Stardate not given: Bajor is going to elect a new Kai, the religious leader of the planet. The intriguer Vedek Winn runs against the clear favorite Vedek Bareil. But then a Cardassian collaborator named Kubus is offered amnesty by Winn in exchange for information about the Kendra Valley massacre, in which the Cardassians murdered 43 members of the Bajoran Resistance, including Kai Opaka's son. The monk Prylar Bek revealed their whereabouts to the Cardassians and then committed suicide. The communication records seem to indicate that it was Bareil who ordered the monk to do so, in order to avert a worse disaster, because the Cardassians would have killed more than a thousand village inhabitants searching for the resistance cell. Bareil withdraws from the election. After Winn has been declared the new Kai, Kira discovers that Bareil is not the true collaborator. He covers up the decision of Kai Opaka, who sacrificed her own son for the benefit of her people.

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