After lunch with Doctor Bashir, Elim Garak returns to his clothing shop where his movement within detonates a bomb located behind one of the walls. When Chief O'Brien finds material from the bomb, a rare compound that is only used by Flaxian assassins, Odo questions the only Flaxian on board Deep Space Nine. Unable to learn anything from the Flaxian, and receiving no help from Garak, Odo allows the supposed assassin to leave the station with a hidden tracking device aboard his ship.
When the Cardassian occupation of Bajor ended in 2369, the mining space station Terok Nor was left abandoned, its systems ripped out. By invitation of the Bajoran provisional government, Starfleet stepped in to oversee the rebuilding and day-to-day operations of the newly christened Deep Space Nine.
The years of Starfleet's nonintervention into Cardassian matters, however, had taken its toll on relations with the Bajorans. Consequently, Starfleet's position was a tenuous one; many Bajorans, suspicious and hostile as a result of decades of Cardassian oppression and brutality, did not greet the Federation's presence with open arms. The Federation's assistance is put to the test as DS9 becomes a center of travel and commerce that stretches into the Gamma Quadrant.