Copyright 1993, Jennifer A. Hawthorne. All rights reserved,
but I'm not stuffy about it as long as you don't go 
overboard.

Synopsis: "A Man Alone"

Episode Number: 403
Air Date: 1/16/93

	As the show opens, Dax is seated in a holosuite,
contemplating an iridescent sphere which is hovering in 
front of her. Bashir enters and makes small talk, extending 
an invitation to dinner with champagne, but is distracted 
by the shimmering sphere. Dax explains that it's a puzzle, 
the object being to make the bubble a solid color by 
achieving perfect mental focus. Bashir wants to give it a 
try, but can't seem to get his mind off of Dax, and when 
she turns the game over to him the bubble flares into a 
thousand colors and then bursts. Thrown offstride, Bashir 
once again asks Dax to supper, but Commander Sisko appears 
at the door to the room, and it turns out Dax has a prior 
engagement. Sisko and Dax leave as a downcast Bashir starts 
the game again.
	In Quark's, Odo and Quark are discussing the changes that
the wormhole has brought to the station. They notice Keiko 
and Miles O'Brien having an argument on the second level of 
the restaurant, which leads Odo into a long, cynical 
commentary about human relationships. Dax and Sisko enter, 
and Quark and Odo discuss the nature of the relationship 
between the commander and the science officer, until Odo 
notices a Bajoran newcomer at the Dabo table, and reacts 
with angry alarm to the man's presence.
	Dax and Sisko discuss their relationship, past and current,
and Sisko confesses to being uncomfortable with Dax as 
Jadzia; he misses Curzon. Dax says she misses Curzon as 
well. They look over at the table where the O'Briens are 
sitting and notice that their argument has culminated with 
Keiko striding off in anger. Down below, Odo confronts the 
stranger, telling him to get off the station, and attempts 
to physically enforce his command. Sisko rushes down to 
break up the fight. Odo gives the stranger twenty-six hours 
to get off the station.
	Up on the second level, Keiko tells O'Brien that she feels
useless on DS9, since her skills aren't needed and she has 
no official post. She asks if O'Brien really wants to raise 
Molly in a place like this. The conversation ends as 
O'Brien is called away to a repair job.
	On the lower level of the Promenade, Jake finds the Ferengi
boy, Nog, and attempts to befriend him.
	In Sisko's office, Odo tells Sisko that the stranger's name
is Ibudan, and that he is a former black marketeer with a 
very bad reputation who had been sent to jail a few years 
back for murdering a Cardassian. Odo was responsible for 
the man being caught. Ibudan has been released by the 
provisional government which doesn't consider murdering a 
Cardassian to be much of a crime. Odo wants to throw the 
man off the station, but Sisko tells Odo he has no reason 
to force the man to leave, and asks the Constable not to 
take the law into his own hands. Odo insists that laws may 
change, but justice doesn't -- and Sisko threatens to 
replace him if he can't work within the rules.
	In a holosuite, Ibudan is enjoying a massage program, when
without warning someone wearing black gloves shove sthe 
masseuse aside, raises a large knife, and stabs viciously 
downward.
	On the Promenade, Jake and Nog examine a small box of Nog's
which contains a number of tiny insects. The boys run off, 
giggling, as Bashir enters the hallway and, seeing Dax 
walking nearby, joins her. They make small talk about 
Trills and relationships (which Dax says are considered a 
nuisance) until Bashir is summoned to the holosuites by 
Sisko.
	Nog sneaks up behind a couple eating dinner and releases
his bugs, then runs back to where Jake is watching from a 
good vantage point. The couple begin to itch madly, then 
change colors, as Nog and Jake watch, laughing. The effects 
stop after a moment, as does the boys' amusement when they 
are collared and take away by a security man. Keiko, who 
has been watching, looks both disturbed and thoughtful.
