Nor the Battle to the Strong ( episode ) After diverting to the Federation hospital on Ajilon Prime looking for an interesting story , Jake believes himself to be a coward when repeated Klingon attacks awaken him to the reality of war and force him to abandon Dr . Bashir and run for cover . Summary . Teaser . Doctor Bashir and Jake Sisko are on their way back to Deep Space 9 , having attended a medical conference . Jake is planning to write a news article on Bashir , who is upset that his proposed theory ( which consists of technobabble as far as Jake is concerned ) was so controversial . As Bashir rants about the goings - on from the conference , Jake ' s mind begins to wander : Arriving at an important impasse in his explanation , which involves a protein anomaly , Bashir confirms that Jake is still following him . Bashir resumes explaining as Jake ' s voiceover continues : A few seconds pass with Bashir talking and Jake continuing to daydream , but they are both brought back to reality when the runabout receives a distress call from a Federation colony on Ajilon Prime . Despite a recent cease fire the Klingon s have resumed their war with the Federation and attacked the colony . Though the colony has requested assistance , Bashir is reluctant to bring Jake along . Jake convinces the doctor to go anyway , and there is a hint that Bashir knows whatever they face on Ajilon will make a better story than his lecture . Jake thinks to himself : Act One . As things are speeding up for Jake and Bashir , it is a slow day in Ops . Quark has just arrived with a beverage for Kira , and Dax , Odo , O ' Brien and Worf are all there to see her reaction . The beverage is a decaffeinated raktajino ( dubbed " Quarktajino " ) , which O ' Brien asked him to prepare in the fear that Kira ' s caffeine consumption will cause his son to be born a caffeine addict . Unfortunately , the drink tastes horrible by both Kira and Miles ' accounts . Sisko emerges from his office with the news about Jake and Bashir . The is on its way to Ajilon Prime with reinforcements and Bashir and Jake will leave as soon as backup has arrived . Although Dax tries to lighten the mood , Sisko is visibly worried about his son . Jake and Bashir arrive at Ajilon Prime , where Bashir has second thoughts about taking Jake into the heat of battle . However , Jake is sure he can handle the experience , so they land and head for the front lines . In the emergency room , Jake ' s enthusiasm about his story fades when he experiences the casualties of war first hand . He is shaken by the wounded people he sees , but particularly disturbing is an ensign Jake finds in a doorway , unconscious and bleeding , who turns out to be dead . Another man enters yelling for help , as he has apparently been shot in the foot by a Klingon disruptor . Despite the man ' s story , Bashir finds the man ' s injury was caused by a Starfleet phaser . . . he shot himself in the foot as a way of avoiding having to fight . Disgusted , Bashir moves on to another patient as the young man , though he initially sticks to his story , breaks down as he tells of how his fellow officers ran and he was so scared of the Klingons that he actually shot himself , wishing he was dead . Jake sits in a corner to work on his story but finds it increasingly difficult to concentrate : Jake ' s writing is disturbed when a medic asks Jake for help in watching a wounded man . As Jake stands with the injured man , he reaches up and spreads his blood on Jake ' s shirt and Jake begins to realize what he ' s gotten himself into . Act Two . As Bashir lends his assistance , Jake has been recruited to help move the wounded . He continues to see many more wounded but starts to deal with it better . During a break in the flow of wounded , Bashir and the doctors ask Jake for help in getting to the replicator . Back at the station , Sisko speaks with Odo , who has just injured himself in attempting to apprehend cheating dabo players . In reflecting on how fragile his new " solid " form is , he realizes that Sisko is worried about Jake . Sisko recalls when Jake was younger how he vowed to protect his son no matter what , and now he ' s in the middle of a war zone . Odo attempts to reassure the Captain that Jake will be fine , but Sisko says that always worrying about your child comes with being a parent . Odo admits he doesn ' t think parenting is for him to which Sisko tells him simply that he won ' t know what ' s he ' s missing , as the joy of being a parent is worth every second of worry . Just then Dax enters with bad news , the " Farragut " has been destroyed by Klingon forces . Now with no other reinforcements coming , Sisko and Dax immediately leave for Ajilon Prime on the . Bashir and Jake are sitting down to eat , with Jake appearing to handle the blood and gore around him quite well . However , when Bashir makes a macabre joke about " making an incision " into the food , Jake is quickly overcome with nausea and runs outside to vomit . Later , Jake and Bashir discuss the man who shot himself and Jake is shocked that such behavior is possible among trained Starfleet personnel . Bashir explains that while a Starfleet officer may go through psych tests and battle simulations , nothing really prepares a person for when they go into actual combat . When Bashir is called back to the wounded , Jake talks with another orderly ( Kirby ) who communicates the dire outlook they face , despite their being medical personnel . Jake ' s reverie is interrupted with the sound of an explosion , signaling that the Klingons have resumed their attack . The cave loses power and Bashir realizes that the runabout , set down about 1 km south , has more generators that can help the situation in the cave . Moving a generator is a two - man job , so Bashir and Jake make their way on foot to the runabout and begin to undergo artillery fire . Jake gets behind Bashir and then sees him disappear behind an explosion . Overcome with fear , he turns around and runs away . Act Three . Jake runs over a hill and through a great deal of smoke , finally falling upon a dead Klingon . He sees that he is in a field of dead soldiers and runs away in fear . He gets over a ridge and is struck in the head by a wounded Starfleet soldier . The soldier demands a hypospray and then