“Honor Among Thieves” is episode fifteen of season six of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
The episode opens with a rather unshaven Chief O’Brien in what looks like a pretty seedy bar eavesdropping on a couple of people talking about merchandise that is needed. There is a third individual with them, one who appears to have some cybernetic implants and an ability to hack computers using them. As the hacker works on the computer terminal, O’Brien activates a device which causes electricity to arc from the device to the implant or whatever it is on the hacker’s neck. When the other two run over to help, O’Brien warns them off, saying the hacker has been spiked. O’Brien himself uses the terminal and stops the electricity arcing, but the hacker’s hardware has been fused.
Miles – who is under an assumed name – suggests that he might be able to fix the hardware. Miles now has an in with whoever he was talking to, and meets up with someone in a dark alley after leaving the bar; he’s been recruited by Starfleet Intelligence. Intelligence has recruited O’Brien to infiltrate the Orion Syndicate, because the Syndicate has been successfully killing their operatives, which means that they have an informant. So O’Brien’s job is to find out who the informant is. If the Syndicate discovers who O’Brien really is, he will meet the same fate as the other operatives. O’Brien’s in is as a fixit man.
Bilby, the man in charge of the local group, takes a liking to O’Brien’s identity. Miles seems to find him quite pleasant company, for a crook who is willing to murder people. Bilby is a family man, one who sometimes regrets the choices he has made and the life he now lives. Starting to like the crook is the sort of thing that could cause problems for O’Brien in the future. Then it seems that the Orion Syndicate is involved with the Dominion. Probably just for money, but whatever the Dominion wants the Syndicate to do is probably not going to be good for the Federation and makes O’Brien’s mission more important than initially thought.
On DS9, the station is having problems as lots of things are not working correctly. Something which happens every time the Chief is absent. It seems that no-one else knows how O’Brien keeps the Federation and Cardassian technology playing nicely together. Dr. Bashir is also worried about O’Brien, but Sisko tries to reassure him. Even though Sisko can’t say where Miles currently is. That’s pretty much all that is seen of DS9 this episode.