Quark was a Ferengi of the Duyi’zu Universe and the eponymous proprietor of Quark's Bar on space station Imperia Nolus. He was a constant thorn in the side, sometime adversary, sometime confidante of station Security Chief Odo. Even though he engaged in numerous shady ventures, by Ferengi standards Quark was a compassionate and generous man who proved his worth and loyalty to nearly all members throughout the years, gaining their well-earned respect.
Biography[]
Early Life[]
Childhood[]
As a youngster, Quark attended Hopawup Academy for Young Lobelings, and later Haryalevard Academy of Business Management. Quark and Rom roomed together, much to his own and Rom's annoyance, particularly because, Quark used to "stay up late every night, plotting and scheming. And," Rom recalled years later to his brother, "when you think, you mumble. And if there's anything I can't stand, it's listening to you mumble.
Like all good Ferengi children, Quark idolized his father, Keldar who tended to blame all his financial failures on his domineering wife. Quark himself grew up being teased by other children because his mother did not behave like other Ferengi females and, for example, wouldn't chew his food for him and she talked to strangers. Quark grew to resent his mother, while his brother Rom, always a more compassionate sort, tended to take her side and always seemed in her good graces. Quark complained once that while Rom got a latinum tooth sharpener, he had to make do with wooden chew sticks.
Ishka later recalled that when Quark was a lobeling, he used to be "such a miserable child."
Cardassian Occupation[]
Never able to fully recover from his failed apprenticeship, Quark's most lucrative opportunity came along around early 2363 when he became the proprietor and bartender of Quark's Bar, Grill, Gaming House and Holosuite Arcade – better known simply as "Quark's" – located on the Promenade of the Cardassian space station Terok Nor in orbit of Bajor.
Shortly after his arrival, Quark began selling food illegally to the Bajorans. He later justified his actions, stating that "I ran a black market for anyone who could pay. Never exactly thought of myself as kind." That included adding a "little extra ginger tea" to a package he once gave Vaatrik Pallra. It was also during this time he became romantically involved with Natima Lang, an agent of the Cardassian Communication Service. Taking advantage of her position, he stole her personal access codes to steal money from the Cardassian government. He also had good "business" relations with a Cardassian Military officer named Boheeka whose career Quark accidently ruined.
In 2364, Morn walked into the bar and sat down at Quark's bar for the very first time. Though Quark thought that "he was just another customer passing through," years later, he reminisced that "Little did I know he'd become such an important figure in my life," as he "was always someone we could count on for a cheerful smile and an entertaining story."
In 2365, Kira Nerys, a member of the Bajoran underground, paid Quark to cover her with an alibi. While Odo was investigating Vaatrik's murder, he entered Quark's. Despite trying to be casual and discreet, he was unable to hide his role and connection to Dukat. Asked about Kira, Quark insinuated that she was performing a sexual favor for him as an added "incentive" for him to hire her. Odo however knew more about Kira and realized that Quark was lying. Years later, when confronted with the truth, Quark admitted that Kira paid him to provide her with an alibi.
In 2366, Quark picked three Bajoran laborers to work at his bar, offering "Twelve hours of work, two five minute breaks, one slip of latinum each.
The same year, Quark was visited by Livara, a known smuggler and Romulan spy who posed as the captain of a Talavian freighter, who started to work in the Cardassian occupied Bajoran sector. Quark was uneasy about the prospect of Livara's co-conspirators being brought in for "questioning", since Livara had offered to sell Quark maraji crystals.
Federation Control[]
Quark was considering closing his bar and leaving the station following the departure of the Cardassians and the station's occupation by the Federation. However, the station's new commander, Benjamin Sisko, coerced him into staying and keeping his bar establishment open, essentially blackmailing him with the fact that his nephew, Nog, was incarcerated aboard the station at that time.
He later became involved with Rao Vantika who had taken over Bashir's body in a smuggling operation.
