6.1 Major Events

2101 • The term Class J is derived for any limited-crew, limited-mass civilian freighter, transport, or tug in use within the Federation. • The Terran-Vulcan Cultural Exchange Program marks a landmark event in the growing ties between these two Local Group powers. • Terra 15, the last of the Industrial Space Arks, turns up at the first planet in the Tau Ceti system, disabled from an ion storm. The damaged ship is forced to make a crash landing on its nearby moon. A human colony is established under survival domes using parts scavenged from the ship.

2103 • The Mars Terraforming Project reaches the end of its first stage. The planet now has a breathable atmosphere, although it remains somewhat dry and cold. Work continues over the next century to make the climate of Mars more tolerable for humans.

2104 • Terra’s International Space Agency (ISA) is finally disbanded.

2105 • The Prometheus class ringship enters service. • The military version of the CIE-07 enters service. • The Roanoke class transports enter service. • The Long class cargo barges are decommissioned.

2107 • The Aquarius class transports are withdrawn from service.

2108 • A UESPA mission arrives in the Tau Ceti system and rescues the stranded Terra 15 colonists. Their crude emergency colony, whimsically named “Shangri-La” will be abandoned and never inhabited again. Its massive space ark derived survival domes will still be intact at the end of the 23rd century and visible to observers from orbit.

c. 2110 • Dyson-Yoyodyne releases the DY-1100 series, the first with true warp drive, during this decade.

2112 • Zefram Cochrane embarks on his last space voyage and never returns. He will later be declared “missing, presumed lost.” • A newly discovered planet is named Cochrane in honor of the lost space warp pioneer.

2113 • By this time poverty, war, and disease have been largely eradicated from Terra. This marks the beginning of a planetwide renaissance that historians will later call its Second Golden Age. • The United Earth Government is founded from a union of the United States of North America and the European Hegemony — the former having overcome years of resistance from its religious and political conservatives. Most other major national governments will join within the decade.

2114 • The first Congress on Interstellar Union is organized by the Coalition of Planets with the sponsorship of the Vulcans. These will meet on a regular basis for the next fourteen years, paving the way for the founding of the Federation. The first is held at Barnard’s Star; the rest at new diplomatic facilities on Babel.

2115 • The Orlando class transport, an automated Monticello retread, enters service. • The SS Marco Polo discovers the Galactic Malestrom. This will later be nicknamed “Polo’s Bolos” in its honor.

2116 • The venerable spaceliner Magellan is finally decomissioned. She is almost immediately purchased by a new owner and converted to a hospital ship, giving it a new lease on life within the Sol System.

2120 • The last of the “re-released” DY-245s, the DY-245 Mark II, is built. Dyson-Yoyodyne immediately releases the DY-500 Mark III, a new version of the DY-500 Mark II (re-release version) complete with improved systems and jump drive capability. It is an instant hit and provides the funds necessary for the company’s last commercial starship program. • The Cosmos class scouts are decomissioned.

2121 • The Terran Star Fleet adopts new uniforms and a new logo as part of the planet’s administrative transformation under the United Earth Government. • The wreckage of the century-old submersible Nautilus is recovered from the oceans of Europa, with all of its recorders and telemetry intact.

2123 • The SS Mariposa, one of the first of the new DY-500 Mark III starships, is successfully launched from the Balkinour Cosmodrome on Terra on a colonization mission to the Ficus Sector. It follows in the wake of dozens of other such efforts. • The DY-1200 series enters service during this decade. It will be the last original DY-series design ever built.

2125 • The Federation Era officially begins. Delegates from the Coalition of Planets, along with representatives from their colonies and other allied systems meet at Babel as part of this year’s Congress on Interstellar Union to draft the Articles of Federation. The Articles will be the original founding document of the United Federation of Planets. • A dissident faction on Vulcan, the Symmetrists, gains enough strength to weaken Vulcan participation in the Congress on Interstellar Union for two years. • The first draft of the Articles of Federation is made and summarily rejected. The actions of the First Congress are tabled, to be resumed by the Second Congress the following year.

