pilot episode of Star Trek: Voyager, the titular starship pursues a Maquis ship into the Badlands before being teleported to the Delta Quadrant. Storyline According to the fictional storyline of the Star Trek universe, the Maquis were formed in the 24th century after a peace treaty was enacted between the United Federation of Planets and the Cardassian Union, redesignating the demilitarized zone between the two powers, which resulted in the Federation ceding several of their colony worlds to the Cardassians. Although the colonists were offered free relocation to elsewhere in Federation territory, some insisted on remaining on the ceded worlds, effectively becoming subject to the Cardassian Union, which behaves aggressively towards them. Some of these colonists subsequently formed the Maquis to protect themselves from Cardassian aggression, due to a lack of official support from the Federation who feared breaking the peace treaty with the Cardassians, which would lead to war. Nonetheless, various Federation members supported the Maquis' cause, and illegally supplied them with weapons and other technology that they could use in their struggle. In several cases, the Federation actually intervened in the war between the Maquis and the Cardassians, aiding the latter in recognition of the peace treaty. In one case, the Federation ship tracked a Maquis vessel to the Badlands with the intention of apprehending it, but an alien force transported both to the Delta Quadrant on the opposite side of the Milky Way Galaxy. The two crews were forced to unite to survive against alien threats such as the Kazon and the Borg. In later years, when the Cardassians joined the Dominion to fight in the Dominion War against the Federation, the Dominion aided the Cardassian military in wiping out the Maquis, a prelude to their war against the Federation and its allies. The Maquis provide moral challenges to existing characters such as Quark and Sisko on Deep Space Nine station. Quark is lured into selling weapons to the Maquis by an attractive Vulcan woman, showing how his desire for money unwittingly turned him into an illegal arms dealer. Sisko must navigate the internal politics of the Cardassians and Federation as he tries to uphold the peace treaty, in addition to being tested by his old friend trying to recruit him into the rebellion. Episodes Cardassians were introduced on Star Trek The Next Generation in January 1991 with the episode "The Wounded", which lays some of the