Worlds of Deep Space Nine Volume One
Cardassia: The Lotus Flower
Una McCormack
Publication Date: June 2004
Timeline: December 2376
Unity represents a natural breaking point in the DS9 relaunch novels. Forthcoming stories in this series spin off in different directions, featuring increasingly new and diverse characters on various worlds. As a result, we’re doing away with the review sections used in the prior entries of this reread and transitioning to a looser model going forward. I’ll provide a brief plot synopsis, jump right in to my overall thoughts, single out a few memorable character beats or lines at the end, and conclude with an “orb factor” rating.
Progress: The Lotus Flower takes up the Keiko-O’Brien relaunch thread. At the end of Unity, Keiko had accepted a job offer from the Interstellar Agricultural Aid Commission to head the botany team charged with planet renewal, a job which she described to Miles as involving “crops, season patterning, new irrigation systems, everything.” Eight weeks later, in a story introduced through the lens of the journalists Teris Juze and Lamerat Anjen, we catch up with Keiko to discover that while she has indeed helped with several scientific advances designed to stimulate Cardassian crop cultivation in the Andak region, her work’s future depends on political winds blowing in a certain direction. She has established a solid camaraderie with another top-notch scientist, a geologist named Feric, who also happens to be a member of the Oralian Way, a movement that we’ve seen gaining traction over the last few books in this series. Yet there’s resistance to this religious activity: Tela Maleren, who applied for the directorship of the Andak project but was passed up in favor of Keiko, believes that the Oralian Way should not be permitted its public rituals, and she ominously cautions Keiko: “You are serving neither yourself nor the project if you ignore this.”
Keiko’s also feeling anxious because of Vedek Yevir Linjarin’s impending visit. While Keiko and Yevir don’t have any significant backstory, Keiko is understandably upset that Yevir called for Kira’s Attainder. There’s more at stake than just personal feelings, too: the Andak project is in need of funding. While the Castellan of the Cardassian Union (basically, their head of government), Alon Ghemor, has staked significant capital in getting these funds to Andak, the Directorate representative and former gul Merak Entor is heavily opposed to it, pushing instead for the Setekh Project. Miles travels to the capital to give the S.C.E’s endorsement of Andak, while trying to stay out of the political crosshairs. As he observes:
Unfortunately, it wasn’t just a question of may the best project win. There was a whole host of political agendas surrounding this decision, some of them to be explicitly aired in these sessions, some of them remaining very strictly implicit.
Traditional political jockeying soon takes a backseat, though, as a young girl named Nyra (Tela’s daughter) threatens to detonate a bomb strapped to her body if her demands aren’t met: namely, the removal of Ghemor’s government, the outlawing of the practices of the Oralian Way, and the swift departure of all aliens from Cardassian soil.
Through a complicated series of maneuvers featuring Garak, Gul Macet, Mev Jartek (an advisor to Ghemor), and Korven (once heavily involved with the True Way), we learn that Nyra is in fact being used as a tool by the True Way. In an unexpected but convincingly developed turn, Yevir is able to diffuse the situation with Nyra. Garak’s behind-the-scenes machinations, worthy of the best Cardassian enigma tales, ensure that other players, including Entor, are appropriately dealt with, and we learn that the true engineer behind this situation was Jartek.
The crisis causes Keiko and Miles to re-evaluate whether it’s worth remaining on Cardassia, given the potential dangers for their children Molly and Yoshi, but they ultimately decide to stay. Keiko, in particular, inspired by Yevir’s conversation with Nyra, finds herself compelled by an ethical imperative: “It would be irresponsible to leave. Do you understand what I mean? That it wouldn’t be right for us to sit back and do nothing, when there’s so much that needs to be done.”
Behind the lines: This is McCormack’s first published novel, but it’s written with the assured hand and deft touches of a pro. From the very start, it’s clear that McCormack enjoys description, and is good at it (“The mountains were shot through with black rock, which would glitter when hit by the harsh Cardassian sun, sending sudden sharp shards of light over the base and the settlement.”) This is a particularly relevant narrative asset for this story, set on an alien—and heavily damaged—world, and makes it more immersive.
