Alone

Episode three begins where episode two left off. Hardgrove responds to Garrison's message and comes to see him. He tells him that the Alliance is believed to be meeting with the Dominion, and that he has made secret alliances with the Smuggers' Coalition and Orion Syndicate. What he doesn't tell Garrison is that the bartender, a bolian named Lattrel Ottel, is secretly representing the Smuggers' Coalition on the Starbase. Garrison is appalled at the thought of being allied with criminals, but realizes it might be necessary. They are interrupted when Hardgrove looks out the window and realizes Earth is gone.

Garrison goes out into the OCC (Operations Control Center) where he discovers that the Starbase has lost all communications, and that sensors are picking up nothing. Simply nothing. No stars, planets, ships, or anything else. The crew has no idea what is causing it. Commander K'Rak begins transferring all Starbase prisoners to the Pollux's brig, since the ship has an independent power system.

T'Kila beings investigating what happened. She finds evidence of particles linked to transporter technology just seconds before the blackout, but not enough evidence to suggest the Starbase was transported anywhere.

In the security office, just as Gao Gent-al is let out of his cell to be transferred, the station loses power. In the darkness he manages to slip into a ventilation shaft. By the time the lights come back on he has disappeared. Security teams begin searches but are unable to locate him.

In the OCC the crew has no explanation for the power loss. A briefing is held to discuss the situation, where they decide to launch a probe. The probe is launched but as soon as it clears the station it's telemetry is lost. Soon afterwards an Alliance Battlecruiser appears next to the station. Invoking an obscure Starfleet regulation giving Garrison command in the event of contact with the Alliance, Garrison takes command of 001 from Captain Major. He admits to Major that it's because he doesn't trust him, since he's only been in a command position for a few months.

Counselor Othoniel Rasin begins to have strange dreams every time he tries to sleep. While in the holodeck trying to make sense of the dream, a woman he saw in the dream appears and seems to enter his body. He transports himself to his quarters and watches the woman leave his body and disappear. Confused, he decides not to tell anyone about what happened since he believes it to be a hallucination.

The Battlecruiser sits there for several hours doing nothing. Suddenly it attacks the Station without warning. In the attack Garrison suffers a severe head wound and is knocked unconscious. Major resumes command while Halliwell and Hardgrove take the Pollux and Gambit out to defend the Starbase. They manage to disable the Alliance cruiser.

Counselor Rasin goes to the armory and acquires a weapon, not even sure what he is doing. All he can think about is going into hiding. Still unsure of what he's doing, Rasin stops at a terminal and begins changing starbase systems.

In the OCC the senior staff is in the midst of discussing what to do next when the Earth, moon, and stars suddenly reappear. The Alliance ship disappears at the same moment. They notice systems had been tampered with, and realize it was Rasin.

He tries to explain what happened. He says they had been pushed into some sort of other dimension which was inhabited by aliens, and these aliens didn't want them there. He says he knows this because one of them had shared a consciousness with Rasin and shown him how to get the Starbase out of their space. He realizes none of it really makes sense, but he can't explain it any better than that because he doesn't understand what happened himself.

As the episode concludes, Garrison apologizes to Major for not trusting his command abilities. They are left pondering all the unanswered questions: What sort of space had they been in? How had they gotten there? Who were the Aliens? Why had they contacted Rasin? Where had Gao gone? There were questions, but no answers.
 * Synopsis Written by Mike Dunham (RMrulz)

Links
Episode 3 - "Alone"