The Darkness and the Light ( episode ) A hidden enemy systematically murders Kira ' s old Resistance comrades . Summary . Teaser . Six vedek s are holding a ceremony . One of them , Latha Mabrin , is killed when the ceremonial candle issues a disruptor blast at him , throwing him back several meters and killing him instantly . On Deep Space 9 , Major Kira Nerys is examined by Doctor Bashir , who complains that she hasn ' t been taking the makara herb he had prescribed . She complains that it tastes " like it crawled out of Quark ' s ear " , and that it counteracts sedatives . He says that she claimed she didn ' t need sedatives , and she gives a weak answer . Odo then arrives and tells Kira of Latha ' s death , explaining that a hunter probe was hidden in the candle which was responsible for firing the disruptor blast . Unfortunately , before he became a Vedek Latha was a violent man who made no shortage of enemies leaving plenty of suspects . Kira sadly notes that despite his violent past , finding the Prophets helped him to change for the better . On returning to her quarters , she receives a mysterious message just showing a picture of Latha , a former resistance companion of hers , as well as a distorted voice saying " " That ' s one " " . Act One . Kira reports the message to Odo and Captain Sisko , however there is no point of origin for the message so beginning an investigation is difficult . Although Kira believes it to be a general threat against the Shakaar resistance cell , none of the other members have received a message . Later , she laments to Chief O ' Brien that after everything he survived Latha would be killed during a religious ceremony . She is also frustrated as she feels she should be on Bajor taking an active role in the investigation but , as she ' s in the late stages of pregnancy , is left unable to do much . Kira is then called to Ops , as she is receiving another anonymous communication . However this time it is Trentin Fala , a former ally of the resistance who is desperately paranoid that she is being watched following Latha ' s death . Kira decides to bring her aboard the station , and arranges for Dax and Worf ( on their way back from a trip to Starbase 63 ) to pick her up . Aboard their runabout , Dax and Worf discuss Jadzia mocking a Captain for his tongo skills only to lose two bars of latinum to him having not known he was actually a champion of the game . The two debate where she ' ll get the money to pay him before trying to beam Fala aboard . However the transport goes badly wrong , as the buffer suddenly suffers a power surge and is unable to reconstitute her pattern . Dax and Worf desperately try to correct the problem but its no use and Fala dies painfully , leaving behind a smoking corpse . Act Two . Kira goes to see what is left of Fala ' s body , as Odo reports that her death was caused by a remat detonator which she had unknowingly been carrying . Although the device is typically used by the Romulan s , it ' s availability on the black market does nothing to shed any light on who is responsible . This confirms for Kira that someone is targeting the members of the Shakaar cell , revealing that although Fala wasn ' t officially part of the cell , she passed information to them for years while working as a cleaner in a Cardassian records office . She also notes that Fala was constantly terrified of getting caught , but never stopped helping the cell and for that , Kira considered her to be braver than any of the Shakaar ' s members because she lived with her fear . Walking down the Promenade , Kira hears the same voice from before saying " " That ' s two " " and finds it coming from a PADD Quark found . Odo reasons that the killer is someone who was injured or lost family in an attack that was based on Fala ' s information in which Kira plays a principal role . Before they can start compiling a list , Odo ' s database is accessed and a picture of Mobara , another resistance companion , appears with the words " " That ' s three " " . Odo immediately sends an emergency message to the university where Mobara is studying , but he can ' t be immediately contacted , so a search party is put together . Kira is getting more and more frustrated with everything that ' s happening , so Odo has her return to quarters to rest , assigning a security detachment and a personal guard to her , Lieutenant Brilgar . However , when she arrives and heads to bed , leaving Brilgar in the living room , she hears a thud . Guessing he has just been knocked unconscious , she gets her phaser and continues to listen . Act Three . Kira opens the door and slowly peers around the dark room for the intruder . However , she finds her former Resistance colleagues Lupaza and Furel , who had broken into the O ' Briens ' quarters . They pledge to support her and hunt down the person responsible for the deaths of their friends . Kira tries to convince them to leave it to the authorities , but neither are happy with that solution . Lupaza then gives Kira some