|
Traveling in a runabout, Kira and
Bashir pick up a distress signal from a disabled Kobliad ship.
They beam over to discover an injured Kobliad woman named Ty
Kajada, a security officer. Her passenger — a murderer named Rao
Vantika, who had set the ship on fire in order to escape.
Vantika has been seriously hurt, and after attempting to
strangle Bashir, falls over dead. Kajada collapses from her
injuries. When she regains consciousness aboard the space
station, she tells Bashir that Vantika has faked his demise
before and asks the doctor to run tests to prove he is dead.
Later, Bashir, Sisko, Dax, and Kira determine that Vantika was
probably heading for Deep Space Nine to steal a shipment of
deuridium, a rare substance that prolongs the dying Kobliad
race's lifespan. Sisko orders Lieutenant George Primmin, a
Starfleet security officer assigned to protect the deuridium, to
defer to Odo's plan to guard that shipment when it arrives at
the station. However, when Odo attempts to access his plan on
the computer, it is gone. Everything in the station computer's
active memory has been accessed and purged — something Kajada
grimly reports that Vantika has done before.
The computer mystery enables
Kajada to convince Sisko assume that Vantika is still alive.
That night, Quark also learns that Kobliad still lives when,
hidden by darkness, Vantika orders the Ferengi to follow through
on his promise to hire mercenaries to help him obtain the
deuridium.
The next day, Bashir tells Kajada that his tests prove Vantika
is really dead. He goes on to meet with Dax, who is exploring
the idea that while Vantika's body is gone, his consciousness
may have found a way to live on in another person's brain. The
pair immediately suspect Kajada, deducing that Vantika could be
occupying her brain without her knowledge while he waits for the
deuridium. They share this theory with Sisko, and the group
decides that Kajada must be watched. Meanwhile, at Quark's, the
mercenaries arrive — an alien named Durg and two Bajoran
accomplices. Their haggling with Quark is interrupted by the
sound of a woman screaming. Kajada, who was spying on the group,
falls from the third floor balcony.
Now in the infirmary, Kajada reveals that she did not fall, but
was actually pushed by Vantika. Meanwhile, Dax, who has been
trying to discover how Vantika could transfer his consciousness
into another person's brain, shows Sisko a small device buried
under the dead Kobliad's fingernails. She believes Vantika
stored his consciousness in the device as bio-electric pulses,
in case he needed an escape route. As soon as Kajada's condition
is stabilized, they can confirm the theory by examining her.
Meanwhile, Quark, Durg, and the mercenaries prepare to meet
Vantika in person — and are shocked when he arrives in the
physical form of Bashir.
Hoping to share her discovery with Bashir, Dax is surprised to
find his combadge abandoned on a counter. Meanwhile, Primmin
discovers that the station's defense array has been rigged to
shut down — which will allow Vantika to hijack the freighter
carrying the deuridium. A grateful Odo informs Sisko of their
discovery just as the freighter enters the vicinity. The group
notices a runabout going out to meet the vessel just as Dax
joins them with the announcement that Bashir is missing. Vantika
and the mercenaries commandeer the freighter — killing its crew.
Suddenly, the hijacked ship is captured by a tractor beam from
the space station. Sisko hails the freighter and speaks with
Vantika, who threatens to destroy Bashir's body and the ship if
he is not allowed to proceed. The ship's shields are up, so
Bashir cannot be transported out. Dax is able to temporarily
disrupt Vantika's control over Bashir by using an
electromagnetic pulse to disrupt Vantika's neural energy
patterns. She tells the dazed Bashir to lower the shields. He
does, and the group transports him back aboard Deep Space Nine
where he is purged of his evil possessor. A recovered Kajada is
given Vantika's remains, and she destroys them, and her
nightmare, with a single phaser blast. |
