Recap / Star Trek Deep Space Nine S 05 E 02 The Ship

Sisko is leading an away team to survey a planet in the Gamma Quandrant. O'Brien trades some friendly ribbing with his direct-report Crewman Muniz as they traverse the rocky terrain. The group stumbles upon the wreckage of a Jem'Hadar attack ship even though they're three weeks outside of Dominion space. Sisko sees an opportunity for new discoveries, so the group investigates. Inside, the whole crew has been killed and the ship is non-operational. They summon the Defiant from Deep Space Nine to come tractor the ship into space. But suddenly another Jem'Hadar ship arrives and blasts the team's runabout out of the sky, killing those still aboard.

Jem'Hadar beam down and start shooting. As the Starfleet team takes shelter in the wrecked ship, Muniz takes a hit. Inside the ship, the team is safe but stranded. It's now a standoff. A Vorta named Kilana requests a face-to-face negotiation. In person, she's friendly and offers to settle the matter peacefully by escorting Sisko's team back home as guests. Sisko doesn't buy it and asserts his rights to the wreckage as salvage. While they talk, a Jem'Hadar agent beams into the ship and plants a device, but he gets caught and killed, ending Sisko's negotiations.

Muniz's condition is worsening, and nothing O'Brien does helps. Worf presses the others to let Muniz know that he's dying so that he can prepare himself, but the others are offended and insist that he be given every chance to pull through. Kilana calls for a second meeting, this time agreeing to meet Sisko alone and unarmed. She admits that the ship holds something she needs, and Sisko offers to just hand it over, but the Vorta won't even tell him what it is. Dropping her friendly persona, Kilana beams away, and the Jem'Hadar begin shelling the ship.

Sisko wrangles everyone to get the ship operational so that they can flee. It almost works, but the ship breaks down and becomes completely unsalvageable. They'll have to wait for the Defiant to arrive in 36 hours. Muniz finally succumbs to his wounds and dies. Sisko goes off alone to commiserate with Dax about all the good men they've lost to get this ship. While they speak, they realize that one of the bulkheads is leaking. In fact, it's not a bulkhead at all, but a Changeling that is rapidly losing its form. That's what Kilana was so desperate to recover! The Changeling gloops to the floor and, with one final cry, dies.

Kilana beams directly aboard the ship and admits that her mission is a failure. Her Jem'Hadar have killed themselves in dishonor for failing to protect their god. Sisko tells her that they could have avoided all the death if she'd simply told him the truth, but Kilana counters that she couldn't trust him with the knowledge. With the captain's permission, she takes a small portion of the Changeling's ashes and departs.

The ship is tractored away by the Defiant, and everyone left alive gets back to the station safely. Sisko tells Dax that the Federation is "pleased" by the ship and that everyone will get medals, but he finds it all cheap compared to the lives lost. Dax reminds him that the information gleaned from the ship could save many more lives than were lost. Sisko understands and would do it all again, but it still doesn't take away the sting. Meanwhile, O'Brien sits with Muniz's coffin. Worf enters and joins him.

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Tropes:

