Rigel

Rigel, or Beta Orionis, was a multiple star system located in Federation space. It was the second brightest star in the Orion constellation. The Rigel star system was located in the Coreward side of the Orion Arm of the galaxy, but had equal access to both sides of the Arm. In the late 23rd century, it lay almost exactly between the Federation and the Klingon Empire, with the Romulan Star Empire and The Triangle to Coreward. 


 * The Worlds of the Federation, the FASA RPG and the Last Unicorn Games/Decipher RPGs each offer similar but differing depictions of the Rigel system and its worlds. For clarity, these are presented separately below. These are also slightly different from the accepted astronomical picture of Rigel. The relationship with Beta Rigel is also unclear.

FASA Version
The system consisted of three stars: the primary was Rigel A, while Rigel B and C orbited each other a great distance away, so far away that they counted as a separate system, Rigel BC. All three were blue-white stars, barely more than 100,000 years old - quite young by astronomical standards.

However, despite their young ages and being located in a region noted for being poor in planets, the Rigel system was actually incredibly rich in them, possessing 14 worlds with over half of them being habitable. Except these planets were far older than their parent star, with drilling samples of Rigel IV showing it to be 8.8 billion years old. This provoked speculation about the planets being moved to their current orbits, or that the Rigel suns were somehow created to replace an earlier star, or something stranger still. The furred Rigellians wouldn't explain, while the Orions forbade probes of the suns, apparently not seeing the point. [See FASA History below for an explanation]

LUG/Decipher Version
Lying at the centre of the system, Rigel A was a blue-white B class supergiant. It was 60 times larger and 50,000 times brighter than Earth's Sun (Sol) and roughly 100 million years old. What most people, including many of its inhabitants, called 'Rigel' was in fact only Rigel A. It was also known as Kolar to the Orions.

At a distance of 10-30 AU, Rigel A was surrounded by uninhabitable asteroids and protoplanets, which were a navigational hazard. Its nearest planet, Rigel I, orbited at a distance of 150 AU, five times greater than Neptune’s distance from Sol. In all, Rigel A had 16 planets extending over a distance of 420 AU, or over 2 lightdays, with three of them evolving life and complex ecosystems. However, according to accepted astrophysics, Rigel A was not nearly old enough to have formed planets, let alone for them to have developed life. [See LUG/Decipher History below for an explanation]

A further 1500 AU away were the two smaller B-class dwarf stars Rigel B and C, who orbited each other at a distance of 28 AU. 

The Worlds of the Federation
Rigel consisted of four stars, with twin giants and twin lessers, though two were of particular interest: one a blue-white supergiant, and the other a smaller blue-white giant.

Between them they had 13 planets, 6 of which were inhabited, many of them Class M worlds. This was due to the system's sizeable habitable zone of orbits, and the protective Hakel radiation belt.


 * Though The Worlds of the Federation mentions 13 planets, it lists and displays only 12.

Planets in the system

 * Rigel I
 * Rigel II
 * Rigel III
 * Rigel IV
 * Rigel V
 * Rigel VI
 * Rigel VII
 * Rigel VIII
 * Rigel IX
 * Rigel X
 * Rigel XI
 * Rigel XII
 * Rigel XIII
 * Rigel XIV
 * Rigel XV
 * Rigel XVI
 * Rigel BC-I
 * Rigel BC-II


 * FASA sources have Rigels I to XII orbiting Rigel A, and Rigel BC-I and Rigel BC-II orbiting Rigel BC, for a total of 14 planets. LUG/Decipher sources meanwhile have Rigels I to XVI, 16 planets in total. Though not explicit, it is implied that Rigels I to XII orbit Rigel A, and XIII to XVI orbit Rigel B (Rigel XII appears to be furthest out from Rigel A, while Rigel XIII has a relationship to Rigel B.

Features
The Hakiel Radiation Zone shielded the system from Rigel's potentially lethal ionizing radiation, allowing for a number of Class M worlds. However, it also caused severe magnetic disturbances in front of it, near Rigel I, which caused damage to the automated mining equipment there

The system had two asteroid belts, one between Rigels I and II, and the other beyond Rigel XII. Both were sparse and rocky. The innermost belt was mined by the miners of Rigel II. The outermost posed little danger to space travel except as minor nuisances to navigation. They had no particular value, and no pirates hid amongst them. 


