The trilogy shares a great many plot points with the Deep Space Nine computer game, The Fallen.
This series contains examples of:
- Action Girl: She's a bit older than most, but Vash counts. Her Andorian rivals, Satr and Leen, are Dark Action Girls.
- Affably Evil: Weyoun, most of the time.
- After the End: Book Three, Inferno, takes place after the end of the entire universe. It's complicated...
- Alien Arts Are Appreciated: What Dukat thought he was doing with "the Admiral". If Rom is correct, he might be a little wrong.
- Alternative Calendar: A reasonably important plot point concerns a possibly non-coincidental similarity between multiple cultures' otherwise distinct calendars.
- Anyone Can Die: Once we're in the alternate future, any character encountered (no matter how familiar or otherwise protected by
Contractual Immortality) can die. In fact, most do. - Assassin Outclassin': The first time we see Admiral Picard in the future, he's killed a handful of Romulan assassins who tried to get him while he was in the shower. Not bad for a man who often can't remember who he's talking to.
- Asshole Victim: Weyoun mentions that one of the first people killed in the Bad Future was Kai Winn, by hanging.
- Badass Preacher: Obanak Keelen.
- Bad Future: What the Defiant witnesses after being flung into the future.
- Big Bad: At first it looks to be Weyoun. Then...things get complicated.
- Big Bad Wannabe: Leej Terrell may be a Cardassian Doctor Mengele, but in terms of actual threat level she's only a problem because the characters have other problems distracting her. She's apparently killed at the end of book 1 and barely thought about thereafter, while Weyoun of the alternate future proves to be a much bigger threat.
- Bizarre Alien Biology: The Grigari appear to be a mechanical-organic construct. No-one is sure whether they should be categorized as living beings or an artificial intelligence. They leak a substance that might be blood, or might be cooling fluid.
- Blatant Lies: When Dr. Bashir asks Garak to aid him in identifying two recently-discovered bodies, Garak responds: “Oh, Doctor, I'm afraid that in matters of mysterious deaths, I am entirely bereft of experience”. No-one is amused.
- Blessed with Suck: Anyone corrupted by Grigari nanites; they give the host superior strength, regenerative abilities and other powers, but also reconfigure their brain, making them compliant servants of the Pah-wraiths.
- Body Horror: Bions - the lobotomized, bio-augmented slave soldiers used by the future Romulan Empire. It's suspected they are former prisoners mutated using Grigari technology.
- Brain Food: The Medusans, apparently. Quark has certain recipes programmed into the food replicators (quite illegally), should he ever get a visit from a Medusan delegation.
- Brainwashed: Weyoun, having been freed from his genetically mandated loyalty to the Founders, doesn't realize he has simply been transferred to a new master in the Grigari.
- Call-Forward: A very tragic one at the end of the Inferno. Jadzia shoots and kills the 2399 Dukat, who's possessed by the Pah-wraiths and who survived the destruction of the Bad Future. As this novel takes place in-between "The Sound of Her Voice" and "Tears of the Prophets", readers know this scenario will shortly become reversed and that Jadzia will be killed by the Present Day Dukat (who will also become possessed by the Pah-wraiths).
- The Cameo: Voyager's Doctor and Seven of Nine make a brief appearance in the second book.
- Chekhov's Gun: Leej Terrell's ship disappears after the Defiant time-travels to the future. We don't find out what's happened to it until after the climax of the third book. Shortly after the Defiant time-traveled to the future, Terrell's ship entered the red wormhole, where it collided with a ship from the Bad Future; the collision instantly collapsed the wormhole, preventing the bad future from happening.
- The Chessmaster: Obanak Keelen is possibly the finest example in the Star Trek universe. He sets into motion a plan that involves muliple timelines, several realities, and the end of the universe, manipulating not only the heroes and villains both but also his own gods.
- Church Militant: Pretty much everyone in the alternate future. They even have a warship named the Opaka (which really alerts the time-displaced heroes that something is wrong, because Opaka was a woman of peace and preached a non-aggressive, tolerant faith).
- Continuity Nod: Admiral Picard's choice of motto for the Phoenix is "Sokath, his eyes unclosed."
- Cool Ship: In the alternate future, the Timeship Phoenix. Also from that future, the Enterprise-F, though it ended up being obliterated in the first eight minutes of the battle to save Earth from the Grigari.
- The Corruption: Grigari nanites.
- Cosmic Keystone: The Red Orbs of Jalbador. When all three are brought together in one place, they open the second Bajoran wormhole, which, along with the better known one, are the two sides of the dimension wound which 'reality' sits on top of, meaning if they ever touch, the result will be...nothing. Literally, nothing will exist, and nothing will ever have existed. There will never have been even a place for the universe to have happened in. This, of course, proceeds to happen at the end of the second book.
