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.

Rapture

Originally Appeared Here

Dad's working on a mystery when he gets an ancient painting
While Quark suggests some programs that would be more entertaining
Works out a reconstruction, like knees connected to a shin bone
Demanding answers from the obelisk like a Paradise Syndrome(1)
'Cause it contains the information of where they placed B'hala
Scrutinizing symbols like Kara Thrace with a mandala(2)
A surge shocks his synpases and affected his sight
And now it's like he never saw the sun shining so bright(3)
Uncovers the lost city, and he never felt so focused
Takes a turn for the worse- he prophesies a plague of locusts

"They'll come to do harm, and they'll come from the stars
They'll eat up your farms like the man from Mars
Then they'll go back up to space
To go off and hassle the Cardassian race"(4)

He can see it all stretched before him, hope it won't end the same way
As crossing the threshold and getting eft up like Janeway(5)
Walkin' with the prophets, side by side with Jeremiah(6)
I feel like all of this has happened before with Onaya(7)
When she was burning out my brain and I was in denial
Winn will ride him into the ground- remember Vedek Bariel(8)
They ask my advice, I have to think twice
I get to keep my dad, they keep the champagne on ice

1. In TOS's "The Paradise Syndrome", the Native American society is protected by a deflector shield controlled through an obelisk on the planet's surface. Kirk must figure out how to use it to save the people.
2. From Battlestar Galactica, the Eye of Jupiter was a symbol in a temple that appeared in the thoughts of Lt. Kara Thrace and helped guide the surviving humans to Earth.
3. From Irving Berlin's "Blue Skies", sung by Data in Star Trek: Nemesis
4. References the rap verse of Blondie's "Rapture", about a man from Mars eating cars, bars and guitars. Near the end, Debbie Harry raps, "And now he's gone back up to space where he won't have to hassle with the human race"
5. From Voyager's "Threshold", after breaking the Warp 10 barrier, Tom Paris sees all of the universe at once and has a revelatory moment akin to Captain Sisko in "Rapture". He later takes Captain Janeway in the Warp 10 shuttle, where they evolve into newt-like creatures. An eft is a baby newt.
6. Old Testament prophet.
7. Refers to "The Muse" where Onaya stimulates Jake's creativity, but at the price of overloading his brain.
8. Refers to the events of "Life Support", where Kai Winn pushes Vedek Bariel to complete the negotiations even as his health is failing.

Things Past

Originally Appeared Here

The way that Odo's lauded by Bajorans is impressive
But there's a secret in his past like the Enarans and regressives(1)
Cast his memory back to things past, and his predecessor Thrax
Now they're cleaning tables for Quark while Dukat talks to Dax
Calls 'em misbehaving children, setting off a bomb with a bang
Just one more paternal ruler in the line of Ramkhamhaeng(2)
Dad winds up in prison, but Dax has found the key to freedom
Askin' whether y'all don't know a jailbreak when you see one?(3)
Then they make a break and evade the station's armed guards
Only to awake back at the start like Peyton Farquhar(4)
They all turn to the constable and demand an explanation
'Cause at this point he should run security on the station
Truth will set you free unless your name is Simon Tarses(5)
But there's no strength from the sharing(6) or an iota of catharsis.
Doc says morphogenic enzymes, man, they must be the way
They could see inside his mind like he was Captain Boday(7)
Kira can't believe he'd just wash his hands like the Pilate(8)
Quickly close the case, just so he can stamp and file it
Let Cardassians make a mockery of justice like the Bluths(9)
Now he knows the First Duty(10) ain't to order, but the truth

1. From the Voyager episode "Remember", where the Enarans exterminated the Regressive minority and tried to cover it up.
2. Pho Khun Ram Khamhaeng ruled in what is now Thailand from 1278 to 1298. He introduced the concept of paternal rule when he ascended to the throne.
3. In Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, Scotty springs Kirk, Spock and McCoy, and greets them with this line.
4. From Ambrose Bierce's short story, An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge. A man believes he has escaped from his execution and returned to his family, only for it to be revealed these are his final thoughts in the moments before his hanging.
5. From TNG's "The Drumhead", Tarses is a young medical technician whose Romulan heritage is  uncovered in an unrelated inquiry and threatens to end his career.
6. Again from Star Trek V, Sybok invites a man to share his pain and gain strength from the sharing.
7. Frequently mentioned Gallamite captain with a transparent skull.
8. Refers to Pontius Pilate, the Roman prefect who authorized the execution of Jesus despite his own doubts about Jesus's guilt.
9. In the Arrested Development episode "Fakin' It", the Bluth family participates in a mock trial for patriarch George Sr.
10. From TNG's "The First Duty", Picard reminds Wesley that the first duty of every Starfleet officer is to the truth.

