Vic being there was just part of a string of senseless occurrences that were done just to be sensational. It's bad storytelling that has nothing to do with anything technical. But this is all beside the point.
I disagree that it was "bad storytelling."
It was a gag. A story joke. One more thing to fuck around with the very literal, linear and A to B to C brain functions of most of the Star Trek fandom. As Q once said, "I add a little flair, a little excitement to your lives and all you do is complain!"
Look, it'd be one thing if the DS9 writers tried pulling these kinds of zany things all the time. But the fact is they didn't. It was ONE gag in ONE episode that took place outside the main storyline and continuity. I myself don't have a real problem with it. In fact, I think it was a pretty bold choice to make, just to show how much more fucked up the MU really is compared to our own. It didn't need any explanation; And being that some people still wonder about it, still feel like they need an explanation for it TWELVE YEARS LATER probably suggests that it --the story point-- you know, worked.
I'm not even sure who you are arguing with. It seems to be thin air. I don't care what the explanation is at all, as I've already once said. I do find it curious that some would try and explain it.
And it absolutely was bad storytelling because their line of thought seemed to be along the lines of, "Hey, what can we throw into this story that's sensational?" From that, you get explosions, gunfights, space battles, lesbian kisses, and Vic is just on top of that. I find that to be a terrible, lazy way of telling stories, if all the story does is revolve around some "kewl" concepts. It's the worst possible approach, and the later MU stories were rife with them.