The Jem'Hadar are commanded by First Kudak'Etan. He and the majority of his men are a new strain of Jem'Hadar called "Alphas," created in the Alpha Quadrant. His second is Ixtana'Rax, an Honored Elder and a Gamma, creating tension between them. The Defiant is heavily damaged, particularly the engines, leaving them stranded. Their attack ship continues on as they make repairs. Luckily, they seem to have no awareness of the Rubicon. Onboard the shuttlecraft, the crew realize that they're still shrunk down to only a few centimeters, and their communications are down, so they'll have to find some way to slip into the ship themselves.
Rather than take days to figure out how to repair the Defiant, Kudak'Etan decides to force Sisko to make the repairs for him, going against the advice of Ixtana'Rax, who knows that Starfleet officers will take any opportunity to escape. Sisko insists that he needs his crewmen to help, so the Jem'Hadar allow him Worf, Nog and Kira to help him. Meanwhile, the Rubicon slips into a plasma port and outruns a plasma discharge to make their way into the engine room.
The Starfleet officers hatch a plan to help make the demanded repairs while Nog finds a way to override the security codes to take back command of the ship. Only Ixtana'Rax keeps a close eye on them, and Sisko helps spread discord between him and the Alphas. Progress is slow, so Sisko has Worf install a failsafe that will blow up the ship should the warp drive engage. Hiding under a table in the tiny runabout, O'Brien concocts a plan to help Nog out by manually tinkering with the ship's encryption subprocessors. He and Bashir beam straight into the ship's circuitry with some miniaturized air to breathe while they reroute various firehose-sized wires.
Nog cracks the encryption thanks to the modifications, but Ixtana'Rax suddenly orders all Starfleet officers to step away from their controls, revealing that he knows the repairs were completed an hour ago, and they've been stalling. Kudak'Etan ignores Ixtana'Rax's suggestion that they check for sabotage and orders the Jem'Hadar to power up the engines. As Starfleet officers brace for the secret self-destruct program to kick in, the miniature Rubicon swoops in to save the day, zipping around like a hummingbird and firing gumdrop-sized photon torpedoes at the Jem'Hadar. Sisko and his men join the fray, and the Jem'Hadar are quickly defeated.
Back at the station, Worf reads his poetic work in progress of the episode's events. "This is the story of a little ship that took a little trip." Dax struggles to find something polite to say until she realizes that Worf is fucking with her, and they laugh. Meanwhile, Bashir and O'Brien try to impress Morn and his lady friend about their recent exploits, but Odo and Quark ask if they're sure they've been returned to full size, since they seem a little shorter. When the pair realize that Morn's lady friend is taller than them, they dash off to the infirmary, leaving Quark and Odo laughing at their prank.
Tropes
- The Air Not There: Averted. O'Brien suggests beaming out of the shrunken runabout to readjust the Defiant's computer controls, but Bashir tells hims he would suffocate, as his lungs couldn't process the normal-sized air molecules outside. Apparently the air molecules inside the runabout have shrunk with it, though, as they are still able to breathe there. So they use the air from the runabout to breathe outside it.
- Artistic License – Physics:
- The episode acknowledges that the shrunken crewmen wouldn't be able to breathe regular-sized air molecules, but all the other scientific problems involved in shrinking down matter are left unaddressed.
- The Rubicon uses micro photon torpedoes to kill some Jem'Hadar in the final fight, which is a matter-antimatter weapon. One-half gram of antimatter mixing with one-half gram of matter would create an explosion roughly equivalent to the nuclear bomb that destroyed Hiroshima. Yet when used here they only seem to create an explosive spark seen in their chests that while obviously deadly, doesn't incinerate the Defiant and everyone in it.
- Audience Surrogate: Kira laughing her nose-wrinkles off at the start of the episode. It was Ron Moore's way of saying "Don't take this premise too seriously."
- Badass on Paper: The Alphas have been engineered to be superior combatants in their environment than their counterparts hatched in the Gamma Quadrant. They have been designed specifically to fight and win against the Dominion's Alpha Quadrant enemies. They're also the reason that the crew won the day, mostly because they're overconfident and unwilling to listen to the more experienced Gammas.
