Ferengi

On Stardate 41386.4, Captain Jean-Luc Picard led the Federation to first contact with DaiMon Tarr of the Ferengi Alliance.  In pursuit of a starship believed to be of Ferengi design, the U.S.S. Enterprise-D entered the Delphi Ardu system and confronted a D'Kora-class Ferengi Marauder at Gamma Tauri 4.  Prior to this encounter, the Federation knew very little of the Ferengi and their culture beyond rumor and conflicting accounts.  Starfleet records at that time described the Ferengi as mercenary capitalists and estimated their technology to be roughly equal to that of the Federation.

Members of the Ferengi landing party on Gamma Tauri 4 armed themselves with plasma whips, highly accurate if impractical weopons capable of discharging concentrated energy bursts.  Subsequent encounters with the Ferengi established their preference for hand-held phasers and indicated the sophistication and tactical prowess of their starships.  The Ferengi aboard these vessels appear to govern themselves according to a strict set of guidelines referred to as the Ferengi Code.  DaiMon Tarr cited that during a surrender, the lives of a starship's second officers are offered in consent with one such code.

Although current Federation records concerning the Ferengi are more detailed, they are by no means comprehensive.  The Ferengi hail from an extremist and patriarchial culture, forcing their females to go without clothing and restricting them from participating in business transactions.  The evolution of the Ferengi race developed an unusual four-lobed brain resistant to the senses of empathic races, and their tender over-sized ears are considered an erogenous zone.  After their first contact with the United Federation of Planets, members of the Ferengi Alliance recognized a new opportunity for commercial exploitation and opened trade negotiations with numerous Federation worlds.