Facility 18

Facility 18 was a structure located in New Montana that was part of the thirty buildings located by the Cochrane Institute of Alpha Centauri located at Alpha Centauri B II. The purpose of the installation was to perform restricted research on behalf of the United Federation of Planets in the field of warp technology in order to provide it an edge compared to not only civilian ships but those of its peer competitors such as the Klingon Empire.

It was one of the uppermost buildings of a Starfleet installation that was constructed near the year 2291 which gave it an older look compared to the other buildings near it by the 24th century. Whilst outwardly it appeared old, internally there was signs of regular rebuilding and upgrading with the most recent changes being conducted during the years of the Dominion War as heavy research was conducted at the site.

In 2381 on Stardate 58552.2, Facility 18 was running a static test on a prototype warp core that was being conducted by the Advanced Warp Development Group with the experimental device being almost one third the size smaller than the standard design with the intention of mass producing runabout sized ships capable of warp nine velocities. The test was conducted at 0800 hours where a warp bubble of four meters in diameter was formed with a field strength of five millicochranes. If the trial was successful, a space test was to be conducted by test sled. However, unknown to anyone, the test allowed the Totality to manifest in normal space and cause an explosion that killed everyone at the site.