- Crapsack World: In the alternate future, Earth has been destroyed by the Grigari, its colonies wiped out by nanoplagues, humans, Klingons and Cardassians are all nearly extinct, what's left of the crumbling Federation is at war with the Bajoran Ascendancy, which worships the Pah-wraiths and is led by Kai Weyoun, and his ultimate goal is to destroy the universe.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: The two Cardassians found fused to the station's hull, in vacuum. We later see how it happened: after they were accidentally brought six years forward, they watched as the Quark, Odo, and Garak from their time were sent back to the past. They then tried to dash into the portal, but it was collapsing, and they ended up falling through several parts of the station before they finally rematerialized—in the spot where they were eventually found.
- Cultural Posturing: A Bajoran mentions how her people were architects and artists when "Cardassians were still swimming through swamps catching fish in their mouths".
- Deus ex Machina: At the end of the third book. While the closing of the red wormhole was caused by the interaction of two different timelines, divine intervention was needed to restore Deep Space Nine and prevent the Defiant from being destroyed.
- Distracted by the Sexy: Even in the midst of a brawl between several criminals who, once they win, will inevitably try to kill him, Quark still can't help but be a little turned on by the violent females.
- Dyson Sphere: In the alternate future, O'Brien is trapped in one of these for what seems like years, as the Fate Worse than Death meted to him by the Pah-wraiths.
- Earth Is the Center of the Universe: Averted. This being Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Bajor seems to be the center of the universe instead.
- Earth-Shattering Kaboom: Bajor is vapourized in the alternate future - all part of Kai Weyoun's plan. Earth met the same fate some years prior.
- Enemy Mine: The Grigari are so terrifying that the Borg and the remnant Federation are allies in this timeline. It doesn't even seem to be Teeth-Clenched Teamwork; they're engaged in peaceful technological exchange.
- Evil Is One Big, Happy Family: Averted. It's shown that Dukat and Weyoun, representing different sects of the Pah-wraiths, are at cross purposes a good deal of the time.
- Exact Words: Obanak Keelen believes in the Emissary, and he believes in the Sisko. He just doesn't believe Ben Sisko is the Emissary. Rather, it's implied Ben's daughter with Cassidy Yates is the true Emissary.
- Fate Worse than Death: Dukat and Kosst Amojan trap the heroes (and Weyoun) in recurring personal nightmares in order to gain their co-operation, or at least to keep them occupied. Basically, they trap them in personal hells, sometimes along the lines of And I Must Scream. Unfortunately for Dukat, it doesn't work on Dax; her multiple lives confuse the Kosst Amojan, which tries creating multiple hells that then just blend together confusingly and lose their horror, allowing her to break free. And Garak isn't impressed by the technique - his hell certainly works on him, but Dukat is frustrated to see that he isn't actually afraid - exhausted, drained, horrified, yes; but nowhere near afraid.
- From Bad to Worse: Deep Space Nine is destroyed and the heroes are flung decades into the future - that's the end of the first book. In the second book, they discover that this future is a Crapsack World where Starfleet is a Church Militant organization fighting an interstellar doomsday cult, led by Kai Weyoun of Bajor. Then they discover this doomsday is real...and that the enemy is planning to destroy the universe. Then the enemy...succeeds.
- Gambit Roulette: Everything that happens in the trilogy unfolded according to Obanak Keelen's plan. The Plan involved blowing up the universe and then helping the universe recover. It also involved using the gods themselves as pawns. note
- The Gods Must Be Lazy: The Pah-wraiths are far more proactive than the Prophets. This is actually justified - the Prophets' best bet for protecting the universe is to keep their distance and remain apart from the mortal/temporal realm, while the Pah-wraiths want to bridge the distance and reunite with their brethren, even though it means destroying creation.
- Godzilla Threshold: Not only has the Federation made allies of the Borg, they're engaged in multiple attempts to alter the timeline despite several reasons to think this is a bad idea and have suspended the Prime Directive to allow an invasion of the Mirror Universe in hopes of creating a safe haven there.
- The Greys: Implicitly, the Reticulii.
- Heroic Sacrifice: At the end of the third book, Jake attempts to blow up the Defiant in order to save the station and the rest of the crew. For some reason (probably the intervention of the Prophets), it doesn't happen; something else happens to resolve the issues.
- Hidden Depths: The story of "The Admiral" gets quite strange when Rom turned out to have a surprising (and given the circumstances, slightly alarmingly in-depth) knowledge of certain parts of Tellarite anatomy and the depictions thereof in certain less-than-reputable places.
- I Believe I Can Fly: Weyoun can levitate, thanks to the Wormhole Aliens.
- Impossibly Cool Weapon: The electric mini-bat'leth wielded by Base.
