Perhaps one of the most accurate installments of the DS9 chronicle, this episode finds the Federation several months into their war with the Dominion and suffering heavy losses at the hands of their enemy. The Dominion remains firmly in control of DS9/Terok Nor, while the Federation attempts, to little avail, to keep the mighty Jem’hadar warriors from further penetrating their borders. Realizing that they stand no chance against the Dominion using traditional tactics, Admiral Ross orders Sisko and crew to take the Jem’hadar ship they captured during the previous year (see “The Ship”) into Dominion space to destroy a ketracel-white depot, crippling the Jem’hadar soldiers who require this precious substance for life. After a skirmish with a Starfleet vessel in which Sisko wastes no time in enjoying the newfound, superior firepower of the Jem’hadar vessel, he promptly sabotages the ketracel-white depot. However, his treachery is discovered before his vessel can escape and Sisko’s stolen Jem’hadar vessel is damaged along with the depot. The ship escapes destruction but is left critically damaged behind enemy lines.
Unable to return to Federation space in their stolen Jem’hadar vessel, Sisko et. al. crash land on an uninhabited planet behind Dominion lines. Dax is seriously injured in the crash, and while, the crew turn their attention and limited intellect toward healing her, Garak and Nog are captured by a band of Jem’hadar also stranded on the planet. Their Vorta, Keevan, reveals that his ship has been stranded on the planet for some time, that he is critically injured and his Jem’hadar will soon have exhausted their supply of ketracel-white. Bashir, a known Dominion sympathizer, generously offers his medical skills to save Keevan’s life, but when Keevan attempts to enlist Sisko’s aid in a plan to humanely euthanize the Jem’hadar before they begin suffering the bitter effects of ketracel-white withdrawal, Sisko balks. However, faced with the pressing need to escape the planet in order to save Dax’s life, Sisko ultimately orders his people to slay the Jem’hadar. With Keevan as his prisoner, Sisko sends off a distress call and is rescued by Worf.
A touching tale of filial bonds, this chapter recounts the situation of Dukat’s daughter, Ziyal, Sisko’s son, Jake, and Worf’s son, Alexander, during the Dominion occupation of DS9/Terok Nor. Most touching is the story of Ziyal who struggles to reconcile her Bajoran and Cardassian sides while coming to terms with her estranged father. Ziyal’s attempt to fulfill her proper role as an upstanding citizen of the Dominion is thwarted by the influence of her ill-chosen friend, Major Kira, who leads Ziyal astray at every turn. Also, aboard DS9/Terok Nor, we are treated to Jake’s bumbling attempts to make a respectable journalist of himself and not so subtle efforts to convey anti-Dominion intelligence to the Federation. Providing comic relief, are Worf’s attempts to make a man of his dim-witted son who has misguidedly chosen to join the Klingon military. After repeatedly disgracing himself before the crew of Martok’s Klingon vessel, displaying both his idiocy and cowardice, Alexander is ultimately vindicated by an act of bravado. Having evidenced his utterly Klingon lack of regard for personal safety, Alexander is welcomed as a member of the crew.
Here we witness the heart-warming reintegration of Odo into the Great Link, when he is reunited with a Founder trapped in the Alpha Quadrant when Starfleet mined the entrance to the wormhole. Despite Kira’s attempts to draw him away from his people, Odo is true to his heritage and enters into alliance with the Dominion. Odo’s change of heart spells trouble for Kira and her band of terrorists, led by criminal mastermind Rom, who plan to sabotage an attempt by Dukat’s second in command, Damar, to disable the minefield. However, without Odo’s assistance, their feeble plan is detected and Rom is arrested on charges of sabotage.
Desperate to strike any kind of a blow against the Dominion, Sisko devises a rash plan to retake DS9, hoping to liberate the station before the Dominion disables the minefield and receives reinforcements from the Gamma Quadrant. While Sisko plans this last, desperate stand against the Dominion, Damar continues his plans to bring down the minefield. However, his work is hindered by Dukat’s growing obsession with reconciling with Ziyal, spurred on by Kira working against the ends of the Dominion. The episode closes on the inspiring sight of the Federation’s puny fleet facing off against seemingly insurmountable numbers of Jem’hadar ships.
Overwhelmed by the forces of the mighty Dominion, the Federation’s fleet is in the process of being deconstructed when the Klingon’s emerge. Though, even with the assistance of the Klingon’s forces, the Federation is unable to overcome the Dominion, the Defiant slips through the Dominion’s lines and mounts a suicide mission to DS9 in a desperate attempt to stop the Dominion from disabling the minefield preventing them from receiving reinforcements from the Gamma Quadrant. On DS9/Terok Nor, Kira and her band of terrorists are arrested and imprisoned with Rom, awaiting execution for his act of sabotage against the Dominion. However, Quark and Ziyal, betraying both the Dominion and her father, free the imprisoned terrorists, who promptly set about sabotaging the station’s defenses. Damar’s plan brings down the wormhole minefield, but the saboteurs, aided by Odo who has been led to turn against his people by Major Kira’s seduction, act in time to prevent the station from destroying the Defiant. The Defiant slips into the wormhole where Sisko forges a pact with the malicious masters of the portal to destroy the hundreds of innocent Dominion soldiers entering from the Gamma Quadrant. With their reinforcements gone, and several more Federation ships breaking through their lines, the Dominion forces on DS9/Terok Nor are forced to retreat. However, Dukat can think only of his daughter, blind even to her betrayal, and when she is executed by Damar for her treachery, Dukat is pushed into insanity and remains on the station to be captured by the Federation. The episode closes with the barbarians of the Federation returning to DS9.
