KIRA: Sir, the neutrino readings are dissipating. It's not a ship. It's an unmanned probe set to transmit a false warp signature.
NOG: Engine Room, Bridge. Engines to full impulse. (Interesting to see the Retro Review to the right).
(Defiant roars out of the plasma streams into clear space) KIRA: Sir, picking up a distress call. It's the starship Malinche. They've been ambushed by the Maquis. It's dead in space.
Defiant approaches the damaged Excelsior-Class Malinche, on the Bridge of the Defiant, a hologram of Captain Sanders, his uniform is quite dirty and he is not in a happy state Sisko: How can we help you, Captain?
SANDERS: Our warp core matrix compositor is fused, our navigational systems are disabled. If you could spare some micro-power relays, we should have the engines back online in a day or two.
Sisko: Engine room, beam a damage control team to the Malinche. Tell them to take along a dozen micro-power relays.
Sanders: We got a distress signal from a Cardassian freighter. They'd just been attacked by the Maquis. Suffered some casualties. Our sensors confirmed what we were being told, but when we lowered our shields to transport the wounded..
Sanders: There were no Cardassians on that freighter. The Maquis had rigged it with a focused particle beam that punched through our gyro shielding and we lost helm control, and by the time we got back on our feet again, three Maquis raiders came out from the plasma field. Well, it seems I couldn't get the job done either, Captain.
Sanders: I figured you'd be going after him. We have something that might be useful to you. We intercepted a coded message from one of Eddington's raiders. Maybe you can decode it. Our computers are still down.