- In Spite of a Nail: The book's timeline diverges shortly after "The Sound of Her Voice" but before "Tears of the Prophets". Dukat's part in the later still happened in the alternate timeline, and needless to say he was a little annoyed to find his work there going all for naught.
- Interquel: The Present Day segments of the Trilogy are set during the tail end of Season Six (specially in-between "The Sound of Her Voice" and "Tears of the Prophets").
- Large Ham: We can't actually hear him, of course, but there's no way Kosst Dukat isn't this.
- Loss of Identity: To Jean-Luc Picard, of all people. By 2400, his Irumodic Syndrome has progressed to the point where he has lost almost all contact with reality, forever having imaginary conversations with his long-dead friends from the Enterprise-D. And he's basically in charge of Starfleet.
- Missing Time: Neither Odo, Quark or Garak can recall what happened the night of the Cardassian withdrawal from Terok Nor. Quark is the only one who will admit it, though. His attempt to find answers irritates Odo and Garak, who refuse to discuss or acknowledge that they're in the same situation.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: It's revealed that Odo and Quark at least were memory-wiped with a treatment administered by Dr. Bashir six years in the future. The same treatment was tried on Garak, but it's hinted it wouldn't work, and that the past Garak would have to take a different treatment to make sure that his memory was wiped properly.
Sisko: And did you?
Garak: [smiles] Really, captain, I can't remember. - My Species Doth Protest Too Much: Arla Rees. A Bajoran atheist, she is actively and somewhat obsessively opposed to her people's faith, believing the Prophets to be conquering aliens who have stunted Bajoran culture in order to keep them passive and compliant. She bitterly acknowledges how at odds she is with the rest of her people, saying that sometimes she thinks she's the only one who "sees it". By the end of the series, she becomes religious, just not exactly worshipping the Prophets.
- Nanomachines: The Grigari use these; they serve as The Corruption.
- The Napoleon: Base, the world's smallest and most angrily homicidal Ferengi.
- Not-So-Harmless Villain: Future Weyoun is Affably Evil, and also a little comical. He is not to be underestimated, though, and when he tires of the heroes' interference, he shows just how dangerous he is. He also managed to destroy the universe.
- Omnicidal Maniac: Dukat and Kosst Amojan. They aren't the only people out to destroy creation, but the others have far more sensical motives.
- The Phoenix: The Romulans have a similar myth; in their culture, the flaming bird is Alth'Indor.
- Ping Pong Naievete: Arla Rees goes from pretentiously stuffed shirt who thinks she can tell Ben Sisko how to run his station minutes after walking in to being utterly useless when asked to command a ship, leaving Ben to wonder just how the hell she even got to the rank of commander.
- Prophecy Twist: The Bajoran religious prophecies, along with the basic principles of the faith itself, were written by refugees from the timeship Phoenix originating in another timeline, who crossed over into our timeline 30,000 years ago.
- Rage Against the Heavens: Obanak... maybe? He's definitely at the center of the convoluted plan which, broadly speaking, means making fools of all the various types of Wormhole aliens. The question of whether he considers them gods or aliens is... complex, and the answer seems to change from moment to moment, in keeping with his belief that something can be two mutually exclusive things at the same time — just like how Sisko is both the Emissary and a Starfleet officer.
- Reset Button: At the end of the third book, the station is restored to normal despite being visibly destroyed in the first, and most of the people who made it to the Defiant have returned. It's apparent that the Prophets lent a helping hand here.
- Retroactive Precognition: Many of the more notable Bajoran prophecies, thanks to the Timeship Phoenix.
- The Right of a Superior Species: Leej Terrell considers the Bajorans little more than cattle, and refuses to accept that Cardassia was doing anything wrong in enslaving them. Indeed, she tells Sisko that humanity's biggest problem is its refusal to distinguish "truly sapient" races like the Vulcans from "stock" like the Bajorans.
- Rousing Speech: Amusingly, Weyoun doesn't feel the need to give one as the day of the final reckoning dawns.
- Scary Dogmatic Aliens: The Grigari, who are fanatical and deadly enough to scare the Borg. The Bajoran Ascendancy, which is one giant doomsday cult fighting to destroy the universe. The Wormhole Aliens, which are fighting a three-way war that threatens to tear the mortal realm apart. Even the newly Vulcan-dominated Starfleet. And we mustn't forget Kosst Dukat:Can I have an Amojan?!!
- Sealed Evil in a Can: Kosst Amojan and his followers (the banished Pah-wraiths cast from the Celestial Temple into the Fire Caves). However, the straightforward Pah-wraith plotline of the TV series, which disappointed some fans in its bog-standard simplicity, is made far more complex here. For one thing, the Fire Cave Pah-wraiths are not the only ones; indeed, they're a minority. They no more represent the Pah-wraiths as a whole than they do the prophets.
