Stardate 51474.2: A science expedition goes awry when a Jem'Hadar ship attacks the Defiant. Before the attack, the Runabout Rubicon had entered an anomaly that rendered it only a foot across. Lieutenant Commander Dax, Doctor Bashir, and Chief O'Brien were the three in the Rubicon when it entered the anomaly. Now, in their minuscule form, they must find a way to communicate with the Defiant.
When the Cardassian occupation of Bajor ended in 2369, the mining space station Terok Nor was left abandoned, its systems ripped out. By invitation of the Bajoran provisional government, Starfleet stepped in to oversee the rebuilding and day-to-day operations of the newly christened Deep Space Nine.
The years of Starfleet's nonintervention into Cardassian matters, however, had taken its toll on relations with the Bajorans. Consequently, Starfleet's position was a tenuous one; many Bajorans, suspicious and hostile as a result of decades of Cardassian oppression and brutality, did not greet the Federation's presence with open arms. The Federation's assistance is put to the test as DS9 becomes a center of travel and commerce that stretches into the Gamma Quadrant.