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Deep Space 9

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Deep Space 9
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Deep Space 9

Type: Orbital Docking Station
Owner: Bajoran Provisional Government
Operator: Bajoran Militia
Starfleet
Status: Active (2376)
Diameter: 1451.82 meters
Draft: 969.26 meters
Mass: 10,120,000 metric tons (Tonnes)
Levels: 98
Crew: 300 to 2,000 (Bajoran and Starfleet) (Capacity: 7,000)
Docking facilities: 6 large docking pylon ports; 3 medium docking ring ports; 9 small docking ring ports; 6 landing pads
Armament: 48 phaser arrays (rotary mounts); 36 phaser emitters (stationary mounts); 3 phaser emitters (sliding mounts); 48+ torpedo launchers, 5,000+ photon torpedoes (after 2372 refit)
Defenses: Deflector shields
Deep Space 9 CGI.jpg

Deep Space 9

Template:Disambiguate

For the mirror universe counterpart, please see Deep Space 9 (mirror).

Template:Disambiguate

"Think of it. Five years ago no one had ever heard of Bajor or Deep Space 9 and now, all our hopes rest here."

- Chancellor Gowron to Captain Benjamin Sisko in 2373

One of the most historically, politically, and strategically important space stations in the Alpha Quadrant during the latter half of the 24th century, Deep Space 9, originally known as Terok Nor, was an orbital space station constructed by the Cardassians in orbit of Bajor during their occupation of the planet. Under Federation administration, following the Cardassian withdrawal and relocation to the Bajoran system's denorios belt, DS9 became a vital commercial port and defensive outpost due to its location near the mouth of the Bajoran wormhole. It later became a key strategic location during the Dominion War, for both the Dominion and the Federation Alliance.

Command crew

(2369-2375)

Deceased

Notable residents

Representatives

History

Terok Nor and the Occupation

Terok Nor orbiting Bajor

Terok Nor orbiting Bajor prior to 2369

Terok Nor was the station's original Cardassian designation. Built by Bajoran slave labor during the Occupation of Bajor under the leadership of the Cardassian Union between 2346 and 2351, its original purpose was to serve as a refinery for uridium ore that was mined from Bajor's surface, a process carried out in temperatures as high as 55 degrees Celsius. (DS9: "Babel", "Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night") Therefore, Terok Nor had extensive ore refining and transport facilities that occupied the large docking pylon structures and was built to accommodate up to seven thousand humanoid-sized people as well as process up to twenty thousand tons of ore a day. (DS9: "Sanctuary", "Civil Defense", "Things Past") The station also served as a command post from which the Cardassian Prefect of Bajor, most notably Gul Dukat, oversaw the military aspects of the Occupation. In one of his recorded messages for the counter-insurgency program installed on the station, Dukat described Terok Nor as being "a paradise" compared to Bajor. (DS9: "Civil Defense") Like the planet it orbited, the station operated on a twenty-six hour day. (DS9: "A Man Alone")

In 2365, Gul Dukat took the unusual step of appointing a non-Cardassian as the chief of security aboard Terok Nor. Odo, a shapeshifter discovered on a derelict ship near Bajor some years before, had ties to both the Cardassians and the Bajorans on the station. (DS9: "Necessary Evil")

In 2369, the Cardassians decided to withdraw from Bajor after fifty years of occupation. Unable to move the station across interstellar distances, they left the outpost in its high orbit. Before departing, however, Cardassian soldiers rampaged across the station, removing or destroying a large portion of the station's equipment and killing several shop owners. (DS9: "Emissary")

It is not known for certain why the Cardassians chose to abandon the station rather than destroy it to prevent its use by the Bajorans. The Cardassians likely planned to re-occupy Bajor at some point in the future, as evidenced by their prominent role early on in DS9's second season. In the non-canon Millennium book series, however, it is revealed that the self-destruct system was actually shut down by Garak, who had recently returned from a brief trip six years into the future where he had been given a memory node containing Dukat's command codes, which he used to shut the self-destruct down before erasing his memory of that future.

