“Inquisition” is episode eighteen of season six of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
Dr. Bashir is getting ready before he leaves for a medical conference in the morning. Odo pops in and asks where the conference is, naming a couple of resort planets. The conference is being held on one of them.
The next morning, Bashir is getting up to head off to the conference but, just as he is about to leave, Sisko announces over the com that all senior officers need to report to Ops. Internal Affairs have arrived on the station; Starfleet Intelligence believes that someone on DS9 has been passing information to the Dominion. So everyone is relieved of duty and confined to quarters whilst the matter is looked into. The senior staff will all be interviewed separately. Julian will not be going to his conference.
The episode looks like it’s going to focus on Bashir, and in his interview Deputy Director Sloan of Internal Affairs mentions Bashir’s kidnap by the Dominion in “In Purgatory’s Shadow” and Julian’s work with the genetically enhanced in “Statistical Probabilities”. Neither of these mentions seem as casual as they are made out to be. During the interview, Bashir’s quarters were searched. Which is perhaps not that great a surprise. Then O’Brien contacts Bashir, and tells the latter that Sloan had grilled O’Brien for two hours. About Julian.
When Sloan calls Julian back for another talk, he brings up Bashir’s captivity at the hands of the Dominion again. And suggests that the Dominion allowed Bashir to escape. So that he could work for the Dominion. Sloan thinks that Bashir was broken by the Dominion, and turned into a spy, one who has suppressed his memories and doesn’t even know he is working for the Dominion. Sloan really wants Julian to bring up the suppressed memories. The idea that there may be no suppressed memories to bring up doesn’t appear to be considered.
Sloan is going to get the truth out of Julian, no matter what. Even if there’s no truth to get. Sloan perhaps does not like Julian because he’s genetically enhanced. Julian appears to have been convicted by Sloan and his people already. Sloan does have a personal grudge, and he’s taking it out on Julian. Captain Sisko gets a little annoyed with Sloan, but could Sloan actually be right about the suppressed memories? Even Sisko starts to wonder. Then Sloan tries to take Bashir out of Sisko’s influence – but Bashir is apparently rescued by Weyoun and the Dominion. So, just what is going on?