	In the holosuites, Sisko, Kira, Odo, and Bashir are
gathered around the dead body of Ibudan. Odo comments that 
the records show the door was opened twice: the first time, 
to allow Ibudan in, after which the door was secured, and 
then again thirteen minutes later, presumably to allow the 
killer to exit. The killer must therefore have entered at 
the same time Ibudan did. Bashir announces that Ibudan was 
killed by a single blow, straight to the heart. Sisko 
orders Bashir to do a forensic sweep of the room, and tells 
Kira to keep all ships from leaving until further notice.
	In the O'Brien quarters, Keiko tells Miles that she has
decided that what the station needs is a school, to keep 
the kids out of trouble.
	Kira is called into Sisko's office, where Sisko introduces
her to a Bajoran man, Zayra, who says that Ibudan was 
afraid that Odo would try to kill him.
	Odo goes to the ship that Ibudan arrived in and discovers
that Ibudan had booked double quarters. Odo asks the 
shipmaster for a list of all passengers who were on board, 
and checks Ibudan's computerized personal calendar. He 
discovers that it shows Ibudan intended to meet with Odo at 
the time he was killed.
	In the Sisko quarters, Keiko explains her idea to Sisko,
who approves and offers her space and materials to get 
things started. But he warns Keiko that he can't require 
people to send their kids to the school, and that Keiko may 
encounter problems with the variety of races and cultures 
on the station. After she leaves, Sisko tells Jake that he 
doesn't want his son associating with Nog any more.
	In the infirmary, Bashir tells Dax, Kira, and Odo that his
sweep of the holosuite indicated that, excluding the staff 
who were present after the murder, no one was in the 
holosuite except Ibudan. Odo points out that this would 
seem to mean that one of the staff was the murderer -- and 
that of them all, only he himself had a means of entry.
	Down in Ops, Odo discusses the evidence with Kira and
concludes that it's quite damning. Furthermore, he has no 
alibi; he was regenerating in a pail in his office at the 
time of the murder. He can think of about five hundred 
people who might want to frame him for murder, but none of 
them have been on the station recently. Odo asks Kira to send 
Bashir over to Ibudan's ship quarters to check them out for 
evidence.
	In Quark's, Keiko attempts to convince Nog's father, Rom,
to send Nog to her school. Rom is uninterested, until 
Keiko suggests that learning about other cultures might 
give Nog a competitive edge over other Ferengi. Rom says 
he'll think about it.
	Elsewhere in the restaurant, Zayra is talking to some other
Bajorans, stirring up trouble by reminding them that Odo 
used to work for the Cardassians. Quark comes to Odo's 
defense, saying that Odo is a curmudgeon but neither a 
Cardassian stooge nor a murderer. At one end of the bar, a 
cloaked, older Bajoran man watches the proceedings with 
interest.
	On Ibudan's ship, Dr. Bashir completes a detailed forensic
sweep of the victim's quarters.
	In Ops, Zayra leads a group of Bajorans to Sisko and Kira,
expressing concern about Odo's reliability, given the 
evidence. Kira sends them away with a sharp word, and they 
depart, looking unhappy. Sisko tells Kira that he 
understands why they don't like the idea of the primary 
suspect in a murder case being in charge of the 
investigation. Kira objects, saying that Odo has had plenty 
of opportunity to cover his tracks if he were guilty, but 
Sisko decides to take Odo off the case.
	Odo and Bashir discuss Bashir's results in the infirmary.
The only strange thing Bashir found was the remains of a 
biological sample container with some organic molecules, 
including some odd DNA fragments, still on them. The 
remains were near the waste reclamation unit, suggesting 
that someone had tried to dispose of the shards. Odo is 
called away to Ops as Bashir puts the pieces into a growth 
tank to see what the DNA fragments will turn into.
	In Sisko's office, Sisko tells Odo that because of his
status as a suspect, Odo is being relieved of duty 
temporarily; Kira and Dax will be taking over the 
investigation. Although Sisko tries to reassure Odo that he 
personally believes in the Constable's innocence, Odo is 
unconvinced; he harshly questions Sisko's assumptions about 
him, and leaves.