• Bittersweet Ending: Sisko succeeds in bringing the ship back, but both sides pay a hell of a price. O'Brien mourns the loss of his friend, but he makes amends with Worf over their disagreement.
• Coming in Hot: The Jem'Hadar warship at the beginning.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Muñiz is shot by a Jem'Hadar. The wound appears minor, but bleeding persists until he slowly bleeds to death. Even Worf remarks what a horrible way to die it is.
• The Cynic: Worf is quite adamant, and vocal, in his belief that Muñiz is going to die, causing tempers to flare between him and O'Brien.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance: O'Brien believes in holding on to hope and assuring a dying crewman he's going to make it long after it's obvious he's not. Worf's view is that deaths from combat are simply a fact of life, and they should all be honest about it so that the injured can ready himself for his death.
• Dispense with the Pleasantries: Sisko puts an end to Kilana's attempt at flattery.
• Don't Call Me "Sir":
  • Inverted when Kilana tries to get on a First-Name Basis with Sisko, but he shuts her down.
  • Played Straight with O'Brien and Muñiz. It zig-zags a bit throughout the episode, as Muñiz also refers to him as "Jefe," which is much closer to the proper form of address: 'Senior Chief O'Brien.'
• Doomed Hurt Guy: Muñiz, after he is shot by the Jem'Hadar. Worf states that there's no hope for him, while O'Brien insists that he can survive. In the end, however, Muñiz succumbs to his injury.
• Driven to Suicide: All of Kilana's Jem'Hadar kill themselves after the Founder dies.
• Dude, Not Funny!: Sisko shouts at Worf and O’Brien to stop fighting and act like officers, and Dax’s response to that doesn’t sit well with Sisko.
  Dax: Tough guys. A little pressure and they buckle.
  Sisko: Dax, maybe you haven’t noticed, but no one’s laughing!
• Due to the Dead:
  • With a dash of In the Original Klingon thrown in by Worf. At the end of the episode, O'Brien is watching over Muñiz's body. Worf enters and likens the practice to ak'voh, an old Klingon custom of safeguarding the body of those entering Sto-vo-kor. He then sits beside O'Brien.
    Worf: We will both keep the predators away.
    O'Brien: I'm sure Quique would have liked that.
  • Sisko allows Kilana to take some of the Founder's remains with her.
• Fantastic Racism: The argument between O'Brien and Worf regarding the dying Muñiz has some interspecies posturing.
  O'Brien: I'm not some bloodthirsty Klingon looking for an excuse to murder my friend.
  Worf: No. You're just another weak human afraid to face death.
• Faux Affably Evil: Kilana is very friendly to Sisko and even acts like an uncertain newbie to make her seem more vulnerable and trustworthy. Sisko identifies that she's lying about her background. When her act fails, she reverts to a much more cold personality.
• From Dress to Dressing: O'Brien sacrifices his uniform's sleeves in a futile attempt to stop Muñiz from bleeding.
• Gratuitous Spanish:
  • A more dramatic example than most — as Muñiz nears the end, he starts hallucinating that he's watching fireworks with his father and reverts to Spanish.
  • Also, at one point he calls O'Brien "jefe," which can mean "chief" or "boss."
• I Can't Feel My Legs!: Muñiz, as he gets worse. Dax assures him that he still has them.
• Inertial Dampening: Failed on the Jem'Hadar warship, with fatal consequences for the crew.
• Mandatory Line: Kira, Odo, Quark, and Bashir have a short and completely pointless scene with no relevance to the plot.
• Ms. Fanservice: The Vorta, Kilana, wears a rather cleavagey outfit.
• The Needs of the Many: Jadzia tells a grieving Sisko that the loss of five Redshirts is Worth It if it saves more lives down the road. Sisko agrees, saying that he'd make the same trade-off again if he had to, but that doesn't make it any easier to live with.
  Sisko: Starfleet Command is waiting for my official report, but every time I try to get it started, I find myself staring at the casualty list and reading the same five names over and over again: T'Lor, Rooney, Bertram, Hoya, Muñiz.
  Jadzia: It may sound cruel, but we both know that ship out there was worth it. Those five deaths may save five thousand lives, or maybe even five million.
  Sisko: And if I had to make the same trade all over again, I would. But five people are dead. Fine men and women who deserved a lot more than to die on some lonely planet fifty thousand light years away from home.
• Nonstandard Character Design: Kilana is much less pale than Eris or Weyoun, her eyes are blue rather than purple, and her hair is chestnut brown instead of black. Maybe she's designed to appeal to humans?
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Kilana initially says this is her first mission, but Sisko later realizes this was a lie to get him to underestimate her.
• Oh, Crap!: Everyone's reaction when the runabout is shot down.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: As O'Brien is treating him, Muñiz calls him "sir." When O'Brien doesn't react, Muñiz knows his condition really is bad.
• Poor Communication Kills: The Founder aboard the ship could've been saved if Kilana had been more forthcoming with Sisko about why she and the Jem'Hadar were there, Sisko affirming that all he wanted was the ship and he would have let the Changeling go with Kilana if he'd known it was there.
• Punishment Detail: O'Brien jokingly suggests transferring Muñiz to waste extraction after a quip about O'Brien being old.
• Red Shirt: Subverted. Several random crew members are killed (including Mauve Shirt Muñiz), but at the end of the episode Sisko reads off the list of the dead and reminisces about them. It shows that, even if their deaths only serve to excite the audience, for the surviving characters these people's lives and deaths matter.
• Remember the New Guy?: We are introduced to a new security detail fresh from the academy. Averted with Muñiz, who was introduced back in "Starship Down" and has made one or two appearances since.
• Self-Punishment Over Failure: A contingent of Jem'Hadar commit suicide for allowing a Founder to die.
• Talking to the Dead: O'Brien tells Muñiz's coffin about how they finally freed the Jem'Hadar ship.
  O'Brien: We used a phase-conjugate graviton emitter in the tractor beam. That baby came out of the rock first time. You would've loved it, Quique.
• They Knew the Risks: Jadzia says this to Sisko about the five dead Starfleeters. It doesn't make it any easier for him to accept their deaths.
  Jadzia: They chose a life in Starfleet. They knew the risks and they died fighting for something that they believed in.
  Sisko: That doesn't make it any easier.
  Jadzia: Maybe nothing should.
• This Was His True Form: The dead Changeling in the Jem'Hadar ship eventually reverts its natural state, a liquid. It's unclear how long it was dead before liquefying.
• Through His Stomach: Kilana offers to share some snacks with Sisko. He refuses.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: O'Brien and Muñiz good-naturedly insult each other.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Sisko, as tempers flare amongst the crew.
  "I know it's hot. We're filthy, tired, and we've got ten isotons of explosives going off outside. But we will never get out of this if we don't pull it together and start to act like professionals!"
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Sisko appears quite offended when Kilana says he would've killed the Founder or taken it hostage.
• Wound That Will Not Heal: Jem'Hadar disruptors apparently leave anticoagulants in their victims, leaving them with wounds that will not clot. Once Muñiz was shot, without access to proper medical equipment, he was doomed to bleed out.