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Another strong point is the character development. Even when shadowy Cardassian motivations are left deliberately unclear, the tensions arising from those motivations are palpable, and the ensuing conflicts keep us engaged. The relationship between Keiko and Miles is well handled, the insights we receive into the reconstruction of Cardassia and its nascent democratic ways are interesting, and everyone feels grounded. McCormack’s work on Garak is probably the standout element here, as she finds just the right voice, striking a delicate balance between the cryptic Garak we knew on the series and the fuller portrait Andrew J. Robinson gave us in A Stitch in Time. The Garak-Miles interactions, though brief, are excellent, and are probably best summed up by this line: “You, Miles,” Garak murmured, “are just an engineer in exactly the same way that I am just a tailor.”
Side characters are also delightful. Doctor Naithe, for instance, an endlessly talkative Bolian reminiscent of TNG’s barber Mot, doesn’t need many lines to leave a favorable impression. And while Yevir has appeared in a number of relaunch novels, and my initial response to him was clearly negative, the way he uses his experiences on occupied Bajor to connect with Nyra on a basic humanistic (I know, they’re both aliens) level here not only adds great dimension to his character, but invites me to reconsider my stance.
I also appreciate that our main point-of-view character is Keiko, rather than Miles, because that honors S. D. Perry’s approach in the previous book. Also, frankly, at this point Keiko is a more compelling character than Miles. She is experiencing growth, really coming into her own with a career that channels her passion. McCormack nicely summarizes her life journey thus far, and with this passage unlocks the novel’s title:
Keiko was not able to settle to her satisfaction the matter of what she should do with her life until she found herself taken out on a school field trip. She had not been looking forward to the event, suspecting it would be hot (it was the middle of a very humid summer), and that it would leave her so tired it would ruin the rest of her week. She sat and sweltered bad-temperedly for most of the afternoon, until an exasperated teacher (and Keiko understood more of the frustrations of teachers these days) lost patience, and demanded an essay on the life cycle of the lotus.
Thus begins a sequence of events that eventually lead us here. I mentioned description before, and I want to remark that this image of the lotus is a beautiful link with Keiko’s healing work to restore nature and promote agriculture on the scorched Cardassia, melding the physical with the spiritual. Her relationship with Miles is also strengthened by these events. He has an adrenaline-spiked moment in which his fear and frustration find an easy target (“Miles stared at Jartek—at the ridges on his face, at the strange and alien skin—and loathed him, and all of Cardassia with him”). Throughout the pages that follow we sense his struggle, and the complexity of his emotions, which harken all the way back to “The Wounded” (“It’s not you I hate, Cardassian. I hate what I became because of you.”) In the end he’s able to calm himself, see reason, and live up to his best self, which not only makes him a better person, but a better partner to Keiko.
Thematically, the novel concerns itself with the process of adapting to change, and wrestling with feeling like an outsider. These themes manifest in many ways: religious tolerance in the Oralian Way subplot, attachment to an idealized past in the Traditional Way conspiracy plot, how a culture or set of beliefs may affect one’s children (Keiko and Miles’s, specifically, but also Nyra), even Miles’s adjustment of the home temperature regulators to try and make Keiko more comfortable. Early on, Keiko realizes that her purpose on Cardassia is more than increasing precipitation levels: “Keiko had known even before she’d set foot here that a large part of her job at Andak would be making the staff come together not just as a team, but as a community.” By the novel’s end, she’s taken firm steps on that path.
One of the stylistic differences, I think, between this novel and McCormack’s most recent work, is that over time she has become more skilled at dramatizing conflict and creating interesting externalized scenes, rather than peppering external occurrences into extended interior monologues. As a result, her newer material has a better sense of flow, with smoother transitions between points of view, and clearer scene-setting, elements which at times can feel forced or a bit clumsy here. Also, while the emotional arcs reach satisfying conclusions, the plot is resolved with an almost-deus ex machina that raises as many questions as it answers.
