10 Moments Of Star Trek Foreshadowing You Never Noticed

When the Federation's CIA-inspired secret intelligence agency Section 31 was first introduced in the Deep Space Nine episode Inquisition, their agent Luther Sloan attempted to recruit Julian Bashir.

One of the main things Sloan kept discussing with Bashir was his controversial belief that the Federation should surrender from the Dominion War because of the inevitability of defeat. Sloan, a devout supporter of the Federation, of course disagreed, but he respected Bashir's willingness to speak his mind and come up with unorthodox solutions to problems.

This moment not only gave us the first appearance of Section 31, but also hinted at the organisation's covert involvement in the Dominion War. While the main fleet was directly engaging enemy forces, Section 31 was behind the scenes working to ensure the survival of the Federation through any means necessary. Again, we're given a hint of this involvement in the episode Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges, in which Sloan recruits Bashir to secretly gather intelligence on the Romulan Empire in order to keep them on the Federation's side of the war.

These two episodes foreshadowed the eventual conclusion of the series, where Section 31 secretly developed the morphogenic virus in order to kill the entire Changeling population.