When Dominion sabotage is blamed for a planetwide power outage, Starfleet stations security all over Earth to prepare for an invasion. Sisko, in charge of the effort, becomes suspicious after learning that certain groups of Starfleet troops have been demobilized. Tricking one of the Red Squad cadets into revealing a plot, Sisko determines that members of Starfleet Command are behind the sabotage. While Sisko sets out to prove this insubordination to the Federation President, a Changeling reveals the plans of the takeover to Sisko. Sisko sends for the Defiant while investigating the Starfleet infiltration. But another Starfleet vessel, the U.S.S. Lakota, has been given orders to intercept and destroy the Defiant.

Robert Foxworth (Admiral Leyton)
Brock Peters (Joseph Sisko)
Herschel Sparber (Federation President Jaresh-Inyo)
Susan Gibney (Capt. Erika Benteen)
Aron Eisenberg (Cadet Nog)
David Drew Gallagher (Cadet 2C Riley Shepard)
Rudolph Willrich (Starfleet Academy Commandant)
Mina Badie (Security Officer)
Bobby C. King (Security Chief)

• This story is a continuation of the episode "Homefront".
  
• Benteen was promoted to Captain this episode, from Commander in the previous episode. Her ship is the Excelsior-class starship U.S.S. Lakota NCC-42768.
  
• Admiral Leyton ordered Lieutenant Arriaga to make it look like a cloaked Dominion fleet was entering the Alpha Quadrant by repeatedly opening and closing the wormhole.
  
• Cadet Riley Shepard will appear again in the sixth season episode "Valiant".