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We know that Terok Nor (DS9) was abandoned as part of the Cardassian withdrawal from Bajoran space, but its sister station Empok Nor was located in the Trivas system. In the episode in which Empok Nor is introduced, it's stated that it's only been abandoned for about a year, and O'Brien and Sisko discuss that there hadn't been any Dominion activity around it recently either - implying that Empok Nor is still within Cardassian territory, although perhaps on the far edges.

It seems as though if the Klingons had taken the Trivas system, they would have taken the station as a prize, and the episode "Empok Nor" implies that the drugged soldiers aboard were left as part of a booby trap on the abandoned station rather than being the reason for evacuation.

Are we ever given any indication (either in canon or novels) of why Empok Nor was abandoned?

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    Why would the Klingon's consider Empok Nor a prize? Terok Nor was only important to the Bajorans because it was the only station around their planet. It later became important because of the Wormhole. The station itself is pretty much a piece of junk, and the Federation has to invest a lot in getting it functional again, and later making it defensible.
    – ench
    Commented Jan 23, 2017 at 16:35
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    'Trophy' might have been better wording than 'prize' - I don't think they'd consider it intrinsically valuable other than just to show off that they took it from the Cardassians.
    – ShinyFox
    Commented Jan 24, 2017 at 0:59
  • I'm not sure they would have, it's really just an old hulk floating in space. That would be like someone invading and claiming an abandoned mine building, or something like Fort Ord in California. Its really just an old concrete building, with no value. The only reason DS9 ever cared about Empok Nor was for repair parts, since it was an identical station they could harvest without asking the Cardassians.
    – ench
    Commented Jan 24, 2017 at 1:07

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According to the EU novel Obsidian Alliances, the station was decommissioned after it stopped being economically viable.

“Yes,” Kira said. “In the Trivas system.” Another data file came across and appeared on his screen. “The old Empok Nor station. The Cardassians decommissioned it years ago, when they finished mining the Trivas system’s asteroid belt. Terok Nor was supposed to strip it for spare parts, but we never had time, so we left a few sentries on board.”

You'll want to note that this is in the Mirror Universe, but there's no good reason to assume that the same isn't true of the Prime Universe.

As to whether it's a "prize", the answer is that it isn't. In addition to being in a system described as having no strategic importance, the Cardassians wrecked it before leaving and laid their usual selection of clever booby traps. I'd guess that the Klingons would ignore it, just like the Federation did.

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