The Old and the Beautiful

The Head gives Quark a mission to spend an extended romantic interlude with a princess. Elated about his orders, Quark is later told by Palindrome that this is a secret mission to an unknown location. Quark and his crew set out from Perma One on the secret mission and along the trip they pick up a space baggie that they find in their way. But the bag they pickup gets jammed in the spacecraft's pickup door so Quark goes to fix the problem. When he is finished with the fix, Quark appears visibly older. This leads Ficus to conclude that Quark is aging at a rate of 2 years per hour due to a virus he encountered from the space baggie. Even though the crew attempts to cure Quark, all of their attempts fail. Quark is given final orders by Palindrome that he must complete an interlude with the beautiful and voluptuous Princess Carna in order to maintain a treaty with the dreaded Gorgons. Quark doubts that he can complete the mission, given his advancing age and senility, but he gives it a try anyway. He goes to see her and when he returns Quark has returned to his former youthful self leaving him to conclude that this was the best assignment he's ever had.

Esperando su asignación habitual de basura, Quark se complace en saber que La Cabeza ha dado un "interludio romántico extendido" con la princesa de Carna Kamamor. Los problemas empiezan cuando la tripulación se encuentra con una bolsa espacial extraviada que lleva un virus que acelera la edad en Quark dos años por cada hora real.