Those are minor setbacks, however, and this novel is a solid start to the Worlds of Deep Space Nine mini-series.
Memorable beats: Unsurprisingly, the best lines go to Garak. To wit:
“What a fate! At my time of life, to be reduced to upholding democracy.”
And while we’re on the subject:
“The trouble with democracy,” Garak murmured into Miles’s ear, “is that it takes up too many mornings.”
The following acerbic reflection is pure latinum:
“In Garak’s extended and not always entirely enthusiastic experience, the Federation seemed to specialize in saying one thing and doing another. One might almost call it their Prime Directive.”
It’s not all cynicism, though. Garak gives a Picard-worthy speech at the end:
“…[W]hen it comes down to it, what matters is that we won through negotiation. We didn’t win using the same tactics as the True Way were trying. We didn’t win through resorting to violence.”
Given the 24th century’s generally utopian depiction across the various Trek series, it was nice to see Keiko reflecting on a challenge that wouldn’t be solved by a post-scarcity society, in the process making her that much more relatable to us:
For quite some time in her otherwise ordered youth, one thing had troubled Keiko, had disrupted the sense of definiteness that she preferred. For a long time, longer than she generally admitted, Keiko had had no idea what it was she wanted to do.
Orb factor: A powerful setup with intriguing character dynamics and a somewhat anticlimactic resolution earns this one 8 orbs.
In our next installment: We’ll be taking on the second novel in Worlds of Deep Space Nine: Volume One, Heather Jarman’s Andor: Paradigm, in this space on March Wednesday 4th!
Alvaro is a Hugo- and Locus-award finalist who has published some forty stories in professional magazines and anthologies, as well as over a hundred essays, reviews, and interviews. Nag him @AZinosAmaro.
While this was Una’s first novel, she has since gone on to be one of the best Trek novelists ever. Her first Trek work was a year prior to this, a brilliant Kira-Garak-Damar story in the waning days of the Dominion War for the anthology Prophecy and Change. She’s just amazing.
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
@1:
Yeah, I remember reading “Face Value” back when that anthology was first released. It’s still my favorite story of the bunch and I remember hoping that McCormack would come back for more literary outings because of how well she captured the Cardassian culture and voice.
Heh, I got my wish, didn’t I?
(Actually, I’ve joked more than once with friends about how she’s captured Garak’s voice. Heh, she’s done is so well that I’m still half-convinced Andrew Robinson is ghostwriting his old character’s scenes).
Prophecy and Change was a really strong anthology, and I’m not just saying that because I had a story in it (though I’m quite pleased with “Broken Oaths”). Definitely a must-read for any Niner, IMO, as much due to its bringing Una’s brilliance to the fore as anything.
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
I didn’t realise this was Una McCormack’s first work and had actually forgotten this was even hers, but it does of course make perfect sense, given that she would soon become established as the relaunch novels’ Cardassian writer and, perhaps more so, Garak writer. (Also, one of the few people to have written professionally both Doctor Who and Star Trek fiction: I’ve only just found out she wrote her first professional Who fiction, a short story in Doctor Who Magazine, in 1993, fifteen years before her second.) The True Way, behinds things here, had a couple of offhand mentions in Season 4 of DS9 but get turned into something more than the fringe group they appeared to be on screen.
And yes, the rehabilitation of Yevir, introduced as an apparent religious extremist at the front of this relaunch, is completed here. I’m not sure if we’ve seen him since, but if we haven’t it’s a good note to go out on.
For the record, I’m also one of the few people to have written professionally both Doctor Who and Star Trek fiction as well — I had a short story in Decalog 3: Consequences in 1996 and in Short Trips: Destination Prague in 2007. I also edited Short Trips: The Quality of Leadership, which had stories by Una, Peter David, Diane Duane, James Swallow, Terri Osborne, and John S. Drew.
