Distant Voices

Bashir is dreading his 30th birthday when a Lethean named Altovar, refused a supply of restricted biomimetic gel, attacks him with a telepathic blast. Bashir wakes in a dark, near-empty station and finds himself ageing rapidly. Gradually he realises he is lying in a coma and that the station around him exists inside his own mind, with his crewmates standing for different parts of his personality. Altovar is stalking him through this world, and as each colleague is lost, Bashir grows weaker and older. Accompanied by Garak, he struggles to reach the infirmary, until he realises that this Garak is Altovar in disguise. Recovering his confidence and his youth, Bashir traps Altovar in the infirmary's sterilisation field and wakes up to find his real friends gathered at his bedside. The real Altovar has already been arrested by Odo after tripping the station's security.