It annoys me how a common trope on Star Trek is ‘tee hee, I’m a workaholic, I have twenty stardates of leave saved up because I never take a break’ and that’s supposed to be something we admire. Take a holiday, idiot. Especially if you’re the boss. Set a fucking example. It’s the future now and you’re better than this toxic shit.
All the Kirks and Picards commenting on this post and saying yeah but they have fun space jobs are missing the point. First of all, work is work no matter how much you love your job and it is unhealthy not to take a proper long break once or twice a year (plus people die all the time on Star Trek, and everyone is always making super stressful life-and-death decisions, it’s not all space fun, but even if it were, my point still stands). Second, the part where I said to set an example is IMPORTANT. Almost all of our favourite Star Trek characters are somebody’s boss. It’s part of their job to set the culture of taking a holiday before you need one.
I keep getting confused about when Keiko is on the station and when she’s away, and sometimes I get a plotbunny and then realise that she’s not even there at that time. When I sat down to look at it, I realised I have way too much knowledge about this, so here it is - all of Keiko’s known movements during Deep Space Nine. I’ve double-checked everything I remembered on Chakoteya and Memory Alpha. I can’t guarantee I haven’t missed something, but if I have, it’s on the level of going away for part of an episode.
I hope this is useful for fic-writing and other endeavours!
1x01 The Emissary Keiko arrives to DS9 along with the Enterprise. She talks about taking Molly and going back to Earth, but then doesn’t.
1x01-2x202 Keiko is on DS9.
2x03 The Siege Keiko and other civilians are evacuated from DS9, and are to the taken to the Korat system. However, the first shuttle with evacuees comes back at the end of the episode, so they may not even have made it to the Korat system before turning away.
2x04 Invasive Procedures Everyone but a skeleton crew is evacuated due to a plasma storm. She is back on the station by the next episode.
2x05-2x22 - On DS9
2x22 The Wire She is away at a hydroponics conference on Rigel Four for more than a week.
2x23-3x03 On DS9.
Two weeks after 3x03 The House of Quark Keiko leaves for the expedition to the Janitza Mountains, taking Molly with her. Miles tells her in 3x03 that the expedition starts in two weeks. It’s unclear how big the gap between 3x03 and 3x04 is, as neither episode has a stardate, so it’s hard to say if she’s gone by 3x04. However, Miles does not appear in 3x04, so we could theorise that he’s helping her get everything ready and follow her down to Bajor (because you know Miles would fuss over that kind of thing).
3x06-3x09 On Bajor.
3x10 Fascination Keiko and Molly come to visit DS9 for the Gratitude Festival, staying for two days.
3x11-4x16 On Bajor. In Fascination she says she will be away two or three months longer. I lean towards this being longer than that. We know Keiko spends one night at DS9, at which point she gets pregnant. This could be the same time as Fascination, but I don’t think so, as they would have had to decide that they were going to try for a baby, and that is not something they talk about in Fascination (as at that point they almost break up). Furthermore, this must have been something that is planned ahead more. From events in s7, we know that Sisko takes a contraceptive shot once a month, and it seems possible or even likely that Miles is on something similar. That means that he has to go off it, and it also explains why he’s surprised she’s pregnant, because she says “I thought it’d take a couple of nights. To be honest, a lot more nights.” (That is partly just that he wants to have sex with his wife, but if he’s just stopped taking contraceptives, that might explain that further.) On top of all this, I have calculated (from when I wrote my Keiko/Kira fic) that Keiko is eight or nine weeks pregnant in Accession. (This was based on chronological markers within the episodes of s4 and counting backwards from Body Parts. Kira is pregnant for five months, so it’d be logical that Keiko is four months gone in Body Parts, and stuff in the episodes between Accession and Body Parts makes a two-month gap likely.)
4x17 Accession The expedition having ended, Keiko is back on the station.
4x17-4x25 On DS9.
4x25 Body Parts Goes to Torad V in the gamma quadrant for three days together with Bashir and Kira.
4x26-5x05 On DS9.