- Both Sides Have a Point: Downplayed; the Second's desire to get rid of Sisko and the Defiant crew at the earliest possible opportunity turns out to be a good call, but the First is also quite right to point out that Sisko would be a valuable prisoner, and that they lack the technical knowledge to repair the Defiant in any reasonable amount of time, which in turn would run the risk of Starfleet realizing that something's wrong and sending another ship to investigate. On every other point, however, the First is shown to be completely and utterly in the wrong.
- Breather Episode: In spite of returning to the subject of the Dominion War after "Far Beyond the Stars," it's actually much lighter.
- Continuity Nod: The Jem'Hadar Second, one of the Gamma Quadrant veterans, is referred to as an Honored Elder, meaning he survived at least twenty years of service.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: The Defiant is ambushed and defeated in a few seconds. This is Justified in-episode by saying that the Jem'Hadar ship snuck up on them and they couldn't raise the shields or take evasive action for fear of losing the runabout.
- Destructo-Nookie: Joked about by Bashir:O'Brien: Don't hit [the door button] too hard. You could shatter the control panel.
Dax: Don't worry. I have a light touch.
Bashir: Not according to Worf.
(O'Brien and Dax glare at him)
Bashir: What? - "Die Hard" on an X: In this instance, it's the Defiant that gets taken over rather than Deep Space 9.
- Failed a Spot Check: One of the Jem'Hadar doesn't notice the runabout (which, while small, is still about matchbox-sized) hovering two inches from his face.
- "Fantastic Voyage" Plot: Sort of. Jadzia gets to fly a very tiny runabout through the ducts of the Defiant, while Bashir and O'Brien reconfigure a computer from the inside.
- The Gadfly: Bashir is pretty irreverent of O'Brien's distress at still being shrunk after leaving the Negative Space Wedgie.O'Brien: Are you telling me I'm gonna be this bloody tall for the rest of my life? [Holds fingers a couple of inches apart]
Bashir: [Holds fingers a centimetre apart] This bloody tall, actually. - Gunship Rescue: A rare instance of the gunship in question being small enough to fit in a bread box.
- Honor Before Reason: The mortally injured Second demonstrates this attitude with his dying words. Despite clearly having a far better handle on the situation than the First, he refused to deviate from the Jem'Hadar's creed that "Obedience is victory, and victory is life" — no matter how much he believed the First to be leading them into disaster, he felt it would be a worse crime to disobey his orders.
- Ignored Expert: The Second is one of the most savvy Jem'Hadar out there. Too bad for him all of his advice falls on deaf ears.
- Innocently Insensitive: Kira finds the idea of shrinking down a shuttlecraft to be hysterical. Worf sternly notes that there's nothing funny about being small, and the diminutive Nog confirms it with obvious annoyance.
- Interservice Rivalry: There is tension between the arrogant Jem'Hadar engineered to be better warriors in the Alpha Quadrant, who have been given command of the strike force, and the veteran 'Gammas.' Sisko, of course, plays them against each other.
- Irony: The Second's dying words are an attempt to recite the Jem'Hadar creed "Obedience brings victory, and victory is life," even though his obedience to his First brought defeat and death.
- Laugh Themselves Sick: Major Kira tries valiantly not to laugh at the idea of shrinking three people "to the size of coffee cups," but is quickly overwhelmed by the absurdity; Sisko joins in, but manages to keep his dignity.
- The Main Characters Do Everything: This is apparently why the Jem'Hadar have Sisko bring his bridge crew to make repairs rather than a couple redshirt engineers.
- Neck Snap: Worf takes out at least one Jem'Hadar this way.
- The Neidermeyer: Kudak'Etan is the First of the mission in spite of his limited experience. If he's any indication, the Alphas are bred to be more aggressive, flexible and irreverent at the cost of recklessness, causing him to make a number of mistakes that ultimately get his company wiped out.
