Move Along Home

A group of aliens called Wadi arrive from the Gamma Quadrant, led by Falow. Sisko is excited at the prospect of first contact, but when they arrive, they immediately ask to be taken to Quark's. They are interested only in games–and they're good at them. They are very successful at dabo, so Quark directs an employee to begin cheating. His subterfuge is noticed, and the Wadi force Quark to play a game of their choosing–an honest game–called chula.

The rules of the game are unclear–and Quark is told he is required to learn by playing. It all involves rolling dice and choosing paths, like a space version of Chutes and Ladders (indeed, that is the origin of the game's name (Block & Erdmann, 2000)). Unknown to Quark, four officers have been taken and placed in a mazelike area, acting the role of the playing pieces of the game–Sisko, Dax, Bashir, and Kira. When Quark loses a player in the game, we see Basir vanish–apparently, losing players means really losing them. After a bad roll, Quark is obliged to choose a player to sacrifice, and at this point Quark is made aware of the officers' situation. He grovels before the Wadi, begging that he not be forced to sacrifice one of them, so Falow agrees–and programs the game to choose randomly.

After an adventure in a collapsing cave, the remaining three are lost–and all appear in Quark's, unharmed. Falow declares that, after all, "it's only a game."

Notes

In the next episode, we'll learn that the sixth Rule of Acquisition is "Never let family stand in the way of opportunity." This sounds rather similar to the advice Dax gives Sisko: "Don't let sentiment get in the way of command decisions."

Bibliography