The Quickening ( episode ) Dr . Bashir works to rid a planet of a plague that was sent by the Dominion as punishment for resistance . Summary . Teaser . In the wardroom , Major Kira and Chief O ' Brien examine the replicator as Quark enters , followed closely by Odo . Quark benignly asks what the problem is , and Kira shows him an advertisement for Quark ' s on the monitor . Although Quark doesn ' t see anything wrong with it , Odo reminds him such tampering is a class 3 offense . Before they can proceed , an angry Worf enters and approaches Quark accusingly . He shows a mug in which his prune juice came from the ' s replicator : it is a similar advertisement , and when Worf turns the mug sideways , it repeats the jingle from the monitor . Kira impatiently warns Quark to fix the replicators by the time she returns from the Gamma Quadrant , otherwise " she " will go to Quark ' s and makes it clear he ' ll be the one to pay . Quark then decides to help Chief O ' Brien with purging the systems . Lieutenant commander Dax , Doctor Bashir , and Kira intercept a distress signal while on a bio - survey mission in the Gamma Quadrant . They divert to a planet near the border of Dominion space . Dax and Bashir beam down and find a long - ruined city , with people walking about going about their business all with blue welts on their face . Just then a woman named Norva with red lesions on her face approaches and collapses in front of the two in obvious pain begging to be taken to Trevean . As Bashir tries to give her something for her distress another man , Epran , approaches and tells Bashir that there ' s nothing he can do for Norva as " the blight has quickened in her " . Act One . Reaching the hospital ( after Dax traded in her hair pin for transport ) , the two Starfleet officers find a very un - hospital - like atmosphere . Groups of people are all sitting on the floor , surrounding one person with red lesions who is enjoying a meal . An attendant , seeing Norva , tells his assistant that she has quickened and must be taken to Trevean . When Trevean enters , one of the people who is being celebrated thanks Trevean for allowing him to enjoy a decent meal and a good sleep after finding out he had quickened . Trevean then turns to Bashir and Dax and tells them that Norva didn ' t make it , and that if she had arrived sooner then he could have done something for her . He then tells them that the blight is always fatal , which confuses Bashir as Trevean had just said he might have been able to do something for her . Bashir and Dax explain that they came to the planet answering a distress call and that they have sophisticated medical equipment . Trevean tells them that they once had equipment just as sophisticated , and tells them the story of the planet . Two centuries earlier , the planet was technologically advanced and the inhabitants were building great cities and traveling to neighboring worlds . When the Dominion came to the planet , the population attempted to resist but they paid the price . The Jem ' Hadar came and destroyed the world , and the Dominion wanted to use the planet as an example to others who thought they could defy them and therefore infected them with the blight . Now everyone is born with the disease and the disease may randomly become active , or " quicken " at any point in a person ' s life . This is outwardly shown by the lesions turning red , and it means the person will die soon after . Trevean himself is one of the oldest surviving people . Just then the man who thanked Trevean falls to the ground . While everyone else simply watches , Bashir instinctively moves to help but is restrained by the attendants . It turns out that when people quicken , they go to Trevean to have their death induced with herb s . Bashir and Dax are infuriated by this , and realize that he also killed Norva . Trevean tells them they ' ve interfered with the man ' s death and orders them to leave . The officers are too shocked to argue . Dax finds the distress beacon , which is automated and has actually been operating for over two hundred years . Bashir feels that there ' s nothing he can do for people who don ' t want their help and recommends leaving the planet when the meet a pregnant woman named Ekoria . Ekoria was in Trevean ' s " hospital " and is curious about Bashir , as she has never met a doctor . She tells Bashir she is pregnant , and due in two months . While this doesn ' t seem so long to him , she tells him it is , as the people get no warning as to when they will quicken . Just then the grim discussion is interrupted when Kira calls the two and gives them some bad news . . . two Jem ' Hadar ships have been detected headed in their direction . Act Two . Back in the runabout , it emerges that the Jem ' Hadar ships are moving between star systems on what is obviously a patrol route and will soon enter theirs . Kira suggests returning to the Alpha Quadrant and arranging for a relief mission with Starfleet , but that could take weeks . Bashir references a recent case when , during a plague on a planet that was killing thousands , it took an hour to identify the pathogen and three days to inoculate the population . Kira is persuaded to leave the other two on the planet and will hide the runabout in a nearby nebula and return for them in a week . After returning to the planet , Jadzia and Bashir are offered a place to stay and work by Ekoria . While setting up their equipment , Jadzia asks about a hanging painting of the city