- No Sense of Humor: Quark is amazed that Odo joins him in teasing Bashir and O'Brien, and invokes this trope almost verbatim.
- Not Quite Back to Normal: At the end of the episode, Odo tells Bashir and O'Brien that they seem to be a few centimeters shorter than before, which Quark agrees with, causing them to run to the infirmary. Afterwards, Odo and Quark step down from the half-ledge they were on.
- Not So Above It All:
- After calling out Kira for laughing, Sisko joins in heartily.
- At the end of the episode, we have Worf pranking Dax with his non-existent commemorative poem, then Odo pranking Bashir and O'Brien.
- Oh, Crap!: An Alpha gapes rather comedically at the shrunken runabout.
- Old Soldier: The Gamma Number Two. Not that the new Alpha leader cares to listen to his advice.
- Painful Rhyme: Worf makes a big show of telling Dax that she mustn't mock his first attempt at poetry, then delivers the following: "This is the story of a little ship, that took a little trip." However it turns out that he hasn't actually written anything and is just pranking her.
- Plot Armor:
- An exploding console takes out a Red Shirt, but when the same console explodes on Kira, she's fine.
- None of our heroes are so much as scratched during the final brawl with the Jem'Hadar.
- Properly Paranoid: The Jem'Hadar Second is convinced Sisko and his officers are planning some way to take the ship back. While he's not sure exactly what it is, he correctly surmises that Sisko's using the repairs to the Defiant as a cover, and at a couple points takes action that would foil the plan... if the First wasn't predisposed to dismissing his suggestions out of hand due to him being a Gamma.
- Saying Too Much: The Second realizes this after complaining about the First in front of Sisko.Ixtana'Rax: He is an Alpha, I am a Gamma. His DNA and psychological profile are specifically designed for combat in this quadrant. The Founders believe that makes him a better leader.
Sisko: What do you believe?
Ixtana'Rax: ("I'm an idiot" face) I believe I've given you enough information already. - Skewed Priorities:
- The Defiant has been heavily damaged behind 'enemy' lines, the warp drive is off line, there is a shipful of human prisoners who are prone to fighting back, and none of the Jem'Hadar know how to get the ship working again. The first order the First gives? Remove the chairs from the Bridge, since Jem'Hadar don't like to sit down.
- As much as the First's decisions lead to disaster, it would never have become an issue if the Vorta commanding them had just thought to tractor the Defiant into Cardassian territory, where they could have put her in a dry dock and inspected the ship at their leisure. Instead, he just leaves a unit of Jem'Hadar to get the Defiant up and running by themselves, while he (and presumably the rest of the Jem'Hadar under his command) proceeds on their original mission to attack a Federation mining colony — and we never even find out the outcome of that attack, leaving no indication as to whether or not it was worth it.
- Taking You with Me: Sisko's backup plan is to sabotage the warp drive so that the Defiant will explode at warp speed, killing all of the Jem'Hadar.
- That's What I Would Do: How the Second predicts what Sisko's up to. Not that the First cares to listen.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Quark and Odo join together in teasing Bashir and O'Brien at the end, despite all their mutual antagonism before, after, and during this episode.
- Warrior Poet: Klingons compose poems to commemorate acts of bravery, which is a bit of a Continuity Nod to Star Trek: The Next Generation in which Worf mentions that Klingons traditionally compose love poems when wooing a woman.
- Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: The Second repeatedly suggests killing Sisko and the crew, rather than giving them an opportunity to escape.
- The World Is Just Awesome: Bashir compares the inside of the ship's console to an "optronic forest."
- Worthy Opponent:
- Not the First, whose arrogant stupidity cost the Dominion the fight, but the Second, who gives the correct advice every time and would have been a No-Nonsense Nemesis. Sisko acknowledges it at the end.
- The Second acknowledges Sisko as one, even recognizing when he has been tricked by Sisko into revealing the schism between the Alphas and the Gammas.Second: I know what he's thinking because it's exactly what I would be doing in his position.
- While not his opponent, the Vorta shows respect for the Jem'Hadar Elder by looking directly at him instead of off to the side as he did with the First.
