A Stitch in Time is a Star Trek: Deep Space Nine novel by Andrew J. Robinson. It was initially published in 2000, with an audiobook release, narrated by the author, released in 2023. The novel takes the form of Garak's reminiscences on his past and his life on post-war Cardassia.
Description
- For nearly a decade Garak has longed for just one thing—to go home. Exiled on a space station, surrounded by aliens who loathe and distrust him, going back to Cardassia has been Garak's one dream. Now, finally, he is home. But home is a world whose landscape is filled with death and destruction. Desperation and dust are constant companions and luxury is a glass of clean water and a warm place to sleep.
- Ironically, it is a letter from one of the aliens on that space station, Dr. Julian Bashir, that inspires Garak to look at the fabric of his life. Elim Garak has been a student, a gardener, a spy, an exile, a tailor, even a liberator. It is a life that was charted by the forces of Cardassian society with very little understanding of the person, and even less compassion.
- But it is the tailor that understands who Elim Garak was, and what he could be. It is the tailor who sees the ruined fabric of Cardassia, and who knows how to bring this ravaged society back together. This is strange, because a tailor is the one thing Garak never wanted to be. But it is the tailor whom both Cardassia and Elim Garak need. It is the tailor who can put the pieces together, who can take a stitch in time.
Summary
- "My dear Doctor..."
Elim Garak writes Doctor Bashir a letter and attaches his journals chronicling his life from childhood to a return from exile to Cardassia. The tale is written by Garak in an outbuilding next to the ruins of Enabran Tain's former home, in which Garak has taken residence. Much of the letter was written during Garak's time on Terok Nor/Deep Space 9.
Part One
Looking back from his present experience as a volunteer in an emergency med unit on Dominion-decimated Cardassia, Garak recalls his involvement in the invasion of Cardassia during the Dominion War. He reflects on his childhood and his development into the person he has now become.
On Deep Space 9, during preparations for the impending invasion of Cardassia, Garak debates Cardassia's future with Doctor Bashir and Odo and takes out his frustrations on a flustered customer in his shop. Later, he engages a large Klingon in Quark's who was molesting a dabo girl, Tir Remara, who was a friend of the late Tora Ziyal. A chase through the Jefferies tubes results in the Klingon getting stuck and suffering from acute claustrophobia. Feeling sympathy for the Klingon, Garak keeps him company until he is freed.
On Cardassia, as Garak comes to the end of his childhood at the Age of Emergence, he is sponsored by an unknown benefactor to begin his education as a security operative at the Bamarren Institute for State Intelligence. After a somewhat lacklustre start at the Institute, Garak soon gains a reputation for being a skilled student, so much so that the powerful and charismatic One Charaban asks him to help with the strategy for an important mock battle between third and second level students. The battle ends in a great success, and Garak readies himself to bask in the glow of that success. Instead, Garak is betrayed by One Charaban, and he returns to solitude for much of the remainder of the first level. At the end of the first three years of schooling, he goes to the lower prefect's office for a status review, hoping that his efforts and reputation would ensure that he could move up from the lowly Ten position in his group. Instead he finds himself in the company of Enabran Tain, who informs him he will not be progressing to the second level, but will instead be reassigned to another school. Garak briefly says his goodbyes to the few friends he has at the Institute and leaves the next day.
Part Two
On post-war Cardassia, Garak takes to arranging the rubble of Tain's home into ornate patterns. Unlike most of his neighbours, he has no intention of rebuilding the house, but instead dedicates his constructions of rubble as a memorial for his mother Mila, whose corpse lies in the basement below, and for all the other Cardassians who perished in the Dominion war’s departing blow. In the meantime, the emergency medical unit with which he is involved is converted into a burial unit. After having already saved anyone left alive, the volunteers are now tasked with the grim task of disposing of the billions of corpses of those who did not survive.
Weeks before, the invasion of Cardassia was a failure, and Garak returns to Deep Space 9 where he helps the Federation crack Cardassian codes for the war effort. He has a continuing relationship with Tir Remara, who turns out to be a terrorist planning to kill Garak in a misplaced mission of vengeance against Cardassia. Garak leaves the station with Kira on a mission to Cardassia to join the resistance.
