apparently infatuated with her. Although Q transported Vash to the Gamma Quadrant two years earlier, now she wants nothing to do with him, much to Q's annoyance. When Dr. Julian Bashir (Alexander Siddig) asks Vash out for dinner, a jealous Q uses his powers to make Bashir fall asleep. Meanwhile, the bartender Quark (Armin Shimerman) arranges to auction off items Vash found in the Gamma Quadrant, including an unusual crystal that might fetch a high price. O'Brien spots Q on the station, recognizes him from the Enterprise, and warns Commander Sisko, speculating that Q may be responsible for the power drains. When confronted, Q denies any wrongdoing, although he offers no alternative explanation. As the power drains become more severe, the station begins to be pulled toward the nearby wormhole. Q challenges Sisko to a boxing match, and suddenly they are both wearing antique-style boxing costumes. A few punches are thrown, and Q is shocked when Sisko knocks him down. At the auction, Vash's crystal receives bids in excess of one thousand bars of gold-pressed latinum. Casually joining the bid process, Q ups the bidding to 2501 bars before bidding one million. Soon after, however, the source of the power losses is traced to the crystal itself. The crystal is quickly beamed into space before it can destroy the station. Once outside, it transforms into an alien life form and travels into the wormhole. After the incident, Bashir finally awakens from his slumber. Production Development The writers and producers of "Q-Less" developed the episode to show that DS9 was still connected to the Star Trek universe. To facilitate this idea, two TNG characters, Vash, played by Jennifer Hetrick, and Q, played by John de Lancie, returned to DS9. Vash made her first appearance on TNG in the episode "Captain's Holiday", and then returned in "Qpid"; Q had appeared in most seasons of TNG since the first season. TNG writer Hannah Louise Shearer, known for writing episodes such as "The Price" and "We'll Always Have Paris", also crossed over to DS9. "Q-Less" was the last Star Trek writing credit for Shearer. Shearer's pitch featured Vash, who had last been seen at the end of "QPid" leaving with Q, but the pitch did not include Q himself. Executive producer Michael Piller explained that they had already been looking for a way to introduce Q into DS9, and felt that bringing Vash onto