Then it’s time to make story assignments for the next issue. J.G. Hertzler (Martok) as Roy is the artist who passes around sketches for illustrations, and each writer claims one as the basis for a story. One of the sketches is of a nameless space station we recognize as DS9. Benny gravitates towards it immediately, gets the assignment, and takes the sketch home.

But not before he is stopped by two white plainclothes policemen, Marc Alaimo (Dukat, the Cardassian military leader) and Jeffrey Coombs (Weoun, of the Dominion) who reflexively hassle Benny, a Negro in a suit in a white part of town. They literally step on the drawing of DS9 and force Benny to bend down and take it off the ground.

But Benny has another encounter before he gets back to his apartment. A sidewalk preacher (Brook Peters, Sisko’s father Joseph) inexplicably knows Benny’s name and speaks directly to him, with a message from “the prophets” to “write the truth that is in your heart. The truth that shall set them free.”