 * The Worlds of the Federation  names the "Hakel radiation belt" and only includes one asteroid belt, between Rigels I and II.

The Levintine Expanse was an area of space that contained Rigel XII (or possibly the whole Rigel system). 

Inhabitants of the system
It was home to at least five intelligent species which formed the Rigel Colonies and/or the United Rigel Colonies as well as the Aggregation of Rigellian Systems.


 * Rigellians and their warrior-caste the Kaylar, two primitive humanoid species
 * Chelons or Chelarians, a sabre-toothed turtle-like species
 * Orions
 * Rigelians, a humanoid race with four or five genders
 * Rigelians, a silver-skinned humanoid race
 * Rigelians and V'gelnians, two vulcanoid species
 * Rigellians, a rodent-like race of wise, reclusive, master traders.

(TOS episode "The Cage", TOS movie Star Trek: The Motion Picture, STA novel Oblivion, TOS novel The Final Reflection).

Animals native to the system

 * C'Tuka (an animal that can sense seismic vibrations)
 * Orion wing-slug
 * Regelian Decapod
 * Rigelian hypnoid
 * Rigellian ox
 * Rigelian winged raptor-wolf
 * Rigelian ring serpent
 * Teleraptor

(NF short story: "Oil and Water", STA novel Oblivion, TOS comic: Worldsinger, Who is... Enigma?).

FASA History
Over a billion years ago (circa 999,998,000 BCE, reference stardate -10,000,000/00), the worlds of Rigel III and IV were inhabited by a highly advanced spacefaring race known as the Shour. In the ten million years that followed, these planets produced at least three more native civilizations and were occupied by countless others.

The fourth civilised race to evolve on Rigel IV was the Masters, around 99,998,000 BCE (stardate -1,000,000/00), while Rigel was still young. An early understanding of philosophy and science led them to establish a mighty empire across the Orion Arm that lasted for over a million years. During this time, the race performed many experiments on races, interfered with the development of other civilizations obliterated others.

They began an extensive program of terraforming on Rigel III, completed in 1,248,000 BCE (stardate -12,500/00), whilst they preserved Rigel IV as a memorial and workyard. Around 1,148,000 BCE (stardate -11,500/00), they began a process of refueling and cleansing the star Rigel A, enabling it to burn hotter and turn the inner worlds tropical and rejuvenate the outer worlds. The helium core was removed and used for other projects, such as the worlds of Rigel B and C, which were an earlier stellar engineering experiment of theirs. Later, around 998,000 BCE (stardate -10,000/00), the Masters were responsible for planting new and promising life forms on Rigel VII and VIII, and they advanced their pets into the species known as Rigellians to serve as custodians after they died out (but they destroyed everything). 

Following this, the Rigellians opened up the system to all races for trade and development, and founded the Rigellian Trade Authority in 968,000 BCE (stardate -9700/00). Thousands of spacefaring races came to trade at Rigel, particularly at Rigel IV. However, the system had little defence, and dozens of these races also traded warfare and conquest, for the system's wealth and strategic location. For tens of thousands of years, control of the system or its planets passed through many hands and tentacles, until it became a mosaic of established, abandoned, destroyed and rebuilt settlements of many cultures. Evidence for all these goes back at least 500,000 years, and makes Rigel the greatest archaeological source for these ancient cultures. 

In 148 000 BCE, the star Rigel had begun to develop signs of instability, as predicted by the Rigellians long before. They rediscovered the stellar engineering technology of the Masters and drained the star of its helium ash and replenished its hydrogen atmosphere, enabling it to burn for another million years before it would need fixing again. 


 * These modifications to Rigel should explain some of the discrepancies between its apparent age and the ages of its planets, as mentioned in .

LUG/Decipher History
By astrophysical estimates, Rigel was created in the explosion that formed the Orion Nebula.

