Broken Link

Originally Appeared Here

Gowron's rattlin' the sabre and claiming Archanis
Acting reckless with his empire in a way that is heinous
Can't think about it now, 'cause the Constable's infected
And he'll be left as a liquid if it goes uncorrected
They can't use the transporter but he'll manage to walk
Have Garak regale him with stories like Fred Savage and Falk(1)
'Cause if there's one area where he excels, he says it's conversation
The tales that he tells will keep Odo's mind off his situation
The distraction's enough to ensure that he stays alive
Until he links with a founder and his condition is stabilized
Garak asks for a word once she's done helping Odo,
Is told the Cardassian race will be as dead as the dodo
That threat must be why he can justify genocide
Drop death from above while dad and the doctor are planet-side
Nuke it from orbit-it's the only way to be sure(2)
Says they've been afforded a chance to avert a whole war
Winds up disappointed when Worf won't support his vengeance
While down on the surface they wait for the sentence
There isn't any precedent, like ape has never killed ape(3)
They come up with the punishment- he'll be stuck in his shape
But they leave him his face, a mark he'll carry like Cain(4)
Say killing him would be kinder, but that's what they mean by "To the Pain"(5)
At least a little good may have come from his encounter
'Cause in the link he learned they've swapped Gowron for a Founder

1. From The Princess Bride, which uses the framing device of the grandfather (Peter Falk) telling the story to his ill grandson (Fred Savage)
2. From Ellen Ripley in Aliens, outlining the most thorough way to deal with the aliens that have taken over the colony.
3. From Battle For the Planet of the Apes, where "Ape must never kill ape" is the most sacred law of the new ape society, and what they believe separates them from the barbaric humans.
4. The Mark of Cain comes from the Book of Genesis, after Cain is punished for murdering his brother.
5. Again from The Princess Bride, when Westley is devising a punishment for Prince Humperdink and threatens to disfigure him, but leave his ears to remind him of what he has lost.

The Quickening

Originally Appeared Here

If you think you can take me, well homey I Got news
If you ever bet against me, you'll owe me some quatloos(1)
Like Bashir believing nothing's beyond his abilities
Even without the use of the station's facilities
But he didn't imagine it would be so depressing
That people would say the blight is a blessing
And the way they meet death without delay is distressing
Get treatment from Trevean, but he's not giving medicine
Just ritualized suicide like my man Doctor Timicin(2)
He thinks he can help, but it makes a more Horrid scene
When one of his patients stops responding to cordrazine(3)
The mutation is triggered by medical devices
Emitting radiation, and it seems like the price is
A lot of people have to die just for him to get educated
Maybe should've hesitated, he charged ahead instead of waited
Reduced to search for a cure with stone knives and bearskins(4)
Ask Trevean why it takes so many lives but it spares him
It's left him viewing death with strange sense of worship
Like Klingons with honor or Ferengi entrepreneurship
But even the most defeated finds cause for euphoria,
A beacon of hope in the baby boy from Ekoria
While everyone celebrates, Julian's leaving that scene
'Cause he wants a true cure and not just a vaccine

1. Currency from TOS's "The Gamesters of Triskelion", used in wagers on drill-thrall fights.
2. In TNG's "Half a Life", Kaelon scientist Timicin is forced to comply with his planet's custom of "Resolution", ritual suicide at age sixty instituted to combat overpopulation.
3. Cordrazine is a chemical stimulant used by Starfleet doctors in emergency medical procedures, including Dr. Bashir in "The Quickening" and Dr. McCoy in "The City on the Edge of Forever"
4. In "The City On the Edge of Forever", Spock referred to the 20th century equipment he was using to interface with his tricorder as "Stone knives and bearskins".

