Sigol Rusot

Sigol Rusot
Species:	Cardassian
Gender:	male
Born:	24th century
Died:	2375
Affiliation:	Cardassian Union
Career
Occupation:	military officer
Previous Assignment:	Dominion Headquarters
Final Assignment:	second in command of the Cardassian Liberation Front
Rank:	gul

Sigol Rusot was a male Cardassian and a Gul in the Cardassian Guard in the 2370s. He was a close friend and aide of Corat Damar and the pair served the Cardassian Union together for all of their adult lives. (DS9 short story: "Face Value")

Biography

In the late 2350s, Rusot held the rank of Dalin and was assigned to Terok Nor under Skrain Dukat. In 2357, he met Gul Morad Pirak and his staff when they arrived on Bajor. A group of Bajorans approached them and Rusot attacked them, angering Gul Pirak. The Gul condemned Rusot's actions and ordered him back to Terok Nor. (DS9 novel: Fearful Symmetry)

In 2373, Rusot welcomed the Union's entry into the Dominion, believing they would help the Cardassian people conquer the galaxy. He later realized he was mistaken and believed his people had been conquered themselves and had become servants of the Dominion. Rusot was later assigned to Terok Nor during the Dominion's control of it until 2374. Damar would often tell Rusot how much he despised Kira Nerys. (DS9 episodes: "The Changing Face of Evil", "When It Rains...")

Rusot, his frustration with the Dominion's occupation of Cardassia Prime reaching its end, joined Damar in preparing to begin a rebellion, initially composed of a list of trusted officers and the soldiers under their command, and then their initial opening attack on the Dominion's primary cloning facilities at their outpost on Rondac III. As the attack neared, Rusot was concerned that many fine soldiers would die in the attack, although Damar reassured him they would be dying for Cardassia and not the Dominion. (DS9 episode: "The Changing Face of Evil")

After the attack, Rusot accompanied Damar to Vanden Prime, the headquarters for the rebellion and served as Damar's second-in-command. Rusot greatly detested the need to accept assistance from the Federation (in terms of replicators and weapons), but his main problem was that he was uneasy about the presence of Kira Nerys and working with her as she was appointed Damar's adviser. Rusot challenged Kira's recommendations at every turn, especially when Rusot took exception to Kira's idea that the resistance start attacking installations and other locations that were operated by Cardassians, and as such would be killed for not joining the rebellion, although Damar overruled him. Rusot would make attempts to provoke Kira to attack him, such as bringing up the fact that the majority of the Bajorans Odo charged while stationed on Terok Nor during the Occupation were executed by the Cardassians, but Kira was (barely) able to keep her temper under control (DS9 episode: "When It Rains...")

Several days later, Rusot's men placed an explosive on a Jem'Hadar fighter, destroying it as it left orbit of a planet. Kira confronted him because his men had ignored orders and planted the device in a place where the Jem'Hadar could have easily found it. Rusot did not appear to care because the mission had been successful. Later, when Kira and Elim Garak planned to steal a Breen energy dampening weapon from the Breen, Rusot was less keen, believing they should not be doing Starfleet's "dirty work." Rusot confronted Kira, telling her he would attempt to kill her when the war was over. In response, Garak told Kira she should kill Rusot first, as he believed Rusot would not wait until the war was over to make his move.

Rusot later joined Kira, Damar, Garak, and Odo on the mission to the Kelvas V repair facility, intending to launch a daring raid on the space station and hijack and steal a Jem'Hadar attack ship equipped with the Breen weapon. Although the station's bridge crew were killed, the group was unable to leave since the Breen had not finished installing the energy weapon. The plan began falling apart as time went on, with Rusot on the verge of panicking, and, after Odo collapsed due to the effects of the morphogenic virus, Rusot insisted on leaving and produced a phaser, pointing it at Kira with the intention of killing her. Garak in turn pulled his weapon on Rusot, while Damar had his weapon on Garak. Rusot proposed to Damar that Damar kill Garak while Rusot killed Kira, and afterwards take the weapon for themselves and use it to restore the old Cardassian Empire that they loyally and lovingly served. Instead, Damar, faced with a difficult choice, shot and killed Rusot, regretfully observing and explaining to his comrades; "He was my friend. But his Cardassia is dead... and it won't be coming back." (DS9 episode: "Tacking Into the Wind")

Damar labored over his decision to kill Rusot for several weeks, wondering why he had chosen Kira over Rusot, eventually realizing that he knew in his heart that she was the best hope for freeing Cardassia from the Dominion. Garak also recalled Damar's words several weeks later. (DS9 short story: "Face Value")

Appendices

Appearances

• DS9 episode: "The Changing Face of Evil"
• DS9 episode: "When It Rains..."
• DS9 episode: "Tacking Into the Wind"

External link

• Sigol Rusot article at Memory Alpha, the wiki for canon Star Trek.