^ I may be conflating the two, unless there's another reference in one of the books. I kept getting distracted remembering the Mathenite government, who offered sanctuary to Tekeny Ghemor in "Second Skin," as well.
I guess I'm thinking about other players out there we haven't seen. Ghemor didn't defect to the Federation; he would be protected from Cardassia by the Mathenites? Worf would leave Starfleet, not for the Klingon Defense Forces or to become an Orion Pirate, but for the what Alliance?
I've aways found these other aliens interesting -- the ones without the huge military fleets. Yridian information traders, Ferengi businessmen, Nausicaan and Corvallen mercenaries, Chalnoth anarchists, Xepolite traders, the Orion Syndicate, Kressari 'botanical DNA' traders, etc