“One Little Ship” is episode fourteen of season six of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
The Defiant is on a scientific assignment to examine a rare subspace compression phenomenon discovered in Federation space. A runabout, the Rubicon, crewed by Dax, Dr. Bashir and Chief O’Brien, is being sent into the vortex to investigate, remaining tethered to the Defiant by a tractor beam as they do so. Entering the accretion disc will result in the Rubicon being shrunk in size; Worf says the research could help them crack the problem of transwarp corridors which would give them an advantage over the Dominion. Major Kira is finding it hard to restrain herself – she finds the idea that they are shrinking the Rubicon and the crew hilarious. Worf is composing a poem to celebrate the mission.
O’Brien is worried that, when the Rubicon leaves the anomaly, they won’t regain their normal size. They have other problems though – the Rubicon detects that the tractor beam tethering them is fluctuating; that’s because the Jem’Hadar are attacking the Defiant. The Defiant‘s tractor beam loses the Rubicon, which plunges into the anomaly, and the Jem’Hadar beam aboard the Defiant and demand its surrender. The Rubicon has managed to escape the anomaly, but they are lacking visuals, or much else. They also don’t know that the Defiant was under attack.
The Jem’Hadar have captured the Defiant, but there seems to be a bit of friction between a Jem’Hadar Elder, the Second, and the First. The First is apparently of a new race and bred in the Alpha Quadrant; the Gammas do not seem to feel that the Alphas have truly proved themselves yet. The ship needs repairing and is not currently warp capable. The Elder suggests that the First does not execute Captain Sisko until the ship is repaired – but the First does not plan to execute him at all. He has something different on his mind. He wants Sisko to help repair the engine. The Second does not think that this is a good idea, as he says that Sisko will already be planning his escape. Sisko asks for help, and gets Worf, Kira and Nog.
On the Rubicon, O’Brien has managed to open the blast shutters, so that they can once again see. Unfortunately, his worries earlier were correct – leaving the anomaly did not increase the Rubicon‘s size to normal again. Dax believes that this was because they didn’t leave the anomaly the same way they entered, and that be re-entering it and following the same course, they will be able to regain their normal size again. In theory. To do this, the Rubicon will need the Defiant‘s help, but they have no communications, so O’Brien suggests flying the Rubicon into the Defiant. At which point they discover that they have bigger [sic] problems – the Jem’Hadar. It does mean that the Defiant now has some really small allies, as the bridge officers go ahead with Sisko’s plan and Second keeps trying to convince First that Sisko is up to something. Fortunately, First is so convinced of his own superiority to a Gamma that his arrogance causes him to make mistakes.