I remember listening to the creator of this episode say that he based the concept off of nineteenth century naval tradition wherein appointment of an acting Captain once established couldn't be overturned by a visiting officer not directly in the ships Chain of Command designed therefore to attack movies and shows like Star Wars A New Hope wherein a bunch of amateurs who were barely trained defeated a massive amount of trained professionals... That said your reality based version of how the episode should go is much more satisfying to a reader of military fiction...

You will hardly read it after so long, but still: what excellent writing!

I would have loved to see this included in the "Valiant" episode. That was one of the saddest eps I've seen-I'm sure things like that do happen in war, too. They were all *so young*! But I hadn't realized Nog outranked all of them-thanks for pointing that out! Great post-ep fic, you have a good ear for dialogue and the styles of Sisko, Dax, Worf, and Nog. Excellent all round, IMHO.

Overall, this is a wonderful effort. Your characterizations of Sisko, Worf, Dax, and Nog are quite on the money. I can actually visualize the scene being filmed, and that is a very good accomplishment.

As good as this is, there is one small thing about this scene which gnaws at me a little - the lack of concern for Nog's "charge", Jake Sisko. Considering how Benjamin cares for his son, and how Nog, despite his friendship with Jake, still placed him directly him harm's way, was not addressed. I am quite sure Ben would have more than a few words for Nog concerning that one small factor in Nog's decision-making process.

Still, however, this is a nice body work.

Wow, wow, wow. Um, yeah, that's all I can really say. You did a really great job at capturing the characters, especially Captain Sisko. His final words strike deep.

Thanks for writing this and giving me another way to think about this great episode!