5x05 The Assignment Goes on an expedition to the Five Caves for five days. (Comes back possessed by a pah-wraith - man, she needs to stop going to places with ‘five’ in their name…)
5x06-5x25 On DS9.
Two days before 5x26 Call to Arms Leaves the station to live on Earth together with Molly as the war is heating up.
5x26-6x24 On Earth. Memory Alpha says she is gone almost a year, and often, a series is about a year, but in 6x16 Miles mentions that she has been gone for six months, so it might be shorter. There is no mention that I can find that she was away a full year.
Before 6x24 Time’s Orphan Comes back to DS9. Considering the conversations in the beginning of this episode, it sounds like they have gotten back the day before or so.
6x24-7x26 On DS9.
7x26 What You Leave Behind Moves to Earth with her family.
I’d like to add one to this!
1x08-?1x11? Keiko is on Earth along with Miles and Molly to celebrate her mother’s 100th birthday. We do not see Miles again until 1x11 in which he is seen filling in for Keiko at the school, and it is stated that Keiko will be returning from Earth in two weeks. She is not mentioned nor do we physically see her again till 1x16.
You’re absolutely right! Thank you.
I tried to figure out if we could pinpoint when two weeks is up, but no luck, as they’ve messed up the stardates. 1x08 is 46910.1, but the next one with a stardate, 1x14, is 46729.1, so either there is timetravel, or they’re in the wrong order, or they just wrote the wrong one. According to this calculator, the latter stardate translates to 25th May 2369. If we read the 1x08 stardate as 46610.1, it converts to 8th of April 2369, so I think we can say Keiko gets back sometime between 1x11 and 1x12. We see Keiko so few times that just because we don’t see her on screen, she might still be there.
Shit, do Temporal Investigations know about this? I can call them if you like. Seems fishy.
They say things fall apart when Miles O’Brien leaves the station, but as soon as Keiko does? Sudden time-distortion!
I keep getting confused about when Keiko is on the station and when she’s away, and sometimes I get a plotbunny and then realise that she’s not even there at that time. When I sat down to look at it, I realised I have way too much knowledge about this, so here it is - all of Keiko’s known movements during Deep Space Nine. I’ve double-checked everything I remembered on Chakoteya and Memory Alpha. I can’t guarantee I haven’t missed something, but if I have, it’s on the level of going away for part of an episode.
I hope this is useful for fic-writing and other endeavours!
1x01 The Emissary Keiko arrives to DS9 along with the Enterprise. She talks about taking Molly and going back to Earth, but then doesn’t.
1x01-2x202 Keiko is on DS9.
2x03 The Siege Keiko and other civilians are evacuated from DS9, and are to the taken to the Korat system. However, the first shuttle with evacuees comes back at the end of the episode, so they may not even have made it to the Korat system before turning away.
2x04 Invasive Procedures Everyone but a skeleton crew is evacuated due to a plasma storm. She is back on the station by the next episode.
2x05-2x22 - On DS9
2x22 The Wire She is away at a hydroponics conference on Rigel Four for more than a week.
2x23-3x03 On DS9.
Two weeks after 3x03 The House of Quark Keiko leaves for the expedition to the Janitza Mountains, taking Molly with her. Miles tells her in 3x03 that the expedition starts in two weeks. It’s unclear how big the gap between 3x03 and 3x04 is, as neither episode has a stardate, so it’s hard to say if she’s gone by 3x04. However, Miles does not appear in 3x04, so we could theorise that he’s helping her get everything ready and follow her down to Bajor (because you know Miles would fuss over that kind of thing).
3x06-3x09 On Bajor.
3x10 Fascination Keiko and Molly come to visit DS9 for the Gratitude Festival, staying for two days.
