This episode starts out with Kira reading a Cardassian file on herself, while she is yelling at the screen, Kai Opaka comes to the Station. The Sisko asks her if she would not mind meeting The Kai as she comes onto the station. Kira remarks that it is highly unusual for The Kai to come there.
After they give Opaka a short tour of the Station, she asks to be shown The Wormhole: "The Celestial Temple" of The Prophets. The Sisko is reluctant, he is responsible for her safety, but what harm can a short ride do? But as they leave the station, Opaka gives one of her earrings to O'Brien to give to his daughter Molly.
After they get through the wormhole, they start going back, but Opaka tells them "Prophecy must be Tested" — and they go have a look at some planets nearby. Unfortunately, the runabout is affected by some malicious waves coming from a moon, and down they go. Opaka is apparently killed, and Kira is affected greatly.
Kira, Bashir and The Sisko are caught by a group called The Nol, who are always fighting another group, the Nol-Ennis. The Nol-Ennis perform a sneak attack and kill a bunch of Nol.
But to Bashir's surprise, the casualties get up, and their wounds heal themselves! And to make it worse, a dark figure walks into the cave: It is Kai Opaka, who is suddenly alive again.
Sisko sends Bashir back to the runabout to get the Medical Scanner working. While that happens, he tries to get The Nol and the Nol-Ennis to make a truce, he promises to bring them all off the moon, once rescue comes, because with The Kai on the runabout, O'Brien and Dax will soon come looking for them.
But the Nol and the Nol-Ennis can't be together for one minute before they start killing each other again. Bashir prevents Sisko from being killed "For the First Time" - Because they cannot afford to die even once! Which is usually the case anyway.
These people are trapped on the moon because it is a penal colony made just for them, they cannot kill each other, at least not permanently, but if they leave the moon, the Lil computer gadgets in their bodies that make them keep getting up after being knifed, shot, blown up, etc will stop working and they'll die.
But The Sisko cannot even offer them that, not because he cannot do it, but because it is not for him to do: It seems that The Prophets had told Opaka that she was to go there, die, and have to stay with the Nol and the Nol/Ennis. It's her job now...
And although we never heard about The Nol or Nol Ennis ever again, we must assume that Opaka had some success in getting them to stop killing each other, because she appears to The Sisko one last time, in the episode "Accession" - Where she tells The Sisko, that just as The Prophets are Of Bajor, he is Of Bajor.
But it still saddens me that this story arc was not looked into any further in the Series, there could have been 5 or 6 episodes dedicated to it.
But at the time this episode was written and produced, we were still learning about Deep Space Nine's principal characters. Hints of Horrors in The Gamma Quadrant were being slowly dumped into the stories, but as far as the series went, it was still being treated as a continuation of The Next Generation: But starting with episodes like this one, the differences between DS9 and TNG were just beginning to become apparent.
What is noticeable here, is Opaka's style of dress, compared to other characters wearing the Kai's robes: Hers reflect her inherent Spirituality, the other outfit worn by Kai Rachett/Winn, is embroidered with Gold. Kai Opaka's robe reflects a humble woman with a high level of Faith, Kai Winns, a high level of vanity and hypocrisy.
After they give Opaka a short tour of the Station, she asks to be shown The Wormhole: "The Celestial Temple" of The Prophets. The Sisko is reluctant, he is responsible for her safety, but what harm can a short ride do? But as they leave the station, Opaka gives one of her earrings to O'Brien to give to his daughter Molly.
After they get through the wormhole, they start going back, but Opaka tells them "Prophecy must be Tested" — and they go have a look at some planets nearby. Unfortunately, the runabout is affected by some malicious waves coming from a moon, and down they go. Opaka is apparently killed, and Kira is affected greatly.
Kira, Bashir and The Sisko are caught by a group called The Nol, who are always fighting another group, the Nol-Ennis. The Nol-Ennis perform a sneak attack and kill a bunch of Nol.
But to Bashir's surprise, the casualties get up, and their wounds heal themselves! And to make it worse, a dark figure walks into the cave: It is Kai Opaka, who is suddenly alive again.
Sisko sends Bashir back to the runabout to get the Medical Scanner working. While that happens, he tries to get The Nol and the Nol-Ennis to make a truce, he promises to bring them all off the moon, once rescue comes, because with The Kai on the runabout, O'Brien and Dax will soon come looking for them.
But the Nol and the Nol-Ennis can't be together for one minute before they start killing each other again. Bashir prevents Sisko from being killed "For the First Time" - Because they cannot afford to die even once! Which is usually the case anyway.
These people are trapped on the moon because it is a penal colony made just for them, they cannot kill each other, at least not permanently, but if they leave the moon, the Lil computer gadgets in their bodies that make them keep getting up after being knifed, shot, blown up, etc will stop working and they'll die.
But The Sisko cannot even offer them that, not because he cannot do it, but because it is not for him to do: It seems that The Prophets had told Opaka that she was to go there, die, and have to stay with the Nol and the Nol/Ennis. It's her job now...
And although we never heard about The Nol or Nol Ennis ever again, we must assume that Opaka had some success in getting them to stop killing each other, because she appears to The Sisko one last time, in the episode "Accession" - Where she tells The Sisko, that just as The Prophets are Of Bajor, he is Of Bajor.
But it still saddens me that this story arc was not looked into any further in the Series, there could have been 5 or 6 episodes dedicated to it.
But at the time this episode was written and produced, we were still learning about Deep Space Nine's principal characters. Hints of Horrors in The Gamma Quadrant were being slowly dumped into the stories, but as far as the series went, it was still being treated as a continuation of The Next Generation: But starting with episodes like this one, the differences between DS9 and TNG were just beginning to become apparent.
What is noticeable here, is Opaka's style of dress, compared to other characters wearing the Kai's robes: Hers reflect her inherent Spirituality, the other outfit worn by Kai Rachett/Winn, is embroidered with Gold. Kai Opaka's robe reflects a humble woman with a high level of Faith, Kai Winns, a high level of vanity and hypocrisy.