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| Benjamin Sisko | |
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Male |
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Black (bald) |
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Black |
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Station Commander (2369-2375) |
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USS Livingston (2358-2360) |
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Married |
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Kassidy Yates (2nd wife) |
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- For Vanguard universe counterpart, see Benjamin Sisko (Vanguard).
- "A Starfleet officer. That's what I am. And that's what I'll always be."
- — Benjamin Sisko DS9: "Way of the Warrior"
Benjamin Lafayette Sisko is a very famous Starfleet officer in the 24th century. He is widely known for being the base commander of Station Deep Space 9 during the period when the Bajoran wormhole was discovered, First Contact with the Founders was made, and the Dominion War occurred. He is also famous for his exploits as the concurrent commanding officer of the Defiant-class prototype, the USS Defiant, and the crucial role he and the sturdy ship played in retaking DS9, in the Second Battle of Chin'Toka, and the Battle of Cardassia Prime, which won the war against the Dominion.
Early life[]
- For expanded canon information, click here.
Benjamin Sisko, or Ben, was born in 2332 in New Orleans on Earth. When Sisko was a newborn, his father who owned the renowned restaurant Sisko's Creole Kitchen, would show off his infant son to diners with one arm, and serve tables with the other, though not always successfully. Sisko had a younger sister, Judith, and two younger brothers. When Benjamin was young, his father had him wait tables, and cut vegetables for the famous Gumbo dish--but his father took the recipe to his grave.
Starfleet Academy[]
- For expanded canon information, click here.
Sisko entered Starfleet Academy in the year 2350. He was nicknamed "Dead-Eye" at the Academy since he was the best shot there, able to bounce a phaser beam off a mirror and still hit the target, though he admitted later on that this was a bit exaggerated.
In 2351, Sisko was the captain of the Academy's wrestling team and served his sophomore field study at Starbase 137. One cadet Sisko knew at the Academy was Laporin, a Benzenite.
Cal Hudson[]
While at the Academy, Sisko met and befriended fellow Cadet Cal Hudson, who shared his love of baseball and ambition to make captain by 30 and admiral by 40. They once shared a trip to the Mazurka Festival on New Berlin with the Hudsons; ironically, Gretchen Hudson died within the first year of Sisko's stint on DS9. Sisko and Hudson remained close for many years until the Maquis crisis of 2370 forced them to part ways.
Curzon Dax[]
In 2353, Sisko had not yet graduated from the Academy yet when he was assigned to Pelios Station as an Ensign. It was there that young Sisko first met Ambassador Curzon Dax, a joined Trill and Federation official who became his mentor through many years and assignments. When the two first met , a woman named Anastasia was somehow involved. Curzon had attended his wedding and wild bachelor party as well. They toured the cliffs of Bole together, and often visited Risa. A perpetual womanizer, Curzon joined him as a first-rate carouser at least until Sisko's late 20s, well after the birth of Sisko's first born. Sisko would later consider the "Old Man" Curzon to be both a mentor and a second father. figure.
Jennifer Sisko[]
Shortly after graduation from the Academy in 2354, Sisko met his future wife Jennifer at Gilgo Beach on Earth while awaiting his first assignment. They soon grew serious about their relationship and got married.
In 2355, while Ben was on paternity leave from his first posting on New Berlin, Jennifer gave birth to the couple's only child, Jacob Isaac Sisko, or Jake, at a Starfleet Medical facility in San Francisco. After Jake's birth, Sisko and Curzon recalled their best family trip ever was camping on Itamish III. Sisko and Curzon served some months together on the USS Livingston in the 2350s.
Early Starfleet Career[]
In 2358, Sisko served on board the USS Livingston as a junior science officer, under Captain Grady Howard, with the rank of Lieutenant. On the ship, he was reunited with the joined Trill Curzon Dax, who he had previously met on Pelios station. Sisko's work was constantly double checked by the first officer of the Livingston, Commander Chakotay. This annoyed Sisko from time to time. Sisko later found out that Chakotay was looking at his work only because he was impressed with Sisko's detailed observations.
In 2360, Sisko was serving as a Lieutenant in the Engineering section of the USS Okinawa under Captain James Leyton when, at Curzon's urging, Sisko accepted a temporary assignment to Starfleet Intelligence under Admiral Nyota Uhura.
The assignment saw Sisko in command of an undercover team deep within the borders of the Romulan Star Empire. It was after this assignment that Sisko switched from Engineering to Command.
