If Wishes Were Horses

Odd readings are coming from the Denorios Belt when imagination starts taking physical form on the station. Rumpelstiltskin appears in Molly O'Brien's bedroom while her father reads her the story, baseball great Buck Bokai steps out of Jake's holosuite program, snow falls on the Promenade, and Dr Bashir finds an adoring version of Dax who returns the affection the real one does not. Quark's dabo tables start paying out against his will. Meanwhile a rift in space near the station grows rapidly, threatening to destroy it. Sisko realises the crisis is being driven by the crew's own thoughts and orders everyone to stop believing in it, and the rift vanishes. Bokai explains that he and the others were aliens exploring the crew's imaginations to learn about humanoids, and before leaving he gives Sisko a baseball.