Body Parts (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine)

"Body Parts"
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode
Episode no.	Season 4 Episode 24
Directed by	Avery Brooks
Teleplay by	Hans Beimler
Story by	Louis P. DeSantis Robert J. Bolivar
Featured music	Dennis McCarthy
Production code	497
Original air date	June 10, 1996
Guest appearance(s)
Max Grodénchik - Rom Andrew J. Robinson - Garak Rosalind Chao - Keiko Hana Hatae - Molly Jeffrey Combs - Brunt

"Body Parts" is the 97th episode of the television series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, the 24th episode of the fourth season.

Plot

Main plot

Quark makes a trip to Ferenginar to get a physical, in order to get his life insurance renewed. The physical reveals that he will die from a rare disease. In the usual Ferengi manner, he auctions off his vacuum-desiccated remains on the Ferengi Futures Exchange, to raise money to pay off his debts.

After being on the market for a while, he gets a buyer at 500 bars of gold-pressed latinum, and sells them. A few hours later, he finds out that his medical exam was in error, and in fact he isn't going to die. He therefore cancels the arrangements he already made to pay his debts.

The next day the buyer comes to his quarters on the station: it is Quark's old adversary Brunt, from the Ferengi Commerce Authority. Brunt wants what he has already paid for: Quark's desiccated remains, no more, and no less. Quark explains that he isn't going to die, but Brunt already knows about the incorrect medical results. Brunt does not care: he still wants what he paid for. Quark thus faces the dilemma of either killing himself, or breaking a contract, thereby going against Rule of Acquisition No. 17: "A contract is a contract is a contract (but only between Ferengi)." Doing so would mean the end of Quark's business license and making him an outcast in Ferengi society.

In order to honour his contract like a good Ferengi, Quark consults with Garak, and hires Garak as an assassin to kill him. After looking at what Quark wants his death to be, Garak decides just to leave it a secret.

That night, Quark dreams about being in the Divine Treasury, and seeing First Grand Nagus Gint (who strangely resembles his own brother, Rom), who tells him to break the contract, and that the Rules of Acquisition he made up were for marketing purposes; quoting them would sound bad if they were called "Suggestions" of Acquisition.

The next morning, Quark tells Brunt that he is breaking his contract. Announcing to everyone present, Brunt then revokes Quark's Ferengi business license, and liquidates Quark's business in its entirety, seizing all of Quark's personal and family assets.

To Quark's astonishment, all his close customers help him out by using his bar as a "storage facility" for all the items he needs to conduct business. As a result, he is shortly back in business, with no contact with any Ferengi except his brother Rom, but finding himself feeling richer in true friends he never imagined he had.

Sub-plot

While this is all going on, Major Kira, Doctor Bashir and Keiko O'Brien return to the station in a heavily damaged runabout. Fearing for his pregnant wife, Miles O'Brien rushes to the Infirmary to find that, as a result of his wife's injuries, Miles's unborn son had been transplanted into Major Kira, as it was the only way to ensure his survival.

Kira has no problem with being a surrogate mother, but Keiko and Miles are at first uncomfortable with the thought of another woman carrying their child. They eventually come to terms with it, and ask Kira to move in with them so they can be closer to the child.

External links

• "Body Parts" at the Internet Movie Database
• "Body Parts" at TV.com

• Body Parts at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)

• Body Parts at StarTrek.com