog, now in his Starfleet uniform, is studying at the bar.
Faith stops dead. She recognizes them instantly despite 25 years of Ferengi aging.
The bar goes silent.
Part Two: The Alliance
The reunion is the heart of the story. Odo, who stowed away in Faith's medical bag in 1947 and remembers her kindness, confirms their identity with a security scan.
This creates three parallel arcs:
1. FAITH & QUARK (The Emotional Core): Faith remembers Quark as a frightened, greedy but ultimately vulnerable little man. She does not know he tried to sell Earth's future in 1947. Quark is flooded with shame - a rare emotion for him. She believed in him. She named her dream of the future after his accidental lie. He must decide whether to finally tell her the truth about who he was in 1947.
2. JEFF & ROM/NOG (The Intellectual Core): Jeff bonds with Rom, now a genius engineer. Rom shows Jeff that you don't have to be the smartest person in the room to build a future. Nog shows Jeff what Faith always saw - that the future belongs to those willing to reach for it. Jeff helps O'Brien and Rom decode the Briori freighter logs.
3. THE MYSTERY: Dax and O'Brien discover the Briori freighter didn't just malfunction - it was sabotaged. The ship's logs show the other 1958 abductees woke up during the voyage and staged a revolt, just like the 1937 abductees did. They damaged the ship to stop the Briori, knowing it would kill them. Faith and Jeff survived only because their pods were in the shielded aft section. Their fellow abductees were heroes.
The climax is not a battle, but a choice. With the Dominion threat growing, Starfleet offers the Carlsons asylum on Earth - a quiet, safe life in the 24th century. Or they can stay on DS9, at the frontier, and help. Faith, a nurse, immediately volunteers in the Infirmary. Jeff asks to teach history - 20th-century Earth history, which no one on DS9 really understands anymore.
They finally get to see the Alliance of Planets they dreamed of. And they get to become part of it.
SAMPLE DIALOGUE - Quark's Bar, That Night
[INT. QUARK'S BAR - NIGHT. Faith and Jeff enter. Quark freezes, lobes twitching. Rom drops a tray.]
FAITH: No... it can't be. Oh my lord...
QUARK: (recovering, slipping into his customer-service voice) Human! Welcome to Quark's! Quark's Bar, Grill, Gaming House and Holosuite Emporium - entirely -
FAITH: You have a little scar over your left eye. You got it when that soldier hit you. I cleaned it. You wouldn't let me use the antiseptic because you said humans poison their medicine.
[Beat. Quark stares.]
QUARK: (very quietly) Nurse Garland?
JEFF: Professor Carlson, actually. Jeff. You... you tried to buy my wife's engagement ring off me for two cases of... what was it? Aluminum?
ROM: It was a very good offer! Aluminum was very valuable in - in - (looks at Nog, terrified) - oh, brother!
NOG: (in Starfleet uniform, stepping forward, stunned) Mrs. Carlson? Mr. Carlson? You... you told me to... to reach for the stars. You said education was the way out.
FAITH: (tears now) Nog? Little Nog? Look at you. Look at you in that uniform. You did it.
QUARK: This is impossible. Impossible! Odo! Odo, this is some kind of shapeshifter trick to ruin me! Tell them!
ODO: (forming from a nearby stool) I can confirm their biosigns match the residual traces from 1947, Quark. And their story. They are the humans who showed us... undeserved compassion.
FAITH: (turning to Quark, smiling through tears) We never told anyone. They would have called us crazy. Jeff and I... we kept your secret for eleven years. And then...
QUARK: (genuinely lost, all his bluster gone) And then you were taken. Like we were. (A long pause) I... I never thought about you again after we left. That was... bad business.
THEMES FOR THE AUTHOR
1. Hope as a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Faith's naive phrase 'Alliance of Planets' helped inspire Nog, who joined Starfleet. Her dream literally created the future.
2. DS9's Core Theme - Redemption: Quark confronting who he was in 1947 vs who he is now.
3. The Lost Generation: What does it mean to be a refugee from time, not space? A very contemporary DS9 theme.
4. Canon Respect: No retconning. The Briori's second visit explains why Earth records show no more abductions after 1937 - the 1958 ship never returned.
AUTHOR'S NOTE
This treatment is offered freely for development. The originator is not a professional writer but has a deep love for Deep Space Nine's humanist storytelling. He welcomes any alterations that serve the characters. The core wish is to see Faith and Jeff get to see the future they believed in, and for Quark to finally pay his tab - emotionally.
