| 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.
|
More Images
|
