Odo is having fun changing into eagles, Kira, while happy for him, can’t get off the hidden Shapeshifter planet and Sisko & co are all miraculously saved and brought back to DS9. And that’s when Admiral Nechayev seems even bitchier than usual, ready to commit to an unusually hasty treaty with the Dominion. The treaty will leave Bajor for dead and piss off the Romulans something fierce. Even Garak thinks it is a bad idea.
So what’s going on? Actually, a Jem’Hadar/Vorta run Matrix-esque test simulation. Our heroes are saved though when Kira and Odo discover the shenanigans are being run in a secret underground lair on the Shapeshifter planet. Why there? Because the Shapeshifters are the Founders. Whaaaaaaat?
