- This page details Benjamin Sisko in the primary universe; for the Benjamin Sisko in the mirror universe see Benjamin Sisko (mirror); for the Benjamin Sisko in the First Splinter timeline ended by the Devidian temporal apocalypse, see Benjamin Sisko (1ST); for the Benjamin Sisko in all other alternate universes see Benjamin Sisko (alternates).
- See Sisko for other articles with titles that contain, either by relationship or by coincidence, this character's surname.
Starfleet Captain Benjamin Lafayette Sisko is a 24th century Human man, most famous as commanding officer of Deep Space 9 and as the Bajoran Emissary of the Prophets. He left DS9 at the end of the Dominion War to join the Bajoran Prophets, but eventually returned.
- For other uses, see Benjamin.
- This character is a member of the Sisko family.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Benjamin Sisko was born in the year 2332 in the city of New Orleans on planet Earth. (DS9 novel: Avatar, Book One)
When Ben was a newborn, his proud father, Joseph Sisko, the owner of the renowned restaurant Sisko's Creole Kitchen, would show off his infant son to diners with one arm, and serve tables with the other, not always successfully. A Sisko's patron named Andreas Nikolas once commented about Ben's crying, "...what I really remember is Sisko's boy - must have been just a few months old when I was there, and already the kid had a pair of lungs on him. I swear he drowned out the horn music from next door." (STA novel: Maker)
Ben had two younger brothers, Samuel and Aaron, and a younger sister, Judith. (DS9 episodes: "Homefront", "Paradise")
Starfleet Academy[]
Sisko entered Starfleet Academy in the year 2350. (DS9 episode: "The Ascent")
Sisko once told Odo that he was nicknamed "Dead-Eye" at Starfleet Academy since he was the best shot there, able to bounce a phaser beam off a mirror and still hit the target. He later admitted however, that this was somewhat of an exaggeration. (DS9 novel: The Siege)
While at the Academy, Ben met and befriended fellow Cadet Cal Hudson. (DS9 episodes: "The Maquis, Part I", "Apocalypse Rising")
In the year 2353, Ben 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 came under the tutelage of Ambassador Curzon Dax, a joined Trill. Sisko would later consider the "Old Man" Curzon to be both a mentor and a second father figure. (DS9 short story: "The Music Between the Notes"; DS9 episode: "Invasive Procedures")
In 2354 Ben was captain of Starfleet Academy Wrestling Team. (DS9 episode: "Apocalypse Rising")
Early Starfleet career[]
Shortly after graduation and awaiting his first assignment, Sisko met and quickly married his first wife, Jennifer. (DS9 episode: "Emissary")
As a junior officer, Sisko was assigned to the Federation embassy on Romulus. (ST - Typhon Pact novel: Rough Beasts of Empire)
In 2355, while Ben was on paternity leave from his first posting on the USS Livingston, Jennifer gave birth to the couple's only child, Jacob Isaac Sisko, at the Starfleet Potrero Hill Medical Center in San Francisco. (TLE novel: Deny Thy Father)
Around 2355, Sisko joined Zach Warner and a Starfleet team in a mission to Theta IV-Z. An incident happened that caused the mission to be botched and Sisko placed the blame on Warner. Sisko did not reveal his knowledge about that at the time. (DS9 novelization: Call to Arms...)
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 for Starfleet Intelligence under Admiral Nyota Uhura.
The assignment saw Sisko in command of an undercover team deep within the space of the Romulan Star Empire. It was after this assignment that Sisko switched from Engineering to Command. Sisko soon found himself as first officer of the Okinawa. (TLE novel: Catalyst of Sorrows)
- More from Sisko's time on the Okinawa was to have been revealed in an Lost Era novel, focusing on the Federation's war with the Tzenkethi. The novel was cancelled, but Rough Beasts of Empire depicted one of Sisko's missions.
