Stardate 48962.5: Ambassador Krajensky informs Sisko, who has just been promoted to the rank of captain, of a coup on the Tzenkethi homeworld that would also threaten some nearby Federation colonies. With the Defiant on the way to that sector, a distress call from Barisa Prime states that they are under attack by the Tzenkethi. But Krajensky, who is actually a changeling, has deceived everyone aboard, in the hopes of causing a war between the Federation and the Tzenkethi. He morphs and escapes through a hatch. In the following the changeling continues to fool the crew among whom suspicion arises that anyone could be the intruder. Odo discovers that Sisko is bleeding, inferring that he can't be a changeling because parts separated from the body would return to their gelatinous state. Now they have found a method to expose the changeling. But with the Defiant entering Tzenkethi space with activated weapons, Sisko has to order the ship's self-destruction, giving O'Brien only ten minutes to regain control. During a scuffle in the engineering room Odo jabs the other changeling who falls into the field surrounding the warp core and dies. The changeling's last words are: "You are too late. We are everywhere."

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