Quark

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Quark, one of the most influential of modern Ferengi thanks to his location at Deep Space Nine when the Bajoran wormhole was discovered, owns Quark's Bar on DS9's Promenade, but hates being called a "barkeep," preferring "host" instead as he fancies himself an empathetic dispenser of advice as well as a goodwill ambassador and legitimate entrepreneur extrordinaire. He also caters formal affairs for the Starfleet crew and named a new souffle creation after Kai Winn when the Bajoran-Cardassian peace treaty was signed. In reality, he has the reputation of getting anything for a price — with the help of a network of sources who also help him keep a hand in most illegal or illicit trade and deals going on around the station. He has even tried to force sex by contract from the unwitting Dabo girls who work for him; an employee's error is made up from garnished pay. When Odo calls him "disgusting," he proudly boasts: "Til the day I die!" and says lying is a gift. But he does sometimes show remorse out of guilt for even his own actions, and relishes the thrill of gambling, even in business; otherwise, he has said, the trade comes off as simple bartering.

His only sibling is younger brother Rom, whom he often teased and tortured as "lobeless." Quark even stole Rom's naming day presents from Keldar, replacing the gifts resold at a profit with old vegetables. His father bought him his first copy of the Rules of Acquisition, but it was his mother who helped him learn them — a repeated pattern, the truth of which he ignored until much later in life, feeling his father had been hounded by his mother's rebellious independence.

In 2351, upon celebrating his Age of Ascension rites, he left home as soon as possible despite his father's advice to stay close; doing so 10 years ahead of Rom, he missed out on Keldar's ongoing business failures prior to his death. In his 20s, Quark apprenticed with a District Sub-Nagus until he slept with the boss's sister and lost his fast-track standing. He later served on a Ferengi freighter for eight years, where he learned some engineering and transporter skills while serving as its cook.

By the 2360s he was running a black market from then-Terok Nor for the occupied Bajorans and illegally sold food to them at cost, while earning his exclusive casino franchise by catering to Gul Dukat and the occupying Cardassians with freebies. One Cardassian contact in particular was Glinn Boheeka. By this time Rom and his young son Nog had moved to the station, and Quark has fondly recalled reading the tyke basic Ferengi stories.

Amid the shambles of Cardassian withdrawal from newly renamed DS9 in 2369, his plans to leave were changed when Starfleet commander Sisko threatened to jail his nephew Nog for a petty theft if he left — along with enticements such as free rent, power and maintenance. It was a fateful change, leading to contacts with Grand Nagus Zek and the Dominion. He even served a week as the Nagus and faced death threats when Zek faked his demise to trick his unfaithful son.

The next year, having led a trade mission to contact the Karemma of the Dominion, he became the first Ferengi to meet a Jem'Hadar and Vorta of the Dominion when captured with Sisko on their Gamma Quadrant vacation eight months later. That led to Zek's request in 2371 that he be aboard the U.S.S. Defiant's first Dominion contact mission. Married temporarily to Klingon matriarch Grilka, he faced down her rival D'Ghor before the Klingon High Council on Qo'noS to save her house after murdering her husband Kozak in self-defense in the bar.

Quark knows at least the worst of human history, and while he speaks out against superior Terran attitudes, he can be as racist as anyone. Quark saved his much-cherished Ferengi culture from the Bajoran Prophets' idealism later that year when he experienced an orb vision and single-handedly restored the Nagus to his previous state. Future cultural decisions were not so clear-cut, though: he was secretly forced to allow his employees to unionize in 2372 despite Ferengi Commerce Authority intervention. He finally made up with his mother the year after revisiting the homeworld for the first time in 20 years when Ishka refused to renounce her feminist ways, endangering Quark's livelihood of fines and support.

Even Rom finally began to find some backbone as the 2370s dawned, standing up to Quark regarding their mother, his biased view of their parents, and finally Nog's application to Starfleet Academy — the latter a move Quark actually tried to sabotage. The next year, he nearly stranded all three in 1947 Earth as lab specimens.

He engages Odo in a running battle of wits, but while it gets vicious at times, there is mutual respect and even affection present. Despite his pride at escaping detection, he has been caught red-handed in crime more than once but served only petty penalties. He still retains old Cardassian security clearances through Level 7 — one higher than Odo — and knows enough about engineering to install a small cloaking device in ships not normally made for them. Lock-picking of all kinds is another skill.

In a battle of wits, a rival casino opened by Martus Mazur across the Promenade almost sunk his bar in 2370 until Quark planned a Bashir vs. O'Brien racquetball rematch to get his customers back. If he didn't know the sport by then, he learned it quickly enough to call the remote play-by-play. He also enjoys the Ferengi game of Tongo, of course; Dax says he scratches his left ear just before Acquiring, a dead giveaway.

1st appeared in Star Trek on Stardate 46421.0, in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Emissary.