The Saratoga[]
During his time on the Saratoga, Sisko and the crew encountered a hostile Breen ship at Guldammur IV. In a plan devised by Sisko and Hranok, a narrow-gauge phaser spread was fired from the weapons of the Saratoga, making several small gaps in the Breen's shields. This allowed the Saratoga crew to beam unwanted items into the Breen's weapon banks, clogging them and leaving them unable to fire. (DS9 novel: Saratoga)
On Mariphasa IV, Sisko, Hranok, Aidan Thorn and Miriam Laffer were captured by the Cardassians and were about to be tortured to reveal their mission there. They were saved by Doctor Laffer's arguments with the Cardassian in charge, which bought time for Thorn to disarm one of the Cardassians and make their escape. (DS9 novel: Saratoga)
On a mission to Thetalian Prime, Sisko, Hranok, Graal and Laffer were affected by alien organisms until Dr. Laffer was able to find a cure. Some of the organisms, which produced corlandium, remained in their systems. (DS9 novel: Saratoga)
By 2367, Sisko was a Lieutenant Commander and the ships first officer of the USS Saratoga, when that ship was lost fighting the Borg at the Battle of Wolf 359. Jennifer Sisko was killed in that battle. (DS9 episode: "Emissary", TNG - DS9 comic: "Prophets and Losses"; DS9 comic: "Program 359")
Deep Space 9[]
Sisko spent the next three years assigned to the Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards on Mars. 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 Idaris.
In the year 2369, Sisko, now a full Commander, received new orders from Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the USS Enterprise, placing him in command of Starbase Deep Space 9, a Cardassian-designed space station formerly known as Terok Nor, in orbit of the recently liberated planet Bajor. (DS9 novelization: Emissary)
The Emissary of the Prophets[]
Shortly after arriving in Bajoran Space, Sisko met with Bajoran Kai Opaka Sulan, who told him the 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 requested a Bajoran national for the position of first 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.
It wasn't until Kira discovered that Sisko was supposedly the Emissary of the Prophets, that she gave the Federation a chance. (DS9 novelization: Emissary; DS9 short story: "Ha'mara")
The Orb of Time-or in this case a similar one-transported Benjamin Sisko in 2369 back to his own past in 2366. In order to defeat a Bajoran/Cardassian insurgency in the present, he had to re-visit the USS Saratoga (NCC-31911). Obtaining vital engineering materials from his doomed, former starship was the key to repairing sabotage throughout Deep Space 9. (DS9 video game: Crossroads of Time)
- The DS9 episode & novelization: Trials and Tribble-ations establishes the Orb of Time was officially re-claimed by Bajor in 2373.
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 Dominions leaders, the Founders. The Founders turned out to be of the same race as DS9's shape-shifting Chief of security, Odo. His first contact with their Vorta facilitators left him with the notion he has no idea of what's begun. (DS9 novelization: The Search)
In 2371, the mirror universe counterpart of Miles O'Brien 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. (DS9 episode: "Through the Looking Glass"; VOY novel: The Mirror-Scaled Serpent)
The Maquis[]
Having just been promoted to Captain, Ben Sisko endured battles with his loyalties on all fronts for the next two years. He risked his personal and professional health to investigate both Starfleet and private, Federation citizens, as well as Bajorans and an underground host of other races seeking to weaken the Cardassian Union. These trials upon his conscience prepared him for even more difficult choices, as Sisko was pushed to the brink of his own morals, questioning his own integrity under fire. (DS9 episodes: "The Circle"; "The Siege"; "For the Cause"; "For the Uniform"; "The Adversary")
The Dominion War[]
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. Shortly after receiving word of the near destruction of the Seventh Fleet, Sisko begins to hatch a long-term plan with General Martok that would eventually lead to the operation that retook DS9.
Sisko 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 defeated the Dominion. He was then given the Pike Medal of Valor for his actions.(DS9 novelizations: Call to Arms..., ...Sacrifice of Angels; DS9 short story: "Three Sides to Every Story",DS9 episode: "Tears of the Prophets")
In 2374, Sisko was responsible for bringing the forces of the Romulan Empire into the war against the Dominion. Although Sisko violated several Starfleet regulations in this endeavor, the Admiralty was reluctant to punish Sisko, fearing reprisals from the Romulans. (DS9 novel: Hollow Men)
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.