Quark helped Verad and his cohorts to board the station illegally because he thought he was buying contraband goods. In reality, Verad wished to steal the Dax symbiont, with Quark helping the crew stop Verad and thus saving Jadzia's life by faking an injury so that he could be taken to sickbay and allow Bashir to immobilize one of Verad's team, subsequently releasing Odo from the container he'd been trapped in. Quark also ran a crooked racquetball game between O'Brien and Bashir in order to steal customers from a rival bar. He tried to make a sexual holoprogram of Kira without her permission in order to sell it to one of his best customers, named Tiron. This plan was foiled when Kira substituted Quark's head onto the image of her body. Quark also tried to cheat the Wadi, the first race that made contact from the Gamma Quadrant. When they visited his bar, he cheated them at dabo. When the Wadi found out, they made Quark play a game with some of the station's personnel as game pieces. Quark believed that it was a life and death game, but in the end it turned out to be harmless.
In 2369, Quark became involved with Vash. She had returned from the Gamma Quadrant where she had spent time with Q. He arranged an auction to sell off some of the items she brought back with her. One of the items was a crystal that caused a gravimetric power drain on the station. It was beamed out into space before it destroyed the station.
Also in 2369, Quark became Grand Nagus of the Ferengi Alliance after the apparent retirement of Grand Nagus Zek. Unfortunately for him, this was only a temporary position, as Zek had faked his death in order to test his son Krax.
When Quark's former business partner Fallit Kot returned to the station in 2370, he attempted to kill Quark, but instead entered into a business deal with him. The deal turned bad when Fallit Kot killed one of the partners and kidnapped Melora Pazlar and Jadzia Dax, holding them as hostages.
When Major Kira asked Quark to hire the Bajoran musician Varani in the hope that Varani's music would help her people recuperate in the wake of the Cardassian Occupation, profits declined sharply. Mesmerized by Varani's beautiful playing, the customers in Quark's Bar stopped gambling, eating and drinking as they enjoyed the soothing melodies. Quark panicked and got hold of Kira as soon as possible; although she made him keep his promise to hire Varani for a full month, Kira asked the man to play something more lively, which met with Quark's approval.
That same year, the Skrreea refugees came aboard Deep Space 9 in droves, which Quark found thoroughly distasteful. On top of not buying anything, the former residents of the Gamma Quadrant flaked and left dead skin all over his bar; tensions came to a head when his nephew Nog provoked a Skrreean boy into a fight. Quark was more than happy to see the Skrreea leave the station several days later.
This year also marked Quark's first trade negotiation with the Dominion. With the help of Pel, a female Ferengi disguised as a male, he tried to buy wine from the Dosi. It was illegal for Ferengi females to do business, and Quark almost got into trouble with the Grand Nagus. He briefly became romantically involved with Pel.
Quark was almost murdered after he retrieved a list of collaborators from the station for a Bajoran woman named Pallra. This incident reopened a five-year old murder case. In 2370, Quark, via a communication from Deep Space 9 to the USS Enterprise-D, provided Commander William T. Riker with the location of the Duras sisters, Lursa and B'Etor. While communicating with Riker, Quark voided his winnings from playing dabo at his bar.
Not only was Quark the first to deal with the Dominion via the wine sale with the Dosi, he, along with Benjamin Sisko, was one of the first to meet the soldiers of the Dominion. During a camping trip in the Gamma Quadrant, he and Sisko were captured by the Jem'Hadar. They were rescued along with an alien named Eris. After returning to the station, it was Quark who found out that Eris, a Vorta, was an agent of the Dominion (albeit because he had been studying a device that she claimed had been blocking her telekinetic abilities in the hopes of duplicating and selling it only to determine that the device didn't actually do anything). Quark also tried to con Ensign Harry Kim into buying worthless Lobi crystals when he visited Quark's in 2371 - nearly blackmailing him into buying the entire set by threatening diplomatic consequences when the ensign mentioned having been warned about Ferengi as a Starfleet Academy cadet - but Kim was saved from his scam by Tom Paris, who, once the two were out of earshot, expressed surprise that Kim had apparently failed to heed the warnings about Ferengi issued at the Academy.
