Cause of Death and Wormwood by Marlissa Campell (PG-13)

[oceloty.livejournal.com]

Fandom: STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE
Pairing: none
Length: 7500 words (Cause of Death) and 325k (Wormwood)
Author on LJ:  plaguedocs 
Author Website: Some of author's DS9 Fic archived at Trekiverse
Why this must be read:

Ten years is a long time in fandom, but Wormwood and its "spin-off" story, Cause of Death, are still worth reading. Both are set shortly after the retaking of DS9 and deal with the fallout of the station's fall to and recapture from the Dominion.  Both stories provide a close, thoughtful examination of the characters left behind on the station and the consequences of hard choices. The prose is crisp and elegant, and even the long Wormwood moves briskly.

Cause of Death is a short but dense explanation of reasons Ziyal's death as those who knew her struggle to come to terms not only with her loss but with those reasons. Though narrated by Bashir, the story focuses on how Kira, Dukat, and Quark deal with the ways in which their actions contributed to the death of an innocent.

Wormwood is a long and twisty parallel tale of what happens  when Starfleet sends a forensic psychiatrist to evaluate Gul Dukat. There are some highly charged encounters between Dukat and Kira, seen through the perspective of the story's narrator, the psychiatrist.  Without giving too much away, the story brilliantly captures the seductive allure of Dukat's madness ... or it is evil? It's a question the story asks well, leaving the reader to find the answer.

Cause of Death

Wormwood