By Inferno's Light

Originally Appeared Here

No guard tower or stockades or electronic frontier(1)
But if you can't survive the elements, then you'd better stay in here
Like Kirk and McCoy getting stuck on Rura Penthe
But there's no Martia, Son of Mogh has Martok for a sensei
When Worf is forced into fighting like a thrall for Galt(2)
He'll mess 'em up like a Man Trap if they ain't worth their salt.(3)
Even as his ribs get tender, never give up, and never surrender(4)
Garak doesn't want to disappoint his mentor,
Or have his cowardice be what Klingons remember
Overcome his claustrophobia so they can all escape from capture
Rescued to their runabout, like they were raised up by the rapture
So they can all get back alive behind the Founder's plague of locusts
From when a dose of third-eye Retinax V(5) brought dad's future into focus(6)
Arriving back in time to reveal the doctor's fake
Man, I could've told them weeks ago if they only talked to Jake
Before he makes the star go nova, blow it up like Amorgosa(7)
Take the alpha to omega, flyin' through the sun like Dr. Reyga(8)
And defeat three fleets when he makes it burn so bright
It'll bring annihilation of the station by that inferno's light
Watch Defiant catch him in her tractor, Yukon explodes of the ship's bow
Armageddon will have to wait, there's no apocalypse now.(9)

1. First of a set of references in the opening lines to Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. This comes from the  commandant at the gulag Rura Penthe. While imprisoned there, Captain Kirk and Dr. McCoy are aided by the Chameloid Martia who educates them in the ways of the penal asteroid.
2. In TOS's "The Gamesters of Triskelion", the Providers force various alien 'thralls' to fight while they wager on the outcome. Galt serves as their master thrall.
3. The M-113 creature from "The Man Trap" killed humans to consume the salts in their bodies. "Worth one's salt" began as an expression in the Roman army, when soldiers were paid in salt.
4. Catch phrase from Tim Allen's character Jason Nesmith in the Star Trek parody Galaxy Quest.
5. 23rd century medication for presbyopia, mentioned in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
6. Refers to the events of "Rapture", when Captain Sisko had a vision of locusts over Bajor, which then set off for Cardassia.
7. First star destroyed by Dr. Soran in Star Trek: Generations with one of his trilitihium devices.
8. Ferengi scientist from TNG's "Suspicions". His metaphasic shields enabled ships to fly into a star's corona.
9. Refers to the 1979 film Apocalypse Now.

For the Uniform

Originally Appeared Here

He's harassing Cardassians, and getting bolder in his schemes
Says it's all because of colonists getting sold on a dream
Wipes out the memory banks because dad seeks his surrender
Tabula rasa(1) like Riker on Risa at the end of a week-long bender
Dad's so mad he goes off half-cocked on some wild-eyed adventure
Disobeying orders and risking Starfleet censure
Trying to predict, if you were him, where would you go?
Gleaning insight to his mind from a tale by Victor Hugo
Javert and Valjean chasing through the streets of Paris
Dad's never changing, he's like Chang, as constant as Polaris(2)
Figure out what he means when he's sending out a Breen rhyme
But there ain't enough time to catch him up above Quatal Prime
A choice to save lives or tracking intergalactic malefactors(3)
Captain gives the order to get the transport with the tractors
Like the Maquis are an infection, and he's the penicillin
If Eddington thinks he's Valjean, then it's time to be the villain
All the worlds in his way are where you don't wanna be
When he's determined like Sherman on a march to the sea(4)
The rebel relents, they've found Eddington's limit.(5)
Dax admits sometimes it's nice for the bad guy to win it.

1. Latin for "blank slate", the term was popularized by John Locke in the 17th century to describe the state of the human mind at birth.
2. In Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, General Chang quotes from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, "I am as constant as the Northern Star". The star Polaris is also known as the North Star because of its position in the sky and use in navigation.
3. From "The Forsaken", Lwaxana Troi refers to Odo's job as "tracking intergalactic malefactors"
4. The Savannah Campaign conducted by General William Tecumseh Sherman in 1864 targeted civillian infrastructure along with military targets, to destroy the Confederacy's capacity for warfare at a psychological, strategic and economic level.
5. The Eddington Limit (or Eddington Luminosity) is the point at which the outward radiation pressure will balance the inward gravitational attraction for an astrophysical body.

The Darkness and the Light

Originally Appeared Here

That's one, that's two, that's three, that's four
Someone's out to settle a score from the Cardassian war
Friends Furel and Lupaza recalls the way she impressed 'em
Young and eager to please just like poor Peter Preston(1)
A little resistance fighter with the heart of a sinoraptor(2)
But another raptor would describe the tactics of her captor
When he attacks from the side and lets the hologram distract her(3)

Complains that he lost half his face and all his inner monologue
And patiently explains it to the Major like a pedagogue
How his surgical precision makes him somehow less heartless
A terminator separating the light from the darkness(4)
A difference he thinks makes his executions legitimate
But Kira's heard enough and she won't have a bit of it
Innocence was an excuse, Cardassian guilt is indiscriminate

1. Montgomery Scott's nephew from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, described as "crazy to go into space". He is killed during the Enterprise's skirmish with Khan.
2. A fierce animal presumably native to Bajor
3. In Jurassic Park, the velociraptors are depicted hunting in pairs, with one providing a distraction while the other attacks from the side.
4. Refers both to the Arnold Schwarzenegger character who hunts down human targets and the terminator line that separates the night and day sides (the darkness and the light) on a planetary body.