Situation: We begin with some amusing interplay between Garak, Bashir, and his world-weary colleagues (which was actually done pretty well), which is interrupted by an approaching Cardassian warship. The Cardassians are chasing a Bajoran scout ship. Its pilot asks for assistance, as his destruction by massed Cardassian fire is imminent.
What I would do: Beam the pilot directly to Greeting Room A -- a heavily retrofitted cargo bay. It is tastefully furnished with comfortable chairs, couches, booths, and coffee tables. A few stacks of pamphlets, scattered here and there, proudly discuss the many cultural and scientific achievements of the Federation. Soothing ambient music permeates the room, and soft light glistens invitingly on the bottles of the fully-stocked bar in the back. Greeting Room A has its own computer core, power supply, and life support, all of which are isolated from the main station systems. Its outer walls are made of reinforced duranium, and covered with forcefields. The inner walls are studded with hidden phaser emitters and high-resolution sensors, capable of scanning for any known hazards, including but not limited to biological, technological, energy-based, and memetic. Emergency medical, xenological, and tactical teams are stationed just outside Greeting Room A around the clock, ready to do their duty at a moment's notice.
What Sisko does: Beam the pilot directly to Ops, which is the command and control center for the entire station. This is a pattern that repeats quite often throughout the series: strange aliens, crazed terrorists, enemy hostiles, it makes no difference: everyone is welcome in Ops.
That said, after displaying his tactical ineptitude, Sisko immediately switches to doing what he does best: intimidate people. I can't help but enjoy the air of calm and collected menace that he's able to project:
Cardassian Captain: blah blah give up the Bajoran blah blah !
Sisko: I will investigate the matter immediately. In the interim, if you'd care to dock your vessel, I'll be glad to hear your explanation for having violated Bajoran space and threatened a Federation facility.
Cardassian Captain: We've made no threat to your facility !
Sisko: I stand corrected. Sisko out.
He doesn't quite add, "you punk-ass", at the end -- but you can almost hear it.
Later on in this episode, we get to see Kira argue with Tana Los (our Bajoran asylum seeker and former terrorist) regarding the nature of the Federation. Is the Federation a ruthless conqueror, a worthy ally, or something in between ? DS9 generally does a much better job of portraying the Federation as compared to TNG or TOS, by hinting the answer isn't quite as clear-cut as Starfleet would have you believe. The Federation does treat Bajor as a subjugated province throughout the entire season; Starfleet holds all the cards and all of the guns, and they know it, and they know that Bajor knows it... But everyone except for former Bajoran terrorists is to polite or too scared to mention it.
Anyway, later on the Duras sisters make a cameo appearance.
Situation: Odo breaks up an impending firefight on the Promenade, between his own security officers and two Klingon women who refuse to surrender their weapons.
What I would do: Nothing, because I'd have some basic security checkpoints in place that all legitimate visitors (i.e., those who aren't beamed directly to Greeting Room A) must clear before entering the Promenade. I wouldn't make them quite as tedious and dehumanizing as the TSA checkpoints in our modern airports, but still, a basic weapons scan might be in order.
Situation: Bashir begs Sisko for guidance about Garak, who seems to be about as well-informed about the plot as Sisko himself.
What Sisko does: Tell Bashir to go on with his plan.
What I would do: Tell Bashir to go on with his plan. Immediately begin a quiet investigation of the station's entire command structure, because it obviously leaks like a sieve.
Situation: Tana Los constructs an explosive device, installs it in a Runabout, and sets course for the wormhole.
What I would do: Order DS9 to power up all its weapons, as well as any of the defensive weapons platforms around the wormhole that are in any way functional (granted, most of them would still be under construction at this point); prepare to open fire on the stolen Runabout the instant it comes out of warp. As soon as the crisis has passed, devise a better plan for dealing with those kinds of situations.
What Sisko does: Hope that Kira can stop Tana Los in time -- though he does listen to O'Brien, who gently suggests that the benefits of blowing up Tana Los's Runabout might outweigh the risks.
Lest I seem overly critical, allow me to say that I actually enjoyed this episode quite a lot. Most of it is concerned with Kira's character development, as she struggles to re-define her identity in a post-Cardassian world. There's some great dialogue between her and Tana Los, Odo, and even Sisko. Unlike so many other Star Trek episodes, this one is all about realistic human relationships, with some politics thrown in for good measure -- as opposed to mere technobabble and space anomalies.
