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After returning from an assignment
in the Paradas system, O'Brien notices that everyone on the
station is treating him differently. His wife, Keiko, acts
strangely distant towards him and meets secretly with Sisko,
while Ensign DeCurtis has been ordered to realign the station's
security net without O'Brien's knowledge. Things get stranger
when Bashir insists on giving O'Brien a physical, and Sisko
orders him to submit to the examination. O'Brien then meets with
Sisko in his office, and Sisko questions him about his
experiences with the Paradas, who are preparing to arrive on
Deep Space Nine for peace talks. He is surprised when, instead
of having him work to prepare the station for the Paradas
arrival, Sisko orders him to repair the upper pylons, which
O'Brien had fixed just before he left.
Later, Ensign DeCurtis refuses
to allow O'Brien to check the quarters assigned to the Paradas,
explaining that only Kira has the access codes. Sisko orders
O'Brien back to the upper pylons. Suspicious, O'Brien pretends
to leave, but secretly watches as DeCurtis enters the quarters
without Kira's help. He then returns to his quarters for dinner,
where he is overcome with the unsettling feeling that Keiko is
not really his wife.
After Keiko goes to bed, O'Brien searches the computer for any
anomaly aboard the station that could be causing the crew to
turn against him, and learns that he has been denied access to
all logs dated after his return from the Paradas system. He also
discovers that his logs, even his personal ones, have been
analyzed by other crewmembers. At this point, Odo returns from a
trip to Bajor, and O'Brien is thrilled to finally have an ally.
However, when Odo summons O'Brien to the Security Office to
discuss what he has learned, O'Brien quickly realizes from Odo's
distant tone that he, too, is now in on the conspiracy. O'Brien
prepares to leave, but is stopped by Sisko, Kira and Bashir, who
is wielding a hypospray. Thinking quickly, O'Brien steals Kira's
phaser and escapes into an airlock.
O'Brien transports to a Runabout and finally makes his escape in
a hail of phaser fire, despite Sisko's orders to remain behind.
O'Brien then contacts Admiral Rollman to tell her about the
conspiracy, but she, much to his dismay, is apparently also a
part of it. Realizing he has nowhere else to turn, O'Brien
decides to look for answers where his troubles began — in the
Paradas System.
With a Runabout in hot pursuit, O'Brien heads for the Paradas
system and manages to elude his would-be captors. When he learns
that three passengers have beamed from the Runabout to the
surface of Parada II, he follows, and finds Sisko and Kira
meeting with Coutu, a rebel Paradas leader. The suspicious
O'Brien attempts to shoot Coutu, but a guard shoots and fatally
wounds him. As O'Brien lays dying, he is shocked to see another
O'Brien appear in the room with Bashir. Coutu explains that this
is the real O'Brien, who was captured and held hostage during
his Paradas mission. The O'Brien who returned to the space
station was actually a replicant who was programmed to
assassinate someone at the peace talks. The false O'Brien dies,
finally knowing the truth.
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