The Search, Part I

With the station bracing for a Dominion attack, Sisko returns from Earth with the USS Defiant, a small, heavily armed prototype warship fitted with a Romulan cloaking device. With it come Subcommander T'Rul, who oversees the cloak, and Starfleet security officer Michael Eddington, whose arrival unsettles Odo. Sisko's mission is to find the Founders, the Dominion's rulers, and open peace talks. In the Gamma Quadrant Odo finds himself strangely drawn to the Omarion Nebula. The crew locate a Dominion communications relay, but the Jem'Hadar attack in force and the Defiant is overwhelmed. Odo escapes in a shuttle with the wounded Kira and heads for the nebula, despite her protests. There they find a rogue planet, and on it a people who share Odo's nature, who welcome him home.