Writing a profile on Dr. Bashir, Jake Sisko is traveling with him in a runabout when they get a distress call from a Federation colony under attack by Klingons. Jake convinces Bashir to go to the colony, despite concern over taking the eighteen-year-old Sisko to a battleground. Once they arrive, Jake is stunned by the sight of scores of wounded and dying people. Forced to lend a hand to the medical team, Jake panics when explosions rip into the ground around them, and runs away.

Andrew Kavovit (Kirby)
Karen Austin (Kalandra)
Mark Holton (Bolian)
Lisa Lord (Nurse)
Jeb Brown (Ensign)
Danny Goldring (Chief Burke)

• The episode title comes from Ecclesiastes 9:11: "I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all."