Wow that was surprisingly gripping for a obituary style story. It made the Tekeny Ghemor character more interesting, because I personally think in the DS9 series, Tekeny Ghemor was one of the more weaker secondary (recurring) characters. His primary role was simply to develop Kira's character.

From a plot point of view I like it how Natima has overstated Ghemor's importance and popularity amongst other Cardassians. This is typical of obituaries trying to make the person in question more larger than life.

Of course one of real Cardassian 'heroes' was Damar, he went from Dukat's loyal right-hand man, to leader of Cardassia to freedom fighter. Without Damar the Cardassians would never have revolted against the Dominion in the final stages of the Dominion war. The Cardassians would have fought to the last man against the Federation, Klingons and Romulans.

Author's Response:

Thank you for reading. :-)

That scene with Sandhurst and Ramirez is sort of reminiscent to Sisko encountering Kira for the first time. Both Kira and Ramirez don't want to be in their respective posts, but I'm not sure how much Ramirez hates the Cardassians (so there the similarities end).

I'm glad to see we're off and not going to be bogged down with more crew or main character introductions. Even so I wonder if the Cardassians could really wage another war against the Federation giving that most of their planets were brutally attacked by the Dominion/Breen and most of their people slaughtered.

Also would the Romulans take such a hostile approach to managing their portion of Cardassian territory when there is the Federation between such territory and the Romulan Star Empire? Surely strategically the Romulans would be fools to cheese off the Federation and Klingons as there position in occupied Cardassian space could be so easily cut off...

Author's Response:

Ramirez definitely does not want to be aboard the ship.  She had her career mapped out, and this little detour wasn't on it.

'arclight shoulder-fired missiles' ; a rather cool little weaponry feature! Honestly the occupied Cardassian territories sound like Iraq or Afghanistan with insurgents lurking around everywhere, and numerous terrorist attacks. Very modern and rather clever I think in mimicking such topical features of the 2010's (war on terror and so forth) into your story.

I also like Sandhurst's down-to-Earth approach (very Sisko-like) and the fact there are more older faces in the senior crew. Too many times in Star Trek did the senior crew look young or too youthful; so your senior staff characters are a nice little break from Trek tradition...

Author's Response:

Indeed, Iraq and Afghanistan served as my inspiration behind the situation in post-war Cardassia.  A proud, militaristic people are not just going to roll over and accept Federation and Klingon 'supervision' without putting up a fight, despite the fact that crews such as those aboard Gibraltar and Sojourner are genuinely trying to help.

Ho ho! I didn't realise Lar’ragos was part of Guinan's race! That explains Lar'ragos' comments on serving as a soldier for some empire 400 years ago.

Author's Response:

Yes, Lar'ragos is a Listener of Guinan's El Aurian species.  He's quite a bit older than he appears, and a good deal more dangerous than he appears as well.

Urlak is insane. He really underestimates the Klingons in that they will probably wipe out most of the Cardassians given half the chance. Especially if the Cardassians fight back (which a few of them are). Urlak's strategy will probably mean the death of most surviving Cardassians. Urlak presumes the Federation and Klingons will go to war over Klingon atrocities. I think the Federation is just going to sit back so as to replenish its tactical assets. It will avoid a war at all costs, especially with the Klingons, and if a few million Cardassians are killed. Well I don't see the Federation taken some serious action to prevent such an extermination...

Question; just how many surviving Cardassians are there? Millions? Tens of millions? Hundreds of millions?

Author's Response:

There are billions of surviving Cardassians on Cardassia Prime, and millions more are still eeking out a living on their shattered colony worlds throughout the Union.

Hmm... Sandhurst pretending to be something he is not by actively engaging with his injured subordinates. Lar'ragos was right about captain's keeping a cool head and trying to sell it to the crew that everything will be alright. But I think Sandhurst should find his own style of command and just have more faith in his abilities; bonding with the crew can come later.

Author's Response:

Sandhurst's trying to find his own command persona under less-than-ideal circumstances, to be sure. Here's hoping he lives long enough to settle into one. ;-)

Cool! Starfleet TacNet, 24th century Facebook for Starfleet officers? A nice touching moment with Ramirez and Lar'ragos, I liked that lull after all the battle and death. Good to see Ramirez is not some obsessive arrogant prat looking for promotion and she has a heart and a conscience.

