The twelfth Star Trek: Deep Space Nine book.
Publication year: 1995
Page count: 273
Publisher: Pocket Books
Format: print
Doctor Bashir is feeling depressed: no interesting work has come to him in weeks and his personal life is non-existent. But then Quark is arguing with an alluringly beautiful woman. He claims that she tripped up his new psi ability sensor so she can't gamble. She claims that her psychic talent is small enough that it wouldn't make a difference. Quark is adamant and she leaves. Dr. Bashir is enchanted by her. After a brief discussion, he agreed to gamble on her behalf until either she or Quark is bankrupted. Bashir has never gambled before but now he starts immediately to win.
The woman's name is Allura (yes, really) and she's from Laertes, a planet on the Gamma Quadrant which has two humanoid species. When Bashir has won all the cash Quark has on hand, a superdreadnought comes through the wormhole. It's a warship from Laertes and its mission is to ensure that Allura and her proxy will continue to gamble to the bitter end. According to Laertean law, Quark is a part owner of the station and can gamble it. And he must gamble it or the warship will destroy the station. Commander Sisko has no choice but to agree so Quark bets with bits and pieces of the station. And continues to lose.
This was a wacky story. At first, it's a fun book but the longer the story lasted I felt like Sisko and the Federation wouldn't allow a game like this to continue because Quark is gambling away other people's property. We also meet a Ferengi priest from the order of Charismatic Fathers of Profit and Loss. This was a fun idea but not seen on the show, of course.
Sisko, Bashier, Dax, and Kira are the major POV characters. Bashier was out of the character and Dax and Kira were interchangeable. There were other inconsistencies, as well. Not a good DS9 book, sadly.
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