A Starfleet ship crippled by the Maquis leader Michael Eddington while helping Sisko hunt him in 2373.
The USS Malinche was an Excelsior-class starship that served along the Cardassian border in the 2370s. In 2373 it joined Benjamin Sisko in hunting the Maquis leader Michael Eddington, a former Starfleet officer who had betrayed him.
Eddington had planted a computer virus in the Defiant's systems, and with Sisko's ship hampered he crippled the Malinche, leaving Sisko without support. The episode fed Sisko's growing obsession with capturing Eddington, which led him to poison a Maquis colony world to force Eddington's surrender.