Really digged that village battle scene to. It was like something out of Indiana Jones or one of those action movies... Cool idea using hoverbikes; reminds me of the zoomers in the PS2 game Jak 2.

This was a good story that got into the meats and bones of the Allied occupation of the Cardassian Union. There was no dithering around at the beginning with introducing crew members, neither did you expand upon every main character which is a good thing as it leaves some mysteries, interest and questions for later stories.

That was one tight plot with twisted villains, dubious characters, heroes and learning-the-ropes captains (and more) all thrown in. You know how to write a good plot I'll give you that. I presume from this story the big three are Sandhurst, Ramirez and Lar'ragos. Nice work with Lar'ragos as I feel he is the strongest character of them all. A mixture of Guinan, Kira Nerys and Odo all lumped together. Guinan because Lar'ragos is El Aurian, Kira because Lar'ragos has been a soldier and committed some terrible things, and finally Odo because he's sort of like the outsider. He knows things and has had a long life. Lar'ragos is like the exact opposite of Guinan.

I feel sorry for the Cardassians though, they are really screwed and fighting back against the Federation and Klingons (especially those turtle-headed maniacs) is only going to send them further into misery, despair and great loss. Your Cardassian Union is literally like Germany post World War 2, except the Cardassians have one government however weak whereas the Germans had two: one for West Germany the other for East Germany.

For one snazzy plot, ballsy topics, interesting characters, cool features (and props like those hoverbikes), descriptive writing that left some images in my mind, bad-ass Klingons, Lar'ragos, moxy and intriguing politics, I give this story 4 and a half stars.

A good way to start off this series!

Author's Response:

I'm very pleased that this story was so well received by you. My intent was to show how complex and messy the situation in the Alpha Quadrant was immediately following the Dominion War, seen from the eyes of a Starfleet crew who were not the best and brightest.

These humans are just like today's humans. And that senator seems exactly like today's congressmen. I haven't watched TOS, but I knew Kirk was a womenizer of sorts, but in this story you take it to new levels. I don't know how you do it but you keep this story engaging... I like it man...

Cool way of introducing Khan, and throwing in Weyoun's name like that...

"Tark laughed appreciatively" isn't that a bit cold-blooded even for a Tellerite? Lar’ragos may seem paranoid but given his background he is sadly right: the Federation is vulnerable to attack by other aggressive species. But I think Lar'ragos underestimates the will of other Federation members to defend 'paradise' no matter what the cost.

It was clever of you to use a holodeck program to start the story; you had me fooled there for a moment! Mildly intriguing last scene; I presume it sets up the plot for this story. Some mad science experiment about to go wrong but some powerful (and shady) people/factions/groups have vested interests in it.

An interesting opener to your second Gibraltar story...

Author's Response:

Thanks, I'm glad you like it. This is a very different story from Embers, but one that reveals a great deal about many of the crew.

Sandhurst man, I still feeling he is tentatively learning how to be a captain. But a least he did the right thing letting Ramirez sort out Lar'ragos. Though I doubt she will get through to that grizzled, paranoid old wreck...

The parts involving the Temporal Investigations Agency were fun to read, somehow whether in film or book, temporal stuff (related or otherwise) always comes off as interesting to me. Nice little irony with that Past Prologue book; a book of the future about the past...

Author's Response:

Lar'ragos has lots of layers, as you'll soon discover... but grizzled, paranoid old wreck is not too far off the mark. ;)

"Sandhurst did a full rotation in his chair to assess the condition of the bridge and crew"

For some reason this conjures up to me an image of a man spinning around in his chair and it's so funny! The man goes round, swivels round; I just think it would look so comical!

This plot gets stranger you know, some kind of trapped energy being, that man in the last scene. You definitely have a flair for the surreal, makes a nice change from the almost non-stop action scenes.

Author's Response:

The action in the story ebbs and flows, but I like to think that it's surreal throughout! Thanks for the commentary. :)