The Muse

Originally Appeared Here

Too many hours watching incoming traffic will bore me
Until I'm offered help for an autobiographical story
See, I know it comes as quite a shock
But sometimes I still get writer's block
And I'm left like Homer beseeching the muse(1)
Or apes before tools(2), she can teach me to use
The pen I hold so I can write my magnum opus
Another Nightingale Woman like Tarbolde on canopus(3)
I think we make a good team like Geordi and Bochra(4)
With me writing the words and her aligning the chakras
I put it to paper and soon I'm writing my novel
Words flowing out, I'm over the moon like Jim Lovell(5)
Sitting in a tin can, far above my old space station(6)
From my window it looked like (7)I could see all of creation
But when she's gone I'm powerless, a temple-less Apollo(8)
And after touching the sky, you know the world can seem so hollow(9)
Recreating a holodeck Camelot, you know it's only a model(10)
Or Moriarty thinking he's an astronaut in a ship in a bottle(11)
I got stories stuck inside, a trill with a worm in me
My muse materializes, we bust out of the infirmary
So I can work on it in secret, like a Cardassian fleet in Orias(12)
But who will mourn for Adonais(13), when I wasn't warned about Onaya's
Talent for drawing power from my brain like a Devidian
Consuming a life force with a cane of form ophidian(14)
Tapping neural nodes in a plexus, I know that it's reckless,
but when I'm on a roll I feel wrapped up in joy like the Nexus(15)
Or Lwaxana longing for the contentment of the womb
But if I can't change course soon, I'll be sent to the tomb
Burn out too quickly, I'll shine and then go dark
Can't last like a light made by a man in Menlo Park(16)
I'm caught in her web, and she's pushing me too hard
I'll be a roman candle exploding like a spider 'cross the stars
And the people call me Sal Paradise 'cause I'm on top of the beats(17)
Turns out she's the same parasite that was droppin' John Keats(18)
Isn't worth my life, the price ain't right, glad my dad's rescue came along
'Cause the candle that burns twice as bright only lasts for half as long(19)
About to fly myself apart, Sulu overdriving the Excelsior(20)
Maybe I'll go back the start and keep on writing when I'm healthier

1. Different English translations of The Odyssey begin with, "Tell me, o Muse, ..." or some variation thereof.
2. Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey begins with the sequence "The Dawn of Man", where apes first discover the use of tools after touching the monolith.
3. Tarbolde was an author from Canopus planet, whom Onaya claims to have known. His poem "Nightingale Woman" was referenced in "Where No Man Has Gone Before".
4. In TNG's "The Enemy", the Romulan centurion Bochra is stranded on Galorndon Core with Geordi LaForge. Bochra is unable to walk, and Geordi is unable to see, so they must work together to survive.
5. James Lovell was the commander of the Apollo 13 mission, which orbited the moon but did not land. The command module was named Odyssey.
6. From the lyrics to David Bowie's "Space Oddity", "Here am I sitting in a tin can far above the world"
7. The first sentence of the draft of Anslem shown in the episode begins, "From my window, it looked like the ..."
8. The Greek god Apollo was set as the leader of the muses. He appeared in the TOS epsiode "Who Mourns For Adonais?" where his god-like powers were explained as arising from an energy field within his temple. When the temple was destroyed, his powers began to fade.
9. From the TOS episode, "For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky"
10. Dax and Kira are setting off to enjoy a holosuite program set in Camelot. The line, "It's only a model" comes from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
11. From TNG's "Ship in a Bottle", Professor Moriarty, aware of his existence as a holographic fantasy character, demands to be set free. He believes it has been granted, when he is in fact left exploring a larger holodeck program.
12. Star-system in Cardassian space where the Obsidian Order was building a fleet in preparation for an invasion of the Gamma quadrant in a joint operation with the Tal Shiar.
13. From the aforementioned TOS episode, it comes from Percy Bysshe Shelley's "Adonaïs", written as an elegy for John Keats, mentioned later in the verse.
14. In TNG's "Time's Arrow", the Devidians were a race that fed off of humans' neural energy. They used a snake-like creature to open vortices in the spacetime continuum.
15. From Guinan's description of the Nexus in Star Trek: Generations.
16. Thomas Edison, credited as the inventor of the light bulb, had his laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey. 
17. The preceding line comes from Sal Paradise in Jack Kerouac's On the Road, a defining work of the beat generation.
18. Onaya lists John Keats among the artists she help stimulate at the cost of shortening his life.
19. Quote from Lao Tzu in the Tao Te Ching, later used in Blade Runner by Eldon Tyrell.
20. From Star Trek VI, when Sulu is racing to help Kirk and the Enterprise at Khitomer.