I don't own Star Trek Deep Space Nine.
Enjoy.
Friends no more.
"It's a bad treaty. The Federation gave away too much."
As he sat in his office, Commander Ben Sisko didn't know what was worse; the fact the Federation had likely created a monster out of the treaty they had created out of desperation with the Cardassians to ensure the peace was ensured, or the fact so many people including his old friend Cal Hutchinson had joined them.
The Maquis.
They had certainly made an impression. Already there were many jungle drums in Starfleet HQ banging themselves to death as the admiralty were now ordering ships to pursue and capture the Maquis ships they encountered on their patrols of the DMZ; Sisko wasn't entirely sure if that would work, and contrary to what the bitch Nechayev believed, the Maquis were not stupid. Cal had been a veteran Starfleet officer and if he had deserted his post as a Starfleet officer then others likely had as well since the Maquis was giving them something to believe in, or they had family and friends in the DMZ to fight for.
But truthfully there had been dozens of protests against the treaty from Starfleet officers and civilians who had fought or just managed to survive the Cardassian war. They brought back stories of how dangerous and vicious the Cardassians were.
Even Kira who had never fought the Cardassians alongside Starfleet saw the treaty as a sign of Federation naivety; as a Federation citizen and a loyal Starfleet officer, Sisko had been angry at the observation, but he had to admit she could be right.
Cal as well, but Sisko couldn't understand why the colonists along the DMZ hadn't just left and found other planets to colonise. He could not understand nor work out what they hoped to achieve.
Sure, they might stir up popular support in the Federation council and rally sympathy from the populace, but he doubted they would get very far in the fight. The Cardassians and the Federation both owned and operated powerful starships; in comparison, all the Maquis had were a number of lightly armed shuttlecraft or freighters. Scarcely sharper teeth. The treaty had been negotiated slowly and while Sisko might privately have a few misgivings of it, like how the Federation had given the Cardassians quite a lot - he agreed with Cal more than Nechayev there - it had been a reasonable compromise, and it would go a long way to helping ease the Cardassians into the Federation.
The Federation Council had recommended they leave, but they hadn't. Sisko simply didn't understand why this was happening but what he was sure of was the Maquis had become a threat.
But hurt even more was how he and Cal were now no longer friends. There was little doubt in Ben's mind the Maquis and Cal would be back, and they would once more fight each other on opposite sides. But he knew Cal would never go down without a fight; Cal was like Charlie Reynold and Laporin; he not only didn't know when to quit, he was experienced with battle tactics and since most of the Federation ships sent to deal with the Maquis wouldn't expect one of them to know Starfleet tactics, Sisko suspected the Maquis would make new ones.
There should've been another way.