Martus Mazur (2370)
Martus Mazur, an El-Aurian refugee from the El-Aurian system, was one of a handful of survivors of a Borg invasion. He used his renowned skills as a "listener" to serve his purpose as a con artist.
After being arrested aboard Deep Space 9 in mid-2370 by Odo for swindling a couple on the station. Martus was locked in a holding cell and met a sickly alien named Cos, who showed him a gambling device that always brought him bad luck. Cos died and Martus took the device. Martus after being released, would convince a widow Roana to let him turn her shop into a gaming establishment on the station's Promenade called "Club Martus". Club Martus used large scale replicas of the alien gambling device. At first the club was a success, and seriously damaged Quark's profits. Even Rom would leave Quark and become a limited partner of Martus. But soon the device began letting everyone win, cutting deep into Martus' profits. His patron Roana wanted to close him down also.
Meanwhile an abnormal amount of unusual coincidences and minor accidents started to happen and Jadzia found that the laws of probability were seriously being altered when she discovered neutrinos were not spinning as they should. The gambling devices were the cause of this and they were destroyed by phaser fire. Now broke again and arrested again, Martus is bailed out by Quark with the provision that he leave the station. One con man is enough for the station. (DS9: "Rivals")
- Martus was played by actor Chris Sarandon.
Background
Martus was the first El-Aurian identified as such in dialog. Fellow El-Aurian Guinan would not be revealed to be this species until later, in Star Trek Generations. The writers intended for Martus to be Guinan's son, but the connection was dropped when they found out Whoopi Goldberg was unavailable. He was also intended to be a recurring resident on the station, a rival for Quark. However "Rivals" was not a particularly popular episode with fans and producers so the idea was dropped. (citation needed • edit)