Dominion (Star Trek) - First Contact and Escalation

First Contact and Escalation

The first mention of the Dominion is in "Rules of Acquisition" when Quark was seeking 100,000 vats of tulaberry wine. There were various vague references to them as a major Gamma Quadrant power throughout Deep Space Nine's second season.

The Dominion was unknown to the Alpha Quadrant powers until the discovery of the Bajoran wormhole in 2369, which facilitated exploration of the Gamma Quadrant. In 2370, Jem'Hadar troops annihilated numerous Bajoran and Federation colonies and ships in the Gamma Quadrant and captured Commander Sisko, as the Dominion demanded the Federation stay on their side of the "anomaly". The lead Federation starship, USS Odyssey, was destroyed by a kamikaze attack, as the Dominion demonstrated not only an alarming ability to penetrate shielding, but a fanatical devotion to their cause as the suicide attack was made on a retreating ship, solely to drive the point home to the Federation. As a result of this incident the Federation pulled the Defiant out of storage, complete with a Romulan cloaking device, and began preparations for a drastic increase in Deep Space Nine's defensive capabilities.

A Federation mission the next year to find and make peace with the Founders ended disastrously, when the peace expedition was captured and subject to hallucinogenic manipulation to test the willingness of the Federation to appease the Dominion. As a result of this incident, it was discovered that the reclusive Founders of the organization (previously unseen) were the Changelings. The Changelings justified their actions by the need to protect their species against persecution by Solids, and also spoke of a duty and inclination to "impose order on a chaotic universe."

As a result of the continued Dominion threat, numerous Alpha Quadrant powers acted with increased preparations and paranoia, one expression of which was the Romulan attempt to collapse the wormhole forcibly. Despite the Dominion's warnings, the Federation continued to chart the Gamma Quadrant. Founders began infiltrating the Alpha Quadrant, even wreaking havoc on Earth itself. In 2371, the combined intelligence organizations of the Cardassian Union and Romulan Star Empire attempted a strike into the Gamma Quadrant with a cloaked fleet, seeking to destroy the Founder's home planet and cripple the Dominion. Due to intensive Changeling manipulation, this attack force was ambushed while assaulting an abandoned planet that was believed to be the supposed Founder homeworld, and was completely crushed. It is later revealed that the main advocate of attacking the Dominion was a Changeling infiltrator. This failure weakened the Cardassians and Romulans and paved the way for Dominion intrusion into the Alpha Quadrant.

The quadrant was plunged into conflict when the Klingon Empire accused the Cardassian Union of being under the control of the Founders. When the Federation condemned the Klingon attack on Cardassia, Gowron banished Federation citizens from Klingon space, recalled their ambassadors and withdrew from the Khitomer Accords. The Federation and Cardassians fought months of armed combat against the Klingons. It was later revealed by Benjamin Sisko, Worf, Miles O'Brien and Odo that it was the Klingons themselves who unknowingly had a Changeling in their midst, pretending to be General Martok. Gowron rejoined the Khitomer Accords and joined to fight the Dominion.