Starship Down

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Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode
"Starship Down"
The Defiant is crippled
Episode no.	78
Prod. code	479
Airdate	November 6, 1995
Writer(s)	David Mack John J. Ordover
Director	Alexander Singer
Guest star(s)	James Cromwell as Hanok F. J. Rio as Muniz Jay Baker as Stevens Sara Mornell as Carson
Year	2372
Stardate	49263.5
Episode chronology
Previous	"Rejoined"
Next	"Little Green Men"

"Starship Down" is an episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, the seventh episode of the fourth season.

[edit] Plot

The Defiant carries the senior staff of Deep Space Nine into the Gamma Quadrant for trade negotiations with a Karemma named Hanok. They are interrupted when a pair of Jem'Hadar ships burst in and fire on the Karemma ship. The Jem'Hadar chase the ship into the atmosphere of a nearby planet, and the Defiant takes off in pursuit. The Jem'Hadar open fire on the Defiant, crippling it in the turbulent fluorine atmosphere of the planet.

Jadzia Dax heads below to try to patch up the engines well enough so the ship can escape the planet's atmosphere. She is successful but is nearly blown up when the hull is breached. Dr. Bashir closes down the breached area of the ship and pulls Dax out just in time. They remain trapped in a turbolift without communication with the bridge, where the rest of the crew presume them lost.

As the engines come back on line, the Jem'Hadar attack once more, rendering the Defiant helpless again. The ship is dark and smoldering, running on emergency power, and Captain Sisko has been gravely injured with a concussion. Major Kira tends him, trying to keep him conscious.

Meanwhile, Quark is trapped in the mess hall with Hanok the Karemma, where they find themselves staring at the nose end of a live Jem'Hadar torpedo which has lodged itself in the hull. Quark and Hanok, both ruthless businessmen, are wary of each other at first, but then realize they can combine their cleverness to come up with a plan to defuse the torpedo. Dax and Bashir huddle together for warmth, as they have only a thin bulkhead separating them from the frigid vacuum of space. Bashir laughs when he realizes that being trapped in a turbolift with Jadzia in his arms was once a fantasy of his. On the bridge, Kira cares for Sisko, telling him a Bajoran fairy tale to try to keep him awake. Worf and Chief O'Brien work on putting the Defiant's engines back together.

[edit] Mistakes

Throughout the episode the crew measure pressure in GSC (grams per square centimetre), which is not a SI unit. The correct unit would have been pascals (newtons per square meter), of course, the show is set in the future and not all meanings have to be consistent.