In his youth, after leaving Bamarren, Garak returns to his childhood home to work with Tolan, the man he believes to be his father. Tolan gives Garak his first glimpse of the unorthodox teachings of the Oralian Way. Garak is taken by his mother to the Obsidian Order to begin his work as a junior probe. His first mission is to Tohvun III to disrupt peace talks with the Federation. While there, his mission partner, Maladek, attempts to defect, but Garak manages to prevent his defection by convincing a Federation operative, Hans Jordt, that Maladek is unreliable, thereby maintaining their cover story for the operation and disrupting the talks.
Garak's missions for the Order continue to take him further from Cardassia for longer and longer periods of time. Tolan dies, telling Garak the truth of his parentage on his death bed and leaving Garak his Hebitian mask and a bag of Edosian Orchid tubers. Garak takes up residence in various homes throughout Cardassia City, leaving crops of Edosian Orchids in his wake. Around this time, he also reencounters Palandine (now the wife of Barkan Lokar) and the two eventually begin an illicit affair.
Garak is dispatched to Romulus, where he takes on the identity of Elim Vronok, a gardener at the Cardassian Embassy. His mission is to assassinate Tain's arch-nemesis, proconsul Merrok. To do so, the Romulan Senator Pelek requests his services to try and grow the Edosian Orchid in her arboretum, which they could then pollinate with the White Star of Night to create a deadly toxic bloom. After three months cultivating the delicate orchid, Garak and Pelek's Gardener Crenal take the orchids to be planted in Merrok’s garden. Two days later, Merrok is found dead.
In a later operation, Garak worked with Pythas Lok (his best friend Eight Lubak at Bamarren) in an operation to bring down The Brotherhood (a group of powerful political and military families) by interrogating Procal Dukat. Procal resists Garak and attacks him, resulting in Dukat's death at Garak's hand.
Shortly after, Tain has a discussion with Garak, before retiring from the Order and instating Pythas Lok as the new leader. Garak was implicated in Dukat's death, and furthermore , Tain was aware of Garak's affair with Palandine. He orders Garak to end the affair and to kill Lokar to maintain his cover as an Obsidian Order operative. He also demotes Garak back down to junior probe status.
Garak defies Tain's instructions and goes to see Palandine anyway. He is captured by Lokar and awakens to find himself being beaten, the prelude to a military interrogation. Lokar orders his men to leave them alone, and begins to interrogate and beat Garak himself. In the end, Garak kills Lokar.
Part Three
Garak finds himself stationed on Terok Nor, where Skrain Dukat, wishing to humiliate Garak as vengeance for his father’s death, assigns him the role of tailor, repairing the garments of the station’s two thousand residents. He is, at first, resistant, and he spends a great deal of time "preparing" the shop until Dukat threatens to have him working alongside the Bajoran slaves in the mining operations.
Garak arranges for Quark to supply him with the necessary equipment and decides to take his punishment as a challenge, determined to become a vital element of Terok Nor. The business develops quickly and Garak is soon charging high prices for his repair work and begins to design clothing for sale.
Cardassian reign over Bajor comes to an end and overnight, nearly all the Cardassians leave the station, leaving Garak on the newly rechristened Deep Space 9 - a lone Cardassian amongst Bajorans and the Federation, exiled indefinitely.
On post-war Cardassia, Garak attends a meeting of the Directorate, a political group forming in the hope of restoring Cardassia to its former glory . He quickly realizes he is in the wrong place and leaves. Tensions heighten when Directorate cronies start to dismantle Garak's memorial, but Garak and his associates in the Reunion Project, a countering political movement headed by one of Garak's peers at Bamarren, Alon Ghemor, resist. They had prepared for such an act of sabotage, and the local community soon surrounds the memorial site in peaceful protest, refusing to fight, and remaining until the tension drives off the members of the Directorate.
The two parties eventually agree to hold a democratic vote in each sector of the city to establish an electoral system that reflects the wishes of the Cardassian people’. Voting in the Pedar Sector takes place in Garak's memorial, which had become a prominent public space in the recovering city. Just prior to the vote, Garak manages to re-establish contact with Pythas Lok. Pythas suggests Garak look to the Oralian Way in the search for Palandine's fate.