explains that he is mortally wounded but wants to die facing the sky . He tells Jake of how he was hurt in protecting a hopper ' s escape . Jake yearns to help him but the soldier , hearing his story of running away , points out that Jake is trying to redeem his cowardice . As the soldier dies painfully , Jake runs away again . Act Four . Aboard the " Defiant " , Sisko is busy tweaking the replicator pattern buffers . Dax sees his feelings of helplessness and tells a story of what Audrid went through when her daughter was came down with Rugalan fever . The girl , Neema , was in a hospital for two weeks and Audrid spent the time reading her all seventeen volumes of Caster ' s " Down the River Light " , even though she knew Neema couldn ' t hear her . It was simply so Audrid had something to do . Luckily , Neema pulled through ( although she later didn ' t talk to her mother for eight years starting at age 21 ) and Sisko is glad the story had a happy ending . For now , however , he leaves Dax to the replicators and decides to work on the sonic shower s . Jake wanders back into the cave and Kirby is relieved to see him again . Kirby explains that Bashir is injured with plasma burns and the runabout was destroyed by the enemy fire but Bashir somehow made it back with the generator himself . Despite Jake ' s attempts to avoid it , Kirby gets him to go see Bashir . Bashir is relieved to see Jake and apologizes profusely and begins to berate himself for risking Jake ' s life by bringing him into a war zone . Jake angrily brushes off the apology and tells him it ' s OK , and Bashir is startled by his anger : Kirby enters , unaware of Bashir ' s guilt over bringing Jake or Jake ' s guilt over leaving Bashir , to examine Jake ' s wound . Later , Jake once again tries to resume his story but can ' t concentrate on it : Jake resumes his orderly duties and delivers food to the soldier who shot himself in the foot . The man explains his disappointment in himself and claims that despite his good scores in Academy battle situations , the real thing is entirely different . Jake now realizes what the man has gone through and they bond over their similar experience . Jake suggests that the man may not get court - martialled and may yet have a future in Starfleet but the soldier says he does not belong in Starfleet anymore and wishes he ' d aimed the phaser " " a little higher " . " As Jake rejoins the fellow medical personnel in the break room , their macabre jokes about which way they ' d prefer to die drive him to frustration . He begins to shout about the stupidity of the war and yells that nobody will ever remember the events they are all going through . Bashir intervenes and takes Jake for a walk . Bashir tries to get Jake to open up about his miserable behavior but Jake resists . Bashir leaves the door open for discussion but Jake refuses and brushes him off . After Bashir leaves , Jake sinks to the ground and begins to cry . Act Five . Explosions rock Jake awake . He runs to the rest of the people and the head surgeon explains that they are evacuating the cave and they must move quickly and orderly if they are to survive . As most people evacuate , Jake is hiding under a table . The explosions frighten him away from the room he is in and Starfleet infantry personnel give him cover as the Klingons appear in the cave . Jake is soon pinned down by disruptor fire under a table and fires a phaser rifle blindly around the room . The room begins to collapse upon the Klingons and Jake as he screams in fear . Bashir wakens Jake and points out that his father has arrived . They explain that Jake ' s actions created a cave - in that gave the rest of the personnel time to evacuate and that he is a hero . The cease - fire has been reinstated and the Klingons have pulled out of the system . Jake gives a copy of his story to Bashir and also to his father . As Sisko reads what Jake has written , he comments that Jake ' s feelings are those that all who have been in battle feel , whether or not they admit it . He says Jake is courageous to write about it and tells him he is proud of him . Memorable quotes . " " Sorry , kid . Life doesn ' t work like that . . . " " " " The removal of caffeine from beverages has plagued bartenders and restaurateurs for centuries ! You can ' t expect me to cure it over night . " " " " I ' m not paying for that ! I want to get her off caffeine , not poison her . " " " " So much for " Quarktajino " . " " " " It ' s not up to you to tell Kira what to do . " " " " She is carrying his child . He should have some say . " " " " As the lessee he does have certain rights . " ( explaining ) " Back home , pregnancy is considered a rental . " " " " Rental ? " " " " You ' ve been a changeling longer than you have been a solid . " " " " 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 . " " " " He ' s 18 years old . Does your father still worry about you ? " " " " All the time ! " " " " There are many situations in life which test a person ' s character . Thankfully , most of them don ' t involve death and destruction . " " " " It takes courage to look inside yourself , and more courage to write it for other people to see . " " " " His first day ? " " " " Yeah . " " " " Pass the salt . " " Links and references . References . 47 ; addiction ; Ajilon Prime ; amino acid ; ; Archanis sector ; artillery ; " bat ' leth " ; blood plasma ; Brice ; caffeine ; Cartalian fever ; Caster ; CO ; corpse ; court martial ; cutter ; dabo ; ; ; decapitation ; decoupler ; ; disruptor ; " Down the River Light " ; editor ; ; Federation ; Federation - Cardassian War ; ; Ferengi ; Ferenginar ; fiction ; Gamma Quadrant ; Ganalda IV ; gravimetric scanner ; hemisphere ; Hendriks ; hopper ; inaprovaline ; joint ; journalist ; ; kilometer ; Klingon s ; Klingon Empire ; lease ; Lembatta Cluster ; magnesite ; marketing ; Neema ; ; ; Pajal ; panel discussion ; pattern buffer ; peptide bond ; phaser rifle ; plasma burn ; poison ; prion ; quantum level ; " Quarktajino " ; Raifi ; " raktajino " ; Raymond ; replicator system ; Resource ; Rugalan fever ; runabout ; ; saline ; ; slit ; soup ; sonic shower relay ( sonic shower ) ; Starfleet Academy ; Tananda Bay ; Tarkalean condor ; ; thigh ; throat ; Thursday ; transport scrambler ; triage ; visiting hours ; ward ; Yridian