Star Trek: Every Chief Engineer Ranked
7. Nog
For a very short time, Nog was the chief engineer on board the USS Valiant, the USS Defiant's sister ship. The Valiant had come to the aid of the runabout that he and Jake Sisko were aboard, under attack by the Jem'hadar.
The Valiant by crewed by Red Squad, the elite group of Academy trainees that Nog had once been a part of. However, they had been caught by surprise in the early days of the Dominion War, resulting in the deaths of the Starfleet Officers who had been supervising their training mission. The entire crew quickly found itself elevated to active duty.
Tim Waters, the new captain, promoted Nog to Chief Engineer once the young Ferengi displayed a better knowledge of the ship's systems, thanks to his experience aboard the Defiant. Initially, Nog is pleasantly surprised. He takes this as a great boost to his morale and, to be fair, his ego. Jake is less impressed.
It becomes clear, however, that this ship is crewed by fanatics. They plan to take on a heavily armed warship single handedly and, again initially, Nog goes along with the plan. Jake is confined to the brig when he speaks out against it.
The mission is a disaster, showing Nog a number of things. Firstly, it opens his eyes to the truth around him: these cadets were not ready for the world they found themselves in. Second, he was not ready for the responsibility either, as the rise in rank was more important to him than seeing the situation for what it was.