7.0 22nd Century / Overview

The opening of the twenty-second century was darkened by the advent of the only major interstellar conflict in Federation history: the Romulan War. It had been building for years in a pattern of escalating violence. An ore freighter was spacejacked, a small settlement at Delta VII destroyed, a transport plundered and 500 defenseless passengers killed. Then, in 2103, Starbase 1 was destroyed, and Star Fleet was placed on its first Mobilization Alert. Three years later, in 2106, the patrolling USS PATTON happened across the advance flank of a Romulan Invasion Fleet. Left with no choice, Official Hostilities were declared by the UFP, and the Federation entered into its first and only interstellar war.

While such terms as the Cochrane Deceleration Maneuver and engagements like the decisive Battle of Cheron are part of common Federation folklore, a definitive account of this bleak period may be found in The War Torn Galaxy: A History of the Romulan War, by John Gill, published in 2202.

However, certainly much of the credit for the termination of conflict went to the development by the UFP of an advanced laser weaponry system. These effective and versatile weapons provided the crucial strategic difference in the war.

By 2109, the war was over, and a peace established which has, with minor exceptions, endured to this stardate. The UFP has always refrained from claiming victory in the Romulan War, although the tempo of the strife was clearly in its favor when armistice was declared. For victory signifies little when considered against the thousands lost in the bloody struggle. There is no glory in war; there is only suffering and death and brave lives spent to sustain a free way of life for all Federation worlds.

With peace reigning once more, the exploration of space and expansion of the frontiers of knowledge which had been epitomized by the famous USS HORIZON could again proceed. New star systems and planets were continually being discovered, such as Pyrimiis I and II, Gamma Spica, Janus VI, among others.

It became clear from the meeting of diverse cultures that some aliens possessed types of mental abilities very much out of the ordinary. These have been grouped together under the heading “psionic,” meaning mental power, and range from the psychokinetic ability of the Platonians to move objects to the telepathic Vulcan mind touch. All are manifestations of similar neurochemical matrixes and can be found, at least in potential, in most advanced brain structures, humans included.

Of course, advanced mental capabilities are no guarantee of a species’ survival. In 2120, the oldest known and long extinct civilization in the galaxy was found on planet 522-IV. Estimated from star maps found on the planet to be 7.5 billion years old (the Earth itself is only 4.5 billion years old and man [homo sapiens] much younger still, perhaps 200,000 years old as a species), the remains indicate a race that had incredible psionic powers which, however, did not save them from whatever mysterious fate brought about their extinction. The artifacts of their amazing civilization have been marvelously preserved. Of the race itself, there is not a single trace remaining.

The Federation continued its role as both coordinator and sponsor of galactic activities. The UFP’s Deneva Research Station was opened, the first of many Federation facilities that have provided the cutting edge of scientific progress for the past century. For instance, it was at Deneva that researchers, utilizing the still-new field of transtator physics, forged the breakthrough in warp communication responsible for our present stardate subspace radio.

Previous warp communication had to rely on the exploitation of local aberrations in the geodynamometric structure of space, where giant relay stations were constructed to process faster-than-light communications. Subspace radio, on the other hand, does not depend upon outside boosters, since its signal “rides” on a stream of warp accelerated, computer-encoded particles. The initial warp 15 transmission speed of subspace radio, which has of course grown greatly in the past century, knitted the galaxy together more than any breakthrough since warp drive.

Also, to bring planets closer together, the UFP sponsored the Galactic Cultural Exchange Project. Touring starships of the Federation’s leading actors, artists, kineticists, musicians, smell-shapers, dancers and tactilists, spread each world’s unique cultural heritage throughout the Federation, and the sense of wonder and appreciation generated by this exchange brought member planets in closer harmony with one another. For almost a hundred years, the Galactic Cultural Exchange has grown in scope and variety, until presently there are hundreds of starships cruising the Federation to bring great art to all planets, colonies, starbases and outposts.

At the end of this era, a galaxy-shaking, but still unexplained, event occurred. A starship encountered a probe that had come from outside the galaxy, most likely from the Small Magellanic Cloud. Suddenly the closeness among the planets seemed a puny thing, indeed, for here was something, or someone, reaching out 56,000 parsecs to our Milky Way Galaxy. It was a staggering and humbling feat, and to this stardate, we know no more about whatever or whoever sent the probe in our direction than the probe itself, which can be viewed at the Star Fleet Museum on Memory Alpha.

This was a tempestuous quarter-century, starting in war and ending in enigma. The United Federation of Planets survived its first military test and came out the stronger for it, when it redeployed its war-oriented energies in the fields of research, exploration and cultural exchange. It was just this ability of the UFP to recover so well from the horrors of galactic war that assured its vitality and growth during the past century.