DS9 and the Federation

Galaxy class docked at DS9

The USS Enterprise-D at Deep Space 9 in 2369

USS Voyager docked at DS9

The USS Voyager docked at Deep Space 9 in 2371

USS Voyager departing Deep Space 9

The USS Voyager departing Deep Space 9 in 2371

Following the Cardassian retreat, the Bajoran Provisional Government petitioned for Federation membership, and also for Starfleet assistance in repairing and maintaining Terok Nor. A complex arrangement was established, in which a Starfleet officer would have overall authority in running the station, while the station remained sovereign Bajoran territory. A representative of the Bajoran Militia would serve as the station's first officer and as liaison to the Bajoran government. The station was renamed "Deep Space 9", and Benjamin Sisko was appointed as commander, at Admiral Leyton's recommendation. (DS9: "Emissary", "Homefront")

As station commander, one of the most important facets of the station Sisko sought to develop was commerce. The Cardassians had allowed a small series of businesses and entertainment facilities to operate in the central, multi-level market area called the Promenade. Because almost all of the shops were owned by non-Bajorans, Sisko hoped to convince many of them to stay to help build a trade network through Bajoran space. In particular, Sisko convinced Quark, owner of Quark's, the largest establishment on the Promenade, to maintain his business on-station as an example for others, as well as to become a community leader and eventually chairman of the Promenade Merchants' Association. (DS9: "Emissary", "Call to Arms")

The station quickly became an important facility for Starfleet. Over time, several hundred starships docked at the station for various reasons. The USS Enterprise-D was the first Starfleet ship to dock at the station in 2369, when it transported the majority of the station's Starfleet crew to take up their posts. The Enterprise also offloaded three runabouts. (DS9: "Emissary") The Enterprise returned to DS9 several weeks later to help repair the Bajoran aqueduct systems that had been damaged during the Occupation. (TNG: "Birthright, Part I") The USS Voyager docked at Deep Space 9 in 2371 on its way to the Badlands to search for the Maquis ship Val Jean. It was the last Alpha Quadrant locale the crew of Voyager visited before being transported to the Delta Quadrant by the Caretaker. (VOY: "Caretaker") Five years later, the station helped Starfleet Command to contact Voyager in the Delta Quadrant by providing interstellar phenomena forecasts. (VOY: "Pathfinder")

DS9 and the wormhole

Bajoran wormhole

The Bajoran wormhole

Only days after the Federation took control of the station, a momentous discovery changed DS9's purpose forever. With encouragement from Kai Opaka, Sisko and his science officer, Lieutenant Jadzia Dax, searched for the mythical Celestial Temple of the Prophets, hoping to find a cause or idea to help unify the Bajoran people. While aboard the runabout USS Rio Grande, Sisko and Dax found the only known stable wormhole in the Milky Way Galaxy, which crossed over seventy thousand light years from Bajor in the Alpha Quadrant to a point near the Idran system in the Gamma Quadrant. (DS9: "Emissary")

The presence of a stable wormhole inside the Bajoran system had an enormous impact on commerce throughout the region, making the system one of the most important locations in the entire Alpha Quadrant – a fact recognized by the Bajorans, the Federation, and the Cardassians. Major Kira Nerys, DS9's first officer, ordered the station moved to the mouth of the wormhole in order to cement Bajor's claim. Despite the massive forces and pressures involved in moving the station with only six working thrusters, Chief of Station Operations Miles O'Brien devised a risky method by which the deflector shields were altered to lower the station's inertial mass to a level sufficient for movement at the speeds necessary to reach the wormhole. The station was positioned close to the mouth of the wormhole, approximately a thousand kilometers from its event horizon. (DS9: "Emissary")

However, the Cardassians had not completely abandoned the system, maintaining surveillance of activities in the region; they quickly found out about the wormhole's discovery and attempted to claim the wormhole for themselves. Gul Dukat ordered his warship through the wormhole, and was apparently trapped on the far side when the beings controlling the wormhole collapsed its entrance. A short time later, three additional Template:ShipClass warships, under the command of Gul Jasad of the Seventh Order, approached the station. Following a brief armed standoff, the wormhole reappeared, and the ships returned, with the Rio Grande towing Dukat's warship. With a firm Bajoran-Federation claim established on the wormhole, the Cardassians withdrew. (DS9: "Emissary")

