Sisko takes command of a Cardassian-built station and discovers a stable wormhole and the Bajoran Prophets.
The pilot opens at the Battle of Wolf 359, where Lieutenant Commander Benjamin Sisko escapes the doomed USS Saratoga with his son Jake but loses his wife Jennifer to the Borg attack led by an assimilated Jean-Luc Picard. Three years later Sisko is sent to command Deep Space Nine, a wrecked former Cardassian station orbiting newly liberated Bajor, where Major Kira Nerys resents the Federation presence and Sisko pressures the Ferengi Quark into keeping his bar open.
Picard briefs Sisko on preparing Bajor for Federation membership, and Sisko can barely hide his anger toward him. Kai Opaka shows Sisko one of the sacred Orbs, names him the Emissary and tells him he will find the Celestial Temple of the Prophets. Jadzia Dax links the Orb to strange readings in the Denorios Belt, while Gul Dukat, the station's former Cardassian commander, comes looking for the Orb and Odo helps Sisko slip away from his warship.