Deciding to stay behind for an upcoming celebration party, O'Brien offers the massively Tempting Fate phrase of "One more day here won't kill me." This nearly proves wrong. As they prepare to destroy the final canister, a group of armed Kelleruns break into the room, killing everyone there except O'Brien and Bashir. The two manage to beam to the planet's surface for safety, though a drop of Harvester from a shattered container lands on O'Brien's arm before they beam out.
The leaders of the T'Lani and Kelleruns, Ambassador E'Tyshra and Sharat, arrive at Deep Space Nine and announce that O'Brien and Bashir perished with the rest of the science team when a heavily buried security program vaporized everyone in the room. They even bring video evidence showing O'Brien sipping coffee and accidentally triggering the program.
On the planet, O'Brien and Bashir find an old bunker to hide in. It's filled with enough food to tide them over until O'Brien can fix an old transmitter to get a distress signal out. The motormouthed doctor laments the celebratory orgy he missed out on at the party they expected to attend. His bachelor lifestyle is compared to O'Brien's happy marriage, though Bashir mentions that he nearly settled down once. O'Brien is annoyed by all the chatter and tells him to shut up, but when he starts complaining about the cold, Bashir notes that he's getting sick. One scan later confirms the worst: O'Brien has indeed been infected with the Harvester.
On the station, the crew mourns the loss of their two officers, and even Quark offers a toast to two lost customers. Sisko has the unenviable task of delivering the bad news to Keiko. She demands to see the video of the incident that killed him. And after viewing it, she's instantly suspicious. The video shows O'Brien drinking caffeinated coffee, but the time stamp indicates that it's in the day. Keiko insists that O'Brien never drinks coffee late in the day because it keeps him up. Sisko takes her concern seriously and promises to investigate whether the footage was doctored. He and Dax plan to visit the planet a day early on the pretense of retrieving O'Brien and Bashir's runabout, the Ganges .
Back on the planet, O'Brien is getting worse. His vision has gotten blurry and he can't feel his legs, leaving Bashir to repair the transmitter under his instruction. While working, Bashir recalls the "perfect" woman he left behind to pursue his career, wondering if he'd made a mistake. Meanwhile, Dax and Sisko are drawing closer to the truth. Dax picks up an erased transport request made 3 minutes after the two supposedly perished.
Bashir has gotten the transmitter functioning when he hears something outside the bunker. It's Ambassador E'Tyshra and Sarat...and a firing squad. The truth comes out there: It wasn't enough to destroy the Harvesters and the data concerning their creation. The T'Lani and Kellerun governments wanted to make sure there was no chance they could be created again by killing everyone who had any knowledge of their composition. Facing seemingly certain death, O'Brien struggles to his feet and says his last words... only for the two to be beamed away at the last second.
But the danger isn't over yet. The two ambassadors beam onto a warship that easily overmatches the Starfleet runabout. They demand the return of Bashir and O'Brien, or they'll destroy the runabout and everyone aboard. Sisko tries to send out a distress beacon, but the warship is jamming all communication as well as external sensors. The runabout turns to face the warship and goes on a suicidal collision course, forcing the ambassadors to destroy it. But just as they're about to fly away, they detect the traces of a warp signature that are detectable only now that their sensors are back online. It seems that Sisko and crew beamed over to the empty Ganges and piloted the suicidal runabout charge remotely while they made their escape.
Back on the station, O'Brien is making a full recovery in Sick Bay. Bashir interrupts his quiet moment with Keiko to comment on how facing death together has drawn him and the chief closer, but O'Brien doesn't seem to agree. After Bashir takes the hint and leaves them alone, O'Brien wants a cup of coffee, causing Keiko no end of shock as she realizes her husband sometimes does take coffee in the afternoon.
Tropes
- "Ass" in Ambassador: Attempting to murder four Starfleeters would qualify Sharat and E'Tyshra as this.
- Brick Joke: Miles really does drink coffee in the afternoon.