The impact the wormhole had on the station was enormous. Rather than a minor orbital servicing station and transfer point, DS9 had the potential to become one of the top commerce stations in the entire quadrant, and one of Starfleet's most important outposts. Eager to explore the vast new territories of the Gamma Quadrant, dozens of races established trading relations with Bajor and began sending starships through the wormhole. At the same time, DS9 became the first point of contact in the Alpha Quadrant for any native species traveling from the Gamma Quadrant. Within the first two years, ships operating from or passing through DS9 made contact with at least twelve different cultures, including the Dosi, the Karemma, the Skrreeans, the Hunters and the Tosk, the Rakhari, the Wadi, and the Paradans. (DS9: "Rules of Acquisition", "The Search, Part I", "Sanctuary", "Captive Pursuit", "Vortex", and more)

DS9 and Bajoran affairs

Deep Space 9 was also a unique place for the constant contact and cooperation between people from Bajor and the Federation, and therefore also became a point of tension at times. In late 2369, DS9 became the center of a controversy between Bajoran religious fundamentalists, instigated by then-Vedek Winn Adami, and pro-Federation factions. The incident brought attention to the fierce contest to elect a new Kai following the disappearance and apparent death of Kai Opaka earlier that year. (DS9: "Battle Lines") Winn protested the ideas taught in DS9's school by volunteer teacher Keiko O'Brien about the wormhole, creating a rift between some conservative Bajorans and the secular Federation representatives. (DS9: "In the Hands of the Prophets")

In early 2370, an extremist faction known as the Alliance for Global Unity, also known simply as "The Circle", began an uprising against the Bajoran provisional government. During this coup, the station became a target of the insurgents as the Circle attempted to force all non-Bajoran influences to leave. All Federation and civilian personnel were ordered to evacuate the station, but Commander Sisko chose to remain behind with a group of volunteers, hoping to prevent the Circle's takeover. A division of the Bajoran Militia working under the direction of Minister Jaro Essa, the leader of the Circle, boarded the station and assumed control. General Krim and Colonel Day, commanding the force, engaged in a cat-and-mouse game with the small Starfleet contingent for two days. Evidence was eventually revealed to the Chamber of Ministers that the Cardassians were secretly arming the Circle, using the Kressari as intermediaries. With this damning revelation, the Circle's rebellion collapsed, and Krim returned control of the station to Sisko. (DS9: "The Homecoming", "The Circle", "The Siege")

In later years, there were occasional flare-ups where Bajoran and Federation interests clashed, but none were nearly as explosive. Over time, almost all resistance to Federation influence on DS9 and on Bajor disappeared as Starfleet continued to prove its good intentions. In addition, the increasingly prominent role of Sisko as the Emissary of the Prophets, a major figure in Bajoran religion, helped build acceptance for his position as station commander.

In an alternate timeline in which Benjamin Sisko was apparently killed in an accident aboard the USS Defiant, DS9 was transferred to Klingon control in 2373. (DS9: "The Visitor")

See also: DS9: "Destiny", "Accession", "Life Support", "Rapture"

DS9 and the Maquis

In 2370, the Cardassian freighter Bok'Nor inexplicably exploded immediately after undocking from DS9. A previously-unknown group in the Cardassian Demilitarized Zone, calling themselves the Maquis, claimed responsibility. The Maquis were dispossessed Federation citizens resisting the cession of their home colonies to Cardassian control, and were arming themselves with mostly Federation contraband weaponry. A short time later, the Maquis also kidnapped Gul Dukat from the station while aboard for consultations with Commander Sisko regarding the situation in the DMZ. (DS9: "The Maquis, Part I")

Although DS9 was not located in the DMZ itself, the Bajoran system's proximity to that area made the station a major target for related operations on occasion. Most notably, in 2372 the Maquis hijacked a shipment of twelve Federation industrial replicators which were being sent to Cardassia to provide relief in the wake of the Klingon-Cardassian War. Michael Eddington, the senior Starfleet Security officer aboard DS9, publicly defected to the Maquis in this incident, and later went on to unify the various Maquis cells under his leadership. (DS9: "For the Cause")

See also: DS9: "Tribunal", "Defiant", "For the Uniform"

DS9 and the Dominion War

Defiant DS9

The USS Defiant departs the station

Deep Space 9's greatest fame, however, came in its role of defending the Federation and the Alpha Quadrant from Dominion invasion. Around stardate 47950, Benjamin Sisko and Quark, while on a camping trip in the Gamma Quadrant with Sisko's son, Jake, and Quark's nephew, Nog, were abducted by the Jem'Hadar, the soldiers of the Dominion. A representative of the Dominion boarded the station and informed the crew that the Dominion would not tolerate "intrusions" into its territory – and intrusions were defined as any vessel that entered the Gamma Quadrant. After the Galaxy-class starship USS Odyssey was destroyed in battle against the Jem'Hadar, DS9 was suddenly placed on the front line of a new interstellar conflict. (DS9: "The Jem'Hadar")

