Stardate 49263.5: Captain Sisko takes the Defiant into the Gamma Quadrant to meet with a race, the Karemma, who has problems with a trade agreement made with the Ferengi. While trying to reach a compromise, two Jem'Hadar ships appear and begin to attack the Karemma's ship for defying the Dominion. The ship breaks away and the Jem'Hadar follow, with the Defiant close behind.
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.