Barzan wormhole The Barzan wormhole was a wormhole with one end , or terminus , initially located near the planet Barzan II in the Alpha Quadrant and one end that moved unpredictably to points through the galaxy , including the Gamma and Delta Quadrant s , stabilized by intense energy fields within itself , until 2373 when its Alpha Quadrant end began to shift as well . ( , ) The wormhole became visible due to radiation buildup in the accretion disk , whose visible brightness was brief . When reaching the terminus , accretion matter could also be observed . Instability in the wormhole could be observed by increasing meson and lepton fluctuations as well as exponentially - increasing gravity fields . History . The wormhole provided the Barzan s with their first true natural resource , an opportunity which they decided to capitalize on by opening up negotiations for use of the wormhole in 2366 . Present at the negotiations were representatives for the Federation , the Caldonian s , the Chrysalian s ( represented by Devinoni Ral ) , and , later , the Ferengi . During the time that the wormhole ' s Barzan location was stable , the wormhole became visible every 233 minutes . A Barzan probe sent through the wormhole discovered that the Gamma Quadrant terminus was located beyond the Denkiri Arm , a distance that at warp 9 would have taken nearly a century to cover . During the negotiations , the conducted scientific studies of the wormhole , sending Lieutenant Commander s Data and Geordi La Forge through in a shuttlecraft , followed by two Ferengi , Arridor and . Emerging from the wormhole , Data and La Forge discovered that , as opposed to arriving in the Gamma Quadrant as expected , they had emerged in sector 3556 of the Delta Quadrant , 200 light - years away . They quickly realized that although the terminus in the Alpha Quadrant was stable , the other end shifted positions periodically , and that , within a few centuries , both ends would eventually destabilize . Data and La Forge attempted to explain the situation to the Ferengi , who refused to accompany the Starfleet officers back through the wormhole . Data and La Forge returned to the Alpha Quadrant , but Arridor and Kol stayed , and they watched in shock as the wormhole destabilized , stranding them in the Delta Quadrant . ( ) In 2373 , the starship , which had become stranded in the Delta Quadrant because of the Caretaker ' s array , discovered Arridor and Kol living on a planet , in a region called , posing as gods by using the religion of the local inhabitants to exploit them . The two lived lavish lives while the people were mostly in squalor . Captain Kathryn Janeway did not want to let the Ferengi continue with their gross exploitation of the inhabitants ; at the same time , she and her crew tried to find a way to make the wormhole appear long enough for " Voyager " — and the two Ferengi they planned to take with them — to go through . " Voyager " bombarded the area of the subspace instability created by the wormhole with verteron particles , which they hoped would amplify and polarize the instability , attracting the wormhole so they could travel through it back to the Alpha Quadrant . This was a risky undertaking , however ; many different factors could deflect the wormhole from their sector , such as gravimetric shift s or solar flare s . Escaping " Voyager " in their shuttle , the two Ferengi initiated a high - energy graviton pulse , which changed the rotational momentum of the wormhole , destabilizing it . Although the gravitational eddy of the wormhole pulled the shuttle in , the graviton pulse had knocked the wormhole completely off its subspace axis , causing the wormhole to jump around erratically on both ends before disappearing altogether . This once again ended " Voyager " ' s hopeful attempts to return home . ( ) Appendices . Background information . was the first to use the term " Delta Quadrant " and established its extreme distance as well as the tendency for spatial phenomena located in it , such as wormholes , to be unstable . According to the script , the pronunciation for Barzan was " BAR - zan " . Apocrypha . In the novel " A Stitch in Time " , Cardassian s had suspected the existence of the wormhole nearly a decade before it was discovered , and Elim Garak studied it while he was at the " Bamarren Institute for State Intelligence . "