Weeks later, Starfleet assigned the experimental warship USS Defiant to the station to provide an additional line of defense against the Dominion threat. In addition, Commander Sisko launched a crash program to upgrade and expand the station's own tactical systems, adding new, heavier shield generators, more powerful phaser arrays, and a large battery of photon torpedoes. These upgraded weapons actually saw their first use against Klingon warships in their abortive attack on DS9 in early 2372. (DS9: "The Search, Part I", "The Way of the Warrior")

In addition to the threat of invasion by the Jem'Hadar, the Dominion also posed another, more sinister threat – infiltration by Changelings, the Founders of the Dominion. Because these beings could assume any form and avoid detection by almost all normal sensors, the potential damage from espionage and sabotage was enormous. DS9's crew helped pioneer several methods that tried to combat this threat, including phaser sweeps and blood screenings. (DS9: "The Adversary", "Homefront")

When the Dominion finally entered the Alpha Quadrant in 2373, the first battle was, surprisingly, not fought at DS9 as anticipated. A large fleet of more than fifty Jem'Hadar warships bypassed the station and moved instead to annex the Cardassian Union – at the invitation of Gul Dukat. DS9 became a marshaling point for both Klingon ships, retreating from their former Cardassian conquests, and for Starfleet, as well as a squadron of Romulan warbirds that joined the fleet. However, the Dominion chose not to launch an immediate attack on the station, and the fleet dispersed. (DS9: "By Inferno's Light")

After securing the Cardassian territories, the Dominion began sending weekly supply convoys, including dozens of fresh warships, through the wormhole. Without sufficient forces, station personnel could only watch as more and more troops and warships poured into the Alpha Quadrant. As the Dominion also began securing nonaggression pacts with several regional powers, Captain Sisko, with approval from Starfleet Command, began to blockade the entrance to the wormhole with self-replicating mines. In response, the Dominion launched a massive assault fleet to capture the station and take control of the wormhole.

DS9 under attack

DS9 under fire from the Dominion fleet

In the ensuing battle, DS9 accounted for the destruction of over fifty Jem'Hadar and Cardassian ships. Additionally, the Defiant was successful in completing the minefield, sealing off the wormhole. However, Dukat committed additional ships to mount another assault, and facing overwhelming numbers, Sisko decided to abandon the station. (DS9: "Call to Arms")

Terok Nor Dominion

Terok Nor under Dominion control

When the station was retaken by the Cardassians and their Dominion allies, it reverted back to its original Cardassian designation, Terok Nor, and was once again commanded by Dukat. Although it was officially still owned by the Bajoran government, for all intents and purposes it was once again a Cardassian station. (DS9: "Call to Arms")

The station soon came to be the site from which Dukat, Weyoun and other Dominion personnel directed the Dominion War. However, because the minefield operated independently from the station, Terok Nor played no other important role in the Dominion war effort aside from serving as a command and resupply outpost. A Station Ruling Council, including Odo, was later formed. (DS9: "A Time to Stand")

Spurred on by the suicide of Vedek Yassim, Kira Nerys formed a resistance group that included herself, Jake Sisko, Rom, and Leeta. They were also assisted by Quark and Tora Ziyal. (DS9: "Rocks and Shoals", "Behind the Lines")

Facing an invasion on several fronts, Starfleet was unable to mount a counteroffensive to retake the station for several months. In mid-2374, the allies launched Operation Return, from Starbase 375, aimed at recapturing the station and preserving the minefield. Under the command of Captain Sisko, the allies won a major victory despite heavy losses. At the same time, Kira and Rom attempted to sabotage the antigraviton emitter in order to preserve the minefield. They were unsuccessful, but did disable the station's weapons, leaving it defenseless. Captain Sisko took the Defiant into the wormhole in a desperate last stand against the overwhelming Dominion reinforcements. Sisko was contacted by the Prophets, who agreed to stop the Dominion forces. With the reinforcements gone and Federation and Klingon forces on their way, the Dominion abandoned the station. (DS9: "Favor the Bold", "Sacrifice of Angels")

After the return to Federation control, DS9 became the headquarters of the combined allied Ninth Fleet. (DS9: "You Are Cordially Invited")

