Defection stories

[Big Bison Bessie]

My mind turns to Star Trek for stories with defectors. There are a lot of examples of that...

I think the best one that comes to mind is the story of Damar from DS9. He starts as Gul Dukat's lackey, one of the few other named Cardassians that regularly shows up. He later starts to get portrayed as a more competent soldier, and at one point, leader of Cardassia. He was loyal to a fault at first, but as he ascends the ranks as the Dominion becomes more entrenched, he begins to slip. He becomes a drunk, he becomes less competent, sloppier, less motivated. He started to grow disillusioned with the Dominion, they started handing territory over to the Breen, refused to commit reinforcements to save Cardassian troops. Damar eventually realized that the Cardassians were not partners to the Dominion, but just another conquered species. He was always proud, loyal to his people, but when he realized that the government he worked for had effectively betrayed them and turned them into cannon fodder, he suddenly got his shit together. He organized a rebellion and fought for his people. This was never something he intended to do from the outset, he wasn't a freedom fighter, not at first, he was just another Cardassian soldier, loyal to their militaristic state.

And we also have Star Wars.
I could grab a story of some heroic defector, someone who sees the wrongs of the empire and joins the rebellion to save people and be a hero. But you said unwilling defection. And one that comes to mind is the Imperial Security Bureau officer, Lonni Jung. Lonni is on the ISB board that oversees a ton of anti-rebellion operations, helping run investigations and analyzing data. However, on the side, he's secretly made contact with a rebel spy named Luthen. He trades data to Luthen and Luthen in turn gives him valuable data with the specific purpose of helping advance Lonni's career. Lonni has no intention of defecting, he's greedy, self serving, but he realizes he's in too deep at one point, he tries to get out, but through coercion, threats, and blackmail, Luthen refuses to let him go and keeps demanding more of him. If Lonni tries to stop helping the rebellion, his career and maybe his life and the life of his family is over. He never truly wanted to advance the work of the rebels, just his own career, and now he's trapped and unable to escape.

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