fresh makara herbs , and the major invites them to stay on the station . The two insist on staying near Kira , so she decides to let them stay in the quarters while Keiko and Molly are visiting Earth . Odo reports to Captain Sisko in his office that Mobara ' s body was found a couple of hours earlier , the man having died when a micro - explosive planted behind his ear went off . Odo believes that the explosive was planted via a probe , since the killer clearly has expertise with remote - control devices . Although this sounds like a professional assassin , Odo notes that a professional would never send anonymous messages . . . this is someone with a vendetta . In Ops , Kira and Dax enlist Nog ( with his superior hearing ) to help them with the messages . Upon listening , Nog notes that the messages are not complete sentences , but rather words from different speeches put together . Working from this basis , Dax assumes that as the first word is the same in all the messages then it was likely copied three times , which gives her a reference to start screening out the interference . As it starts to descramble , the three quickly recognize the voice . . . it ' s Kira ' s – the killer using the major ' s own voice in his messages . The investigation is quickly halted when the sensors report an explosion in the habitat ring in the O ' Briens ' quarters , causing a hull breach . Dax puts the station to red alert and halts all traffic , as Sisko and Odo emerge from the office . Dax reports what has happened , however they suddenly realize Kira has left . The major , her fury blinding her actions , heads towards the quarters , fighting her way past all the security guards who try to stop her from exposing herself to the hull breach . Although she gets mere inches from the door panel , the baby intervenes and causes her to collapse . Act Four . In the infirmary , Kira wakes up and Bashir tells her the baby is fine and Miles wasn ' t in his quarters when they exploded , however Lupaza and Furel were killed . Her only comfort is that the two died instantly . Odo visits and Kira recounts her first days in the Resistance , how at the age of thirteen she ' d been hanging around the cell running errands and when a planned ambush needed an extra member she volunteered . Lupaza stuck up for her despite everyone else thinking she was too small , and Shakaar decided to let her join the ambush which was a success . Afterwards she remembers how she couldn ' t stop smiling while Lupaza made Kira an earring from the skimmer that had just been ambushed - the one she continues to wear today - officially making Kira part of the resistance . Kira then asks what happened , and Odo tells her that a hunter probe was attached to a freighter that docked at the station . The probe then detached and scanned each room in the habitat ring for its targets . Once it found Lupaza and Furel , it attached itself to the window and exploded . Odo has now compiled a list of twenty - five suspects who have the motive , expertise , and opportunity to commit the murders . Kira asks to see it , but Odo refuses , saying he ' d like to narrow it down a little . Kira knows that Odo is worried that she ' ll go off on a personal vendetta mission , and tells him he ' s right . Odo promises to find the killer , and to keep Kira informed . As soon as he ' s gone however , Kira uses an emergency transport program to beam herself to the security office . There , she downloads the list to a PADD , then beams herself to a runabout . Odo enters the office a few seconds after she ' s gone , and notices his chair out of place . Knowing he wouldn ' t leave it like that , Odo asks the computer to confirm Kira ' s location , and it reports she ' s no longer on the station . As Kira prepares to track down the killer , Odo tells Captain Sisko that Kira deleted the suspects from his database when she downloaded them so they don ' t know where she is headed . Sisko tells Worf to prepare the " Defiant " to follow the runabout , however tracking her will be difficult as Kira is masking its emissions . After being satisfied that the first three suspects on Odo ' s list couldn ' t have been responsible for the killings , Kira visits a Cardassian named Silaran Prin living near the Demilitarized Zone . Once she beams down , Kira is stunned almost immediately by Prin . Act Five . Kira awakens to find herself restrained on a medical bed by an energy field , while Prin gravely rants about her as if she were a vile creature of darkness , " afraid of the light " which Prin fancies himself to embody . He scoffs at her accusations that he is a murderer , and insists that the former resistance members all deserved their fates . Prin goes on to explain that he was a Cardassian civilian at the time of the Occupation , and he was burned and terribly disfigured by a bomb used to assassinate Gul Pirak , who had murdered fifteen Bajoran farmers who refused to display the Cardassian banner outside their homes . Fala had shown the Resistance how to circumvent