- Continuity Nod: O'Brien loves combat rations, though only the ones made by Starfleet.
- Conviction by Counterfactual Clue: Keiko's insistence that Miles never drinks coffee in the afternoon is a rare in-universe example.
- Death Notification: Sisko does this for Keiko.
- Died Standing Up: O'Brien asks Bashir to help him up when the extermination squad finds them because he wants to die on his feet. Fortunately, they are rescued at the last second.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Harvesters combine traits of two problematic real-world weapon types: biological weapons, which are a war crime, and land mines, which are a dangerous holdover from previous wars that are difficult to dispose of.
- Dramatic Irony: We watch Sisko inform Keiko that O'Brien has died, both unaware that O'Brien and Bashir are still both alive and need their help.
- Entertainingly Wrong: When the Kelleruns attack the lab, Bashir and O'Brien reasonably assume that they've broken the cease-fire and are about to launch another war against the T'Lani. They have no idea that both sides planned the attack.
- Fire-Forged Friends: At the end of the episode, Bashir suggests he and O'Brien have bonded after facing death together, though Miles doesn't quite agree when Julian makes the comment.
- He Knows Too Much: The T'Lani and Kellerun want to make sure no one has any possible knowledge of the Harvesters creation, not even the ones who invested time and energy finding the way to destroy such weapons.
- Hyperspeed Escape: Sisko warps back to DS9 while the T'Lani are busy destroying the wrong runabout.
- If I Do Not Return: O'Brien wants Bashir to tell Keiko something if he dies (specifically what is never revealed), but Bashir answers that he will ensure Miles lives so he can tell her himself.
- It Has Been an Honor: Would've been O'Brien's last words to Bashir if not for a Teleportation Rescue.
- Karma Houdini: The T'Lani and Kelleruns try to kill O'Brien and Bashir, and later on Sisko and Dax as well. Whether the Federation takes retributive action against them for this is never addressed.
- Never Give the Captain a Straight Answer: The ambassadors insist on speaking to Sisko personally without saying why; justified as they are delivering a Death Notification.
- No Body Left Behind: The supposed 'death footage' shows everyone in the lab being instantly vaporized.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Quark hands out free drinks to give a toast to O'Brien and Bashir, showing just how seriously the loss of the pair is being taken.
- Pet the Dog: When the news of O'Brien and Bashir's supposed demise reaches him, Quark offers Dax and Kira a drink. On the house. High praise from him. Along with quoting the 57th Rule of Acquisition in their memory.Quark: Good customers are as rare as latinum. Treasure them.
- Plot Armor: Bashir and O'Brien are the only two people to survive the Kellerun assault, though this is aided by the fact that Miles is a combat veteran, and Bashir has Starfleet combat training, while presumably the rest of the scientists do not.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Bashir and O'Brien are again paired together and characterized as opposites: Bashir is young, affable and on the prowl. O'Brien is middle-aged, curmudgeonly and Happily Married.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: Keiko sees O'Brien drinking coffee in the surveillance recording and determines that it was forged. As it turns out, the recording was fake, but O'Brien does drink coffee in the afternoon.
- Spot the Thread: Keiko notices that the footage of the accident has been tampered with, though she's Right for the Wrong Reasons.
- Stock Footage: The matte painting depicting the destroyed surface of T'Lani III is a reuse of the painting of Turkana IV from the fourth season TNG episode "Legacy".
- Stupid Evil: The T'Lani and the Kellerun were willing to murder several of their own people, and two ranking Federation officers, to destroy the secrets of the Harvesters. They risk an act of war with the Federation to do so, even though the two Starfleet officers have no intention of letting Harvester technology slip. And from what we see of Harvesters, they're not nearly deadly enough to justify this ludicrous precaution compared to all the various weapon technologies readily available throughout the galaxy.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Erasing all traces of data on a horrible biochemical weapon that caused countless deaths? Understandable. Murdering every single scientist who worked on disposing of it, including two from outside your political jurisdiction? Not so much.
