The Passenger

Aboard the Rio Grande, Kira is making the mistake of telling Bashir she was impressed by his work of saving someone who the tricorder said was dead. They’re interrupted by a distress call from a transport ship.

Boarding the ship, they’re confronted with a fiery scene and someone dying behind a sealed door. One of crewmembers tries to stop the Doctor from opening the door, to no avail. He enters and after checking his vitals is grapped around the neck and asked to “make him live.” Before he dies.

A little while later, in the Infirmary the crewmember identifies herself as Ty Kajada member of Kobliad Security. She demands to see her prisoner – Rao Vantika – but even seeing his lifeless body does not convince her.

Meanwhile Odo and Quark watch Dax, alone at a table. After some banter, Odo informs him about a Deuridium shipment coming in soon. Lieutenant Primmin, Starfleet Security, listens in disblief to Odo’s technique of telling Quark about this valuable shipment.

In Ops, at a staff briefing, they discuss the Kobliad who need Deuridium to stablise their cell structure. Sisko asks the staff to oblige Kajada with reasonable requests. Lt. Primmin enters and Sisko takes him into his office to inform him that Starfleet are the guests and running security on a station is different to a starship.

Primmin meets with Odo in his office, where he apologises and listens to what Odo has to say… but when they access the computer to see the plans – everything is missing. Kajada insists Vantika, who was on his way to the station, is still alive somehow and he is responsible.

Odo asks to speak to Sisko in his office… he demands to know why Starfleet has assigned a security chief when Odo was asked to stay on. Sisko insists that it’s purely to maintain their interests, and Odo is still in charge.

In her lab, Dax identifies a microconductor under the fingernails of Vantika, he did manage to transfer his consciousness to someone else. In Quarks, as he searches the floor for any valuables that customers may have dropped, the Ferengi is grabbed from behind by a gloved figure who can only be Vantika.

Because of her closeness, the senior staff suspect Kajada so they restrict her access… but during a clandestine meeting of mercenaries in Quarks, she falls from the third floor.

The mercenaries are escorted to a runabout by Quark, where they meet Dr. Bashir… who speaks as Vantika. Meanwhile, Odo – who now suspects Lt. Primmin because he’s been missing all morning – discovers the Lieutenant inspecting another part of the station… but it turns out he saved the station plenty of heartache later on by discovering another piece of sabotage left by “Vantika.”

Racing towards the Deuridium shipment that has just come through the wormhole, the mercenaries board and capture the ship. Before they can leave a tractor beam locks them in place… after some stalling tactics from Sisko, and posturing by “Vantika”, Dax manages to disrupt the Kobliad’s control over the Doctor… long enough to beam him back to the station.

In the infirmary Dax has created a way to isolate Vantika’s brainwaves from Bashir’s. They’re beamed to a container, which Kajada destroys to ensure he never lives again…