Headscratchers / Star Trek Deep Space Nine S 03 E 06 The Abandoned

• Do Bajorans have the exact same maturation rate as humans? No one ever points out that Mardah is a Bajoran when they note the age difference between her and the human Jake. This is particularly noticeable given that the extremely quick maturation rate of Jem'Hadar is a major plot point.
  • Nothing particularly indicates the the Bajoran maturation rate is all that different from humans. In the episode "Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night," Kira uses the Orb of Time to go back to her own past and learn the truth of her mother's relationship with Gul Dukat, even meeting her childhood self at roughly age three or so. That episode also firmly sets the point that the station was completed and fully functional as being in 2346, and the series begins in 2369, making Kira roughly in her mid-twenties as of Emissary (having been firmly established as having been a Child Soldier in the Resistance). So there's the practical evidence that maturation between humans and Bajorans is roughly on par.
• Sisko's reaction to Quark's story of finding the infant in wreckage he'd purchased is rather stupid for an otherwise sharp character. He snaps, "You bought a child?" When Quark protests, Sisko just ignores him. Sisko might be angry and have a low opinion of Quark, but did he honestly think that Quark intentionally purchased a sentient life form and then immediately turned it over to Starfleet? What would be the purpose of that? And doesn't Sisko remember Quark's The Reason You Suck speech only a few episodes ago in which he proudly noted that Ferengi have never practiced slavery?
  • Sisko may be having an emotional reaction, based in the fact that he's a father - likely, he's picturing Jake as that infant among the debris. His awareness of Quark having standards butts up against his paternal instincts, and he lashes out.