Abigail Warmbread went to her neighbour’s house and knocked on the door. Her neighbour, Abigail Crunchycrust, answered the door. Abigail asked, “Hey can I borrow a bucket for a few hours? I’m doing my taxes.” Abigail responded, “Sure, go grab a bucket from the shed. Just make sure you don’t use the blue bucket. The blue bucket is haunted.”

So Abigail walked around the house to the shed. As she approached, the shadows grew longer and the sky grew darker. Somewhere in the distance a crow cawed loudly and then a silence fell. When Abigail’s hand touched the door handle, a shiver went down her spine, for it felt unnaturally cold.

Abigail looked in the shed, her eyes trying to adjust to the dying light and differentiate between the imposing shapes therein. Amidst a collection of rusted shovels and broken rakes and she saw a yellow bucket. She grabbed its handle, then took it back to her own home. She safely avoided using the haunted blue bucket, because she had been properly warned. The End!!!

I’ve just recently finished a year-long rewatch of Deep Space Nine that has taken almost as long as it must have when I watched it the first time. I’ve held off on a lot of Star Trek thoughts because I wanted to finish watching the show first. Well, I’ve opened the floodgates so I expect I’m gonna have a lot of DS9-related thoughts here over the next few months.

Today’s thought is one that I had when I watched the finale as a child (looks like I would’ve been 17 when the show ended): The Ferengi should have been involved in the final push against the Dominion.

In the episode before the finale, our beloved Ferengi everyman Rom is given the position of Grand Nagus. He’s in charge of the entire Ferengi government (admittedly with a council of some kind as well), and he has many ties to the allied Alpha Quadrant governments. What would be a better way of proving his people’s value to those allies than helping in the war? It wouldn’t even have to be a big help. Just a handful of ships seen among the fleet. You could have them led by a Ferengi like Leck who enjoys a challenge. That alone would make the Ferengi plots tie into the Dominion War plot a bit more nicely.

Aside from that, maybe acknowledge supply lines being bolstered by Ferengi forces and talk about more Ferengi cadets heading to Starfleet Academy to follow in Nog’s footsteps. After all, establishing good relations with the Federation, Klingons, and Romulans would be very good for profit.