You’re very welcome!

I know. I was originally going to say she was a Parliament-class but then thought better of it because Manitoba isn’t a city, so softened it to “might be”.

Annotations for 5x03 are up at https://startrek.website/post/15956304

This is one of those times, like the Klingons joining the Federation in TNG: “Samaritan Snare”, where the only explanation that makes sense is the Doylist one - that the writers didn’t know about the ban because it wouldn’t be established in lore until DS9.

The only Watsonian explanation I can come up with is that the Federation for whatever reason made an exception in this case. Or perhaps Darwin went beyond its remit by “creating” the children and despite that Picard and Pulaski chose to focus on the immediate problem of the aging disease and to deal with the illegalities later.

But the Doylist one is much simpler.

As to how they’ll resolve the cliffhanger, it’s probably going to be Scotty’s Gorn transponder that will confuse the Gorn ships long enough for Enterprise to get in close and somehow beam the abductees back.