Headscratchers / Star Trek Deep Space Nine S 02 E 13 Armageddon Game

• Why are Harvesters considered so beyond the pale? O'Brien survives infection for several days and makes a complete recovery once he gets to sick bay. There are modern-day biological weapons that are more deadly than that.
  • Speculation, but a couple of possibilities. One is that the Harvesters could be tuned for the physiology of the T'Lanis and Kelleruns, and are less effective but still fatal to humans. Another possibility is that the Harvesters vary in lethality and O'Brien got a milder but still fatal variety instead of the 'turns your skin to fire' type. Or the method of preparation and delivery makes some kind of difference. Presumably, splashing a drop onto someone's skin isn't normally the intended method of infection. Also, the splash was caused by energy weapons fire. That may have weakened the effectiveness of the Harvester as well.
• Is it ever explained why they have to work so hard on finding a way to destroy the Harvesters? Can't they just vaporize them with phasers or push them into a sun?
  • Its probably so they have proof they've been destroyed. If they were vaporized or thrown into a star you don't leave any evidence behind they've actually been destroyed. But by killing the bio-weapon you then have canisters of dead harvester to prove they've been destroyed.
• Two post-Warp, space fairing former-enemies-turned-allies, call in for assistance from two people from the Federation to assist them in neutralizing their deadliest biological weapon. They did this, even after agreeing that the entire science team would be killed just to destroy the last bit of knowledge of said biological weapon, with premeditated decision. And not only that, but they willingly tried to kill two other Federation officers during the rescue. ...So when is the Federation going to come in and sanction their entire system for what's a pretty blatant act of war?
  • Well that's why they tried to Make It Look Like an Accident.