Matthew's Star Trek Page

Armin Shimerman- Quark

Played By: Armin Shimerman
Occupation: Owner and bartender/host, Quark's Place DS9
Full Name: Quark
Year of birth: c. 2333, Terran equivalent
Place of birth: Ferenginar
Parents: Ishka and the late Keldar
Marital status: Single

Starfleet Career Summary

Civilian Psychological Profile: Report of Starfleet Doctor Julian Bashir, M.D.:

Quark, one of the most influential of modern Ferengi thanks to his location at DS9 when the Bajoran wormhole was discovered, owns Quark's Place 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 Bajor-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 sometime 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 whose truth 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, after 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 be aboard the Defiant's first Dominion contact mission. Married temporarily to Klingon matriarch Grilka, he faces 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 became only the third known non-Bajoran, after Sisko and Zek, to experience 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.

Aside from his crushes on Dax and Kira, Quark had a surprising one-month fling in 2363 with Cardassian journalist Natima Lang, the love of his life. She didn't turn him in for aiding Bajorans, but felt betrayed and broke off the affair when he used her secret access codes to be paid for bogus goods - a much-regretted act seven years later, when she turns up as a Cardassian dissident. Of odder course was his falling for Pel, a feminist like his mother whom he could not commit to after her revelation as a female cost Quark a cut of all the Grand Nagus' future Gamma Quadrant profits. Despite his tough stance, though, he has always been a sucker for a pretty face of any species. When ho once chided O'Brien over his marriage troubles for not following the submissive-female way of the Ferengis, he was evasive when asked why he's still single.

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-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.

Security File: Report of Odo, Security Chief SD 49000

Quark, the Ferengi barkeeper, is a self-important con artist who's nowhere near as clever as he thinks he is. His bar is a center for scams and illegal dealings.

Quark was a co-indicted in 2362 by the Romulans as the middleman with alien thief Fallit Kot for hijacking a Romulan ale shipment, but testified against Kot and got off - barely escaping with his life eight years later here at DS9 when Kot was released.

He allowed thieves of the Dax symbiont aboard DS9 and became an inadvertent supplier of arms to the Maquis' first attack. Even my first encounter with Quark, in 2365 on then-Terok Nor, saw him backing up Kira's alibi in the Vaatrik murder for a price. That is all.

Civilian commendation by Capt. B. Sisko, CO DS9 SD 50100

I have to hand it to Quark. The Federation's thanks go out to him once again for acting as a trade rep to the Dominion-fringe Karemma, and even more so -- if I am to believe these reports -- for keeping my ship intact when he single-handedly diffused an unexploded Jem'Hadar torpedo.

I just wish he would cut out that stunt with the station-wide advertisements in the comm systems and replicators.

Security File: Report of Odo, Security Chief SD 50080

This is to note the recent cooperation of the Ferengi barkeeper in a successful sting operation against the Markalian smuggling ring. That is all.

Security File: Personal Note: SD ---

Never again will I take someone into custody without announced charges. I have done so with Quark, of all people, and it nearly cost he and I both our lives. At least I have learned Quark is not well-connected and wealthy enough to join the Orion Syndicate.

Psycho-Medical File, Dr. Julian Bashir SD 50500 Update

Quark has seen the true heights and depths of life in the past few months. He has stared down the cherished precepts of his culture and come away less conservative after choosing between life and breaking a Ferengi contract with none other than his old adversary, FCA Liquidator Brunt. An overpaid Ferengi doctor's misdiagnosis of fatal Dorek syndrome was bad enough, but to have Brunt demand that Quark follow through on their signed contract to sell his own desiccated remains, per Ferengi custom, was even worse. Despite his onetime decision to hire Garak to kill him -- a fact I have received through confidential source -- and the subsequent loss of his Ferengi business license, Quark has survived -- a bit stunned at the support the station has given him in spite of the many stunts he's pulled. We must face it: Quark provides a valuable service and resource on the station -- even if he still takes 30% of his workers' tips and manages their vacation fund himself.

One the other hand, it's a good thing our resident Ferengi barkeep is a tough little guy as well. Along with his varied injuries and near-fatal mishaps in just the past four years -- including, I suspect, his actions which saved he and Odo on a Class-L ice planet -- are the bruises he picked up upon Grilka's return to DS9 this year. Actually she came back looking for some romance, and I still can't believe Worf tutored him to do it and survive, especially with some virtual reality combat device. I also can't believe his first trip to Risa came with our group earlier this year -- though I can believe he owns a first-edition copy of Vulcan Love Slave.