Your Galaxy Is Impure
by Chris Heard (UZO@StarTrekMail.com)

Species 8472 was one of the most powerful hostile forces the Voyager crew encountered during their long trek back to the Alpha Quadrant. Their superior attitude toward species in what we think of as normal space did nothing to endear them to Janeway and company. Dilemmas relating to species 8472 tend toward the truly nasty end of the spectrum, and Your Galaxy Is Impure ranks right up there with the harshest. You attempt the mission, I kill one of your personnel (my choice). Signed, sealed, delivered, pack it up and go home. The implications really are staggering.

Think about it: you basically need complete double redundancy at the start of the mission attempt to have any hope of completing it. You begin to attempt, say, Historical Research, with Jean-Luc Picard and Richard Galen as your only sources of Archaeology. You encounter Your Galaxy Is Impure; I kill Richard Galen. You cannot complete the mission. You add Vash to the team and begin a new mission attempt ... but as you do, Your Galaxy Is Impure lets me kill Vash. Lather, rinse, repeat. And if you started with all three? I might pop off an Anthropologist. Yes, double redundancy for all mission requirements (or a handy-dandy Dixon Hill) is the ticket.

The gruesome results of the wounds species 8472 inflicted in hand-to-hand combat sent The Doctor scrambling for a counter-agent based on Borg technology. Like a microbe felling the Martian invaders in The War of the Worlds, it's the tiniest little thing you can imagine that can save you from cascading cellular degradation: Borg Nanoprobes. You need no better reason than Your Galaxy Is Impure to stock those tiny robots.

Combos:

The Weak Will Perish + Your Galaxy Is Impure: Your opponent's Nanoprobes can only nullify one dilemma per turn. Make them pay for a poor choice.

Any good filter dilemma + The Gatherers + Your Galaxy Is Impure: Get rid of the Nanoprobes before they get rid of your dilemma. In space, use Common Thief instead; support either combo with a generous helping of Disruptor Overloads.

Bareil, Mila, or Yeggie + Borg personnel vs. opponent's Your Galaxy Is Impure: Save your special download until you're sure you need it, then glide past the dilemma like fluidic space through a sieve.