3x11-4x16 On Bajor. In Fascination she says she will be away two or three months longer. I lean towards this being longer than that. We know Keiko spends one night at DS9, at which point she gets pregnant. This could be the same time as Fascination, but I don’t think so, as they would have had to decide that they were going to try for a baby, and that is not something they talk about in Fascination (as at that point they almost break up). Furthermore, this must have been something that is planned ahead more. From events in s7, we know that Sisko takes a contraceptive shot once a month, and it seems possible or even likely that Miles is on something similar. That means that he has to go off it, and it also explains why he’s surprised she’s pregnant, because she says “I thought it’d take a couple of nights. To be honest, a lot more nights.” (That is partly just that he wants to have sex with his wife, but if he’s just stopped taking contraceptives, that might explain that further.) On top of all this, I have calculated (from when I wrote my Keiko/Kira fic) that Keiko is eight or nine weeks pregnant in Accession. (This was based on chronological markers within the episodes of s4 and counting backwards from Body Parts. Kira is pregnant for five months, so it’d be logical that Keiko is four months gone in Body Parts, and stuff in the episodes between Accession and Body Parts makes a two-month gap likely.)
4x17 Accession The expedition having ended, Keiko is back on the station.
4x17-4x25 On DS9.
4x25 Body Parts Goes to Torad V in the gamma quadrant for three days together with Bashir and Kira.
4x26-5x05 On DS9.
5x05 The Assignment Goes on an expedition to the Five Caves for five days. (Comes back possessed by a pah-wraith - man, she needs to stop going to places with ‘five’ in their name…)
5x06-5x25 On DS9.
Two days before 5x26 Call to Arms Leaves the station to live on Earth together with Molly as the war is heating up.
5x26-6x24 On Earth. Memory Alpha says she is gone almost a year, and often, a series is about a year, but in 6x16 Miles mentions that she has been gone for six months, so it might be shorter. There is no mention that I can find that she was away a full year.
Before 6x24 Time’s Orphan Comes back to DS9. Considering the conversations in the beginning of this episode, it sounds like they have gotten back the day before or so.
6x24-7x26 On DS9.
7x26 What You Leave Behind Moves to Earth with her family.
I’d like to add one to this!
1x08-?1x11? Keiko is on Earth along with Miles and Molly to celebrate her mother’s 100th birthday. We do not see Miles again until 1x11 in which he is seen filling in for Keiko at the school, and it is stated that Keiko will be returning from Earth in two weeks. She is not mentioned nor do we physically see her again till 1x16.
You’re absolutely right! Thank you.
I tried to figure out if we could pinpoint when two weeks is up, but no luck, as they’ve messed up the stardates. 1x08 is 46910.1, but the next one with a stardate, 1x14, is 46729.1, so either there is timetravel, or they’re in the wrong order, or they just wrote the wrong one. According to this calculator, the latter stardate translates to 25th May 2369. If we read the 1x08 stardate as 46610.1, it converts to 8th of April 2369, so I think we can say Keiko gets back sometime between 1x11 and 1x12. We see Keiko so few times that just because we don’t see her on screen, she might still be there.
(ID, a coloured digital illustration of a fed up looking Damar from the neck up, and Weyoun climbing on his neck and shouting at him. Damar is changed to look more dragon-like, while Weyoun is a small purple creature resembling a ring tailed lemur, or Bush baby. It is a cartoon style and there is a purple starry background. End ID)
As far as I can determine, based on the very limited facts I have found in a star chart book my family got me awhile back (Cardassia’s star is -1.1 in absolute magnitude and has K0V spectral classification) and information on Wikipedia, regarding spectral classification, habitable zones, orbital period equations, and such.
The Cardassian year is likely much longer than an Earth year, and would be between 32.56 and 102.22 Earth years in length, with a greater likelihood of being at or below 40 Earth years in length.
Cecil. She/her. During the day I sit in libraries staring at books. During the night I write queer fanfiction with a historical slant.
Some not-so-random facts: Gay space lizards are the best lizards. Star Trek is my life. I have too many DS9 ships. Classic Who and the Eighth Doctor Adventures make me grin stupidly. Kelas Parmak is the best. I will defend historically accurate portrayals of Alan Turing to the last drop of blood. Likes and asks end up in the name of @apolesens-otheraccount, because Tumblr doesn't have a way of changing which blog is your primary one. Nothing happens over there - this is the one to follow.