Quark had many dealings with Grand Nagus Zek and Brunt, the Ferengi Commerce Authority's chief liquidator. Quark helped Zek regain his senses after he was affected by the Prophets and re-wrote the Ferengi Rules of Acquisition. The new rules were in direct contrast to the old ones that emphasized greed. Quark was able to convince the Prophets to change Zek back. Later that year, he met Brunt, who was investigating Ishka, Quark's mother, who violated Ferengi law by earning profit. Quark got his mother out of trouble when she agreed to give back the profits, or so Quark and Brunt thought, for she kept two-thirds.
He later helped disarm a Jem'Hadar torpedo that was stuck in the hull of the USS Defiant, saving the ship from destruction.
Brunt showed up to make Quark's life miserable in 2372 when Quark's employees, led by Rom, formed a labor union. The employees refused to dissolve the union even after Brunt threatened them. As a result, Brunt had his Nausicaan thugs beat Quark to show the employees what could happen to them. Quark secretly conceded to the demands of the workers and they in turn dissolved the union. Later that year, Quark was told he had a fatal illness. He auctioned off his body parts to the highest bidder, not knowing that it was Brunt. When he found out that it was a mistake and he did not have the illness, Brunt still insisted that he keep the contract by killing himself or Brunt would revoke Quark's business license for breaking the contract and a supreme Ferengi law and he would not be allowed to earn profits. Quark ultimately broke the contact and Brunt confiscated everything in his bar. Quark was able to reopen with the help of his friends on the station.
In return for restoring his license, Quark tried to break up his mother and Zek, who had fallen in love. He later learned that Zek was becoming forgetful and Ishka had been helping him. Brunt wanted the relationship over with so that Zek could not function and Brunt could become Nagus. Once again, Quark foiled Brunt's grab at power, but he kept his license. In 2374, Brunt again tried to become Nagus. He had Zek deposed because Zek was promoting female rights. Quark was surgically altered to temporarily become female and as Lumba, she convinced Nilva, one of the most influential Ferengi, to support Zek, and was returned to power.
As the resident bartender, Quark concocted new beverages from time to time. One of his less successful creations was "Quarktajino", a self-named decaffeinated version of raktajino. He created the drink at the request of Chief O'Brien, who wanted Major Kira to stop drinking caffeinated beverages while she carried his child. Both the chief and the major thought the drink tasted horrible, and O'Brien refused to pay for it.
Quark, his brother Rom and his nephew Nog were once transported in time to Earth of 1947. This became known in Earth history as the Roswell Incident.
Quark became involved with an arms dealer named Hagath when his cousin Gaila offered him a job with Hagath when Gaila retired from the business. Although Quark's new role helped him cope with his recent financial issues, he eventually helped break up the arms ring when he was horrified to realize that money was being made by people's deaths, coupled with the realization that he had lost many of his allies among the station's crew due to their disgust at his new role. Quark risked his life to intentionally sabotage an arms deal for the Regent of Palamar, which ended up getting him killed, thereby saving approximately 28 million lives.
Quark also visited the mirror universe. His counterpart there had been killed by the Alliance. He and Rom were able to rescue the Nagus from the Alliance and help the rebels capture the leader of the Alliance.
The First Multiverse War[]
Since news of a war spread across multiple universes, Quark wanted to be one of the first ones to gain a business advantage now the Ferengi Alliance is supporting the Allies. In one attempt to hire a Weequay pirate named Hondo for a supply of Kyber Crystals for a small profit, however, he didn’t realised until too late that the cargo they were after was from a remote part of the Viau Universe, home of were the Galactic Empire when they were chased by a Star Destoryer after finding out the cargo was bugged. Fortunately, Quark, along with Rom and Hondo were able to escape with the aid of Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker. Reluctant to give the crystals to them, but was primed a reasonable pay for his efforts, but also had to be taken back to DS9 to explain to Odo what he was doing along with Hondo.