Visionary

In 2371 a Romulan delegation travelled to Deep Space Nine to study intelligence reports concerning the Dominion, a favour which Starfleet granted in return for the Romulan's allowing the Defiant to use one of their cloaking devices. At the time Chief Miles O'Brien was suffering a mild case of radiation poisoning after an industrial accident. Relaxing in Quark's Bar, O'Brien suddenly found himself transported to another part of the room where he witnessed himself having a conversation with Quark. After a few seconds he was back where he had been - and immediately collapsed in pain. [1]

Dr. Bashir suspected that the radiation might have caused a hallucinations, as this is an expected side effect of this exposure. However, when O'Brien went back to Quark's a few hours later he had the exact same conversation that he had witnessed before. Jadzia speculated that the radiation had somehow caused O'Brien's to briefly jump forward five hours in time. Even as she explained, O'Brien jumped again - again to Quark's, this time into the middle of a fight between a group of Klingons and the visiting Romulans. [1]

Further examination by Bashir revealed that the time jumps were posing a significant and escalating threat to O'Brien's life. As he went back to Quark's to await the fight, O'Brien shifted again - and this time saw himself opening an inspection panel in a corridor only to be killed by a phaser weapon hidden inside. [1]

After his return to the present, the station crew investigated the panel but found nothing. Assuming that the weapon will be placed in the panel sometime in the next few hours, they agree to monitor the area for any activity by the Klingons or the Romulans. Meanwhile Bashir worked to remove the radiation from O'Brien's body. Shortly afterwards, Odo discovered that a surveillance had been beamed behind the panel. He suspected that the Klingons were spying on the Romulans, though there was no conclusive evidence of this. [1]

O'Brien shifted again, this time finding himself standing over his own dead body in the station infirmary. Dr. Bashir told him what had gone wrong with his treatment before the shift ended, and on his return he was able to give the doctor the information he needed to avoid the death. In the meantime Dax managed to discover the cause of the jumps - a quantum singularity was orbiting the station. At certain points in the orbit it was interacting with the radiation in O'Brien's body to trigger the jumps. As she explained, O'Brien jumped once again - this time to some of the crew evacuating the station in a Runabout as it was destroyed and the wormhole collapsed. [1]

Desperate for more information regarding this unknown threat, O'Brien injected himself with another dose of the radiation and triggered another jump into the future. He teamed up with his future self and discovered that the quantum singularity orbiting the station was in fact the engine core of a cloaked Romulan Warbird - it was this ship which had destroyed Deep Space Nine in his previous jump. The radiation finally overcame O'Brien and he collapsed - whereupon his future self returned to the present in his place.  [1]

Commander Sisko expelled the Romulan delegation - stating that they had obviously decided to destroy the station and the wormhole to end the Dominion threat whilst making it look like a convenient accident caused by the Wormhole collapse. [1]

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