Trials and Tribble-ations

Originally Appeared Here

Picking up a strange passenger on a trip to Cardassia Prime
Sends them on an adventure when he activates the Orb of Time
Carried by chronitons, they quickly recover their cloak
See the Enterprise brought by Baris, thinking Priority One Is a Joke
'Cause He's acting on Fear of a Planet of Klingons(1)
A foothold in his sector and everything it would bring on
So paranoid he's afraid to even let Cyrano sell gems
Out here near the border, they're already close enough to smell them(2)
Maybe catch a whiff of lilac, or something earthy and peaty
While they compete for Sherman's Planet under the Organian Treaty(3)

Turns out Barry Waddle was an old Klingon agent
Harboring resentment from grievances ancient
Disowned by his empire, no acknowledgement written or verbal
Left in human form, worse than being cursed, Oh, to be a Blobel(4)
Traveled in his life to set wrong what once went right(5)
But my dad and his crew won't let it go without a fight
Me, I would've panicked if I had to put on a red shirt
And I hate temporal mechanics(6), it all makes my head hurt
Like inventing transparent aluminum just to hold some cetaceans(7)
Or meeting your own ancestor in a bit of predestination
O'Brien rolls his eyes, Bashir says he'll wish they had trysted
When the chief comes back to the present to find he never existed

Rendezvous with Worf and Odo in the bar on the station
While waitress wishes Klingons from a different generation
Would stop requesting raktajino 'cause she ain't ever heard of it
Korax compares humans to blood worms and other invertebrates
Calls out Captain Kirk as a Denebian slime devil
Thinking "Maybe Starfleet's top engineer will climb down to my level"
But Scotty don't care 'til his ship's reputation is tarnished
And he's told the whole thing should be hauled off as garbage
This kind of incident was against all Kirk's orders
Until they tell him the instigator, they're confined to their quarters
Just when the living legend can't approach any closer
O'Brien has to lie to his face and say "I don't know, sir"

But the situation grows urgent when new information is emergent
Explosives among the goods from an interstellar merchant
No calming effect, like the peace of mind you get from a swibble(8)
When there's a bomb, and you gotta check every last tribble
Their population's expanding according to an exponential law
Growing faster than the grains of rice at Ambalappuzha(9)
The find it in a storage bin where it's been gorging on the grain
Beaming into space in this case ain't inhumane(10)
Just one last item of business, not many times to meet a legend
At an important juncture in history like you were named Gary Seven(11)
But even humorless agents who can't seem to have a laugh
Admit they understand when dad went back for an autograph.

1. Refers to the Public Enemy song "911 is a Joke" on the album Fear of a Black Planet.
2. Quote from Chekov in the original episode
3. The terms under which Sherman's Planet is being developed were a result of the treaty which emerged from the episode "Errand of Mercy".
4. A reference to the Philip K. Dick story, "Oh, to be a Blobel", about a human who spends part of his days as an alien Blobel as a result of his time as a spy.
5. A reversal of the introduction to the show Quantum Leap, where Sam Beckett must "Put right what once went wrong".
6. A reference to the episode "Visionary", when Chief O'Brien has a confusing discussion with a temporally displaced version of himself.
7. In Star Trek IV, Scotty gives a man in the 20th century information on how to make transparent aluminum to build a whale tank. McCoy suggests he'll disrupt the timeline, and Scotty suggests the man may be the inventor.
8. From another Philip Dick story, "Service Call", swibbles are an artificially-evolved organism that subtly adjust people's minds to ensure they remain at peace with each other.
9. The legend concerning the Ambalappuzha Sri Krishna temple holds that the god Krishna, in the form of a sage, defeated the king in a game of chess. As a prize, he requested a grain of rice on one square of the chess board, and twice as many on the next square, and so on for every square of the board.
10. In the original episode, Kirk asks how Scotty has rid the ship of Tribbles, and is briefly concerned Scotty has beamed them into space. Scotty says this would be inhuman.
11. In "Assignment: Earth", the agent Gary Seven is sent to avert a nuclear holocaust on Earth.

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.