75. The Visitor

Summary

In the future, the aged author Jake Sisko receives a visit from a young woman, Melanie, who wants to know why he quit writing. He tells her a story that begins when he was 18. During a subspace inversion of the wormhole, Jake saw his father vanish in a freak accident. Ben afterwards reappeared twice to him; the second time, a year after the accident, it was determined that he was trapped in subspace. Jake later left the station, became a writer, and married; but then became obsessed with rescuing his father, estranging his wife as a result. Now an old man, Jake has figured out that his father is bound to him by a sort of cord, and he is dragging his father through time. After Melanie leaves, Jake is visited once more by his father, who realizes that Jake has taken a slow poison. Jake dies, cutting the cord so that Sisko will go back in time and have a chance to avoid getting trapped. Only Sisko knows of his son's sacrifice.

Summary provided by The DS9 Encyclopedia and Lexicon by kind permission of Tracy Hemenover.