Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Episode Guide - Part 3 @~Continued from Issue 63 011 "The Nagus" Stardate not given: Quark receives a surprise - and something of a dubious honor - when Grand Nagus Zek, a Ferengi business mogul, arrives at DS9. After some customary patronizing at Quark's, Zek insists on holding a conference of Ferengi profiteers there, while Quark fears that Zek plans on buying out his bar on the station. To everyone's surprise, especially Quark's, Zek announces his retirement and declares that Quark will succeed him to the coveted position of Grand Nagus. Many of the visiting Ferengi are jealous, as would be expected of them. But Quark discovers - after a close call - that someone among the Ferengi is jealous enough to try gaining the position of Nagus by killing him. 012 "Vortex" Stardate not given: Quark and Rom are involved in a shady deal with a pair of twin Miradorns when a recent visitor from the wormhole interrupts, kills one of the Miradorn brothers, and tries to steal a valuable item. Odo turns out to have been present all along and intervenes before the surviving Miradorn can exact vengeance, but Croden, the visitor from a distant planet Rakhar troubles Odo even more, for he may have a clue to the shapeshifter's origins in the Gamma Quadrant. Odo must decide whether or not to trust the criminal when Sisko orders him to transport Croden back through the wormhole to Rakhar - and the surviving Miradorn brother leaves DS9 to follow the Runabout carrying his brother's murderer. 013 "Battle Lines" Stardate not given: On a routine day at the station, Kai Opaka, the Bajoran spiritual leader who helped lead Sisko to discover the wormhole when he first arrived at DS9, pays a surprise visit. Sisko, Kira and Bashir take Opaka on her first trip through the wormhole. Before they can return to the station, a signal is detected from a series of satellites orbiting a moon in the Gamma Quadrant. When Sisko's Runabout investigates, it is fired on by one of the satellites, forcing the ship to crash-land on the moon. Opaka dies on impact, but before Kira has long to grieve, warriors appear and take the crash survivors back to their camp. It is discovered that two groups of combatants have been stranded there for centuries, fighting a war in which no one ever dies - not even newcomers who find themselves in the line of fire. 014 "The Storyteller" Stardate 46729.1: As the leaders of two Bajoran factions arrive on the station where Sisko hopes to diplomatically steer them away from solving their differences in combat, O'Brien and Dr. Bashir depart to Bajor in response to a distress call which vaguely stated that an entire community is jeopardized. Bashir is puzzled to find all of the villagers except one - the elderly Sirah - in perfect health, yet the locals still insist that they are in mortal danger. They discover, when the Sirah makes his appearance at a yearly festival (against Bashir's recommendation), that the threat comes from the legendary Dal'Rok, a mythical creature which descends upon the village for five nights of each year in an attempt to destroy it. But every year in the past several generations, the village Sirah told a Story, somehow halting the Dal'Rok's onslaught. This year, the Sirah will not complete his Story... 015 "Progress" Stardate 46844.3: With the aid of the station crew, the Bajoran provisional government prepares to convert a moon into part of a power system needed to help Bajor overcome the damage caused by decades of Cardassian rule. On a final inspection flyover of the moon, Kira and Dax detect humanoid life on the suface. Kira beams down and finds stubborn old Mullibok, who has been living on the moon almost since the Cardassians arrived to take over Bajor. Mullibok and his two neighbors rendered mute by Cardassian torture years ago refuse to leave the moon, even when Kira warns that the conversion of the moon into a power facility will kill all life there. But when Kira begins the first steps of the provisional government's orders to remove the settlers by force, she finds herself sympathetic with Mullibok's plight and joins in their fight to stay until the imminent end. 016 "If Wishes Were Horses" Stardate 46853.2: The strange behavior of space near the wormhole and the sudden appearance in Chief O'Brien's quarters of a character from a bedtime story read to Molly signal the beginning of an alien study of the station's crew from the vantage point of manifestations of their imaginations, ranging from a favorite baseball player of Sisko's to a pair of ravishing beauties (appearing, naturally, on Quark's arms) to the girl of Bashir's dreams - Dax, but with a far different personality. At first the apparitions seem harmless, but it then seems that they are capable of posing danger to the crew. 017 "The Forsaken" Stardate 46925.1: A handful of Federation ambassadors boards Deep Space 9 on a fact-finding mission - one which is failing to get off the ground since the delegates seem unable to cope with the fact that the station isn't exactly a proper Federation starbase. Among the delegates is Lwaxana Troi, who becomes enamoured of Odo after he retrieves a stolen item of hers from a thief at Quark's bar. As she begins scheming to snare the constable, a small probe emerges from the wormhole, and to O'Brien's surprise, the station computer actually works well enough for once to download information from the probe. The probe's effect on the station computer is inexplicable, including stranding Odo in a stuck turbolift with Lwaxana Troi... 018 "Dramatis Personae" Stardate 46922.3: A Klingon ship makes an unexpected return from a scientific mission in the Gamma Quadrant and self- destructs. A single member of the ship's crew beams himself into Ops, dying shortly after cryptically announcing "victory." As Dax and O'Brien start trying to piece together the mystery of the Klingon ship, divisions take place between members of DS9's crew. Kira, still unsatisfied after losing an argument with Sisko about security arrangements for a shipload of possible allies of the Cardassians, begins to plot against the commander, quietly gathering loyal followers among the crew and threatening those who don't sympathize with her cause. Sisko, in the meantime, goes into hiding supposedly for security reasons, as he and Chief O'Brien prepare for Kira's imminent mutiny. Odo remains the only officer who hasn't taken up arms with either side yet, since he has his own motive. 019 "Duet" Stardate not given: A Federation freighter arrives and delivers a passenger who needs medical attention. At the mention of the passenger's disease, Kira realizes that whoever it is, they were at a forced labor camp operated on Bajor by the Cardassians which Kira helped to liberate years ago. But the patient turns out to be a Cardassian. Kira places him under arrest and, against Sisko's advice, interrogates him. Under questioning, the Cardassian suddenly proclaims himself to be Gul Darhe'el, who commanded the labor camps and authorized genocidal killings of Bajorans. Kira, along with the Bajoran provisional government, takes a more vested interest in proving him guilty of past atrocities...even if he isn't who he says he is. 020 "In the Hands of the Prophets" Stardate not given: Vedek Winn, a Bajoran spiritual leader who is a prime contender for the position of Kai, appears in Keiko's classroom and declares that Keiko's scientific teachings about the wormhole are in conflict with Bajoran beliefs. Winn's announcement divides the Federation officers and Bajorans on the station who follow Winn. Sisko attempts to enlist the aid of Vedek Bareil, the quiet leader in the race to become Kai, but initially meets with no cooperation. When terrorist acts begin, it becomes apparent that Bajoran political interests may also be deeply involved - and the Federation crew of Deep Space 9 may have outstayed their welcome. @~To be continued - o -