	Odo arrives at his security office to discover the place
has been broken into and wrecked. Quark comes by and 
offers to find out who was responsible, and Odo suggests he 
tell Starfleet. They get into a testy exchange over Odo's 
loss of authority, which ends with Odo offering to join 
Quark's organization. Quark is almost convinced of Odo's 
seriousness. Quark then offers Odo some information that 
Quark had learned about Ibudan; the victim had no enemies 
from his days in the Cardassian prison, and he hung around 
mostly with a group of Bajoran dissidents.
	In the infirmary, the sample Bashir obtained from Ibudan's
ship quarters has become an amorphous blob that is 
continuing to grow very quickly. The DNA patterns look 
humanoid, but with some puzzling discrepancies. Sisko asks 
Dax to lunch, but winds up with Bashir instead.
	In Quark's, Sisko and Bashir discuss Jadzia Dax over lunch,
and Sisko tells the fascinated doctor some of his previous 
history with the Trill when she was Curzon Dax. The two of 
them notice Odo sitting down at Quark's bar and being 
shunned by the rest of the people there, who all get up and 
leave.
	Elsewhere on the Promenade, Keiko is supervising the
establishment of the schoolroom, as Miles and Molly drop 
by to see her. Keiko expresses worries that no one will 
come, and Miles gives her a gift of an old-fashioned 
schoolbell. Their conversation is interrupted by the sound 
of shouts coming from outside, and O'Brien heads off to see 
what the problem is. He spots Odo being followed by an 
angry mob yelling epithets. The shapeshifter takes cover in 
his office, as O'Brien calls for security. Dr. Bashir looks 
out the door of the infirmary at the mob, worried, and then 
goes back in to look at the thing growing in his tank, 
which is now roughly man-sized.
	Security arrives and tries to keep the mob away from Odo's
office, but as Sisko and Kira arrive with more help, the 
mob turns ugly and becomes violent. The mysterious older 
Bajoran in the black cloak watches from the sidelines.
	In the infirmary, Dax and Bashir are still hard at work 
trying to identify the thing in the tank, as Bashir 
suddenly gets an inspiration.
	Outside, Sisko pushes his way to the front of the mob to
try and calm them down. His efforts are met with shouts, 
and fighting starts to break out, forcing the commander to 
fire a warning shot from his phaser to restore order. Odo 
emerges from his office as the crowd shouts for justice, 
and Sisko urges them not to condemn Odo just because he's 
different. Zayra insists that the evidence is what is 
condemning Odo.
	Just then, Dax and Bashir come out of the infirmary, and
Bashir tells Sisko that they've discovered evidence that 
the man who was murdered was *not* Ibudan. Sisko and Odo 
follow the doctor to the tank, where Bashir tells them that 
the thing in the vat is a clone of Ibudan, as was the 
person who was killed in the holosuite. Odo says he has an 
idea where to find the real Ibudan.
	Aboard a docked ship, the cloaked, older Bajoran man enters
his quarters. One of the chairs flows and shifts, becoming 
Odo, to the man's shock and anger. Odo informs the man that 
he can find no record of the man's arrival on the station, 
and suggests that perhaps he spent the last few years in a 
Cardassian prison with Bajoran dissidents, one of whom was 
a Bajoran scientist who experimented with triphasic 
cloning. The man makes a break for the door, but Odo grabs 
him and peels off his mask and hair, revealing Ibudan. 
"Killing your own clone is still murder," says the 
Constable.
	Sisko dictates his station log, saying that Ibudan has been
turned over to the authorities, and that as yet Odo has 
received no apologies from the members of the mob.
	On the Promenade, it's the first day of school, and at
first it looks as if only Jake will be there. A few 
moments later, however, Rom brings Nog in and sits him 
down, followed shortly thereafter by a few more students. 
And classes begin.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Copyright 1993, Jennifer A. Hawthorne. All rights reserved, but I'm
not stuffy about it as long as you don't go overboard.