After his return to the Okinawa, Sisko became a veteran of the Federation-Tzenkethi War as a Lieutenant and then a Lieutenant commander under Capt. Leyton. Leyton promoted him in rank to become his executive officer, and helped nurture his career beyond a basic interest in engineering and ship design.
Battle Wolf 359[]
- For expanded canon information, click here.
By 2367, Sisko was a Lieutenant commander and the executive officer of the Miranda-class starship USS Saratoga, when that ship was lost fighting the Borg at the Battle of Wolf 359. Jennifer Sisko, his wife, was killed in that battle.
Sisko spent the next three years assigned to the Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards on Mars. Lt. Cmdr. Sisko was assigned to helping design a new starship, called the Defiant-Pathfinder project. The first design eventually became the Nova Class science vessel; the final design was the USS Defiant. During this time, Curzon Dax had died, and the Dax symbiont, with all of Curzon's memories, was transferred to a young female Starfleet Lieutenant, Jadzia Dax.
Deep Space 9[]
- For expanded canon information, click here.
In the year 2369, Sisko, now a full Commander, received new orders placing him in command of Station Deep Space 9, a Cardassian-designed space station formerly known as Terok Nor, in orbit of the recently liberated planet Bajor. Leyton, later an admiral, nominated Sisko for the DS9 post when it became open upon the withdrawal of the Cardassians. Sisko took the new posting without conviction, still not over his wife's death; his displeasure turned more solid when his send-off was done by Captain Jean-Luc Picard, who was kidnapped and for a time transformed by the Borg to lead the Wolf 359 assault.
While considering a resignation to escape the post, Sisko considered directing construction of orbital habitats on Earth — the field of astrionics he was asked to teach at the University of Vasteras in Sweden. Instead, Sisko not only decided to stay but later convinced Bajorans and Promenade merchants like Quark to stay.
Shortly after arriving in Bajoran space, Sisko met with Bajoran Kai Opaka Sulan, who told him that he was the Emissary of the Prophets, foretold in Bajoran scripture, destined to find the Celestial Temple of the Prophets, home of the Bajoran gods.
Sisko was skeptical, but soon after an encounter with the Orb of Prophecy and Change, he and Lieutenant Jadzia Dax discovered the Bajoran Wormhole, an artificially created passageway to the distant Gamma Quadrant created by the beings that the Bajorans consider to be gods.
Sisko's comfort level in his role at DS9 and as a religious icon to Bajor has gradually developed as he had grown comfortable in both roles. Gul Skrain Dukat, the former commander of DS9, once called him the most joyless and least vulnerable human he's met — a compliment that was eventually rescinded. Torn between the important joint subspace relay project with Cardassia and the looming chance it might be a foretold catastrophe of Bajoran prophesy, he went ahead with a risky save that not only allowed the relay to work but fulfilled the prophecy in a different way. The incident left him more open and reflective about other prophecies regarding the Emissary, whose arrival was now celebrated annually as the Ha'mara. He sat in for the ailing Bareil during the secret Bajoran-Cardassian peace talks on DS9, but refused Kai Winn's later request for Starfleet Security troops or aid during her hunt for the fugitive Shakaar, based on the Prime Directive.
Kira Nerys[]
Sisko requested a Bajoran national for the position of executive officer, and the post was given to former Bajoran freedom fighter Kira Nerys, who was staunchly against the Federation's presence on Bajor, believing the Federation to be little different from her former Cardassian oppressors. He initially butted heads with Kira and Odo, the Changeling Chief of Security of DS9, including a case where Kira went over his head to communicate directly with Starfleet, but he grew to value their opinions and abilities as time passed. It wasn't until Kira discovered that Sisko was supposedly the Emissary, that she gave the Federation a chance. Sisko has stood by Kira during her battles with the Bajoran Provisional Government and been aware of her discomfort at his dual role as her religion's "Emissary." Likewise, he has defended Odo's performance from past criticism by Starfleet regulars, and refused to desert him more than once.
Jadzia Dax[]
It is certainly with Jadzia Dax that Sisko has the most history. He still calls her Curzon's "old man" nickname and continues their friendship as one of many years, despite Dax's new outward form — a rare break for Trills who usually are barred from such re-association. He and Dax lost touch after Jennifer's death early in 2367; Curzon slowly slid into death and Dax was joined to Jadzia later that year. He hated to see her go to be with the Meridians, but unlike Curzon, he knew she'd thought it through. He never thought he'd get used to the "new Dax," but he threatened to turn Trill society upside-down by revealing the Joran scandal after the long quest with Bashir to save Jadzia's life. After taking the risk of embodying the murderous Joran for Dax's zhian'tara, he counseled her not to let Curzon manipulate her again in Odo's form. In return, Dax may have a latent attraction to him, since under the effects of Lwaxana Troi's Zanthi fever, she can't keep away from him.
