Move Along Home (DS9 episode)

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"Move Along Home" is the tenth episode in the first season of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. It first aired on March 14, 1993.

Quick Overview: Quark is forced to play a game, and the lives of the crew are at stake.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The Wadi

Deep Space Nine has the distinction of making first contact with a Gamma Quadrant species known as the Wadi. However, the Wadi show no interest in formalities and head straight to Quark's. The Ferengi initially sees the Wadi as a potential source of great profit, but when the Wadi master Dabo and go on a winning streak, he has one of his waiters rig the game. The Wadi catch him and force Quark to play "an honest game" called Chula.

Meanwhile, Sisko, Bashir, Kira, and Dax find themselves in an abstract, dream-like world. One of the Wadi appears and cheerfully yells, "Move along, move along home!" They are faced with several puzzles as Quark plays the game, and when Odo finds the four of them missing, Quark comes to realize that they are part of the game he is playing.

Later on in the game, Julian's piece is moved to a separate area of the game and he disappears. Quark is then faced with a choice between a shorter, more difficult path or a longer, easier one for his remaining "players." He chooses the shortcut, and when Odo objects, he explains that with risks to his "players" involved in every move, advancing them home as soon as possible is the wiser choice. However, when he rolls the game says he must choose one of his players to die.

Quark begs the Wadi not to make him choose, and they make the game choose at random. Sisko, Kira, and Dax are faced with scaling a mountain during a violent earthquake, and Dax's leg becomes stuck between two rocks. Although she tells Sisko to leave her behind, he and Kira help her walk across a ledge on the rock face. They slip, however, and the three of them fall into the abyss — only to re-materialize in Quark's. Quark is elated and begins to collect his winnings, but the Wadi explains that all his players were lost; the crew was never in any real danger. "It's only a game!" he laughs.