in happier times . Ekoria tells them that her husband painted it before he died the previous winter , and that he also painted a nearby mural of the same picture to give hope and inspiration to other people . Bashir finishes setting up and tells Ekoria he needs to run a scan on someone with the disease , to which Ekoria happily volunteers . Bashir begins the scan , and offers to show her a picture of her baby on the medical tricorder . Ekoria agrees , and looks on in wonder . Later both Bashir and Dax are hard at work , and make their first important step when Bashir isolates the virus meaning he can start mapping it and possibly create an antigen . Ekoria offers them both food , and gives them the food that she was saving for her death . She tells them she feels she doesn ' t need it any longer . Bashir now needs someone who has quickened however finding someone willing to help is proving easier said than done . Bashir then bumps into Epran who has now quickened . He is surprised they are still there and tells them he would have invited them to his death had he known him better . Bashir asks what if he didn ' t have to die at all ? This catches the attention of Epran and a few other people . However Epran is skeptical and thinks it ' s going to cost him something , to which Bashir tells him that isn ' t true and proves his knowledge when he uses an osteogenic stimulator to fix a fracture in a boy ' s arm . Trevean arrives and says that others have promised a cure , and all they have done is taken food and clothes and left them with nothing , and the people who believed them all went to Trevean in the end . Bashir in turn assures Trevean and the others that he gives no guarantees about his efforts . Act Three . Returning to his makeshift lab , Bashir is despondent that he couldn ' t get any volunteers . Ekoria tells him that she used to wake up hoping she had quickened so she could go to Trevean but that changed when she learned she was pregnant . Now she wants to be there for her son when he grows up . Then Jadzia arrives , and it turns out that Epran has volunteered to be Bashir ' s test subject . Later , Bashir has several people all in various stages of the disease and is making good progress . He instructs Ekoria in the use of a hypospray and she injects herself with its contents then moves onto everyone else . However he doesn ' t tell her that the hypo contains what he believes to be the antigen against the blight . Also , Epran has stopped responding to cordrazine for the pain and now has a device emitting an inhibitor field on his forehead . Jadzia tells Julian that he ' s been awake nonstop for days working on this and he should get some rest . Going outside , Ekoria tells Bashir that Epran ' s white blood cell count increased , which Bashir confirms is a good sign . He then complements her on her good bedside manner , but she tells him she was just trying to be kind . Bashir tells her some people don ' t like to be around the sick because it reminds them of their own mortality and he can sometimes be the same . Ekoria reminds him that death gets everyone , but Bashir tells her it won ' t get Kukalaka , his teddy bear from when he was a young boy . He carried him around everywhere and one day when his leg ripped open he performed his first surgery at the age of five and stitched him back together . He then admits that Kukalaka now sits on a shelf in his quarters . Just then the moment is interrupted when Jadzia arrives panicked telling Bashir that something ' s wrong . He goes inside to find Epran in pain with new lesions on his face . Act Four . Epran now has several new lesions on his face and is in terrible pain as the virus has suddenly mutated . Almost certain the antigen hasn ' t caused it , Bashir uses a micro - cellular scanner to try and find out what ' s wrong . However when he passes the scanner over the affected area , several more welts suddenly emerge and inflame . The terrible truth hits Bashir . . . the EM field s from his instruments are what is causing the virus to mutate so violently . Just then another woman starts to scream quickly followed by everyone else , all suffering the same reaction , and Bashir screams for everything to be shut down . Jadzia and Ekoria scramble to switch everything off as Bashir tries to stop the mutation , but it ' s no use and Epran dies in horrible agony . Bashir then uses CPR to try and resuscitate Epran , and grows manic in his attempts to revive him well past the point of no return , forcing Jadzia to pull him back . Trevean enters having heard of what ' s happened and one of the women begs him for his help . Bashir tries to stop him but Trevean tells him not to interfere and gives the woman a vial of poison , allowing her to die . Then all the other patients start calling for Trevean and Bashir simply stands , devastated and unwilling to stop him . The next morning , Bashir stands among the now - covered bodies of the people he was supposed to help and blames himself for what ' s happened . He knew there were changes in the viral sequence and should have realized what was happening . Jadzia tries to assure him that there was no way he could have known their instruments would cause the virus to react like that . Jadzia attempts to console him but it ' s no use , and he admits that he was looking forward to telling people he had cured the blight . But now he knows that there is no cure , the Dominion made sure of it and he was arrogant to think he could find a cure