Elim Garak begins to take notice of Gul Dukat's daughter, Ziyal. He decides to become better acquainted with the only other Cardassian on Deep Space Nine. At the same time, Benjamin Sisko prepares his crew to handle the arrival of industrial replicators bound for the Cardassian colonies. The Maquis are sure to threaten the shipment and Sisko takes every threat to the replicators seriously, even the suspicion that Kassidy Yates is working for the Maquis.
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.