For the remainder of the war, DS9 functioned as a major repair and resupply depot for Starfleet, Klingon, and later, Romulan forces. In addition, the major offenses that culminated in the First Battle of Chin'toka and the Battle of Cardassia were launched from DS9. (DS9: "Tears of the Prophets", "What You Leave Behind")

Post-war

In 2376, the crew of Deep Space 9 predicted that a pulsar would pass close to the MIDAS array. Lieutenant Reginald Barclay of the Pathfinder Project fired a tachyon beam at the pulsar, resulting in a micro-wormhole which allowed brief contact with the USS Voyager in the Delta Quadrant. (VOY: "Pathfinder")

Station layout

DS9 MSD

Deep Space 9's master systems display

Deep Space 9's structure was unusual by Federation standards, classified by Starfleet as a "hybrid planar-columnar triradial structure". Its basic form consisted of a central core assembly containing most primary systems, connected by crossover bridges to a series of two concentric rings for habitat and docking facilities, and a series of three sweeping pylons containing ore-processing and additional docking facilities. The station had at least five transporter rooms. (DS9: "Things Past")

In 2369 Kira Nerys suggested that the Klaestrons must be allies with the Cardassians because they knew about the station layout of Deep Space 9 and must have received that information from them. (DS9: "Dax")

Rick Sternbach blueprinted the visual effects miniature with a conceptual diameter of approximately 3,600 feet (1,100 meters), but the visual effects department later increased it to 5,280 feet (precisely one mile or 1,609.344 meters). In Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Technical Manual, Sternbach compromised at 1,451.82 meters (4,763.19 feet), although the new size matches only Doug Drexler's images of the exterior in the book, not his cutaways which depict a smaller station.[1]

Central core

Deep Space 9 ops 2369

Operations center

The central core was a roughly cylindrical structure consisting of several terraced platforms containing various key facilities. At the extreme dorsal end of the core was the operations center and the subspace communications antennae, as well as the deflector shield generators. Below this assembly was the three-level Promenade, a public area for commerce and recreation. The Promenade also housed the station's infirmary, the security office, the Bajoran temple, and Quark's.

The lower sections of the core contained engineering and support facilities, including at least one large industrial replicator, the computer core, and multiple deuterium fuel tanks. At the extreme ventral end sat the six fusion reactors.

Command level

Station layout, Babel

A station layout of the command level

The command level was part of the central core of Deep Space 9. It was the primary operations center for the station, and contained primary access to all major operations of the station including science, tactical, and flight control. It also contained the office of the commanding officer.

In 2369, when Chief Miles O'Brien repaired the replicators on the command level but not the malfunctioning replicators at Quark's, Quark tried to gain access to the station layout to display all repaired replicators, but this information was restricted to security clearance five and above. Quark was able to use two isolinear rods to display the information and bypass the security code, acquiring the locations of the repaired replicators. (DS9: "Babel")

Habitat ring

Deep Space 9 crew quarters

Habitat ring quarters

Habitat ring, level five, section three

Habitat ring, level five, section three

The habitat ring was the inner ring of the station's structure, intended primarily for the housing of most of the station's semi-permanent residents. Spaced along the ring were also six landing pads, used by Starfleet's runabouts and other small craft. The station itself could accommodate seven thousand people; the station only housed three hundred in 2369. (DS9: "Captive Pursuit")

Also mounted along the habitat ring were three large protrusions, upon which a large portion of the station's armaments were mounted, as well as its tractor beams.

The habitat ring is also the place where the weapons were stored. They were located in level five, section three and restricted to security clearance seven and above. (DS9: "Captive Pursuit")

The guest quarters of the visiting Federation ambassadors Taxco, Vadosia, and Lojal were located in corridor H-12-A in the habitat ring. The ambassadors, guided by Doctor Julian Bashir, experienced a plasma surge, caused by overloading the station's computer in 2369. (DS9: "The Forsaken")

While on the station in 2375, Sarina Douglas was assigned quarters in the habitat ring, corridor H6, section 27 Epsilon. (DS9: "Chrysalis")

Docking ring

The docking ring was the outer ring of the station's structure, and was used primarily for moving and storing goods and for starship docking facilities. Twelve large docking ports were distributed around the perimeter, and numerous cargo bays were connected to these facilities. In addition, a series of six thrusters were mounted on the edge of the ring. These thrusters were intended mainly for maintaining orbital position.