- Senseless Sacrifice: Thomas Riker tries to tackle Kai Weyoun off a cliff; the same Kai Weyoun he's worked with for years, and should know has the ability to float. Garak sees this decision coming and realizes what an idiot he's being.
- Servant Race: The Grigari seem to be servants of the Ascendancy, yet are actually controlling Weyoun. However, they do seem to be genuine servants of the Pah-wraiths.
- Sibling Team: The Andorian sisters Satr and Leen, in the first book.
- Spanner in the Works: Leej Terrell manages to imprison most of the command crew in one of Quark's holosuites. It nearly works—but the imprisonment causes problems in Vic's holoprogram, and he crosses into Terrell's program to find out what's happening. As a result, he's able to free the crew from the holosuite.
- Stable Time Loop: The War of the Prophets is a stable time loop that transcends a single timeline, and connects multiple realities together. It's hinted in the epilogue that all timelines are linked, and ultimately part of a larger network, that might one day be explored just as the Federation explores space.
- The current timeline actually requires the Bad Future to have happened as depicted, and yet the current timeline's actual "future" is completely distinct. Conversely, the Bad Future has the universe completely cease to exist as the Earth calendar rolls over to the year 2400, among other calendar changes happening at the exact same time, yet references are made to events that happened after that time, such as how the Enterprise had an encounter with a 26th-century timeship. The epilogue describes the result as "circles wheeling within circles".
- Sugary Malice: Kai Winn only makes a physical appearance briefly at the end of book 1, but she's on her usual form. Sure, Emissary, she's just thrilled to be called up whenever he likes. Not like she has anything else she might be doing with her valuable time, but then if the Emissary says so, who's she to argue?
- Temporal Mutability: Discussed to a degree when Vash tries to argue that they can go back in time by taking the Orb of Prophecy from Bajor; according to the laws of temporal physics, once someone has travelled in time to another period of history, they are subtly out of sequence with the wider universe, making it impossible for them to travel in time by any means other than the method they already used to come to this time period in the first place. This may explain why Sisko, Kira, and Odo are (at first) out of phase with respect to the living beings on the station when they return to it in the third book.
- Tricked Out Time: The goal of Admiral Picard's Phoenix project. It works — and then the Ascendancy tricks out time right back.
- Unstuck in Time: In the third book, the heroes become this by default when they visit the stations inside the wormhole; they keep shifting back and forth through time with the temporal displacement waves that wash across them. Weyoun and Dukat are not affected in the same way, however...and both of them can force people to be "in phase" unless they're holding on to someone who isn't (Dukat does so with Quark, and Weyoun does so with Sisko, Kira, Bashir, and possibly Garak). At first, the characters are so out of phase with the current time that they can't be seen, heard, or felt by any people native to the time they visit, but they can interact with the station itself. This particular quirk clears up quickly, however.
- The Voiceless: Played with but ultimately reaffirmed for Morn. Just as Morn never speaks on screen, so the novels never give him dialogue (despite mentioning how he's actually a chatterbox). In the first book of this trilogy, it briefly looks like Morn has been given dialogue. Turns out it's actually Odo taking Morn's form.
- We Come in Peace — Shoot to Kill: This is used as a cover story by the Grigari in the alternate future. They "mistook Earth's intense sensor scans" for an attack, then "fired a warning shot" that they "didn't realize would overwhelm the planetary defenses". Result: Earth-Shattering Kaboom.
- Weapon of Mass Destruction: Quite a few in the Crapsack World future, including a nova bomb, nanoplagues and planet-destroying "deep time" bombs.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: For all he no longer has slavish devotion to the Founders, Weyoun still desperately craves approval from Odo.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Sisko wonders if Leej Terrell is this. At first she seems nothing more than a megalomaniac, but Sisko begins to consider if she's actually serious about her proposed "pax Cardassia". The golden age she says she's working for might be a genuine dream - not that it excuses her actions.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Vash appears to have been hit by a toxic dart in an assassination attempt, and is rushed to the infirmary, unconscious. The poison is an Andorian neurotoxin, implicating the Andorians Satr and Leen, who are rivals to Vash (and particularly shady characters). It is not in fact fatal to Humans, though, and Vash fully recovers. She later mentions the toxin by name in a throw-away comment, alerting Bashir that she planned the whole thing - because he never mentioned the name, and there are dozens of neurotoxins it could have been. It turns out Vash injected herself with the dart.
- You Already Changed the Past: The reason Project Phoenix fails in its primary intent; remains of significant parts of the ship are found in the past before the mission is even launched.
- You Will Be Beethoven: Implied with the crew of the Phoenix that actually travelled to the past; they likely became the mystics Shabren, Eilin, and Naradim.
