“The Homecoming” is episode one of season two of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
Quark is given a Bajoran earring by the captain of a freighter, and told to take it to a Bajoran, who will know what to do. He takes it to Major Kira, who recognises it as belonging to a legendary Bajoran resistance leader and hero who was believed to have been killed. The earring was smuggled out of a labour camp on Cardassia 4, so Kira wants to take a runabout there to find and rescue the man.
Things are falling apart on Bajor itself. The provisional government has always had problems, and since Kai Opaka was lost in “Battle Lines”, it’s only got worse. A new, racist and extremist group known as The Circle is rising in power, and they consider all non-Bajorans to be inferior, and want them off the planet.
Sisko decides to give Major Kira a runabout, along with Chief O’Brien, so that she can find and rescue the resistance leader, in the hopes that he will be able to bring some much-needed stability to the planet.
The story continues in the next episode, “The Circle”.