Three large, sweeping docking pylons emerged from the dorsal and ventral surfaces of the docking ring to give DS9 its characteristic spindly shape. At the extreme end of each pylon was an additional docking port (for a total of six on the pylons), which could accommodate larger starships up to those approximately the size of the Galaxy class. The majority of the pylons' internal structure was used up by ore processing facilities.

The docking ports where the docking pylons intersected the main structure had the capability of launching probes. (DS9: "If Wishes Were Horses")

One of the airlocks located along the perimeter of the docking ring was airlock 17. (DS9: "The Siege")

Weapons fire directed at section 17 of the outer docking ring could cause the station to lose main power to the shields. (DS9: "Call to Arms")

A51

Rom at the A51service hatch

Rom attempting to access the A51 hatch

A51 was a restricted area aboard Deep Space 9 that housed the station's deflector array controls and several EPS conduits. Rom opened a service hatch labeled "A51 | Restricted Area | Authorized Personnel Only" when attempting to disable the deflector array before the Dominion could fire an antigraviton pulse at the self-replicating minefield that was preventing Dominion ships from coming through the wormhole. (DS9: "Behind the Lines")

The name of the restricted area was likely a nod to the restricted US Air Force Flight Test Center (commonly known as "Area 51") at Groom Lake, Nevada.

Support vessels

USS Yangtzee Kiang on launch pad

A Template:ShipClass starship assigned to Deep Space 9

Deep Space 9 had a number of support vessels on hand. From 2369 to 2375, sixteen Template:ShipClass runabouts and two Template:ShipClass starships had been assigned to Deep Space 9 at some point. Several were destroyed or lost.

During the first two years of their service, the runabouts were instrumental in the defense of the station and exploration of the Gamma Quadrant. The runabouts were even responsible, under the command of Commander Sisko and Lieutenant Dax, for the discovery of the Bajoran wormhole.

In 2371, with the threat of the Dominion becoming a concern, Starfleet Command assigned the USS Defiant to Deep Space 9. A few years later, in 2375, the Defiant was destroyed in the Second Battle of Chin'toka. On stardate 52861, Vice Admiral William Ross delivered the USS Sao Paulo to the station, albeit a little late. This caused Captain Sisko to comment that was "...no way to start a relationship." Starfleet Operations also gave Captain Sisko special dispensation to rename the Sao Paulo to Defiant. (DS9: "The Search, Part I", "The Changing Face of Evil", "The Dogs of War")

Active support vessels

USS Rio Grande

The USS Rio Grande in 2375

Former support vessels

USS Defiant in 2375

The original USS Defiant in 2375, shortly before its destruction

Appendices

Appearances

References

See also

Background information

The station's original name, Terok Nor, was first referred to in "Cardassians".

The scripts of the six-part war arc in season six always referred to DS9 as Terok Nor.

According to Star Trek: Star Charts, on page 43, in 2369, the station moved from a geosynchronous orbit around the planet Bajor to a solar orbit around the star Bajor (B'hava'el) shortly after it was recommissioned as Deep Space 9.

Designing the station (exterior)

The task of designing the space station Deep Space 9 – which had to be a new, iconic and alien-looking image that could be quickly recognized when seen on a small television screen – was a long, involved process that took several different directions before evolving into the final design we now take for granted.

Production designer Herman Zimmerman was the man assigned to come up with this fresh and unique look that would be the centerpiece of the next Star Trek show to follow The Next Generation. Zimmerman was given three months in which to design the station, a huge amount of time in comparative terms insofar as the normal amount of time to design something like this for a TV show is about two to three weeks.

According to Mike Okuda, one of the first things that the producers said to him about the basic design of the station was that "they wanted it not to look Starfleet, they wanted it to look weird." (Deep Space Nine: A Bold Beginning, DS9 Season 1 DVD special features)

One of the earliest ideas for the station was that it was to be a Tower of Babel-type structure which had been built up by many different cultures over many centuries, all using different technology, and that each part of the station was to have a different layout to every other part.

The final design was arrived at when Rick Berman saw a gyroscope-type design by Zimmerman, and suggested "breaking" the hoops at the top and bottom.