2127 • The final draft of the Articles of Federation are ratified by all attending delegates of the Congress on Interstellar Union at Babel on 08 May. The United Federation of Planets is born. • As part of the founding of the Federation, the Terran Star Fleet (larger than any other such force wielded by any Coalition member or ally) becomes the backbone of the Federation Star Fleet. It is charged with the defense of the new interstellar alliance. The military forces of all five members and their allies and affiliates will eventually be disbanded and incorporated into Star Fleet. • A late amendment to the Articles of Federation allows for “the maintenance of fleet strength to the signed powers sufficient for local police, customs, and tariff duties.” This compromise allowed the integrated Star Fleet clause to pass its final vote. • The Star Fleet Special Security Division (SSD), the internal affairs and investigations department of Star Fleet, is founded. • An Orion offer to join the Federation in exchange for the sum of 10 trillion pressed latinum strips is flatly rejected by the Congress. Orion declares its “neutrality” as a result. • Harmon Axelrod, leader of the Terran delegation, is unanimously elected as the first president of the Federation Council. • The Federation Worlds Court is founded. One of its very first rulings will be to ban the ownership of synthetic consciousness. This ruling will become one of the first to (indirectly) recognize the sentience of artificial intelligence.

2129 • Alpha III, aka Terra 4 (Terran colony 4), a planet in the Procyon A system, becomes the first new member of the Federation after its founding. It is a thriving Class M planet originally founded as a Buddhist Chinese colony.

2130 • Dyson-Yoyodyne’s last new spacecraft design, the warp-capable DY-1300 military cruiser, is planned but never built. The current company leadership acknowledges that its prominence in the field of Terran spacecraft is long over. They will instead focus exclusively on the “classic starship” market.

2132 • The Local Group’s subspace transponder network is finally completed. Work begins on a similar network for the New Territories.

2134 • A branch of the Terran Space Academy is opened on Vulcan. • The Romulans are encountered for the first time in the Carrizal Incident. The Federation survey cruiser Carrizal discovers and maps the Romii star system. The Romulans are shocked by the “bold” intrusion of the Carrizal into their space but allow the starship, well in advance of their own, to proceed unharmed. Instead, they begin to plan for war against its builders. They will keep their activities covert for the next two decades, probing Federation strengths and weaknesses.

2137 • The Federation survey cruisers Balboa and Stone Mountain enter Romulan space on a mission of peace. The Balboa is promptly blasted from the sky and the Stone Mountain captured after its crew is annhilitated. The Romulans learn much from the Stone Mountain, including the secrets of warp drive. • In a perfect example of bureaucratic idiocy the decision is made not to send any more Federation starships beyond the borders of the New Territories, given the unexplained loss of three within a year. This will cause the Federation to turn a blind eye to the new threat growing on its far border for the next seven years.

2139 • The Wright class cruiser enters service. This is nothing more than a Centaurean Djartanna heavily modified for Star Fleet use.

2140 • The first Federation census is conducted. Terra itself supports a population of ten billion, with another eight million humans living in space on various colony worlds. • The UFP Infonet news service is created as a joint venture of the news services of various Federation member worlds.

2141 • A joint “live fire” training exercise between Terran and Centaurean ships results in tragedy when the Verne class cruiser USS Scythe is blindsided and fires on its fellow ships. 232 crewmen are lost when the destroyers USS Hammer and USS Enmity are fired upon in the resulting melee. The incident points out the need for a more formalized joint command structure and interspecies fleet training. From this incident will arise the institutions of Star Fleet Command and the Star Fleet Academy. • Star Fleet Command comes into being. • The Cavalry class destroyer enters service. • The Star Fleet Design Bureau issues the first in what will become an ongoing series of Hull Number and Nomenclature Designation handbooks. In this first issue the basic parameters for naming Star Fleet vessels are set. Each ship authorized will be assigned a Naval Construction Contract (NCC) number by the SFDB. Hull names will be assigned based on the naming parameters for a given class in accordance with guidelines set by the Military Staff Committee. Major Federation vessels will have the “U.S.S.” (United Space Ship) prefix on their names, whereas minor vessels will have a simple “S.S.” (Space Ship). This basic system, with considerable modifications as each generation of starships is developed, remains in use to the present day. • The original Starbase 1 enters service. One or two starbases will be built or completed every year from this point forward until the outbreak of hostilities in less than a decade.

2142 • A major breakthrough in subspace radio research allows signals to be sent across the network at the previously unbelievable speed of Warp 15. This advance will be quickly backfitted into the existing network. • A new generation of space buoys begins deployment throughout the Local Group and New Territories. These incorporate the new Warp 15 speed advance.

2143 • Star Fleet Academy is founded, with its first campus on Alpha Centauri at Phelios. Commodore Stavros Niarchos is the first Academy superintendent. Additional campii will be established in the years to come on most major Federation worlds, with the Terran campus at San Francisco among them. • Starbases 2 and 3 enter service. • An informal policy begins to emerge in Star Fleet due to difficulties in achieving truly mixed crews. From about this time forward starships will be manned by 90% of one species and the remaining 10% a mix of volunteers from others whose physiology is compatible with the other 90%. Humans, who comprise 70% of Star Fleet personnel, are likewise represented in crew rosters. The majority of Star Fleet vessels will be crewed by humans, with a small mix of members from other species. This is a practice that will continue to the present day.

