A Call to Arms

[mckinneyc]

I've often thought when watching the DS9 fifth season finale what happened to the station's runabouts when the abandoned Deep Space Nine?

The Defiant and the Rotarran aren't big enough to hold more than one if at all and there is evidence in the seventh season that the Rio Grande is still in operation so must have survived if left behind.

One theory I have is that heavy damage to the landing pads caused by Sisko's computer programme and perhaps removal of major components from the runabouts made both useless during the Dominion's occupation of Deep Space Nine and they focused their efforts on repairing keys systems to assist them in bringing down the minefield.

[Barihawk]

Uh, FYI. The runabouts were able to hold 30-40 people and were used to evacuate civilians from DS9. They all went to various colonies of the Federation. Sisko even walked Jake to the Rio Grande but Jake snuck off.

Short answer: they were never there during the occupation.

[Morgan]

Well you have to remember that there was a massive evacuation prior to the Dominion attack. It makes perfect sense that non-essential personnel evacuated on the Runabout's while the remaining Starfleet personnel left on the Defiant and the Rotaran. That gives the slower Runabout's a head start to make it to a nearby starbase outside of Bajoran space. The Defiant and Rotaran would be packed for sure, but there's no reason why they couldn't offload personnel at another starbase after the evacuation.

[mckinneyc]

Barihawk, I completely forgot about him walking Jake to the good old Rio! I just watched that episode too! I'm an idiot!