in a week . Jadzia tells him that might have been arrogant , but it ' s far more arrogant to think there is no cure just because " he " can ' t find it . Bashir is left alone to think things over . Bashir then walks down the street and is reviled by the people but he doesn ' t acknowledge their hatred . He spots the mural of the city that he heard about and goes to look at it . While looking at the picture of the city in happier times , Ekoria approaches Bashir from behind and tells him she ' s glad he got the chance to see it . He turns to look at her and is saddened to see that she has quickened . She thanks him for giving her hope , and she really thought she was going to make it to the end of her pregnancy . But now she is going to see Trevean and bids Bashir farewell . As she leaves however , Bashir asks her to wait , having had a change of heart . The runabout has returned to the planet , but Bashir tells Kira and Jadzia he can ' t leave the people now . He is told to contact the station when he is ready and Jadzia bids him a fond farewell before he returns to the planet , alone . Act Five . Ekoria is now Bashir ' s only patient and after examining her ( using old - fashioned and low - level equipment ) he is confused to find no trace of the antigen in her system . He reasons that her immune system must have rejected it when suddenly Ekoria feels some pain from the blight . Bashir advises her against receiving any more cordrazine as there ' s already so much in her system it may harm the baby . She agrees to forgo it . Later , Bashir prepares a salve for her and takes the opportunity to examine the baby . He is growing stronger , and will be at term in six weeks . But it ' s clear that Ekoria isn ' t going to last that long , so Bashir tells her that the baby should be strong enough to survive in two weeks and then he ' ll induce labor . Later Trevean visits Ekoria and offers her the chance to die , telling her that her child will only know peace . Ekoria refuses saying her child deserves a chance to live , and Bashir confronts him and asks why he ' s so obsessed with death given he ' s survived the blight longer than anyone . Trevean responds that the reason he ' s obsessed with death is because he ' s seen so much of it , as well as so much suffering because of it . He wishes Ekoria well and hopes she lives to see her baby . He leaves , and Bashir begins to appreciate his situation . Ekoria has made it past the two weeks and is now giving birth to her baby . She pushes as hard as she can , and gives birth to a baby boy but the effort takes almost all the life out of her . Bashir cleans the child and is astonished to find no lesions on the child ' s body . . . he is free of the blight . Bashir realizes the antigen must have been absorbed through the placenta and immunized him to the disease ; although he couldn ' t find a cure , he has made a vaccine . Ekoria smiles , happy that her son will live a full life , but then she finally dies . Bashir is torn between his joy and devastation . Bashir reports the news to an astounded Trevean , and tells him that all pregnant women must be given the antigen immediately . The people cannot be saved , but their children can . Trevean promises to make sure the antigen gets to everyone and holds the child , a beacon of hope in their devastated world . Back on Deep Space 9 , Bashir is working hard late into the night analyzing the virus when Captain Sisko enters after reading Bashir ' s report and warmly congratulates him on a job well done . Bashir thanks him , but it doesn ' t make him feel any better about the people still dying on that world . Sisko reminds Bashir that , because of him , their children will not suffer in the same way . Bashir knows , but it ' s small comfort . Sisko nods his understanding and leaves Bashir alone to his work and the doctor continues his efforts to find a true cure . Memorable quotes . " " Come to Quark ' s , Quark ' s is fun , come right now , don ' t walk run ! " " " " You ! " " " " I ordered a glass of prune juice from the replicator in the " Defiant " s mess . This is what it came in . " " " " If all your little advertisements aren ' t purged from our systems by the time I get back from the Gamma Quadrant , I will come to Quark ' s , and believe me , I will have fun . " " " " I canceled my death for you . I was really looking forward to it . " " " " You killed her . " " " " I did what she asked . " " " " I thought this was a hospital , and that you were a healer . " " " " I am . I take away pain . " " " " Trevean was right . There is no cure . The Dominion made sure of that . But I was so arrogant , I thought I could find one in a week ! " " " " Maybe it was arrogant to think that . But it ' s even more arrogant to think there isn ' t a cure just because you couldn ' t find it . " " Links and references . References . Bajoran wormhole ; bedside manner ; binding site ; biological sample kit ; biogenic weapon ; Boranis III ; class - 3 offense ; closet ; cordrazine ; ; Dominion ; Ekoria ' s husband ; Fine ; Gamma Quadrant ; Gavara system ; hair clip ; hematology ; house call ; Jem ' Hadar attack ship ; Jenkata Nebula ; Kendi system ; Kukalaka ; lesion ; magistrate ; medical tricorder ; midwife ; Milani ; Nykalia ; Obatta Cluster ; oil ; placenta ; poison ; prune juice ; puppet ; Quark ' s ; " Quickening " ; replicator ; salve ; ; somersault ; suicide ; Takana root tea ; Teplan ; Teplan homeworld ; Teplan system ; tilo ; tissue sample ; toast ; winter