—Keith R.A. DeCandido, who has been watching Doctor Who since he was eight
@krad: I’ve stayed away from them, but there are perturbations in the ether about Doctor Who’s episode this weekend. One fan said something about leaks and that it may trigger internet rage on the order of Last Jedi.
@5: I had completely forgotten that, but the moment you said it I thought “Ooh, was that the Fourth Doctor and older Brigadier in the US story?” So you share something with Steven Moffat, who also had his first professional Doctor Who fiction in that collection! (I’m afraid I really didn’t keep up on the Big Finish Short Trips collections, although I may move onto them now I’m running out of other things to collect…)
@6: Whilst I rather enjoyed the first part, I am approaching the finale with some trepidation, anticipating an internet meltdown and cries of “Not true Doctor Who!” if it goes the way it might do.
–Michael J Billinghurst, who has been watching Doctor Who since he was two. (No idea about Star Trek. Maybe eight?)
At first, I found this to be rather small-scale, an oddly quiet and low-stakes story to launch a whole new miniseries with. One might have expected a big blow-out ‘season premiere’ to begin the next arc. But that would have been the predictable path to take, and the DS9-R always revelled in doing the unexpected when it came to the format of its stories (a duology, a thematic-crossover miniseries, a plot-crossover miniseries, a short story collection, a tetralogy, a single-character off-screen adventure, a hardcover, and now a non-linear novella anthology).
Also, I do enjoy the exploration of how politics and the media interact and influence and manipulate each other (still sadly timely 15 years later), and the unexpected wacky team-up of Garak, O’Brien, Yevir and Macet to tackle this problem is definitely worth the money.
May I ask, do you intend on reviewing the additional stories I mentioned last time – the two DS9 stories from the Captain’s Table and Mirror Universe anthologies, and the three SCE crossovers? They do fit into this point of the timeline and help to set up later stories in the arc.
Not sure what the policy is on spoilers for yet-to-be-reviewed stories, so just in case, SPOILERS from this point:
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The big themes of ‘season 9’ are: A – the mistakes of the past coming back to haunt you in the present, B – related, and similar: how things might have gone differently, and C – being alone is not good for you. These are all here in this story.
All the past history of Cardassia comes into play – the Oralians, the military domination, the deal with the Dominion, even Garak’s past as an OO agent. More specifically, there’s a reminder of how convoluted Cardassian plots can be, which comes into play with Iliana’s extremely complex plot later on.
There’s a moment where Garak – an ex Obsidian Order agent – interrogates someone in silhouette, the light almost hiding their identity. This reflects forward to the moment where Iliana – also an ex Obsidian Order agent – does the same thing in “Fragments and Omens.” Garak also idly wonders if OO prisoners were just abandoned in the old facilities – turns out they were, as revealed in “Warpath”.
There’s also the very simple motif of somebody grabbing someone else by the throat to threaten them, which seems to pop up oddly frequently. Here it is O’Brien and Jartek.
One accusation against the WoDS9 stories has been a sense of repetitiveness – all the stories involve tension between conservative versus progressive forces in government. Obviously that can only be a deliberate example of my theme A – do we allow the past to define us, or do we redefine ourselves in the now in response to our current circumstances? And that applies both on a global scale, with all the cultures in some level of upheaval, and on a personal scale, with all the various break-ups and get-togethers and near-misses.
On a purely structural level, I also like how all six novellas tell their stories by featuring one native of the planet in question so that they can give the exposition regarding that planet’s culture, paired with one visitor to the planet who can ask the necessary questions. Here of course that is Garak and O’Brien.
Finally, I have written a follow-up to this story that fills in some of the gap between “The Lotus Flower” and Andrew Robinson’s own “The Calling”. It is called “The Dream Box” (title stolen from Andrew Robinson’s own Garak play), and it can be found here: DS9 Continuing 10×06 “The Dream Box”