Deep Space 9 model

The original model of DS9

The physical model of Deep Space 9 was designed by Herman Zimmerman and Rick Sternbach. Contributing artists included Ricardo Delgado, Joseph Hodges, Nathan Crowley, Jim Martin, Rob Legato, Gary Hutzel, Mike Okuda, and executive producer Rick Berman. The original six-foot diameter model was built by Tony Meininger.

The model of Deep Space 9 (Lot #493) was sold at the 40 Years of Star Trek: The Collection auction on October 6, 2006 for US$132,000, including the buyer's premium (the winning bid was US$110,000).

The station was the very last model in the series to be replaced with an CGI model, which occurred in the very last pullback scene in "What You Leave Behind"; up until then, all footage shown of the station was of the physical studio model. The CG model was built at Station X Studios by Meni Tsirbas. David Stipes recalled, "Meni had created a Deep Space Nine station several years ago, and we talked at different times, but this was the chance to get involved. This was their one and only shot, but it's the final pay-off shot, and it's really beautiful. He's such a brilliant artist. It's all being done on LightWave, and it's great. The live action footage of Kira and Jake was "projected" by the LightWave software onto a polygon surface that was placed in the window of the CG DS9 station. We pull out of the DS9 window, until the station turns into a star. It's quite spectacular, because it's about 50 seconds long. That's the end of the show." (Cinefantastique,Vol.32, No.4/5, page 91)

The Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Technical Manual asserts that Deep Space 9 was equipped with Type-IX, -X, and -XI phasers. The Type-XIs were said to have been installed into retractable platforms stowed in the habitat ring. They make their first appearance in "The Way of the Warrior". The job of designing this new weaponry fell to the recently hired illustrator John Eaves. Herman Zimmerman gave Eaves detailed schematics of the station, and told him to find surface points where there were no moving parts, windows or existing weaponry, and to design never-before-seen, but plausible, phaser arrays and torpedo launchers to be positioned in such places.

Designing the station (interior)

Promenade Concept Art showing Monorail

An early design sketch of the Promenade, featuring a monorail

Early Ops concept art 1

Early ops concept art

As Herman Zimmerman explains, "Having determined what the outside of the station was going to look like, then we had an enormous job making the interior sets to match what the exterior looked like, so that believably, we were inside this alien, bizarre, highly technical and not necessarily understood by our Starfleet personnel, space station." (Deep Space Nine: A Bold Beginning, DS9 Season 1 DVD special features).

Zimmerman designed a list of ground rules about the look of the interiors: Cardassians like geometric symmetry, they prefer circles to squares or ovals, they like things in groups of three, and they favor dark colors (especially khakis and dark green).

Apocrypha

In book one of the Millennium trilogy, Deep Space 9 is destroyed when a second Celestial Temple (a Pah-wraith wormhole) is opened inside Quark's, beginning a horrific chain of events that sees the near extinction of several of Star Trek's most notable races (specifically, the Klingons, Cardassians, and Humans), along with the destruction of Earth, the USS Enterprise-E, the Federation, and the universe itself. However, the timeline is repaired thanks to Benjamin Sisko and the crew of Deep Space 9, who manage to disrupt the formation of the second wormhole by causing a Cardassian ship from the present to collide with a Klingon ship from that alternate future while inside the red wormhole, resulting in the wormhole being disrupted while DS9 and the temporally-relocated Defiant exit from the traditional wormhole.

In Star Trek: Legacy, Deep Space 9 appeared in one mission, during a Borg invasion of the Bajor system. In the game, Deep Space 9 was seen orbiting Bajor like it did in (DS9: "Emissary"), possibly suggesting that the station moved back to Bajor after the Dominion War from the Bajoran wormhole.

During the events of Plagues of Night the station explodes by a series of bombs placed around the various reactor cores. At this time, the perpetrator is unknown. Those on the station include Kira Nerys, Kassidy Yates-Sisko, and Ro Laren. It was established in Raise the Dawn that the station was destroyed- although only around a thousand people died out of the over six thousand present on the station at the time, none of them major characters- and Starfleet Command will build a replacement station with the same name based on Federation designs.

In Star Trek Online, Deep Space Nine appears as a main hub for players to interact at by the Bajoran Sector. It is one of two social hubs in the game where the two opposite factions, the Klingons and the Federation, can interact without combat. Deep Space Nine also serves as a Hub for Endgame play for the game. The station is now commanded by Captain James Kurland, with Commander Karen Andrews as first officer and the Klingon representative and Omega Force leader being Admiral D'Vak, son of Alexander Roshenko

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