[Smellincoffee]

The producers have to keep things Dramatic, but there's a fine line between the situation being perilous and the situation being impossible. If the station and Defiant's weapons are as such that they can knock out a bird of prey in one dead-on shot, that works fine when they're fending off an entire fleet of ships. But if there was only one cruiser, it would have to be far feistier to prove a challenge.