 The USS "Defiant" is sent on a mission to investigate a subspace anomaly, which could yield significant technological advances for the Federation.Jadzia Dax (Terry Farrell), Miles O'Brien (Colm Meaney) and Julian Bashir (Alexander Siddig) take the runabout USS "Rubicon" into the anomaly in order to take readings, tethered to the "Defiant" by a tractor beam.As a side-effect of entering the anomaly, the entire runabout is shrunk to only several centimeters high, but the crew expects to return to normal once they exit.