his defense system , Latha built the bomb , and the device was planted on a window by Kira herself while Lupaza and Furel stood guard . The bomb was much more powerful than necessary to kill only its target , and the resulting explosion claimed twenty - three lives in total , including Gul Pirak ' s entire family , and injured many others who served as servants in Pirak ' s home , including Prin , who laundered Pirak ' s clothes . Prin has clearly grown more than a little insane since the attack : he continues his long monologues about darkness and light and explains that he was cautious in his murders to not hurt innocent bystanders , as he could have killed all the vedeks in the temple , Dax and Worf while aboard the runabout or half the people on Deep Space 9 . Therefore , he logically intends to cut out Kira ' s baby , killing her and " saving " the child from being " corrupted by [ her ] darkness " , so he can " raise it in the light " . Prin feels that " Kira " is a murderer because she killed Cardassian civilians on Bajor along with soldiers and feels no regret for her actions . Kira responds by saying that the Cardassians had no right to be on Bajor in the first place , and for fifty years they stole food from the land while enslaving , torturing , and killing its people for profit and pleasure . Therefore " all " the Cardassians , from soldiers to civilians , were equally guilty and all were legitimate targets . Prin prepares to cut out Kira ' s baby , but consents to administer a sedative to Kira first , to show her a level of mercy she didn ' t show him . When he is satisfied that the sedative has taken effect , he deactivates the restraint field and approaches , and Kira , upon whom the sedative had no effect because of the makara herbs that she has been taking lately , quickly overpowers him and kills him . Later , when a group from DS9 arrives to rescue her , Kira is found sitting silently next to Prin ' s body . She is initially unresponsive , and Doctor Bashir finds a large amount of sedatives in her system , which had been counteracted by the makara herb . When she finally talks , she does so in the same manner Prin had , claiming that for all his talk of light and darkness , innocent and guilt , he hadn ' t realized that " the light only shines in the darkness " , and " innocence is often just an excuse for the guilty " . The four officers leave the grim scene , and beam up to the " Defiant " . Memorable quotes . " " Those herbs taste like something that crawled out of Quark ' s ear . " " " " I ' m sorry , Nerys . " " " " I ' m hearing that a lot , lately . " " " " None of you belonged on Bajor . It wasn ' t your world . For fifty years you raped our planet , and you killed our people . You lived on our land and you took the food out of our mouths , and I don ' t care whether you held a phaser in your hand or you ironed shirts for a living . You were all guilty and you were all legitimate targets ! " " " " And that ' s what makes you a murderer . Indiscriminate killing . . . no sense of morality . . . no thought given to the consequences of your action . That ' s what makes us different . " " " " I was a soldier . You ' re just a bitter old man out for revenge . " " " " I am bringing the guilty to justice . And unlike you , I take care to protect the innocent . " " " " I ' ve made it a policy never to argue with someone ' s lobes . " " " " Remember Rule of Acquisition 111 : ' Treat people in your debt like family . . . exploit them ' . " " " " You know the Rules of Acquisition ? " " " " I am a graduate of Starfleet Academy . I know " many " things . " " " " Don ' t worry . I promise that I ' ll take care of the child and that I ' ll teach him the difference between darkness and light . " " Links and references . References . arms dealer ; Bajor ; Bajoran s ; Bajoran militia ; Bajoran transport ; black market ; Calash Monastery ; carcass ; Cardassia ; Cardassian s ; Cardassian records office ; couch ; counteragent ; Dahkur Province ; Days of Atonement ; debris ; ; Demilitarized Zone ; disruptor ; energizing coil ; Rules of Acquisition ; gain ; Hathon ; hull breach ; hunter probe ; ion trail ; informant ; integration matrix ; laceration ; latinum ; makara herb ; merfadon ; micro - explosive ; Mobara ; morality ; Musilla Province ; ; ; Occupation of Bajor ; PADD ; pattern buffer ; phase - divergent carrier wave ; Pirak ; placenta ; plasma charge ; polaron field ; power cell ; progesterone ; Promenade ; Prophet s ; Quark ' s ; Ramirez ( Captain ) ; remat detonator ; repentant ; Romulan s ; runabout ; Saurian brandy ; Shakaar Edon ; Shakaar resistance cell ; sinoraptor ; skimmer ; smuggler ; Starbase 63 ; Starfleet Academy ; subspace antenna ; Talavian freighter ; tongo ; transporter ; transporter scrambler ; transporter security system ; tricorder ; Vedek ; velvet ; weapons depot Additional references . Bernay Prime ; ; Cardassia Prime ; ; ; Faralos III ; ; Galloway sector ; Grewler sector ; ; ; ; Lauritson Nebula ; ; Posell VI ; Regent Lipsett ; ; ;