an odd thing... I notice in DS9 In Broken Link, Interm arma silent LEgas, and Wired. All 3 episodes we see someone allow an enemy ship to travel in their space. Wouldnt it have been easier in Broken LInk for the Female founder to simply offer Sisko and 2 or 3 other Starfleet officers hospitality aboard her ship... rather then risk GArak trying to destroy the link?" And yes in Inter Arma Silent Legas the federation and romulans ARE allys, but still plagued with a bit of distrust. it seems like it would have made more sense to invite them aboard a warbird or maybe an unarmed civilian passenger ship. To say nothing of wired youd think Cardassians would have preferred to take bashir directly to tain without his runabout. Just a point on security. is this just a problem of dramatic license or what?
1. In "Broken Link", the Defiant is surrounded by Dominion vessels. There was no danger to the Dominion from a single Federation warship. If Garak had managed to start firing at the Great Link from orbit, the Dominion warships would've blown her out of the sky. 2. In "Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges", the Bellerophon is bringing a whole delegation of Federation officials to meet with the Romulan government at a conference. There's always distrust between the Romulans and the rest of the galaxy, but there's distrust and then there's dysfunctional paranoia. The Romulans aren't dysfunctional - they had no reason to bar an allied starship from their space. Plus it gives them the opportunity to inspect one of the newest models of Starfleet vessel up close. 3. Assuming you mean the episode "The Wire" and not the magazine Wired, Bashir headed off into Cardassian territory on his own volition. What did you think he was going to do - book passage on a commercial flight? The Cardassians, as a government, didn't know or care about Garak suffering a breakdown in his implant. Bashir went to Tain because he cared about Garak. There's no reason to expect the Cardassians would want to ferry Bashir to Tain. It does prove that a runabout can fly into Cardassian space unchallenged, apparently, by any border guards, but then, being a mere runabout, it's not a threat, either.
Cardassian space in general is open to all sorts of traffic in the early seasons. It's not just in "The Wire" but in episodes like "Tribunal", where the government and especially its military elements have an actual interest in keeping our heroes away, that travel from DS9 to Cardassia seems free of complications. In contrast, when the O'Briens go on holiday in "Tribunal", the Cardassians face no difficulty intercepting his flight. Space in those parts apparently isn't particularly well guarded one way or the other, perhaps not least because the Cardassian military just got whipped by Starfleet in the recent border wars and may be a bit under fighting strength. Timo Saloniemi
The Cardassians didn't even know of the tachyon stream that goes from Bajor to Cardassia; I don't think they watch the skies too closely. Plus, Bajor and DS9 are really close to Cardassia. If they have an empire, they would have their ships all over the place; Likely as not intercepting any fast-warp-capable ship would be difficult, especially if it were small.