Starbase Versailles

Original Versailles Station Background (thanks to the archive of Karl Williams)
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Starbase 400 was erected in the Neutral Zone over twenty years ago, on SD 237505.15, a year after the renowned defeat of the Dominion and the toppling of the corrupt Cardassian regime.

After the cooperative efforts of the Romulans, Klingons, and Federation toppled the Dominion's chokehold in the Alpha Quadrant, the alliance seemed simply too good to last. In an almost desperate appeal for the peace to last, the President of the United Federation of Planets proposed to the Romulan and Klingon leaders that a Starbase be established in the Neutral Zone. Not for the purpose of spying or distrust, but in the interests of peace. He said it would be the standing, permanent sign to all who would oppose the Alpha Quadrant, that we could put our differences aside and work as one, and some day, we would do so even without the opposition. He proposed that the Senior Staff of this Station be precisely one-third Federation officers, one-third Romulan Empire officers, and one-third Klingon Empire officers.

After months of debate regarding the placement of these officers, the requirements of the station's sensor arrays (and who would monitor those arrays), and the like, the final plans and command hierarchy were agreed upon. Due to the fact the proposition of not only this station, but of a lasting peace came from the Federation, the Federation requested that the CO and XO be Federation representatives. (While several alternatives were considered, most with a triumvirate of CO's from each culture, it was decided that, in times of crisis, one clear, resounding voice would be required in order to keep calm on the station and maintain efficiency.) In exchange for what they realized was a daringly large demand, the Federation immediately proposed that there be two representatives, officially titled "Detachment Commanders", who would advise the CO on actions their government would approve of, and keep the CO and XO apprised of all new developments near the border that could affect Versailles. While this method allowed flexibility in the command structure to ensure that all voices were heard, it also left one true commander that could override the din of demands if timely decisions were required of the CO. These Detachment Commanders would also serve to ensure that the two Senior Officers posted from each Empire would interact seamlessly with the crew and kept all cross-culture efforts on the station coordinated and efficient.

For the next five years, the newly staffed station worked out all the intricate details of how exactly to function alongside one another and did quite well. The symbol of peace lasted through the years, a shining example that it all could be done, until, fifteen years after it's inception, the events described in the official timeline brought about a new, more formal, lasting peace - in the uniting of all three "Empires" into a cohesive, cooperative group, the largest democratic union of cultures in the known history of the galaxy.

Meanwhile a more permanent station was to be erected in the Neutral Zone. A port-of-call for any and all Beta Quadrant races that would come in peace. It had trading levels, decks upon decks of hydroponics bays and the like, and the largest main dock in Beta Quadrant.

This left the leaders of the three "Empires" in a quandry. They had hoped Versailles would be an eternal symbol of the fact all three powers could put aside their differences, but if they built a new station on the principle of an alliance between the three, wouldn't the first one be defunct? If Versailles was a symbol of peace, when a symbol of alliance (the next logical step) had been erected, didn't that leave Versailles behind, unnoticed?

The debate raged on for several years. As it did so, all three major owers began sending more... unimportant officers to Versailles. Slowly, the caliber of individuals staffing Versailles went down. In three short years Versailles was staffed with throwaways - Starfleet, Romulan, and Klingon officers that were completely untried, no field training whatsoever; that had screwed up but had too many connections (or too many past victories) to simply dismiss from active service; or that had simply royally angered someone in Command and he had them sent to Versailles as a punishment. As a result, crime, smuggling, and trafficking of every sort increased slowly as time went on. The civilian compliment that moved in was more and more from the darker elements of the galaxy, and the good citizens, despite complaints to the command staff, could do nothing about it.

As the staff and civilian compliment of Versailles continued to degrade in quality, an unheardof event in Federation history occurred. A crime lord known only as "Dark Talon" somehow got aboard Versailles, and, using the already-growing network of smugglers, dealers, and assorted other criminals aboard, in an unprecedented guerrilla-warfare maneuver, he got all of them to take up arms against the Federation security forces and attempted to take the lower half of Starbase Versailles. The criminals, stretched over three hundred and thirty decks, were no match for coordinated security forces, and "Dark Talon" knew they wouldn't be. Five hours into the battle (at a cost of nearly two hundred federation lives), he recalled every officer in his new army to decks 660 through 690, the lower thirty decks near the reactors, and held his ground. Over the next six months, Federation forces tried to pry it from his grip, but he had more than enough criminals to hold his ground and then some. Since that fateful day (SD 239703.14), the last thirty decks of Starbase Versailles have been lost to the criminal element. The Commanding Officer was fired seven months after the assault.

A mere year and a half after the criminal assault, the arguement about Versailles' place in the galaxy became moot. The Klingon Empire was involved in an internal civil war tearing the Empire apart and, only a scant year after that, the Romulan Star Empire declared war on the Confederation, the reasons for which are unclear, and shortly afterward began suffering from their own civil war. The Romulans pulled out their representatives and replaced them several times during the course of the civil war, but eventually they returned permanently as the dust settled in 2399 and the Romulan Star Republic emerged from the ashes of the RSE. The Klingon representatives, while missing for a short while, were never withdrawn from Versailles.

Six years later the Romulans have once again declared war against the Federation when the Federation did not come to their aid during a recent battle. The Klingons did arrive to help, however, and the RSR has declared that the Klingons were true, honorable allies. The Federation/Klingon peace negotiations proceed, at best, haltingly, with neither side willing to give as much as the other demands.

Deep in the Neutral Zone, with a powder keg of frustrations against the Federation continually about to go off, with more Senior Staff transfers (and deaths) in one year than most stations see in a decade, and with a criminal element always ready to attack from below... the future of Versailles looks more tenuous than ever.

"Do not go gently into that good night, rage, rage against the dying of the light" - Dylan Thomas