“Image in the Sand” is episode one of the seventh and final season of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
In the previous episode, the season six finale “Tears of the Prophets”, Gul Dukat had, through his research, discovered a Bajoran artefact on Cardassia that contained a Pah-wraith. When Dukat broke open the artefact, the Pah-wraith inhabited him. Dukat then went to DS9 and entered the Bajoran temple on the Promenade. The only other person in the temple at that time was Dax, and Dukat attacked her before opening up the case containing the Orb. The Pah-wraith appeared to leave Dukat and enter the Orb, which went dark. The wormhole itself also acted strangely, showing similar light to that of the Pah-wraith before closing and not reopening again. All the other Orbs went dark too.
Dukat apologised for attacking Dax, admitting to her that it was scant comfort that he never intended to harm her. Dr. Bashir was able to save the Dax symbiont but not save Jadzia, the host. Captain Sisko headed back to Earth to look for answers, as the Prophets are now not speaking to him. He had been warned by the wormhole aliens not to go with the invasion of Cardassia, and it would seem that this was the reason why.
On DS9, Major Kira – now sporting the new rank of Colonel and a new hairstyle to boot – and Odo are watching a group outside the Bajoran temple on the Promenade. The Bajorans of the group are members of the Cult of the Pah-Wraiths, who have become less of a joke recently. Nothing has been heard from Sisko in three months. Admiral Ross is coming to the station to speak to Kira personally. It seems that a Romulan senator and her staff are setting up a permanent – for the duration of the war – base on DS9. Kira is not happy about this, even though the senator seems fairly easygoing. For a Romulan.
Worf is not happy about the convoy duty the Defiant is currently doing. He’s rather snappy and takes some of this out on Nog. Worf did, of course, lose his wife, but the length of his morning is unusual for a Klingon. They are rather more accepting of death than humans are; perhaps not a surprise in a race with a love of dying in glorious battle. So O’Brien and Bashir decide to find out just what is on Worf’s mind.
Weyoun and Damar are rather more happy than they were in the previous episode. Weyoun had not been pleased that Dukat’s actions had closed the wormhole, and therefore stopped any chance of getting reinforcements from the Gamma Quadrant – Dukat admitted that what happened was not what he expected, but he said that Weyoun would be happy with it. Indeed he is; for some reason the invasion of Cardassia has stalled since the wormhole was shut.
Sisko is in his father’s restaurant on Earth, playing piano as he has been all day. Jake is worried because since they arrived back on Earth his father hasn’t even left the restaurant. Whilst Sisko is playing, his baseball rolls of the top of the piano and lands on the floor. As he reaches to retrieve the baseball, Sisko gets a vision, one from the Prophets it would seem. He is digging in the sand on a planet he recognises when he unearths the face of a woman.
Sisko decides that he needs to find the woman, who he has never seen before. So he doesn’t forgot what she looks like, he starts creating a photo composite of her face – and Jake recognises her. She’s in an old photograph with Sisko’s father, taken many years ago. His father does not want to discuss the woman but eventually does, revealing some information that can be guessed just prior to its reveal, and which has interesting implications.
At the end of the episode, Sisko gets a bit of a, perhaps not complete surprise, but perhaps unexpected, visit.