The Reunion Project wins the majority of the vote in four out of six of the sectors and a democratic government is formed. Garak takes to attending Oralian Way meetings, which are growing in popularity as they are no longer forbidden. Kel, Palandine's daughter, has become a prominent figure in the religion, but Garak has yet to work up the courage to approach her and ask about her mother.
References
Characters
- Astraea • Julian Bashir • Bornar • Calyx • Two Charaban • Crenal • Nal Dejar • Procal Dukat • Skrain Dukat • Rokan Du'Lam • Corbin Entek • Aman Evek • Elim Garak • Tolan Garak • Alon Ghemor • Hadar • Jabara • Hans Jordt • Kira Nerys • Kronim • Pythas Lok • Barkan Lokar • Kel Lokar • Krim Lokar • Londar Parva • One Lubak • Two Lubak • Three Lubak • Six Lubak • Seven Lubak • Madred • Maladek • Mahmoud • Merrok • Toral Merrok • Mila • Korbath Mondrig • Morn • Miles O'Brien • Malyn Ocett • Odo • Oonal • Palandine • Kelas Parmak • Parn • Pelek • Limor Prang • Quark • Rilon • Rom • Saurik • Benjamin Sisko • Enabran Tain • Tameenar • One Tarnel • Mindur Timot • Tir Remara • Toran
- Referenced only
- Tret Akleen • Asha • Maran Bry • Byla • Corat Damar • Ezri Dax • Jadzia Dax • Erud • Vic Fontaine • Tekeny Ghemor • Hippocrates • Jack • Karn • Joran Kine • Kira Taban • Koval • Natima Lang • Leeta • Draban Lokar • Turat Lokar • Martok • Minok • Oralius • Cylon Pareg • Jean-Luc Picard • Revok • William Shakespeare • Tahna Los • Tir Berin • Tir Karna • Tora Ziyal • Weyoun • Worf
Locations
- Akleen Sector • Alpha Quadrant • Archival Center • Ba'aten Peninsula • Barvonok Sector • Blind Moon • Cardassia • Cardassia • Cardassia City • Cardassia II • Coranum Sector • Deep Space 9/Terok Nor • Diplomatic Service building • Garak's Clothiers • Hall of Records • Institute for State Policy • Lakarian City • Mandara • Mandara Valley • Mekar Wilderness • Morfan Province • Morfan Sea • Munda'ar Sector • Paldar Sector • Promenade • Quark's • Romulus • Tarlak Sector • Taluvian Constellation • Tohvun III • Torr Sector
- Referenced only
- Arawak Colony • Arawath colony • Badlands • Barzan wormhole • Boltar War Memorial • Celtris III • Chin'toka system • Corillion Nebula • Dorvan V • Hall of Memories • Kobixine • Kora II • Lamenda Prime • Loval • Mihan settlement house • Orias III • Prime moon wormhole • Rogarin Province • Singha • Singha refugee camp • Tzenketh
Starships and vehicles
- Referenced only
- Galor-class (shuttle) • Romulan warbird
Races and cultures
- Bajoran • Cardassian • Changeling • Ferengi • Hebitian • Human • Klingon • Romulan • Vulcan
States and organizations
- Bajoran Occupational Government • Bamarren Institute for State Intelligence • Brotherhood • Cardassian Central Command • Cardassian Empire • Cardassian Science Ministry • Cardassian Union • Charaban • Civil Service Institute • Civilian Assembly • Directorate • Dominion • Drabar • Federation Starfleet • Furtan • Ketay • Khon-Ma • Lubak • Obsidian Order • Oralian Way • Ramaklan • Reunion Project • Romulan Star Empire • "Sons of Tain" • Tal Shiar • United Federation of Planets
- Referenced only
- Bureau of Alien Affairs • Maquis
Science and classification
- air • assault probe • Black Death • cloaking device • cranial implant • energy • enhancer • escape pod • holosuite • information chip • lung • probe • time • uridium • volcano • wormhole
Lifeforms
- animal • brangwa • Edosian orchid • gum tree • honge • indigo sunsearcher • Mekarian sawtooth • plaktar • plant • regnar • riding hound • Romiian striker • sandworm • sleg corgan • starlight sweetness • targ • tortubial • white star of night
Ranks and titles
- archon • Chief Archon • constable • dabo girl • docent • doctor • First Prefect • general • Guide for the Oralian Way • gul • legate • Lower Prefect • major • prefect • senator • soldier • student • terrorist
Other references