Shortly thereafter, Sisko ascended to the non-linear realm of the Prophet after defeating Dukat and the Pah-wraiths. He promised his pregnant second wife, Kasidy Yates, that he would return. (DS9 novelization: What You Leave Behind; DS9 short story: "Requital")
Return from the Celestial Temple[]
Sisko remained with the Prophets for three years, but had to be returned to deal with a threat that the Prophets couldn't deal with from out of time. (Part 1 - Godshock comic:)
Alternate timelines[]
In an alternate timeline created in 2371 by a time-shifting Karg temporal disruptor, Sisko had resigned from Starfleet in 2367, after the Battle of Wolf 359, in order to become a university professor on Earth. By 2371 in that timeline, Jake berated Sisko for leaving behind the potential of his former life in Starfleet service.
As the temporal distortions became more severe, Sisko found himself on Earth on October 27, 1995, listening to a televised announcement from victorious dictator Khan Noonien Singh regarding his plans for the future of the Human race's DNA. (DS9 comic: "No Time Like the Present")
During an orb experience in 2377, Sisko encountered seven alternate versions of himself, all of whom had become Emissary in their respective realities:
- Ambassador Sisko of the Federation Diplomatic Corps, who lost his wife Jennifer on during a Kohn-Ma attack on Cardassia Prime while negotiating the Cardassian withdrawal from Bajor.
- Fleet Captain Sisko of a Terran Empire which never fell, who served as military governor of Bajor.
- Dr. Sisko of the Daystrom Institute, who discovered the wormhole following the death of his sister.
- Colonel Sisko of the Celestial Union, who discovered the wormhole during a war with the Tholians.
- Admiral Sisko, the hero of the Battle of Wolf 359.
- Sisko of the Borg, who became Emissary after the assimilation of Earth.
- Benjamin Sisko, whose son died aboard the Saratoga rather than his wife.
In this vision, it was explained to Sisko that his mirror universe alternate was also destined to become Emissary, and that he needed to help make that reality. (DS9 novel: Fearful Symmetry)
- Lord-Commander Sisko of the Earthfleet station D9. In this reality, Khan Noonien Singh won the Eugenics Wars and, as a result, Sisko was an Augment. (DS9 - Myriad Universes novel: Seeds of Dissent)
- It is unclear whether or not Sisko is the Emissary in this universe, but based on what has been revealed about Siskos from other universes, it is likely.
Starfleet service record[]
location | assignment | dates | rank or rate | assignment insignia | rank insignia |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Starfleet Academy | student officer | 2350-2354 | cadet | ||
USS Livingston | junior officer | 2354 onwards | ensign | ||
USS Okinawa | chief engineer | 2360s | lieutenant | ||
USS Okinawa | executive officer | lieutenant commander | |||
USS Saratoga | executive officer | until 2366 | |||
Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards | officer | 2366-2369 | |||
Deep Space 9 | commanding officer | 2369-2371 | commander | ||
2371-2373 | captain | ||||
USS Defiant | 2373-2374 | ||||
Starbase 375 | adjutant to William Ross | 2374 | |||
Deep Space 9 | commanding officer | 2374-2375 | |||
USS Defiant | 2375 | ||||
USS Theseus | 2378 |
Commendation[]
Christopher Pike Medal of Valor- in recognition of his remarkable leadership and meritorious conduct against the enemy, and in particular for acts of personal bravery displayed during the battle to retake Deep Space 9. (DS9 episode: "Tears of the Prophets")
Appendices[]
Connections[]
Background information[]
- Sisko was played by Avery Brooks. Kevin Michael Richardson voiced the character in The Fallen.
Appearances and references[]
Appearances[]
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References[]
External links[]
- Benjamin Sisko article at Memory Alpha, the wiki for canon Star Trek.
- Benjamin Sisko article at Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.