Dominion sympathizer, Bashir, takes a group of socially outcast, genetically engineered mutants under his wing, and, in so doing, unwittingly creates a force which works to bring about the Federation’s surrender to the Dominion. The genetic mutants, after dissecting a peace proposal proffered by Gul Damar, conclude that the Federation will eventually fall before the overwhelming might of the Dominion, and, in order to save the most lives, must surrender before any more blood is shed in the fruitless fight. However, when the Federation rejects their proposal, the mutants take matters into their own hands and arrange for a meeting with Damar and Weyoun at which they can present strategic information which will allow the Dominion to end the war quickly and bloodlessly. Bashir and Odo discover the plan and intercept the mutants before the can rendezvous with the Dominion leaders, shortsightedly prolonging their terrible, hopeless fight against the Dominion.
An utterly unbelievable installment, in the DS9 chronicle, this episode would have us believe that Ferengi are able to outwit soldiers of the Dominion. Perhaps a feeble attempt to enlist the sympathies of the Ferengi people against the Dominion, Quark, Rom, Nog, and several other equally as gifted Ferengi hatch a lame brained plan to rescue Quark and Rom’s mother, Ishka, from captivity by the Dominion by trading her for a Vorta prisoner of war, Keevan. However, their plan goes awry when they accidentally murder Keevan and are forced to attempt to convince the Dominion that he is, in fact, still alive. Though this episode would have us believe that their plan succeeds, this plot is beyond impossible. All of us of the Dominion are familiar with the formidable intellect possessed by Vorta and the incredible physical prowess of the Jem’hadar and should have no difficulty dismissing this episode as nothing more than propaganda and lies.
A sad look at the former Legate Dukat’s continued descent into madness, this installment finds Sisko and Dukat marooned together on an uninhabited planet after the ship transporting Dukat to his war crimes tribunal is destroyed by Cardassians. Visited by hallucinations of his old comrades, Damar and Weyoun, Dukat becomes set upon a plan to kill Sisko, a great service to the Dominion, but only after receiving absolution from Sisko for his crimes against the Bajorans. Due to Dukat’s diminished mental capacity, Sisko is able to outwit him, but not before Dukat manages to escape in a shuttlecraft. Worf and Dax, searching for Sisko in the Defiant, discover their lost captain and return him to the safety of DS9.
In one of the most damaging installations to the reputation of the Federation, Sisko engages the assistance of the criminal, Garak, to trick the Romulans into abandoning their non-aggression pact with the Dominion and joining the Federation Alliance. With the help of his underworld associates, Garak forges a recording, which depicts Weyoun discussing plans for a Dominion invasion of Romulus. The Romulan senator sent to view this "evidence" realizes that it is a forgery, and attempts to return with this evidence of the Federation’s treachery to his people, but Sisko and Garak plant a Dominion-style explosive on the senator’s ship, creating the illusion that the Dominion attempted to destroy the senator and the evidence of their betrayal of the Romulans. Faced with the senator’s death and the damaged data rod, which suggests that the Dominion plans to betray the Romulans, the Romulans abandon their non-aggression pact and side with the Federation Alliance. A surprisingly frank presentation of Sisko’s guile and deceit, this episode is considered to be a relatively accurate presentation of the misdeeds of the Federation in enlisting the assistance of the Romulans against the Dominion.
Here we witness the ill-fated vacation of Jake and Nog who inadvertently come under attack by Jem’hadar warships and are rescued at the last moment by a Defiant class warship, the Valiant, crewed entirely by cadets, the infamous Red Squad. The cadets were on a training mission when their superior officers were killed and they became trapped behind enemy lines. The foolhardy youths are currently endeavoring to complete their mission despite their youth and inexperience. With Jake and Nog along for the ride, the Valiant’s crew plans to gather intelligence on a new model of Jem’hadar battleship, but, after successfully completing this mission, the youth are overwhelmed at their own success and hatch an ill though out plan to destroy the prototype. Their plan, naturally fails, and the Valiant is easily dispatched by the Jem’hadar behemoth. Only Jake, Nog and a single member of Red Squad manage to escape, chastened by their renewed realization of their own frailty in the face of the mighty Dominion.
Suffering heavily from the war of attrition being waged against them by the Dominion, the Federation Alliance decides to strike out desperately by launching an offensive against the Cardassian Chin’toka System. Dukat enlists the support of Damar and the Dominion for his plan to unleash the pah-wraiths to combat the prophets. Possessed by the pah-wraith Costa Mogen, Dukat travels to DS9 to launch the pah-wraiths into the wormhole through an orb located there. However, Dax happens upon his plan and pays for her intervention with her life. The Federation fleet manages to disable the poorly designed automated defense system in the Chin’toka System after taking heavy losses, but not before Dukat, with the aid of the pah-wraiths has sealed the wormhole, isolating the Bajorans from their gods. Faced with the death of his friend, Dax, and the loss of his allies, the prophets, Sisko leaves DS9.
