Plot summary
Julian Bashir and Miles O'Brien enjoy an evening in the holosuite at Vic Fontaine's hotel lounge, when the lounge suddenly changes into a noisy cabaret. Frankie Eyes, a mobster and Vic's longtime rival, shows up to throw Vic out, announcing that he has bought the hotel. Bashir and O'Brien try to delete the character of Frankie from the simulation, but to no avail.
Bashir learns that, short of resetting the simulation, Frankie can only be eliminated by means that are appropriate to the 1960s Las Vegas setting. Since resetting the program would result in Vic forgetting all the experiences he has shared with the crew of Deep Space Nine, they recruit their friends and crewmates to defeat Frankie within the structure of the simulation. Although Captain Benjamin Sisko initially dislikes the program, citing the pervasive racism against Black people in the real 1960s Las Vegas, his girlfriend Kasidy Yates eventually persuades him to participate.
DS9 crew members Kira and Odo befriend Frankie and his bodyguard Cicci in the simulation, and learn that Frankie works for crime boss Carl Zeemo, who expects to receive a share of the hotel's huge daily profits. The crew hatches a plan to rob the hotel casino the night before Zeemo arrives by breaking into the safe in Frankie's count room, hoping Zeemo will have Frankie killed in retaliation for not having his money. Sisko will pose as a high roller to draw attention away from the count room; Yates will start a dispute with O'Brien to distract the security guard; Ezri Dax, posing as a waitress, will bring the accountant in the count room a martini that has been drugged by Bashir, forcing him to leave the safe unattended; and Nog will crack the safe.
The evening of the heist presents several unexpected complications to the plan—especially when Nog discovers that the lock on the safe is of a different type than expected. While he struggles to crack the lock, Zeemo arrives a day early to pick up his cash. Vic and the others fabricate enough distractions to stall him until Nog can open the safe and he and Odo slip away with the cash. After Zeemo finds the safe empty, his thugs lead Frankie and Cicci out of the casino—and Vic's lounge is restored to the way it was originally. Vic takes the stage with his band, and Sisko joins him in a duet of " The Best Is Yet to Come ".
Credits
Adapted from Wikipedia contributors, Badda-Bing Badda-Bang. Paragraphs and formatting adjusted; illustrations, reference markers, block quotations and non-story material omitted.