The Dominion[]
In late 2370, Sisko discovered the existence of the Dominion, a dictatorial power based in the Gamma Quadrant. Sisko led a mission into the Gamma Quadrant commanding the USS Defiant in search of the Dominion's leaders, the Founders. The Founders turned out to be of the same race as DS9's shape-shifting Chief of Security, Odo.
In 2371, the mirror universe counterpart of chief petty officer Miles O'Brien, DS9's Chief of Operations, kidnapped Sisko to his own universe. There, Sisko posed as his own mirror counterpart, in an attempt to convince the mirror version of his wife, Jennifer Sisko, to join the Terran Rebellion. Sisko's experience from the regular universe proved invaluable in this mission, and Jennifer joined the Rebellion. Although Sisko and O'Brien were careful not to disclose Sisko's true identity, the truth later became common knowledge to the members of the Rebellion.
The Dominion War[]
- For expanded canon information, click here.
In late 2373, when war broke out with the Dominion (and their new Cardassian allies), Sisko and Starfleet were forced to temporarily abandon the Bajoran sector and DS9. He and his crew were subsequently stationed in Starbase 375, where he was made Adjutant to Vice admiral William Ross and the newly promoted Lieutenant commander Jadzia Dax was made acting commanding officer of the USS Defiant.
Sisko later led the combined fleet that retook DS9 and the Bajoran sector, but it was only the intervention of the Prophets, acting at the behest of their Emissary, that truly dealt a crippling blow to the Dominion when they "eliminated" an armada of over 2,000 Jem'Hadar warships inside the wormhole in just a wink of an eye. During this engagement, Commander Jaryd Harker sacrificed his own starship, the Twilight, so that the Defiant was free to continue on to DS9. (Twilight was towed back to Earth for a major refit, so Admiral Nyota Uhura promoted Harker to captain, and transferred Harker and his crew to the new USS Odyssey, a Sovereign Class starship. Harker was then permanently assigned to Captain Sisko for the duration of the war.)
In 2374, Sisko was responsible for bringing the forces of the Romulan Star Empire into the war against the Dominion. Although Sisko violated several Starfleet regulations in this endeavor, the Admiralty was reluctant to sanction Sisko, fearing reprisals from the Romulans.
When the Dominion War ended in late 2375, Sisko led the charge into Cardassian space for the final battle. Shortly thereafter, the peace treaty was signed on DS9. Sisko averted an assassination attempt on the female Changeling, who commanded the Dominion War effort in the Alpha Quadrant, by Section 31.
Ascension[]
Shortly thereafter, Sisko ascended to the plane of the Prophets, but not before promising his pregnant second wife, Kassidy Yates, that he would return. Colonel Kira Nerys assumed command of DS9 after his departure.
Sisko was allowed to return to the physical world sometime in the later 24th century, because the Prophets believed that chaos was coming that would threaten the very fabric of the universe, and they sent the Emissary back because they believed that the Bajorans, who had begun to forsake the Prophets for the humanistic ideologies of the Federation, were bringing this doom upon themselves by forgetting them.
In the linear timeline, while still residing with the Prophets, in April of 2376, Sisko appeared to Kira Nerys in a dream and to Elias Vaughn in an orb experience.
Later Sisko encountered Commander Elias Vaughn, new executive officer of DS9, who was having another orb experience courtesy of the Orb of Unity. Sisko and Vaughn helped each other return to linear existence in time to save Bajor from the threat of the alien Parasites infecting Bajor.
Return to DS9[]
Sisko returned to DS9 in early 2377, following the brutal attack on Captain Kira by the Jem'Hadar observer, Taran'atar. He stayed with Kira, and upon her emergence from a coma, broke the news that Dr. Julian Bashir, DS9's chief medical officer, was forced to replace her heart to save her life.
Sisko returned just in time for the birth of his daughter, Rebecca Jae Sisko, called the Avatar of Peace in the ancient writings of the Bajoran heretic Ohalu.
After his return, Sisko turned down a promotion to Rear admiral (lower grade), and enjoyed an extended leave of absence from Starfleet.
