looks unwell. As they try to escape the pursuing Dominion ships, Weyoun VI reveals to Odo that an illness is spreading among the Changelings, with Odo possibly the only one uninfected. He urges Odo to be prepared to take command of the Dominion himself and turn it away from its imperialistic ways. Realizing they will be unable to escape, Weyoun VI tells Odo he lives to serve him, hails Weyoun VII, and triggers his termination implant. Weyoun VII immediately calls off the attack and allows Odo to escape. Before dying, Weyoun VI asks Odo for a blessing, and Odo complies. In a side plot on Deep Space Nine, Chief Miles O'Brien is missing a crucial piece of equipment needed to repair the starship Defiant. Nog offers to help O'Brien by navigating "the Great Material Continuum"—a Ferengi metaphor for the economics of supply and demand as a great river on which a skilled navigator can always find what he needs. O'Brien reluctantly authorizes Nog to make a long series of trades, including loaning out Captain Sisko's desk and selling a shipment of wine sent by General Martok's wife. An increasingly alarmed O'Brien watches with dismay as Nog works deal after deal while the required part appears no closer to arriving. In the end, the Defiant is finally repaired, Martok's wine is replaced with a better vintage, and Sisko's desk is returned before he even discovers it was gone. Reception In his 2014 review of this episode for The A.V. Club, Zack Handlen felt the episode was "a pleasure to watch" and praised its presentation of both sides of a conflict. Reviewing the episode in 2014 for Tor.com, Keith R.A. DeCandido gave it a rating of 7 out 10; he called the plots "superb" and a "delight", though he thought Nog's storyline makes little sense in a science-fiction setting in which items can easily be replicated. In 2015, Geek.com recommended this episode as "essential watching" for their abbreviated Star Trek: Deep Space Nine binge-watching guide. In 2019, Screen Rant ranked this one of the top ten episodes for the character Nog. Media scholar Ina Rae Hark described the episode as "a sort of comparative religion seminar" examining the beliefs of the Dominion and the Ferengi. The episode therefore illustrates how Deep Space Nine explores alien cultures in detail, taking religious belief seriously, and thus departs from the work of Gene Roddenberry, creator