“Call to Arms” is episode twenty-six of season five of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and the season finale.
Rom and Leeta are looking at pictures of wedding dresses for their wedding with Garak. They’ve looked at well over 100 and haven’t found one they both like (and in Ferengi culture, women are supposed to be naked). So Ziyal suggests they just let Garak design something. They also want Captain Sisko to marry them. Jake is now working as an official correspondent for the Starfleet News Service. Which causes a bit of friction between him and his father. Major Kira and Odo are a bit uncomfortable around each other at the moment, because Future Odo revealed his feelings for Kira in “Children of Time” (and erased thousands of people from history, including his future self, to save her life).
Many, many more Jem’Hadar ships are coming through the wormhole, as scheduled, and are heading for Cardassia. This is the fifth convoy in the past few weeks; the Dominion is building up a strong presence in the Alpha Quadrant. The Romulans have also apparently signed a non-aggression pact with the Dominion. They are only one of several races that have signed agreements with the Dominion. In the previous episode, “In the Cards”, the Dominion opened up negotiations with Bajor as well – in “Rapture” Sisko had told the Bajorans not to join the Federation if they wanted to survive.
Starfleet Command has agreed that no more Dominion forces can be allowed to come through the wormhole. So they are going to mine the wormhole, to prevent any more convoys coming through. This may start a war but, as Sisko states, the Federation is losing the peace.
Deciding to mine the wormhole is one thing. Creating mines that will actually stop the Dominion ships exiting the wormhole is another matter. One type of mine can be easily destroyed. Cloaked mines will be needed in huge quantities to actually stop ships, and they will run out of mines before the Dominion run out of ships. O’Brien, Dax and Rom try to come up with an effective design. In the midst of having a panic attack about his upcoming nuptials, Rom has the idea to make self-replicating mines. Which will mean that they never run out of mines. Rom keeps having ideas during his panic attack.
Starfleet isn’t sending any more reinforcements to the station. Sisko knows why but can’t divulge this; apparently resources are needed elsewhere. They are to deploy the minefield, defend the station if attacked by the Dominion and activate the minefield. The Defiant will be vulnerable whilst deploying the mines. The Dominion is not happy about the minefield, and Weyoun issues an ultimatum. War, it seems, is inevitable, and Bajor needs to stay out of the fighting. Bajorans evacuate the station and Sisko prepares to evacuate DS9.