The Round Table
From Starbase 900 Wiki
The Round Table is the codename and popular moniker for Delta Quadrant Operations's theater of operations in the Delta Quadrant. It is otherwise known as Supersector 22 Delta (or just Sector 22), with the theater's base of operations located around the Solaria Gateway in the central subsector, Sector 2201.
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Overview
The Round Table technically does not have boundaries: it is the entire explorable space reachable from the Solaria Gateway, an Iconian Gateway positioned in the Delta Quadrant. However, for the purposes of cartography and record-keeping, the Round Table consists of all space within ten thousand light-years (10,000 ly) of the Solaria Gateway. The Round Table is thus sufficiently large that no current Federation vessel, starting from the Gate, could reach any edge of the theatre within one year, even traveling at uninterrupted maximum warp. (The total volume of the Round Table exceeds 4.1 trillion cubic light-years, promising a vast new frontier of exploration for decades to come.)
The region of the galaxy containing the Round Table (TRT, for short) is almost completely unknown. It is fifteen thousand light-years beyond the furthest known edges of Hirogen, Vaadwaur, and, most recently, Borg expansion. Except for the limited exploration Starfleet has performed in the area, no data is available except a few long-range quasar charts and the results of major galactic stellar surveys. There has never been contact with any species from this region of the galaxy.
The Delta Quadrant Operations have established a limited presence in the Round Table, with a number of small research stations and a few large exploratory missions to date.
Discovery
- See Also: Battle of Union
During the Battle of Union, a Borg attack on the original Starbase 900 led to the destruction both of the Starbase and F'hoca Gateway. Union Gateway, which was had been linked to F'hoca Gateway for as long as anyone had known about it, suddenly had its connection severed. For a short time, it appeared to have shut down. However, a few minutes later, Union Gateway dramatically reopened. Not understanding what had happened, the U.S.S. Excelsior was ordered through to find out what was on the other side.
The Excelsior traveled through and discovered that Union Gateway had formed a new connection with Solaria Gateway, nearly forty thousand light-years (twenty-three years' travel at Warp 9.6) from the position of the lost F'hoca Gate. After documenting the existence of Planet Camelot and the Solaria Nebula, the Excelsior returned to Union for a much-needed overhaul.
The very next day, aboard his new U.S.S. Tornado-A (a Prometheus-class vessel that had been reassigned and renamed mere hours before its commissioning to respond to the emergency circumstances), Vice Admiral Walter Picardo Tenson began an initial survey of the Solaria Nebula, only to find that its powerful plasma disruptions and dimagnetic disturbances made it nearly impossible to navigate. After nearly four months in the Nebula, during which time his crew charted a number of star systems, the Tornado finally discovered a "safe passage" out of the Nebula into open space. This passage, which, depending on plasma storm activity, can take anywhere from a few hours to more than a week to navigate, remains the main way in and out of the Nebula. With the discovery of the Safe Passage, exploration of the Round Table in full truly began.
Federation Presence
Only a few months into the exploration of the Round Table, the Federation has established a tangible but extremely limited presence in the Solaria Nebula and surrounding regions. A temporary base of operations has been constructed at Planet Camelot, serving as the sole Federation resupply base in the region. However, due to the limited capacity of the base, Federation pressure to colonize the planet, and the value of this particular piece of real estate, the construction of a new Starbase, the latest iteration of Starbase 900, has been approved.
Within days of the discovery of the Safe Passage out of the Solaria Nebula, Starfleet oversaw the establishment a number of small manned and unmanned research stations to study the stellar phenomena in and around the Solaria Nebula. A few weeks later, the U.S.S. Excelsior was assigned a six month exploratory mission, which was considered largely successful after ending in more than a dozen more-or-less peaceful first contacts. Following in the Excelsior's footsteps have been a half-dozen other ships, including current ships such as the USS Xelisa, the USS Patriot, the USS Essex, and the USS Searcher]], with new missions continuing today under the banner of the newly-branded "Delta Quadrant Operations". The Federation has raced to establish a long-term presence in the system, expanding Camelot Station to function as a major planetary base, constructing Starbase 900 in orbit over Camelot and, most recently by approving the construction of Starbase Delta, a Vanguard-class base several warp-months distant from Starbase 900.
As Starfleet's presence in the Round Table has grown, local races have begun to take note of the new power setting up on their doorstep. Some welcome the opportunities introduced by the arrival of this "empire from the far side of space." Others hate the instability the Federation has brought to the local balance of power (and, indeed, those worlds which have had the most contact with the Federation have already seen foreign policy slide to center stage in their respective political arenas). Some love the ideals of the Federation, others hate it. Some have met Federation envoys in person; most know of Starfleet only by rumor. But few within three hundred light years of the Gateway have not by now at least heard the name "United Federation of Planets"--and wondered what effect those four words will have on the future of this part of space.
Credits
Original information created by the players of the U.S.S. Excelsior-C simm. Permission for its use on the SB900 websites given by Alcar Dovan.
