i knew that my paper was controversial but i had no idea that it would turn the entire conference upside-down. believe me, jake, panel discussions between doctors are usually a lot more civilized than that. they seemed polite enough to me. that was just a veneer. that paper stepped on quite a few toes. it's heresy to even consider the possibility that a prion replication could be inhibited by quantum resonance effects. aren't you going to take any notes? so-called expert uh, good idea. s it's all a matter of amino acid re-sequencing and disulfide shuffling. quantum dynamics has nothing to do with it. but how can that be? i have absolutely no idea what he's talking about. ...on a quantum level. ah, get this. this is very good. a few months ago...

my first writing assignment is going to be my last. maybe if i write to the journal and explain. "dear editors, thank you "for the confidence you expressed in me "by accepting my proposed profile "of dr. julian bashir. unfortunately..." do you follow? sort of. good. that's the key. the protein anomalies.s... who cares about anomalies? people want stories about things they can relate to: life and death, good and evil. an outbreak of cartalian fever "the brave doctor battles the deadly virus." listen to me-- i'm actually rooting for a plague. ...of quantum-scanning each and every peptide bond i thought i'd begin to make... ( beeping ) it's a distress call from the federation colony on ajilon prime. they're under attack. the klingons have landed troops. so much for the cease fire. the main hospital's been damaged.

what are we waiting for? it's too risky. the hospital's only 50 kilometers away from the front line. you put yourself into dangerous situations all the time. but that's not like putting you into one. don't worry about me. you're too young to die. i'm 18. you know what i mean. i've been on the station when it was under attack plenty of times. i can handle myself. i'm a sisko. there are lives at stake. these people need you. i hope i don't regret this. we'll be there in just under an hour. i can only imagine what your father's going to say. he'll understand. i'll get you out of there as soon as reinforcements arrive. besides, i wouldn't w wt you to miss the deadline on your story. do you think they'd want a picture of me? anyway, about those quantum scans i was telling you about... "surgery under fire." now we're talking.

[captioning sponsored by the u.s. department of education

what is it, quark? the chief asked me to come up with a decafafinated raktajino for kira. i'm thinking of marketing it. ugh! ugh! oh, that's awful. give it a chance. ( laughs drily ) let me taste it. quark.

has plagued bartenders and restauranteurs for centuries. you can't expect me to solve it overnight. well, i'm not paying for that. so much for "quark-tajino." i wanted to get her off caffeine not poison her. you make me sound like some kind of addict. she has ybe two raktajinos a day. i just don't want my son to be born with a caffeine habit. you're being ridiculous. why does pregnancy always make men hysterical? excuse me. this is not the first baby i've had. excuse me. keiko had molly. it's not up to you to tell kira what she can and cannot do. she is carrying his child. he should have some say. as the lessee, he does have certain rights. back home, pregnancy is considered a rental. both: rental? something wrong, captain? i just talked to dr. bashir.

to answer a request for medical assistance. jake's with him. klingon ground troops have captured two settlements in the northern hemisphere. half the colonists are still trapped on the planet and there are no ships in the area to evacuate them. we're three days awayt best. the farragut will get there the day after tomorrow. bashir says that he and jake will leave once the relief teams are in place. that means they'l'lbe home by thursday. doesn't give you much time to snoop through jake's things. ready to beam down? no, we can't leave the runabout in orbit. not with the klingons around. besides, the colonists moved what was left of the medical equipment underground when the hospital was destroyed. and there's magngnite in the rock face.

looks like there's a clearing about a kilometer away from the main settlement. jake... things could get a little rough down there. they've got a lot of wounded. i'll be e l right. we've got more wounded coming in! i'll need that plasma! woman: are you bashir? resource said you were on your way. watch it. watch it! this is the last i.p. his pulse is thready. he must be bleeding somewhere. we are losing him! dr. kalandra! jump in, standard triage. give him 15 milligrams inoprovaline. what should i do? just keep out of the wayayplease.

the artery's severed. her b.p.'s bottoming out! nurse: 0-2, three liters. somebody, this man needs some help! help me! somebody, help me! let me take a look. i've been hit. took a disruptor blast, real close. i need that blood d asma! let's get you on the table. there's nothing we can do. he's too far gone. doctor! ( groaning ) it doesn't look that bad. i was stepping over a klingon. i thought he was dead. he caught me right in the foot... ah! you people better get out of here while you still can. the klingons... ththe's no stopping them.

what are you talking about?! just sit tight. we'll... get to you as soon as we can. it's not a phaser burn! it was a klingon. you weren't there. you don't know what it's like. the klingons had us pinned down. we were done for. we all knew it. hendriks and pajal, they got scared. they ran. they ra then sully got hit in the leg... and the medics pulled him off the line and all i could think was... "i wish i were him." and i took my phaser... ( sobbing ) oh, god!

find someplace else to stand. no problem. "triage-- the sorting of the wounded-- forces decisions that..." got to get a grip... focus. "...decisions that test what it means to be a doctor." hey, you! give me a hand. !