- Age of Emergence • angel • arboretum • Bamarren saber • bar • baseball • basketball • Battle of Cardassia • boxing • cane • Cardassia Forever • Cardassian Institutes of Higher Education • Cardassian language • Choban tea • city • Competition • cricket • crinox • dabo • dabo wheel • darts • day • desert • Dominion War • Earl Grey • empire • Eternal Stranger • fabric • Federation-Cardassian War • First Battle of Chin'toka • football • Foundations of Cardassian Law • garden • glass • Habburitic Code • Hamlet • Hebitian Records • history • I'danian spice pudding • Jeffries tube • Julian Bashir, Secret Agent • Julius Caesar • kanar • Klingon-Romulan alliance • kotra • latinum • mask • Mogrund • moon • mug • The Never-Ending Sacrifice • nightmare • Oralian recitation mask • Paean to Kunderah • parade • planet • poetry • red leaf tea • restoration cadre • rock • rokassa juice • Romulan ale • sand • soccer • Solar Winds • "Spoonhead" • storeroom • Tarkalean tea • tea • tojal • uniform • war • wheel • wood • wrestling • yamok sauce • year
Appendices
Related media
- DS9 episode: "What You Leave Behind"
- DS9 novel: Avatar, Book One - Set three months after the end of the series, in one scene Dr Bashir is seen reading a several hundred page autobiographical letter from Garak, presumably the letter which this novel consists of.
- Cardassia: The Lotus Flower (DS9 novel, in Worlds of Deep Space Nine: Volume One) - The continuing story of Garak and the Ghemor government on post-war Cardassian is told in this novel.
- The Never-Ending Sacrifice (DS9 novel) follows the story of Rugal, the Cardassian boy taken home in the events of "Cardassians", following his life through the events of the series and into the post-series period. It continues also Robinson's world-building, exploring in depth the districts he established for the capitol city in A Stitch in Time, as well as the fringes of the Cardassian society he established. Rugal's tale begins and ends with Mr Garak's interventions, and includes also the activities of Alon Ghemor during the novel's period. The novel also explores Garak's continuing service to post-war Cardassia for Ghemor's government, and by 2378 he is ambassador to the Federation on Earth.
- Star Trek: Destiny and Brinkmanship (Typhon Pact novel) continues the narrative of Garak as ambassador from 2381-2383.
- The Crimson Shadow (The Fall novel) shows Garak's return to Cardassia in 2385, which is still haunted by the genocide committed by the Dominion at the end of the war. It explores in particular the legacy of Garak's life as the protege of Tain, the legacy of the security state, Garak's relationship with the idea of home and his now-close friendship with Dr Parmak. The novel concludes with a short a letter from Dr Bashir that forms a kind of reply to the 'letter' A Stitch in TIme is described as being. The narrative for Garak established in The Crimson Shadow is explored further by The Missing and Enigma Tales.
- The series Star Trek: Terok Nor features the Oralian Way at its height, its brutal repression and its eventual rebirth.
Background
- Robinson commented that A Stitch in Time originated from: "A diary I started keeping, as if Garak were keeping a diary – it's all in the first person. And it happened because when I started going to conventions, I thought I wanted to do more than just answer questions about how long it takes to put on the makeup, and so forth. And so I started reading entries from the diary. The people at the conventions really enjoyed it, and this one guy, once, at a convention, David George, who co-wrote a book with Armin Shimerman about Quark (I think The 34th Rule or something like that). And David very kindly suggested, "You know, you should gather this material, contact the people at Pocket Books, and see if they'd be interested in turning this into a book". So I did, and they were very enthusiastic about it". [1]
- In the first few pages of the novel, diagrams can be found of Charaban's attack plan, a plan of the Bamarren Institute and a map of Cardassia City and its Sectors. These maps were illustrated by Alan Kobayashi.
- While A Stitch in Time is a numbered novel, the last DS9 one in fact, since its publication it has been retroactively added into the DS9 Relaunch. The Alon Ghemor government and the Oralian Way are particularly prominent aspects of other relaunch books, as well as in the Star Trek: Terok Nor miniseries.
