 Sisko and his
officers take the Defiant to a remote system in the Gamma
Quadrant for a trade discussion with the Karemma representative,
Hanok. During the talks, two approaching Jem'Hadar warships are
detected. The enemy vessels target the Karemma ship, which flees
into the gaseous, volatile atmosphere of a nearby planet. Sisko
enters the dangerous area in pursuit, and the Defiant is blinded
and buffeted by high turbulence. They employ an echo-location
technique to find the other ships. But the pulse gives them away
to the Jem'Hadar, who attack and cripple the Defiant. Dax goes
below to help get the engines on-line, but a hull breach
develops, endangering her and others on that deck.
After evacuating Sickbay,
Bashir notices Dax trying to escape. Just then, the forcefield
that protects her collapses, allowing the deadly atmosphere to
enter. Sisko orders Bashir to seal off the area, but just as he
does, the doctor steps inside to rescue Dax and drags her into
the turbolift, trapping both of them. Meanwhile, on the Bridge,
the engines come to life, indicating that Dax was successful.
O'Brien arms two atmospheric probes with quantum torpedoes and
the crew resumes its search for the Karemma vessel. However, a
Jem'Hadar ship finds the Defiant and opens fire, damaging it
severely before the Defiant destroys it.
The Bridge is on emergency power only, while Sisko is seriously
injured. Kira discovers that he has a concussion, meaning she
must keep him from losing consciousness or risk having him slip
into a coma. In the turbolift, Dax and Bashir have only limited
air remaining; while, in the Mess Hall, Quark is trapped with
Hanok. Worf makes it from the Bridge to the Engine Room, where
O'Brien and his engineers are working to restore the ship's
systems. Then, the echo-location scanner picks up torpedoes
heading for the Defiant. The ship manages to elude one, but the
other embeds itself into the Mess Hall bulkhead — still primed
to detonate — and surprising Quark and Hanok.
Quark and Hanok realize they must work together to diffuse the
torpedo before it blows. Meanwhile, the engineers come up with a
new plan to fire phasers through the Deflector Array — which
will only be good for one shot. And as Sisko slowly slips out of
consciousness, Kira risks killing him by injecting a stimulant.
In the Mess Hall, Quark and Hanok manage to remove the torpedo
casing and deactivate the warhead. On the Bridge, Sisko awakens,
indicating to Kira that she did the right thing. In Engineering,
O'Brien locates the Jem'Hadar ship, which is lured to a decoy
using the remaining atmospheric probe. Worf's team destroys the
enemy ship with the Deflector Array and rescues the Karemma
crew. Bashir and Dax are freed, and the repaired Defiant returns
to Deep Space Nine.
See Also: Image Captures |