2144 • The Vanguard class transport, one of the largest commercial starships of its time, enters service. Many are also purchased for use with Star Fleet, with at least one permanently assigned to every major port and base facility. • The Federation transport SS Atlas disappears while on a routine run near the edge of the New Territories. About the same time the ore carrier SS Muleskinner is rammed and subsequently spacejacked by “pirates.” The ship is later found abandoned and its crew dead. • The Muleskinner Incident gives rise to calls for increased Star Fleet vigilance against space piracy in the New Territories.

2145 • The Star Fleet vessel Intrepid finds the recorder marker from the Atlas. From it the Federation learns that a new and previously unknown alien species attacked and destroyed the Atlas without provocation. This is later revealed as the first deliberate incursion by the Romulans into Federation space. • The Star Fleet transport USS Chandeleur disappears while on a supply run to the far side of the New Territories, cause unknown. • The SS Amaretto, operating within Federation space on the far side of the New Territories, is attacked by two starships of unknown configuration similar to those logged on the recorder-marker of the Atlas. The civilian freighter is crippled; however, the attackers break off and retreat once a four-destroyer Star Fleet squadron arrives on the scene. The unknown aliens ignore all attempts by the lead Star Fleet vessel to communicate with them and successfully evade pursuit. • The Armstrong class heavy cruiser enters service. It is derived from the Andorian Thosfin class cruiser and represents Star Fleet’s first major “heavy” starship class.

2146 • The Delta VIII outpost on the far edge of the New Territories is destroyed. Evidence points to “pirate” activity; however, some officers in Star Fleet Intelligence are beginning to suspect otherwise. • Star Fleet, acting on the direct orders of the Federation Council, launches 32 message probes into uncharted space beyond Delta VIII in an attempt to establish communications with the mysterious aliens who appear to be behind the recent “pirate” activity. The effort yields no results and none of the probes are ever recovered. • The Horizon class cruiser enters service. A total of 51 will be built. Many will be destroyed in the new war that is about to break out along the edge of the New Territories.

2147 • Based on the failure of the probe mission, the Federation Council directs Star Fleet to beef up its strength on the far side of the New Territories in and around the general area where the “pirate” activity is taking place. • Star Fleet Intelligence mounts a covert 12-ship mission into the same region in an effort to learn more about the mysterious aliens behind the attacks. None of the ships is ever heard from again. • The Dinai Station Massacre marks the deepest penetration yet by the “pirates” into Federation space. All of the station personnel are killed and the station stripped of its equipment and supplies.

2148 • The Arrow and Gallant class starfighters enter service. Their unusual appearance soon earns them the nickname of “Frogstar fighters” by their pilots. • The Hopkins class hospital ships are the first of the type to enter Federation service. • A permanent Federation presence is established on Rigel IV. • The Tholians are encountered for the first time. • The meager data gleaned by Star Fleet Intelligence so far details general characteristics about the “pirate” vessels plaguing the far sectors of the New Territories. A report is subsequently issued to all Star Fleet vessels operating in the area. It is also made available to New Territories civilian ship captains.

2149 • Starbase 10 enters service. It is towed to its new location in the New Territories. It is one of the first starbases to service the area. It will prove to be of strategic importance in the conflict that will erupt within a decade. • Efforts at developing a working transporter achieve their first initial success in decades. The “materializer” is capable of deconstructing and reconstructing inanimate objects for a distance of several meters. Unfortunately, the power and processing requirements are enormous. The Federation Science Council withholds authorization for lifeform tests once these obstacles are overcome. It is a hurdle that will not be cleared for several more decades.

2150 • The last of the world’s hold-out nations to join the United Earth Government. • The last vestiges of old-style nationality begin to disappear as the United Earth Government asserts authority over all of Terra. • The next phase in the space buoy project commences as navigational beacons begin to be laid at all sector and quadrant corners in Federation space. • The Manta and Clark class “space tanks” enter service. These are actually spacegoing monitors with limited maneuverability but cruiser class firepower. • Construction begins on a major Terran space base that will in time become Starbase 11. It is the only one of Star Fleet’s Star Bases that was not built by Star Fleet itself but converted from an existing facility. • Anti-intoxicants become mandatory for all Federation law enforcement and intelligence operatives.