“The Ship” is episode two of season five of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
Captain Sisko has taken a runabout into the Gamma Quadrant to investigate a planet that has high concentrations of a useful mineral. Whilst they are on the planet, a Jem’Hadar ship crashes into it. The crew are all dead, but the ship itself is intact. This will be a priceless bit of intelligence on Dominion technology, so a message is sent back to DS9 to get the Defiant to come and retrieve the crashed vessel.
Before the Defiant can arrive, and whilst it is still over two days away, another Jem’Hadar ship arrives and destroys the runabout. Jem’Hadar attack on the ground, killing one crewman and badly injuring another. Sisko, Dax, Worf, O’Brien and Muñiz, the injured crewman, are forced to retreat inside the crashed ship.
The Jem’Hadar seem rather reluctant to openly attack, and the Vorta commanding them wishes to negotiate. It seems that there is something inside the ship that they want very badly, so badly that they are unwilling to risk damaging the vessel.
Sisko and the others try to figure out what it is, whilst Muñiz is dying and O’Brien tries to see if he can repair the vessel.