The Rigel system was littered with the ruins, monuments, laboratories and starship wrecks of no less than twelve wide-reaching interstellar civilizations, along with strange anomalies and the mystery of its apparent age versus the ages of its planets.

According to ancient Orion records and observations of planetary ages and anomalies like the Rigel XIII superstring, an incredibly ancient race called the Architects were believed to have created the Rigel system around 50 million years before modern times, either by moving planets into their current orbits or by creating them from scratch out of cosmic debris. They were also thought to have seeded these worlds with life around 10 million years later. It was unknown who these Architects were, and it was speculated that they were a godlike race such as the Q, an ancient civilization like the Tkon, or even Orions from the far distant past or even the far future, using temporal manipulation to alter stellar and planetary evolution rates. Architect relics were though to lie in the Orion Nebula, which lay within the Klingon Empire; the Klingons either did very little investigation, or reported very little about it. 

Modern History
Rigel was where the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701), under Captain Christopher Pike, suffered injuries to her crew. This event happened just prior to the discovery of the Calligar in 2254. 

By the mid 24th century, the Rigel systems main claim to fame were two factors attributed to Rigel IV; the first were the humanoid appearing inhabitants who had a Vulcanoid biology and the second was Rigelian fever. 

The Barros Inn was considered to be one of the wildest bars in the Rigel system. 

In 2371, Commander Benjamin Sisko expressed his fears of a Dominion attack on the Rigel system to his old friend Jadzia Dax. Sisko's fears would later be realized during the Dominion War. The Dominion invaded the system, but were pushed back by Starfleet. Cole of Section 31 claimed the only reason Rigel and the Rigel system remained in Allied hands was due to the sacrifice of New Beijing. 

In early 2375, a Starfleet battle group, including the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-E), defended the Rigel system from Cardassian forces. Four ships were destroyed, while the Enterprise was able to limp to Starbase 133. 

Mirror Universe
In the mirror universe, the Rigel system was under the control of the Terran Empire throughout much of the 22nd and  23rd centuries.

Although the system had three native species, by the 2260s Terran colonists outnumbered all three of them combined. Key planets for the empire in the Rigel system included Rigel II which was known as "the pleasure planet,"  Rigel III which was served as a manufacturing center and trans-shipment point, and  Rigel VII which was heavily colonized by Terrans once the local  Kaylar population had been enslaved. 

Alternate universes
In one alternate timeline where Earth never joined the Coalition of Planets, the United Earth government was known to had been using political influences in the Rigel system in order to keep control of the Dilithium resources within it. This led to the Earth government supporting the inhabitants of Rigel IV in dominating the Chelon and later they supported the Kaylar in actions against the other two dominant species after peace talks emerged between them as well as the two races getting aggressive over Earth dominating their politics. By 2264, the United Earth agreed to stop further influences in the system in exchange for membership into the Interstellar Coalition. (SS ENT (A Less Perfect Union))

Other Information

 * Given the number of 'Rigelian'/'Rigellian' species and the large number of inhabited worlds, and the conflicting descriptions of these worlds, it is possible that there is more than one 'Rigel' system, that the system is actually more of a star cluster than a single system, or that some of the species called 'Rigelian'/'Rigellian' are not actually from the system. Source material tends to be vague or contradictory on these matters, but three distinct Rigel systems have been given.


 * The use two systems, the main Rigel A system and the associated Rigel BC system.


 * In Star Trek: Star Charts, author Geoff Mandel establishes that there are two "Rigel systems": Beta Orionis, the "true Rigel," and Beta Rigel which is the system in Federation space. If this is the case, than the planets listed in this article may not all orbit the same star. The first Pocket Books novel to specifically reference Beta Rigel system was Star Trek: Destiny: Lost Souls, but the name was used for a planet, not a system.


 * Before the end of the publishing history of the Last Unicorn RPG, one of the books in development was going to be known as 'The Sky Pirates of Orion: The Rigel System', however, this book was never published. Though the author has posted parts of the book on an rpg forum but considering the fact that the book was never published, along with newer information on the Rigelians shown in Enterprise, it cannot be considered a source material for Memory Beta. The material can be found in the following link: [|The Sky Pirates of Orion: The Rigel System].