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wait, wait, wait. this way. over there. hey, watch it. watch it! nice catch. here you are, sir, a nice private room with a view. one, two, three. ( grunting ) well, you can count. you're hired. let's get you dressed. i'd like to try an aortal graft. all right. there's an extra surgical table in the back. he's dead. ( sighing ) come on. let's get him out of here.

one, two, three... ( groaning ) ( sighing ) party's over. so soon? and we were just starting to have fun. since you two aren't busy, would you mind carrying me to the nearest replicator so that i can get something to eat? you wanted to see me, captain?

to the infirmary. ( snorts ) i'll be fine. the only permanent damage was to my pride. what happened? quark wanted me to keep an eye on two yridians who he suspected were cheating at dabo. turns out he was right. i could see from the second level that one of them was using a miniature gravimetric scanner to predict where the ball would land on the wheel and signaling the information to his partner. ingenious. go on. to make the arrest. one of them spotted me. they bolted. i pursued. i'm afraid i got a bit carried away. and jumped off the stairs. ( grunts ) i was planning to change form in midair and become a tarkalian condor. ah... that would have been impressive. i thought so.

een a solid. ( snorts ) solid-- i wonder why my people use that term. humanoid bodies are so fragile. yes, they are. and there are a lot of ways you can get hurt. you're worried about jake. that dr. bashir is looking after him. it seems... just yesterday he was five years old... clinging to me, because he'd just scraped his knee and i was the only one in the world who could make it better. i remember, sometimes getting up in the middle of the night and slipping into his room

and i'd sit there and watch him sleep and i'd think to myself that no matter what i wasn't going to let anything bad happen to this child. and now he's a sector away in a war zone and there's nothing i can do to protect him. try not to worry, captain. it won't do you or jake any good. can't help it. it comes with the territory. but jake is 18 years old. does your father still worry about you? oh, all the time. ah... i never realized how stressful it is to be a parent. i have to say, i don't think it's for me. that's your choice, but you don't know what you're missing. ( door beeping ) yes?

what about ajilon prime? without reinforcements... dax, you're with me.

here you go. thanks. how you holding up? okay. well, you handled yourself well today. i'm impressed. i'm starved. think i'll start by making a lateral incision across the thigh joint. uh-oh. hang on. out we go.

pass the salt. how do you feel? the fresh air did me good. you remember that ensign, the one who shot himself? how could i forget? what's going to happen to him? he'll probably be court-martialed. he said that some of the people in his squad got scared and ran. it happens. but they're starfleet. they've passed psych-test. they've spent hundreds of hours in battle simulations. simulations can't prepare you for the real thing. nothing can. some people say that you don't know what you're really made of until you've been in battle. there are many situations in life which test a person's character. thankfully, most of them don't involve death and destruction. dr. kalandra is looking for you. something about that aortal graft you did. oh, thanks. um... i'll see you later. i put your tray back in the replicator. i didn't know how long you'd be gone.

how is he? the graft's holding. blood throughput is almost 100%. nice job. thanks. you have a good team. my o.r. nurse was as sharp as they come. we do the best we can, considering... the circumstances. so, are things any better for us? last i heard, starfleet had pulled out of the arcanis sector. well, the fleet's regrouping for a counterattack. oh. do you have any idea what ships are involved? we don't get much news here. the klingons have been jamming the subspace traffic. i think, um, the rutledge and the tecumseh are heading things up. the tecumseh.

, believe me captain raymond is one of the best there is. he saw the tecumseh through the cardassian wars. i don't think he's planning on losing her now. no. i don't suppose he is. doctor? they've prepped that spinal trauma. we're ready for you in surgery. i'll be right there. they're keeping you busy. yes. it helps keep my mind... off things. it's good to see you got your appetite back. i have a pretty strong stomach... most of the time. don't worry about it. same thing happened to me my first day. you know what i heard? that ship starfleet sent--- the farragut-- the klingons intercepted it. starfleet will send another one, won't they? won't be here for days and in the meantime we're looking at a ground war which is just what the klingons want

scramblers online that we can't beam troops anywhere. what about using hoppers? he says the klingons have been shooting them out of the sky left and right. unless something changes, he figures the klingons will take the settlement the day after tomorrow. did you see all the bat'leth wounds today? klingons get mad, they forget about their disruptors, go hand to hand. if you ask me, they're looking to get even for what happened on ganalda four. what happened? they had to retreat. klingons hate that. at least we don't have to worry about them in here. oh, don't be so sure. medical personnel are fair game, as far as klingons are concerned. they'll even kill wounded right in their beds. they think they're giving them an honorable death. so, how'd you wind up here? i, uh... i'm writing an article about dr. bashir. you're a journalist? no. not exactly.

u know, fiction. i wonder if kirby knew that the whole time we were talking all i could think about was how close the klingons were. he didn't seem that worried. no one else seems to be losing sleep over it so why's it the only thing i can think about? i've been on the station when it was under attack plenty of times, but somehow the danger never seemed as real as it does here. maybe it's because i spent all day or maybe it's because, for the first time in my life my father's not here to protect me. ( explosion ) what was that? the klingons. they must have taken out the reactor. she's fibrillating. if we don't get power back soon we'll lose half the ward. kidney failure, he's going into renal shock. i just talked to resource.

there must be some portable generators we could use. they're using them to keep the shields up around the settlement. there's a portable generator on the runabout. where is it? about a kilometer south of here. i'll need help carrying it though. you'll have to take the east tunnel. that lets out beyond the perimeter. i'll show you. we set down just over that ridge. yeah. it looks familiar. get down! stay close.

whatever happens, one of us has to get that generator. stick with me. come on, jake!

( panting ) ( yells ) ( groaning ) medkit... over there. now! hypo.