- Robinson later wrote a followup, the short story "The Calling" in the Prophecy and Change anthology.
- Dukat and Damar's first names are revealed to be Skrain and Corat. Both have been used in the DS9 relaunch and in the Terok Nor series.
- Margaret Clark served as the editor of A Stitch in Time.
- The book contains Chapter ten of Michael Jan Friedman's serialized Novel Starfleet: Year One.
- Cross Cult released a German language edition of A Stitch in Time in 2011.
Reception
- S.D. Perry commented on A Stitch in Time, "I got to see an early copy, and it's total genius, seriously, and no ghost writer. He adds new dimension to a very unusual character". [2]
- Along with The Final Reflection, Spock's World and The Romulan Way, A Stitch in Time is one of Marco Palmieri's favorite Star Trek worldbuilding novels. (Voyages of Imagination)
- Heather Jarman commented that A Stitch in Time was "the penultimate ST fiction". (Voyages of Imagination)
- A Stitch in Time won a Psi Phi Award for the best Star Trek novel of 2000. In 2002, it was voted into the Psi Phi Award Novel Hall of Fame as one of the best Star Trek novels.
Images
Cover images
Connections
Timeline
| published order | ||
|---|---|---|
| Previous novel: Inferno |
DS9 novels | Next novel: Avatar, Book One |
| Previous novel: The Liberated |
DS9 numbered novels | Next novel: Last numbered novel |
| Previous story: First Star Trek story |
Stories by: Andrew J. Robinson |
Next story: The Calling |
| chronological order | ||
| Previous adventure: New Worlds, New Civilizations |
Pocket Books Timeline | Next adventure: Pathfinder |
| Previous adventure: The Left Hand of Destiny, Book Two Epilogue |
Deep Space Nine Adventures | Next adventure: Living on the Edge of Existence |
| Previous adventure: New Worlds, New Civilizations |
Memory Beta Chronology | Next adventure: The Future Begins Future Construction |
| The above chronology placements are based on the primary placement in 2376. The Pocket Books Timeline and Memory Beta Chronology place events from this story in 11 other timeframe(s): | ||
| Previous adventure: The First Virtue |
2349 Part 1; Chapters 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 13, 15, 16, 18, 19 |
Next adventure: The Red King Chapter 4 |
| Previous adventure: The Gift |
2352 Part 1; Chapters 21, 23 Part 2; Chapters2, 4, 6, 8 |
Next adventure: LoDnI'pu'vajpu'je First and Third stories |
| Previous adventure: The Raven Flashback |
2356 Part 2; Chapters 10, 12, 14 |
Next adventure: Turning Point |
| Previous adventure: Lefler's Logs Twelfth entry |
2360 Part 2; Chapter 16 |
Next adventure: Dawn of the Eagles Prologue, chapters 1 - 4 |
| Previous adventure: Flash Point "Flashthen", Garon II |
2364 Part 2; Chapter 18 |
Next adventure: 11001001 |
| Previous adventure: Brigadoon Section 3 |
2368 Part 2; Chapter 20 & Part 3; Chapter 1 |
Next adventure: Assimilation² |
| Previous adventure: Future Shock Tenth and Twelfth entires |
2369 Part 3; Chapters 3, 5 |
Next adventure: The Worst of Both Worlds |
| Previous adventure: Tears of the Prophets |
late 2374 Part 1; Chapters 5, 9, 11, 14, 17, 20 |
Next adventure: Triangle: Imzadi II Now... |
| Previous adventure: Afterimage |
early 2375 Part 2; Chapters 1, 3, 7 |
Next adventure: Night |
| Previous adventure: Strange Bedfellows |
mid 2375 Part 2; Chapters 11, 15 |
Next adventure: Course: Oblivion |
| Previous adventure: When It Rains... |
late 2375 Part 2; Chapter 19 |
Next adventure: The Future Begins Situational Engineering |
Translations
- 2011
- German : Ein Stich zur rechten Zeit, translated by Anika Klüver. (Cross Cult)
External links
- A Stitch in Time article at Memory Alpha, the wiki for canon Star Trek.
- A Stitch in Time (novel) article at Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.