Sisko later spent time with his wife and daughter in his home on Bajor preparing for the return to Bajoran space of the mysterious Ascendants.
Starfleet performance evaluation[]
Sisko, an avid baseball fan, attended the opening day for the Pike City Pioneers of the Cestus Baseball League on Cestus III in 2378. There, he met then-governor and would-be Federation President, Nanietta Bacco.
Sisko’s one-time ambitions to make admiral as soon as possible have yielded to his realization that he's more suited to making decisions work than just making them — a prime reason for his success as a "builder" at DS9 and for Bajoran-Federation relations, along with defending against external threats such as the Dominion, the Maquis, and other alien powers.
Sisko is very much proud of his New Orleans upbringing, where his father was a gourmet chef and insisted the family dine together to try out his new dishes. Sisko had worked summers in his father's restaurant, simply called Sisko's, where he had a job by age 15.
Sisko does have a temper and is usually unswerable when his mind is made up. He carries a small scar on his lower lip from the impact of a ring where Curzon decked him after he took on an Argosian Lieutenant. As a junior officer on VIP escort, he once slugged a visiting ambassador for sexually harassing a female ensign. When perturbed in surprise he often utters an odd yipping sound.
Sisko maintains a healthy recreational life, led by his inherited love of cooking, especially Cajun, and occasionally prepares a hands-on meal for the staff; an old recipe for Creole shrimp is how he finally got to know Jake's onetime girlfriend Marta, his poetry and dom-jot talents. He also cooks Hungarian food when in a good mood. His usual drink on duty is coffee — more specifically the Klingon variety, raktajino — especially first thing in the morning; even Dukat knows about it. Kira could set her watch by it during his first year.
Sisko collects ancient African art and after two years finally brought it to DS9. In 2371, Sisko threw himself into the project of building by hand and flying an ancient Bajoran solar-sail craft with Jake with a zest not seen since he built Jake's nursery — and wound up proving a Bajoran legend about early contact with Cardassia.
His love of baseball includes a holo-program of famous stars, including his hero Buck Bokai, and a baseball kept on display on his desk; when playing, he's a right-handed pitcher. He also keeps up with soccer, but he has no bluff in poker and is outclassed by O'Brien and Bashir in darts. He does play 2-D and 3-D chess, often with Dax. Befitting the crossroads culture of his command, he's been reading up on the Ferengi Rules of Acquisition as of his third year on the station, and hosted a Gratitude Dinner during the same-named Bajoran festival in 2371.
Sisko is an exemplary commander in the hot spot at DS9, although at times he has shown a streak of stubborn independence that has defied orders yet carried the day in the long run. He disobeyed direct orders to stay at DS9 during the Romulan-Cardassian covert invasion of the Dominion, and risked the Defiant to retrieve Odo anyway; at another time he delayed delivery of a Jem'Hadar youth until he made his escape, trusting in Odo's belief the boy could be raised against his genetic programming to fight. In still another instance, he liberally interpreted the word "evacuate" during the Bajoran coup threat to delay the withdrawal of his forces.
When trapped in the 21st century's Bell Riots, he risked his life to assume the identity of prematurely killed riot namesake Gabriel Bell and even took a bullet in the shoulder to preserve the timeline after he and Doctor Bashir's accidental arrival. Sisko has also made a bit of history in 2371 as the first sponsor of a Ferengi cadet to Starfleet Academy, Rom's son and Jake's friend Nog — but not before putting the boy to the test.
While Sisko's direct intervention to rescue Cardassia's civilian Detepa Council may have been questionable with Klingons nearing Cardassia Prime, along with the unauthorized use of the cloaking device, his heavily re-armed station helped persuade Gowron that division among Alpha Quadrant powers is exactly what the Dominion Founders want.
Sisko has risked his life on more than one occasion in the line of duty, including working from the Cardassian War Room to retrieved the Defiant when stolen by Tom Riker of the Maquis, then negotiating for the release of hostage Kira, the ship and its Maquis crew in return for surrendering their leader without the customary death sentence in store. He was also ready to self-destruct the Defiant rather than let it start another war with the Tzenkethi as part of a Founders sabotage.
External links[]
- Benjamin Sisko article at Memory Alpha, the canon Star Trek wiki.
- Benjamin Sisko article at Memory Beta, the non-canon Star Trek wiki.
- Benjamin Sisko article at Star Trek Expanded Universe.