“The Reckoning” is episode twenty-one of season six of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
Sisko is briefing the senior staff on the latest Dominion activities. They are attempting to secure supply lines through Betazoid space which will allow them to threaten Vulcan. Starfleet is sending the Seventh Fleet to stop them, but the fleet is only at half strength. The Romulans have, however, forced the Dominion out of a system – although Odo is concerned that the Romulans won’t leave the system after the war is over. (In “In the Pale Moonlight”, the Romulan Empire joined the war against the Dominion. This was thanks to the actions of Sisko and Garak. After the initial plan of using Garak’s contacts on Cardassia Prime to retrieve the Dominion plans to invade the Romulan Empire failed – because his contacts were promptly killed – a new plan was made. This was to fake the plans and give them to a Romulan senator. This also failed – but Garak had planted a bomb on the senator’s shuttle. When the senator died – after returning from Dominion space; his trip to DS9 was secret – the faked plans were found but, as a result, appeared genuine, and that the senator discovered them and was killed by the Dominion as a result.)
Major Kira (in the previous episode, “His Way”, she and Odo finally struck up a relationship which is still ongoing), Jake and Sisko are going to Bajor; some archaeologists have found something that they want the Emissary to see. An order of monks is excavating the holy city. Jake is concerned about how seriously his father is taking his role as Emissary. The city was built a long, long time ago – it’s been abandoned for 25,000 years. The archaeologists have found a tablet that dates back 35,000 years. They haven’t been able to translate the tablet completely, but one part they have says ‘Welcome, Emissary.’ Which is why Sisko was invited to the site. When Sisko touches the tablet he sees the wormhole aliens again. The aliens say that Sisko will bring the Reckoning. That’s not even vaguely ominous. After the vision, Sisko collapses.
Sisko wants to know what the inscriptions on the tablet say. The monks don’t have the resources – but DS9 does. Dax says that she knew what it was when she saw it – a slab of stone with some writing on it. Perhaps a less than entirely helpful conclusion. Sisko wants Dax to translate the inscription. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Kai Winn arrives on the station. She is not happy that Sisko removed an artefact without permission from the Council of Vedeks. Kai Winn asks if the Prophets told the captain in his vision to bring the tablet to the station. Which they didn’t. So she complains to Starfleet, who tell Sisko to return the tablet. Sisko isn’t going to return the tablet until he knows what it says. According to Dax, when she translates part of the tablet, the Prophets are going to consume the gateway to the temple. Which is DS9. That doesn’t sound good.
It seems news of the prophecy has spread and put a dampener on the station. Julian doesn’t think anything bad is going to happen, at which point the entire station shakes. There are some things you just shouldn’t say. The wormhole had opened, and then shut, without any ship passing through it. There are also a number of natural disasters on Bajor, caused by the wormhole’s instability. Kai Winn thinks the problem is that Sisko has angered the Prophets by removing the tablet and wants it returning. Sisko agrees to return the tablet. Dax has made some more progress with the translation, and the Reckoning doesn’t sound good.
Then Sisko does something that looks rather rash. Or was it Prophesised? Something that probably causes the Reckoning.